"The HBS case method of teaching lends itself very well to healthcare. When we discuss a case, we realize that there are many different solutions to a problem and that there is no right or wrong answer. This is particularly true for the healthcare industry." Andrew Heffernan, MD MBA 2006

HBS Courses and Cross-disciplinary Opportunities

HBS Healthcare Course Offerings

• Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital in Healthcare
  In recent years almost 30 percent of venture capital funding was for healthcare businesses. This course examines a wide range of healthcare ventures and, in particular, examines licensing, joint venturing, and financing agreements that form the basis of these ventures.
• Innovating in Healthcare
  Innovating in Healthcare introduces the six critical forces that shape new healthcare ventures-financing, structure, public policy, consumers, technology, and accountability-and their impact on business models for three different types of innovations: consumer focused, technology driven, and consolidated.
• Inventing Breakthroughs and Commercializing Science
  This course has evolved over four years to be unique among HBS electives as students are selected from Harvard's schools of business, medicine, science, engineering, law, public health, government, and teaching hospitals. The focus is on inventing breakthroughs, working with other disciplines such as science, medicine, and law, and moving research from the lab to the market place.
• Managing Medicine
  Many healthcare innovations ultimately fail because they neither integrate with existing clinical processes nor successfully create new ones. The course will examine the unique characteristics of the care delivery process in order to help students identify opportunities for innovation, as well as develop the management skills needed to design and implement operational and technologic change in healthcare.

Immersion Experience Programs (IXPs) are one week, non-credit educational experiences occurring during the January break, which provide the opportunity for intensive study of a culture, community, or industry. All MBA students have the opportunity to participate. The following are healthcare-specific IXPs:

• Healthcare: Science, Delivery, and Regulation IXP (January 2009)
  This one-week intensive immersion experience program (IXP) provides an overview of three major elements underlying the healthcare system: the medical science, healthcare delivery and the regulatory environment. The concepts progress from the simple to the complex, ranging from episodic medical events to chronic disease management. Discussions are led by leading physicians and surgeons from the area's top hospitals. The week includes two off-campus site visits of a local biomedical research institute and a surgical skills simulation lab and emergency room.
• Value Based Health Care Delivery IXP (January 2008 and 2009)
  This immersion program, led by Professor Michael Porter, is based on the overall framework presented in his book, Redefining Healthcare, for diagnosing and solving the problem of competition in healthcare. MBA and MD students discuss cases, hear lectures, and visit several healthcare delivery organizations to understand detailed action steps for all participants in the healthcare system.
• Health Science and Business Immersion Program (January 2007)
  This intensive medical science program is designed to examine the intersection between science and business and increase basic biology and science proficiency. The program includes lectures from world class scientists covering such topics as cancer, cardiology, drug discovery and ethics. Students also travel off-campus to tour a biomedical research company and a surgical skills simulation lab.

Field Studies and Independent Study Projects

Field studies and independent study projects (ISPs) provide an opportunity for students to gain firsthand experience with healthcare organizations working on a team or individually. Field studies and ISPs are offered for credit during the second year of the MBA program and are completed under the guidance of a faculty member of the student's choosing. Field studies and ISPs can focus on virtually any topic. Recent projects have included analyzing market opportunities for dental-imaging devices, medical tourism, and multiplex protein analysis techniques; evaluating IT strategies for a start up healthcare organization; and developing a China business model for a large pharmaceutical company.

Some field studies and ISPs may qualify for project reimbursement grants if they have a social enterprise component or are for non-profit organizations. See the HBS Social Enterprise website for more information.

MD/MBA Dual-Degree Program

Each year several students pursue their educational goals through the MD/MBA Dual-Degree Program. Students must be admitted independently to both Harvard Medical School and HBS, and must complete their coursework in five years. The program enrolled its first group of students in the fall of 2005.

The program's mission is to develop outstanding physician leaders, skilled in both medicine and management, to take positions of influence through which they will contribute substantially to the health and well-being of individuals and society. The dual degree is designed to educate prospective leaders of organizations that deliver and finance health services, as well as those who develop and market pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other health-related products.

Cross Registration Opportunities

HBS students can take graduate-level courses at several other schools within Harvard University. Courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Law School, and the Kennedy School of Government are popular. A partial listing of other healthcare courses at Harvard can be found on the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics website.

• HBS Courses and Cross-disciplinary Opportunities
• Careers
• Healthcare Club

Judah Folkman, M.D. led a session of the Health Science and Business Immersion Program following Professor Richard Hamermesh's discussion of the case, "Judah Folkman and the War on Cancer." Dr. Folkman is a world renowned researcher focusing on angiogenesis as a treatment approach for cancer. He created a new paradigm in medicine for understanding the biology of disease. Dr. Folkman's efforts have been described by many as worthy of the Nobel Prize.