Annual Seminar

During Seminar, convene with other professionals committed to changing health care and exchange ideas, share stories, gain and give advice, and begin to build the special connection to classmates that MHCI alumni consider to be a hallmark of the program.

Standard components include:

• Networking activities
• Interactive workshops to develop professional skills
• Panel discussions
• Faculty presentations
• Program and classroom orientations
• Social events

Students in the Master of Health Care Innovation (MHCI) program gathered for the eighth annual Seminar, from Thursday, August 15 through Saturday, August 17, 2024, in Philadelphia.

About 50 students from across the U.S. and international locations gathered, along with several alumni, to connect with each other and the program. They discovered common passions for health care challenges, exchanged advice, and built professional and personal relationships that will help sustain their learning and inspire their work.

Seminar objectives:

• Get oriented with the MHCI degree and learn what to expect in the coming school year.

• Learn from innovative thinkers and leaders.

• Build connections with classmates, the MHCI community, and Penn.

Highlights included:  

• Negotiating for Success workshop—Mario Moussa, PhD, MBA emphasized the importance of preparation and process when negotiating. In small groups, students explored a negotiation case. Individually they assessed how their bargaining style could influence their negotiating practice.
• Managing Your Career workshop—Elyse Zlotnikov, MHCI ’24, SHRM-CP discussed how to position yourself as an innovation expert and offered practical career-advancement tips.
• High-Performing Teams workshop—A team- and community-building session for new students, led by Chris Barba, MBA, Consulting Manager for Penn Medicine Academy
• Launching Innovation—A panel conversation explored practical aspects of launching innovation initiatives, including the importance of defining the problem and involving stakeholders.
  • Moderator: Bob Tedeschi, MA
  • Meagan Hume, MDP, MPH—Innovation Manager, Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I)
  • Katie Reuther, PhD, MBA—Executive Director, Penn Health-Tech
  • Julia Votto, MIPD—Senior Innovation manager, Penn Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative
• Fireside Chat with Ted Ruger, JD—This conversation between the former Dean of Penn Carey Law School and Holly Fernandez Lynch, Associate Faculty Director, covered the government levels at which important health law and policy decisions take place and what recent legislative decisions may mean for health care.
• Examining Portion Sizes to Promote Health—Medical Ethics and Health Policy faculty member Sophia Hua, PhD, MHP shared research from the PEACH (Psychology of Eating and Consumer Health) Lab testing a low-cost naming intervention to promote health through smaller-sized entrees.
• Cross-Cohort Connections—Facilitated conversations built meaningful links among students.

• Alumni Showcase—Six MHCI alumni presented summaries of recent innovation projects, then discussed them in a poster session.

  • Jayne Belz, MHCI ’23: Deploying Innovative Tech for Dementia Caregiving

  • Anisha Bhatnagar, MHCI ’23: Team Strategies to Improve Patient Pull-Through

  • Andrea Cooke, MBA, MHCI ’22: The Techquity AI Hub: Empowering Diversity in AI

  • Lisa George, MS, MHCI ’24: Capturing Demographic Data in the Electronic Medical Record

  • Johnson Khor, MHCI ’21: Mapping iEMR Data to Standardized Drug Vocabularies

  • Michael Urgel, RN, MHCI ’20, MBA, CPHQ, CPHIMS, PMP, CPDHTS: Enable and Empower Home-based Senior Care

MHCI students toured the Penn campus in small groups, discovering University history and current resources, and shopped for Penn gear at the bookstore.

Room, board, and conference activities for Seminar are covered by the program at no additional cost to the students. Transportation to and from Philadelphia for the event, as well as incidental expenses, are the responsibility of each student.

Please note that students in the Master of Health Care Innovation are not eligible for an F-1 student visa. International students should allow sufficient time to arrange for a B-1 visitor visa in order to attend Seminar in Philadelphia. Penn's International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) could assist you with obtaining the visa.