Course Description

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. Part of the 4-course Business of Health Care Specialization from Penn Medicine and the Wharton School.

Specific Course Topics
  • Foundational knowledge of health care operations and methods of optimization
  • Innovation techniques applied to health care
  • The practice of evaluation and how it is applied to health policy and programs
  • Behavioral economics in health care
Learning Objectives
  • Assess the provider-patient relationship to improve performance measures.
  • Generate a flow diagram and Gantt chart by gauging patient flow by flow rate, flow time, and inventory.
  • Evaluate financial viability of a health care provider using Key Performance Indicators.
  • Apply innovative techniques into a more traditional ecosystem of health care.
  • Discuss successful examples of innovative researchers and clinicians that change the approaches to health care.
  • Compose a hypothesis statement and assess the value and plausibility of your statement.
  • Explain the need for evaluations and its theoretical framework.
  • Discuss different methods of conducting an evaluation and the types of questions an evaluation aims to answer.
  • Implement an evaluation to analyze the effectiveness of your health care organization.
  • Explain Expected Utility Theory and the different types of Prospect Theory.
  • Discuss real-life examples of Default Bias and Increased Cost Sharing case studies.
  • Develop a framework for designing health care interventions that will be effective and successful.

Kevin Volpp: Why studying behavioral economics is important 

What Will You Learn and Do?

Through videos, quizzes, and discussions, hone your skills in optimizing health care operations, and be able to develop a set of evaluations and questions to achieve best innovative practices within your organization.

Who Takes This Course?

People looking to develop their understanding of the innovation in health care.