Fall Semester
August–December (10 Credit Hours)
Aspiration, innovation, & inertia in health care HCT 280
What is value in health care? How do we improve patient outcomes at the lowest cost? What leads to health disparities and unequal access to care? This foundational course reviews the historical trajectory that led to the current health care landscape and explores the transformation of culture, structure, and measurement to restore health care to its purpose—better health.
Creating value for individuals & patients HCT 281
Health care value is created when an individual’s health outcomes improve. Creating value requires understanding patients’ experience of their health and health care and creating solutions to their health challenges. This course introduces methodology to identify relevant patient segments, to assess patient unmet needs, and to identify the outcomes that matter most to patients. Students will be introduced to the “capability, comfort, and calm” meta-framework for designing and measuring patients’ health outcomes.
Measuring outcomes that matter HCT 387
Value in health care requires knowledge of patient outcomes, but most health systems focus on interim process measures. This course teaches measurement strategy -- identifying the critical outcomes, finding and creating validated measures, creating an analysis plan, and designing systems for collecting and evaluating health outcomes data, and accelerating learning by clinical teams.
Experiential Learning Project 1: Project planning & preparation HCT 397
Students work as a team (4-5 members) to design an action learning project aimed at improving some aspect of health and/or health care. Project planning will include background research, identifying an organizational setting and client, creating a business proposition and project “pitch,” and creating measurement and analysis plans. Students will practice project management and presentation skills.