Overview

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This course delves into transformative ideas reshaping healthcare delivery. It explores emerging business and medical practice models and the impact of novel information technology, examining how these advancements disrupt existing practices and beliefs. Emphasis is placed on evaluating these innovations to effectively balance cost, quality, and access. Additionally, the course offers practical insights into managing change within the intricate healthcare landscape.

Syllabus

Course Introduction and Module 1: New Models of Healthcare Delivery: Machine Learning and AI

This module explores how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are reshaping healthcare through emerging business models and clinical applications. It introduces three frameworks—partnership models, efficiency-access-outcomes, and application focus—to evaluate and categorize AI tools. The module highlights use cases ranging from narrow, disease-specific tools like diagnostic imaging, to broader applications supporting hospital operations and patient safety. It examines generative AI's role in reducing physician workload, enhancing documentation, and preserving clinician-patient relationships. The content also addresses challenges, including ethical concerns, data quality, workflow integration, and algorithmic bias. Overall, the module encourages critical engagement with both the opportunities and limitations of AI in healthcare.

Module 2: New Business Models Along the Care Continuum

This module explores emerging business models along the healthcare care continuum, highlighting how innovation is reshaping service delivery. Topics include the evolution and impact of electronic health records (EHRs), the role of two-sided platforms like Zocdoc in connecting patients and providers, and various models of remote patient interaction, including telehealth, hospital-at-home, and connected care technologies. The module also examines consumer-centric models such as retail clinics, urgent care centers, and virtual clinics like Amazon Clinic. Emphasis is placed on leveraging technology, personalization, and market segmentation to improve access, efficiency, and patient outcomes. Case studies illustrate both successful and failed implementations, offering insight into design, scalability, and community needs.

Module 3: Designing for People: Behavior-Driven Innovation in Healthcare

This module explores behavior as a central driver of healthcare innovation, highlighting how human actions, choices, and contexts shape the success of medical technologies and interventions. Students are introduced to major behavioral frameworks—COM-B, the Fogg Behavior Model, and EAST—that provide practical tools for understanding and influencing patient and provider decisions. The module emphasizes applying these models through user journey mapping, prototyping behavioral interventions, and designing with empathy to uncover hidden barriers and foster trust. Attention is also given to the enabling role of mindset, team culture, leadership, and intrapreneurship in sustaining innovation within healthcare systems. Finally, the module looks ahead to emerging trends such as digital behavior tools, AI-driven nudges, ethical considerations, and the global expansion of behavioral insight teams. Collectively, these perspectives demonstrate that behavior is not peripheral but foundational to creating effective, equitable, and human-centered healthcare solutions.

Module 4: Designing for Context: Social Determinants of Health as Innovation Drivers

This module examines the role of social determinants of health (SDOH) as both barriers and drivers of healthcare innovation. Learners explore how context—including housing, food access, education, transportation, and systemic inequities—shapes health outcomes more profoundly than clinical care alone. We explore how to apply context and SDOH to analyze the social environment and its influences. The module emphasizes reframing health disparities as signals for innovation and how to leverage community engagement and apply practical tools for assessment, prioritization, and integration. Learners are encouraged to view context not as an obstacle but as a foundation for designing sustainable, inclusive, and impactful health systems.