In this course, you’ll learn the foundational economic theories behind health care innovation and how to optimize your own health care practice or organization. Designed to help you gain a practical understanding of the theoretical frameworks of behavioral economics and operations management in the health care setting, this course will help you apply these frameworks to assess health care practices and apply innovation while managing risk. You’ll also explore the best practices for evaluating one’s innovative practices, using real-life examples of success to see the concepts in action. By the end of this course, you’ll have honed your skills in optimizing health care operations, and be able to develop the right set of evaluations and questions to achieve best innovative practices within your organization.
This course is part of the The Business of Health Care Specialization
Offered By
The Business of Health Care SpecializationUniversity of PennsylvaniaAbout this Course
Instructors
Offered by
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn) is a private university, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A member of the Ivy League, Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and considers itself to be the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Module 1
This module was designed to give you a foundational knowledge of health care operations and methods of optimization. You’ll examine the provider-patient relationship and learn how a provider can improve performance measures for the patient by analyzing the different types of performance metrics such as patient-centric, operations, and financial measures. Through discussing the different types of inefficiencies such as waste, variability, and inflexibility, you’ll be able to optimize performance and service. You’ll also learn how to gauge patient flow by flow rate, flow time, and inventory, and be able to map processes using a flow diagram and a Gantt chart. By the end of this module, you’ll be better able to calculate the financial viability of a health care provider using Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and create a framework to assess and optimize performance.
Module 2
In this module, you’ll see how techniques in innovation that originally developed outside of health care can be deployed successfully in health care systems and organizations. Using your understanding of optimizing health care operations, you’ll be able to apply innovative techniques to a more traditional ecosystem of health care. You’ll learn how innovative researchers and clinicians changed some of the more grounded approaches to health care. Through analyzing the scientific method, you’ll be able to craft a hypothesis statement of your innovative idea and identify key assumptions in your statement to test first. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to successfully assess the value and plausibility of the hypothesis of your innovation, and effectively utilize successful instances of innovation to your health care practice.
Module 3
In this module, you’ll examine the practice of evaluation and how it is applied to health policy and programs. You’ll gain a better understanding of the need for evaluations in an ever-changing health care environment, and the importance of control groups to combat selection bias that may skew the findings of an evaluation. You’ll explore different methods to conducting an evaluation, the types of questions an evaluation aims to answer, and the difference between effectiveness and efficacy. By the end of this module, you’ll understand the theoretical framework behind an evaluation and be able to employ an evaluation to better analyze the effectiveness of your health care organization.
Module 4
This module was designed to highlight the importance of behavioral economics in health care practice and how to utilize behavioral economic theory to optimize the operations of your health care organization. You’ll explore Expected Utility Theory and the different types of Prospect theory such as Reference Dependence, Diminished Sensitivity, and Loss Aversion in the context of health care. By studying real-life examples of Default Bias and Increased Cost Sharing case studies, you’ll establish a framework for health care interventions that will be effective and successful after implementation. By the end of this module, you’ll be better able to determine the theoretical basis for certain health care practices such as nudge units and whether such practices would benefit your organization.
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM HEALTH CARE INNOVATION
Weeks 1 and 3 were really interesting and the instructors were very informative. For the other 2 weeks, the topics and instructors were not as interesting. But overall was a pretty informative course.
Very good examples of innovative solutions to health care and highlighting behavioral economics in the last part gives us an overview of possible solutions to policy making.
I found the course helpful overall, I found the 3rd module to be the most difficult and hard to follow and felt there was a lot of information without real world examples.
The best course on Healthcare Management ever!!! Kudos to Penn Med Wharton Online team for putting together such an amazing course!!!
About the The Business of Health Care Specialization
This Specialization was designed to help you keep pace with the rapidly changing world of health and health care. Through partnership with Wharton and Penn Medicine, you’ll learn from experts in business acumen, health care management, and health care policy to develop the skills you’ll need to successfully navigate the quickly evolving landscape of this fast-growing field.* By the end of this specialization, you will have a strong foundational understanding of the American health care system, along with the basic financial and management skills to make better, well-informed decisions that improve the cost and quality of the health care you or your enterprise provides.
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