Individual Health Care Innovation Course

Take a graduate course to deepen your knowledge, sharpen your tools through assignments related to your professional setting, and expand your innovation, leadership skills, or digital health skills.

Courses are 6 weeks long and designed for working professionals. Each week follows a pattern of asynchronous learning through brief videos, readings, written discussions with classmates, and real-world projects and assignments, using the online learning platform Canvas. A 1-hour live class meeting provides the opportunity to engage directly with the instructor and classmates, including Master of Health Care Innovation students. Expect to spend 12–15 hours per week on coursework.

The faculty are active in their fields and recognized internationally for their work. Course lectures draw on their experience and interviews with guests, all delivered in brief videos with original slides to reinforce your learning. Learn principles and processes that you can apply to challenges faced in work situations, and connect with other professionals who are committed to improving health care.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree
• At least 3 years of experience, post-graduation, working in health care or related field.

Tuition and fees: During Academic Year 2025–2026, tuition and fees for one course (1 CU) total $6,788. Federal financial aid is not available for the Graduate Certificate.

Eligible employees of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine may use employee tuition benefits to cover a portion of the cost.

How to apply: Complete a brief application on our admissions platform and expect a response within 2 weeks. Please allow at least 3 weeks prior to the course start date.

Graduate health care innovation students take courses alongside Master of Health Care Innovation (MHCI) students.

Students include:

• University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine employees
• Penn graduate and professional students
• External professionals with a focused area of interest in health care innovation

Health Care Innovation courses are designed with a similar structure to enhance learning new knowledge, skills, and practices. The primary course activities include:

• Engaging with content and media — Brief, high-quality video lectures; interview cases; cutting-edge readings; and learning aids, many of them downloadable, are predictably structured in weekly modules for you to study on your own schedule.
• Interacting with classmates, faculty, and the course team — During live class meetings and asynchronous class time, you will synthesize knowledge, explore scenarios and cases, identify opportunities for innovation, and network with colleagues.
• Applying your learning — Practice activities, ongoing projects, and presentations help you hone your ideas, identify stakeholders and decision makers, develop strategies for persuasion and negotiation, and strengthen your arguments in a safe, supportive space.

Courses from the Master of Health Care Innovation curriculum may be taken individually. You can also select four courses from the list below to build your own Graduate Certificate in Health Care Innovation. Click on course title for more detail.

FALL

THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Survey the complex background of the American health care system, how it shapes the present, and where it offers opportunities for innovation in health care policy, payment, quality, and access moving forward.

BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS AND DECISION MAKING

Examine the key concepts of behavioral economics—including how people’s actions and biases influence their health behaviors—and methods such as designing choices environments or incentive programs that nudge people to increase treatment adherence, reduce costs, and shape wellness behaviors.

CONNECTED HEALTH CARE

Explore connected strategies, frameworks, and delivery models to improve outcomes and competitive advantage, then apply them to creating a roadmap for your own organization or service.

DIGITAL HEALTH

Examine how electronic health systems work, humans in the AI loop, patients and their data, and the types, sources, ethics, and regulation of data.

HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS

Examine inefficiencies resulting from waste, variability, and inflexibility, and acquire methods to engage in the ongoing process of reducing these negative impacts without sacrificing quality of care.

TRANSLATING IDEAS INTO OUTCOMES

Apply analytical and design thinking as this course guides you through developing innovation projects—generating ideas, defining problems, testing, and preparing for delivery—and defining strategies to solve health care problems.

SPRING

HEALTH ECONOMICS

Survey the critical economic issues in producing, delivering, and financing health care, such as demand for medical care, the role of physicians in resource allocation, health  insurance, and competition in medical care markets.

LEADERSHIP AND LEGAL ISSUES IN HEALTH CARE

Survey the leadership skills and legal knowledge necessary to navigate the complexities of the health care industry at the highest levels.

LEADING CHANGE IN HEALTH CARE

Explore transformative practices in health care, the leadership techniques that have led to their success, and ways to direct change within your organization.

USING DATA FOR TRANSFORMATION

Explore how to turn routine health care data into an algorithm, evaluate the validity of AI products, and understand liability and policy implications around algorithms in health care.

VALUE AND QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE

Discover the most pressing areas of opportunity for health care innovation by applying quality and measurement tools, and how to leverage quality improvement initiatives to drive value.

SUMMER

ADVANCING HEALTH EQUITY

Explore opportunities to advance programs and policies that improve the health of communities and the work lives of professionals in traditional and non-traditional health care settings.