Harvard University Free Online Course Innovating in Health Care

Find innovation opportunities in health care technology, management, consulting, or investing by examining health care cost, quality, and access.

DURATION 9 weeks long
TIME COMMITMENT 6-8 hours per week

What you’ll learn

• How innovation in health care can improve cost, quality, and access
• The six factors that critically shape competitive strategies for innovative health care ventures
• What other elements combine to create a feasible business model for an innovative health care venture
• How to distinguish the key to successful innovations from those likely to fail
• How to apply the IHC framework to evaluate business models across different kinds of innovations
• How to craft your own business plan for your next innovation venture

Course description

Health care spending, quality, and access continue to plague America and global nations alike. With U.S. health care costs trending toward $4 trillion in 2020, the need to innovate and create smart, viable business plans is more important than ever before.

 Innovating in Health Care (IHC) explores how creating successful global business ventures in health care will not only improve access, but also better meet the needs of consumers and societies. The course focuses on a framework of evaluating and crafting business models that attain alignment between an entrepreneurial health care venture and the six factors that critically shape new health care ventures—structure, financing, regulations, consumers, accountability, technology, and public policy. Innovating in Health Care discusses the impact of these factors on business models for three different kinds of innovations: consumer-focused, technology-driven, and integrations which create scale.

Through lectures, insights from global health care innovators, and real-world case examples, learners will explore the challenges and decisions facing real entrepreneurial health firms and how to analyze each situation through the IHC framework. By the end of the course, you will understand how to evaluate opportunities and how to apply elements of successful business models for different kinds of health care innovations.

The course is offered in two formats: an open, online experience and a limited, team-based deep dive experience, where teams (self-assembled or newly created online) can produce actual business plans evaluated by peer teams and the IHC course instructors.

TAKE COURSE