COURSE NUMBER: MBA296.11
This course is dual-listed with the Evening-Weekend MBA Program.

COURSE TITLE: Unlocking Digital Innovation in Healthcare

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 unit

INSTRUCTOR: Kimberly MacPherson 

E-MAIL ADDRESS: kmacpherson@berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME:  March 4 and March 18 from 9AM to 5PM.

Please note the unusual format of this course, which meets all day on two Sundays.  You must attend both sessions in their entirety in order to earn a passing grade.

PREREQUISITE(S): NONE.

CLASS FORMAT:  The two all-day class sessions will include a mixture of lecture, cases and interactive exercises.  Students will be required to advance a team project in between the 1st and 2nd sessions and come prepared to present efforts.  Additional subject matter expertise will be offered by outside guest experts from the digital health and VC sectors

REQUIRED READINGS:  No textbook.  Mix of cases and publicly available reports and journal articles and posted to bCourses as resources.  Students with limited familiarity with digital health and/or the solution areas they typically target will be provided with suggested pre-reads prior to the class start 

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Mix of participation/attendance, case submission, and team project

CAREER FIELD: This course is useful for anyone who wants to design/develop, evaluate or engage with the digital health sector.  Could be from the entrepreneur lens, funder or stakeholders/buyers in the more traditional healthcare sectors (delivery, plan, pharma/device, consumer)

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: This two-day course will provide insight in to the ways that health and healthcare are changing due to the entry of a myriad of digital and connected health solutions, as well as innovation in key service models.  We will explore the drivers behind this surge of innovation, enumerate the main issues being targeted for “disruption” and consider how each key stakeholder (health system, physician, payer, patient/consumer) is reacting.  What is the role for the rapidly evolving role of FDA as a regulator for this type of innovation and what type of evidence will various stakeholders require to implement, pay for, prescribe, engage in these new solutions?

A key part of this course will be evaluating examples of innovative solutions across a range of categories including:  consumer engagement, wearables, platform/data analytics, clinical/biomedical workflow, payer/provider administration and population health management.  We will look at current trends that are emerging around where start-ups and investors are focusing and what areas seem to be most popular.  Teams will be asked to address a strategic issue facing a local digital therapeutic company (likely Omada Health or Proteus Health) and present analysis, make recommendations.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:  Kimberly MacPherson, MBA/MPH is a Haas alum (1994) and currently the Executive Director, Health Management - Haas School of Business.  She is also the Program Director, Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health and Co-Director for the Berkeley Center for Health Technology (BCHT).   At BCHT, Ms. MacPherson conducts research in health system strategy, digital health and on coverage and adoption around biotech and medical device.  She also develops and leads workshops for industry on key trends impacting those sectors.  At UC Berkeley, Ms MacPherson teaches HC in the 21st Century, Healthcare Finance, Foundations of HPM and Healthcare Negotiations.  Ms. MacPherson is a Board of Trustee at St Francis Memorial Hospital (San Francisco) and a member of the Dignity Health system Strategic Planning Committee.  She has over 22 years of healthcare experience in operations, management consulting and strategic planning and product development.​