About Our MBA Healthcare Specialization

The basics that all executives, especially those working in the health care industry, need to know about health insurance programs, public and private markets, pricing, risk management and how insurance companies think about their business. After covering the basics, the course examines the rapid shifts occurring as a result of the Affordable Care Act and other environmental and legislative changes.

The healthcare industry is undergoing many transformational and disruptive challenges because of advances in medical and informational technologies and the emergence of new paradigms and models for healthcare delivery. Healthcare leaders in the U.S. face challenges that include public reporting of quality and safety outcomes, new payment models based on delivery of value, the introduction of artificial intelligence into clinical care and operations, competition from new access channels such as retail care clinics and virtual care, remote patient monitoring and the rise of consumerism in healthcare. These disruptors impact all components of the healthcare value chain, including R&D, manufacturing & supply chain, technology & data analytics, payors, providers, healthcare systems, care delivery and patients. Approached from the perspective of leaders of healthcare systems and providers of care, this elective aims to help students develop an approach to understanding and dealing with these transformational challenges. Specifically, the course provides a conceptual framework based on High Reliability Organizations (HROs) to identify key attributes necessary to manage transformational challenges. Several specific “healthcare disruptors” provide the setting to discuss and illustrate these concepts.

The purpose of this elective is to help students develop a critical understanding of the nature of costs in healthcare delivery, their measurement in a variety of decision contexts, and how they can be managed and improved. Students will be exposed to tools such as the breakeven analysis, role of cost allocations, activity-based costing, time-driven activity-based costing and cost control.

This course provides an introduction to the business of health care in the U.S. Topics include healthcare systems, health service organizations, and issues relating to the aging problem and the technology explosion in health care. Required elective for MD/MBA's dual degree students.

The healthcare sector, which includes areas such as healthcare delivery, payment, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, etc., is an important part of any economy and society in all countries of the world, including the U.S. This elective course offers students the opportunity to study and review core strategy concepts, analytical techniques and frameworks relevant to developing, evaluating and implementing value-creating strategies for organizations operating in various sectors of the healthcare space.

This course is tailored for an audience interested in healthcare. We will talk about how the characteristics of the healthcare industry impinge on negotiations, and the exercises and simulations conducted are based in a healthcare context. Repeatable for credit.

The course is designed to teach the concepts of customer-focused strategy in a healthcare context. The course should be useful to middle/upper-level administrators, physicians and other professionals in the healthcare sector and includes: (1) Marketing strategy and implementation in healthcare and (2) Understanding client needs and monitoring metrics.

Value-based care is a framework for restructuring healthcare systems around the globe with the overarching goal of value for patients. Value-based care requires better value measurement models, different models of organization and coordination, process improvements and new reimbursement models. In this course, that integrates concepts from finance, accounting, strategy, and general management, students 1) explore innovative healthcare practices and value initiatives in action, 2) learn how to improve the care delivery process through the rigorous measurement and management of outcomes, and 3) learn how to implement an effective value measurement system across an organization.

This course introduces a data-driven culture in healthcare operations and patient care. Lectures cover fundamentals of data management, analytics maturity models, and using data to enhance collaboration and research. Invited speakers cover applications of machine learning and AI for healthcare automation. Overall goal is delivering value-based healthcare with enhanced safety.

Process performance improvement requires a fundamental set of analytical and statistical tools. This course provides students with the knowledge of key process improvement tools including how their uses are planned and applied and how to interpret their output. This is accomplished through lectures and through exercises that require hands-on practical application of the tools.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of healthcare systems, their challenges and opportunities, and strategies for improvement. Students will learn about the current U.S. healthcare system, its structure, financing, and delivery, as well as emerging trends and policy issues. They will also develop skills in systems analysis, design and improvement, and learn how to apply these skills to real-world healthcare challenges.

This course provides the needed skills and the experience of leading and facilitating change in a live healthcare environment with actual processes, staff and business value on the line. Students are paired, given a real business problem in a major Houston healthcare system and guided to deliver the solution, implementation plan and control plan.

This course examines the key issues in managing customer experience in customer-focused service organizations. Its learning objectives are to understand the customer decision journey framework, diagnose and solve problems with journey mapping, design a transformative customer experience, measure experience, and manage unforeseen mishaps and setbacks.

This course provides an understanding of how to build and lead a data driven business. Lectures cover fundamentals of data management, analytics maturity models, the role of “Big Data,” application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cognitive computing technologies for predictive and adaptive analytics, and creating value-based business analytics strategies.

The purpose of this six-week healthcare practicum course is to provide students an opportunity to work closely with a hospital’s Senior Leadership (SLT), Medical Staff leaders, and Board to develop an understanding of the hospital’s priorities and strategic growth initiatives, its decision structure and finances including budgets and capital, and finally day-to-day operations management. Such practical exposure to hospital administration will help students, especially those enrolled in the MD/MBA program and those with considerable medical background, to see accounting, finance, organizational, and managerial concepts at work. Throughout the six weeks, the student will get exposure to many performance improvement groups across operations, quality, service, employee engagement, and growth and have the opportunity to actively participate in the initiative. Most of these initiatives have several components that allow the student to participate in a time-limited portion while on this rotation and continue as desired beyond (student choice).

Public affairs and public policy profoundly shape the entire healthcare sector. Executives, entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals must understand how the public policy process works and how to more effectively navigate this evolving landscape. This course enables participants to interact directly with healthcare policy makers and influencers, regulators and other experts.