COURSE NUMBER: MBA297C.1

 

COURSE TITLE: Innovations in Healthcare Venture Capital

 

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2.0

 

INSTRUCTOR: Jeff Rideout and Lisa Suennen

 

E-MAIL ADDRESS: jarideout@sbcglobal.netlisasuennen@venturevalkyrie.com

 

PREREQUISITE(S):  Completion of one of the following classes or instructor consent:

 

·        Healthcare in the 21st Century (MBA 297A-1)

·        Venture Capital and Private Equity (MBA 295B)

·        New Venture Finance (MBA 295D)

 

CLASS FORMAT (Will there be lectures, cases, or a mixture?): Lecture

 

REQUIRED READINGS (Not a list of specific readings but a statement of whether you will use a textbook, cases, course reader, readings on reserve, or a mixture.):

 

Students will be required to read all distributed course readings ahead of the appropriate class lectures and to also conduct individual company research ahead of each guest speaker.  Required readings will be posted in advance of each class when relevant.  In addition, students will be required to conduct their own research in support of their final paper.  Grading will be based in part on the degree to which positions taken in the final paper are supported by the student's independent research

 

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: (Midterm, final, paper(s), project(s), class participation, or a mixture.)  Final paper will be 50% of the grade and class participation will be 50% of the grade. Class attendance will count toward class participation.

 

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this course is to provide students with insights into the newest innovations in healthcare service delivery, information technology, digital health and analytics, with an emphasis on how venture and private equity investors evaluate and determine where to invest in a marketplace that represents nearly 20% of the U.S. GDP.  Through presentations by leading entrepreneurs and venture investors in the field, students will be challenged to reach conclusions regarding which healthcare sectors are the most promising for venture investing and which individual companies presented reflect the best opportunities, particularly given shifts currently underway within the healthcare industry driven by the Affordable Care Act. This is not primarily a finance class, but more substantively about the nuances of emerging healthcare businesses and venture finance as applied to this very unique sector.

 

By the end of the course, students will:

 

Understand how the market drives the innovation culture in healthcare

Have insights into current innovations in health care across three primary sectors:  healthcare services, information technology/analytics and digital health.

Be able to analyze risks and opportunities in young healthcare companies and understand how companies are responding to changes in the healthcare system, including health reform

Understand key aspects of venture capital operations as it pertains to healthcare venture capital

Know how to apply criteria for healthcare venture capital investing

Present a rationale for investing decisions

 

CAREER FIELD: Healthcare venture investing, healthcare entrepreneurship and start-ups, healthcare delivery and insurance, healthcare policy and management

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

 

Jeff Rideout MD currently is CEO of the Integrated Healthcare Association (www.iha.org) and a Senior Advisor with GE Ventures.  Previously Dr. Rideout served as the Senior Medical Advisor for Covered California, the California Health Insurance Exchange, the Chief Medical Officer for Cisco Systems, Blue Shield of California and the TriZetto Group, and holds academic appointments with Stanford University as Consulting Professor, Department of Health Research and Policy, and the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.

 

Lisa Suennen s Managing Partner at Venture Valkyrie Consulting, which serves venture capital firms and healthcare companies.  Previously Lisa co-founded and was a partner at Psilos Group, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm. Earlier, Lisa helped build Merit Behavioral Care, an $800mm behavioral healthcare company. Lisa is a board member at multiple healthcare entities and writes Venture Valkyrie, a widely read blog on healthcare and investing. In 2014 she published a book on healthcare IT called Tech Tonics, Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare with Technology. Lisa holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Berkeley, where she is now on faculty at the Haas School of Business.