Our curriculum provides the most relevant business theory to complement your healthcare background. These courses are the foundation of a rigorous Kelley School business education but also an MBA focused specifically on healthcare. They provide the principles and strategy that equip physicians to lead their organizations into the future.
Learn more about the integrated core business courses and the specialized, contemporary healthcare classes that make up our curriculum in the Kelley Physician MBA Program.
Year 1: Core Courses
Provides an understanding of how accounting information should be managed to ensure its availability on a timely and relevant basis for decision-making. Focuses on evaluating and interpreting financial reports and how to gain insights into a firm's strategic decisions from financial statements. Examines the value of financial control systems. Establishes a foundation for linking healthcare decisions and financial outcomes.
Examines how market dynamics and government reforms are driving changes in revenue models including value-based reimbursements, bundled payments, and risk-sharing incentives. Analyzes different types of integrated delivery models such as accountable care, medical homes, integrated delivery networks, and new legal entities to deliver care directly to employers. Defines an organizing framework for integrating revenue sources and delivery models with MBA core courses such as finance, accounting, and marketing.
This course is designed to encourage engagement across cohorts with physician MBA alumni, healthcare thought leaders and individuals who can help our physician leaders strategize about making an impact in healthcare. The course broadens the physician leader’s perspective to better understand all aspects of the healthcare industry. It meets regularly on Friday evenings of residency and is also offered in year two.
Explores the tools for strategic management and the complexities involved in determining long-term strategies. Examines the dynamics of the competitive environment and how the pace and direction of industry change are influenced by resources, capabilities, and competitive interaction of rivals. Learn strategic analysis methodologies and frameworks to evaluate and change organizational capabilities, the same tools used by top management teams of today's leading organizations. Applies strategic management tools to the healthcare industry, including hospitals, health systems, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, information technology, and health services.
Provides statistical and analytical tools for using data to make better managerial decisions. Examines how probabilistic decision models can improve decision-making in instances of high uncertainty while quantifying risk. Develops tools for analyzing data sets and drawing conclusions. Focuses on how the growth in availability of healthcare data is changing the practice of medicine and how physicians can use these tools to drive better patient outcomes, reduce cost, and capture value. Topics include decision trees, regression analysis, logistic regression, and Monte Carlo simulation.
Today's global economy demands leaders with an international perspective, and healthcare is no exception. In this elective course, physicians examine international healthcare delivery models, learn from other healthcare systems, and study opportunities for healthcare companies abroad. The course includes a 9-day international trip, and it is offered in year two.
Introduces you to tools you can use to expand and grow your career, including physician executive résumé writing, LinkedIn, networking, developing an executive presence, and healthcare executive recruiters. Explores your unique brand in the professional marketplace and the value you provide to prospective employers. Provides access to healthcare executive recruiters, executive leadership coaches, and successful physician leaders who deliver inside perspective.
Examines the process of creating a market-driven organization. Given a brand in its specific market, learn how to apply the marketing planning framework to segment the market, pick a target, and develop an effective positioning in order to use the 4 Ps—product, place, price, and promotion—to improve customer behavior in the brand's favor. Specific topics include marketing strategy, branding, market segmentation, market research and analysis, relationship marketing, social media, pricing, and promotion. Learn both product- and service-marketing skills.
Provides an understanding of how operations management concepts and tools can produce better quality, lower costs, and improve revenue. Examines how to improve productivity, maximize asset utilization, reduce waiting lines, shorten throughput times, and enhance the overall customer experience. Explores quality management concepts and tools with a focus on healthcare. Includes additional topics such as nurse scheduling, managing patient flows across units and the continuum of care, impact of facility design on patient and caregiver satisfaction, and managing emergency rooms and surgical suites. Identifies transferrable practices from other industries for the redesign of healthcare.
Gain the skills to be an effective leader in changing times through hands-on learning experiences and scholarly study. Creates a personalized leadership development plan with a physician executive coach. This course establishes the knowledge and skills to lead at all levels of a healthcare organization, from the board level to group practice. Explores governance structures and collaborative techniques for engaging and working with physicians, clinicians, and external stakeholders. Complements action-oriented leadership development that occurs throughout the fabric of the 21-month MBA program.
Provides a working knowledge of the tools and analytical conventions used in the practice of corporate finance. Establishes an understanding of the basic elements of financial theory to be used in application of analytical reasoning for business problems. Explores the interrelationship among corporate policies and decisions. Discovers corporate finance principles transferrable to the healthcare industry. Builds the capability to link healthcare decisions and financial outcomes.
Year 2: Specialized Courses
Provides knowledge of the American legal system, its processes, and the substantive law itself, which is necessary for making informed and effective business decisions. Emphasizes the study of legal change, by considering past legal developments, to give managers sufficient insight into the dynamics of this process, enabling them to predict as soundly as possible the future legal environment in which their present decisions will bear fruit. Focuses on the legal and ethical considerations in a highly regulated environment.
Provides an understanding of key macroeconomic relationships in a global economy and how these relationships impact the healthcare industry, such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic and treatment technologies, medical care, and information technology. Develops insights into data that is used to interpret macroeconomic conditions. Examines how government policies seek to influence macroeconomic conditions and an introduction into the debate about the effectiveness of these policies.
As you hone your leadership skills and business knowledge, you will be partnered with an executive coach, who will work with you to meet your professional goals. You meet with your executive coach regularly in the second year of the program, which culminates in a leadership development plan. Through this process of highly individualized training, you leave the program with the skills and frameworks to orient yourself as a change agent for your organization, whether you are running a private practice, working in a group practice, or employed by an integrated healthcare delivery system.
By improving operational processes, healthcare organizations can improve both the quality and efficiency of care delivery. In this course, physicians select and complete a process improvement project in their own organization, applying the tools and procedures learned. Prepares students for the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Green Belt Exam.
Today's healthcare environment forces physician leaders to use every tool at their disposal to create and maintain an effective and adaptable organization. A major source of effectiveness and adaptability is leaders’ ability to facilitate meetings, to assess strategic decision-making, and to coach others. This course addresses these skills and explores how to drive change from within an organization.
Today's global economy demands leaders with an international perspective, and healthcare is no exception. In this elective course, physicians examine international healthcare delivery models, learn from other healthcare systems, and study opportunities for healthcare companies abroad. The course includes a 9-day international trip.
Develops a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, issues, and techniques of new venture creation and entrepreneurship with a focus on life sciences, information technology, and healthcare service ventures. Integrates business knowledge and skills from the MBA program and explores the relatively difficult aspects of healthcare value creation. Includes such topics as developing a business plan, evaluating future industry evolution, and designing an effective entry strategy.
This course familiarizes students with current issues associated with health information technology (IT) and their impact on the U.S. healthcare system. Health IT applications (e.g., electronic health records, decision support systems, health information exchanges) are playing an increasingly important role in patient safety and accountable care and are linked to financial reimbursements. This course reviews the evidence of Health IT’s impact from the perspectives of hospitals, physicians, patients, payers, and society.
This course helps you to develop the expertise to become a skilled negotiator and manager of conflict. Learn various conflict resolution styles and strategies and understand when and how to apply these tools to resolve conflict and deal with disruptive behaviors. Comprehend negotiation processes and why they succeed and fail in different contexts. Develop your personal negotiation and conflict management style to engage more competently and confidently in complex professional interactions, such as those found in the healthcare industry.
Healthcare is the largest and most heavily regulated sector of the U.S. economy. Physician leaders must understand how public policies are developed and how to navigate the regulatory environment. Enables physicians to discuss healthcare policy with policy makers and regulators in Washington, D.C. Allows physicians to gain a deeper understanding of the regulatory process and how this process can be improved through direct interactions with policy makers.
Plan your Path to an MBA
Review our academic calendar to learn when courses are offered so you may begin planning the degree to fit your schedule.
