Courses & Electives
The health care elective courses are a key offering of the Center. Faculty affiliated with the Center offer a variety of electives during the year—a mix of full-term course and minicourses. Students have the flexibility to choose electives during both years at Tuck in the order that serves them best. In addition to electives, Center faculty will sponsor independent studies.
Contemporary Issues in Biotechnology
Professor Kirsten Detrick T’92
In this course, students will explore biotechnology fundamentals, examining the strategic, operational, legal, scientific, and ethical drivers of this complex industry. We’ll discuss how biotech leaders’ decisions, influenced by science, market dynamics, governments, and global health challenges impact patient care and business strategy. This course emphasizes commercialization, manufacturing, marketing, and finance challenges in both start-up and corporate biotech contexts.
Health Care Analytics & Society
Professor Lindsey Leininger
This course is about health analytics in action. With epidemiology as our key tour guide, we will introduce and apply timeless scientific concepts to timely case studies. Examples include the commercialization of patient data; the unintended consequences of tying physician payments to statistical algorithms; and the promise and perils of digital disease detection. Students will be provided with a series of practical data diligence tools speaking to descriptive, predictive, and evaluative applications of health analytics. By the end of the course students will be able to recognize and apply key frameworks critical for wise, data-driven leadership across the health sector.
Investing and Deal Making in Health Care
Professor Michael A. Carusi; Professor Michael S. McIvor; Professor Michael Zubkoff; Suzie Rubin
This minicourse looks at the complexities and inner workings of the health care ecosystem, providing a practitioner’s point of view on the players, how they interact, partner and transact. Students are introduced to health services, medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals and health IT. The path for venture capital and private equity-backed companies from creation to exit is explored, including the goals and incentives of various stakeholders. The course covers different types of investing and deal making transactions as well as strategies, tactics, and analytical tools.
Management of Health Care Organizations
Professor Paul B. Gardent
This minicourse provides students with the knowledge and understanding of key leadership and strategic challenges within health services organizations. It covers important functions of health services management, including strategy, finance, and operations and introduces students to leadership issues in performance improvement, change management, organizational leadership and strategic alliances.
Medical Care and the Corporation
Professor Paul B. Gardent; Professor Michael Zubkoff
This course examines the critical issues facing business leaders as they approach and finance health benefits for employees, manage cost, and choose the best strategy for recruiting and retaining a productive workforce. Students will build an understanding of the structure, economics and dynamics of the employer based health care system from the perspective of corporate leaders, learn how the ACA has fundamentally changed the strategic landscape and comprehend alternative approaches to help businesses cope with these strategic issues.
Structure, Organization and Economics of the Health Care Industry
Professor Paul B. Gardent; Professor Michael Zubkoff
By introducing the structure, organization and financing of health care in relationship to business and the economy, this course provides students with a fundamental understanding of the health care industry and critical issues in health care today. It will provide an industry-wide view from the differing perspectives within the health care value chain, including providers, suppliers, payers and consumers, and examine the market dynamics among these players.
Technology-Enabled Disruption in Health Care Delivery
Professor Lindsey Leininger, Professor Liam Donohue, Reena Pande
The $4 trillion US health care system is in the early stages of changing from a system that focuses on caring for people when they get sick to a system that endeavors to keep people healthy. Along this long arc of disruption, there will be enormous opportunities for entrepreneurial, technology-enabled (“digital health”) companies to be built. These companies will be founded and led by people from inside and outside the health care industry and will create a once-in-a-lifetime career and wealth creation opportunity for executives who pursue the right opportunities.
This course will provide students with 1) a high-level understanding of how changing incentive systems and technology are forever altering the US health care system; 2) where the best opportunities are likely to be found, and 3) insights about evaluating professional opportunities in the sector, referred to as “opportunity narrowing” in investing circles.
At the conclusion of this course, we hope that each student will be able to describe the emerging dynamics of the rapidly changing health care system and the leading role that technology is playing in the industry’s transformation.