Health care Management programs

Question

Hey guys,

I am currently working in a pharmaceutical company as a senior scientific associate. I will have 3 years working experience at matriculation. My undergraduate GPA is 3.5 from a top3 chinese university and i got my master degree at a big state university in US with full scholarship. So I am gonna to apply for Bschool with an emphasise in health care management. Do you guys have any suggesiton about health care management program based on my background

thanks~

x97agarwal · Answer

Healthcare is a risky field right now. Obama is goign to change the face of healthcare and so are the demographic changes that are coming in teh next ten years.

Read all the articles in the WSJ about Genentech and Amgen - the only ones with growth - they are also facing lean pipelines and movign to small molecules from proteins to bloster their pipeline. I am sure you know how difficult it is to discover new therapies for the complex diseases we now face - the likes of cholestrol, diabetes, blood pressure have been already conquered and medicare and the U.S. healthcare system is only looking at pharma companies as a solution to their problems. I am not trying to discourage you but just a few things to consider.

syings · Answer

hey Thanks for your information. However that doesn't answer my questions:( Would you please give more information about programs
 I am quite aware of health care's risk. But i think sometimes high risk means high profits. And so does financial industry, it's risky too, right?

x97agarwal · Answer

You are quite welcome. Good point about the "risks". I hope you did not get me wrong and my comments wern't meant to be negative - its nice to get various perspectives. I work in the healthcare arena too and have worked in China as well.

Anyhow, depends on what aspect of healthcare you want to focus on? Industry/administration/insurance/public health etc.

Anyhow, depends on what aspect of healthcare you want to focus on? Industry/administration/insurance/public health etc.

syings · Answer

hehe, i didn't take it for negative. Just for my personal situation, health care management is the best connetion between my current working experience and future MBA study. i will focus on industry. you must be very experienced. I am more than happy to hear your suggestions.

terry12 · Answer

x97, I respect your point of view but disagree. Certainly big pharma is facing a pretty tough road; the upcoming "patent cliff" won't be fun for anyone at Pfizer, GSK, Merck et al. But mid-cap pharma and biotech have a better outlook. Amgen and Genentech, to cite your examples, don't have much in the way of pending blockbusters but do have robust pipelines at earlier stages of development. And substantial portions of those pipelines are in proteins and immunologics.

I also don't quite understand your point regarding demographic changes. The percentage of population with diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and most cancers will continue to increase as the population ages. Won't this (unfortunately) enrich the very markets the biopharma companies serve? Do you really think hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, and hypertension have been conquered? This would be news to most internists, endocrinologists, and cardiologists. Other portions of the healthcare sector like medical devices and hospital/HMO management haven't shown much in the way of slowing down.

syings- I posted a long time ago about healthcare management programs but can't find my original post. As far as "specialized" healthcare management programs go... take a look at Wharton's Health Care Management (HCM) program, Duke's Health Sector Management (HSM) program, and Kellogg's Health Industry Management and Biotech Management programs if you're interested in general healthcare programs with excellent reputations. The Wharton program is usually considered the most prestigious, but they're all pretty darned good. If you're interested in early-stage biotech and medical devices, the above programs as well as HBS, Stanford, and MIT Sloan should be considered. HBS has a relatively new Healthcare Initiative; doing great things, and it's, well, HBS. Stanford has terrific collaboration with the bioscience and engineering programs; take a look at the Bio-X and Biodesign Innovation programs. Sloan has the Biomedical Enterprise Program (BEP), which actually grants an additional masters degree and requires a separate application.

Hope this helps!

Rubashov1 · Answer

I disagree with a lot of this post. Sure political forces could negative influence external factors for the industry, but other statements appear to be characterized incorrectly.

Demographic changes are a negative and positive for the industry. Pricing pressures will occur as more boomers age, but there will be (unfortunately) a proliferation of many pharmaceutical markets - cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, etc.

Also, to say DNA and AMGN are the only ones with growth is absurd. First off, I'm fairly certain that Amgen's revenues are shrinking, or are at least fairly stagnant, as the regulatory crackdown on EPO increases. DNA is in good shape, but there is also a burgeoning class of smaller and mid-size companies with impressive pipelines in growing markets. Further, the pharma market is one of the least globalized in the sense that almost no proprietary drug markets currently exist outside of the US, EU, Japan and a few other rich countries. This is changing. Big pharma and others are investing heavily in emerging markets as incomes rise in those countries and governments find their cash coffers in better shape, thus enabling them to reimburse more often for patient treatment.

Regarding moves towards small molecules, this is wholly untrue. Maybe it is in the case of DNA and AMGN (which I'm not so sure of), but it is not for big pharma themselves and small biotech. Vaccines are a huge new growth area with the launch of the HPV vaccines, an improved rotavirus vaccine, new varicella-zoster vaccines, etc, and the dawn of new technologies on both the antigen and adjuvant side. Further, many large companies have expressed an interest in having therapeutic biologics make up ~50% of their pipelines.

Lastly, it is patently untrue to say that we have "conquered" diabetes. This is one of the most significant healthcare crises facing the developed world and there is an abundance of research in both more effective therapeutics and the improved delivery of existing ones. Also, type 1 diabetes, as a distinctly different autoimmune disease, is an open field, albeit a smaller one.

There are many things to be concerned about in the healthcare field, but I think you are overextending what are mostly sociopolitical problems to false issues about the current and future state of medical need and the technological make up of the industry's pipelines.

edit: I'll second terry12's comments. Wharton, Northwestern, Duke all have reputable healthcare specific programs, but I certainly wouldn't rule out the big names such as Harvard, Stanford just because they don't have a healthcare focus.

kryzak · Answer

tsk tsk tsk terry, don't forget that Haas has a good MBA/MPH program. :wink:

I'm not in the medical field, so I can't speak with authority, but I've met a lot of people who've applied or got into Haas speaking highly of the program. Granted, Berkeley doesn't have a medical school, so that may be one reason why it's not as well known as the other schools terry mentioned with good med schools.

terry12 · Answer

Whoops, sorry kry :oops:

Haas definitely has one of the top health care management programs around. And while Berkeley doesn't have its own med school, it (and Haas) has a very close relationship with UCSF, a top-5 med school. rca, definitely agree with everything you're written. And I would certainly encourage anyone to look at Stanford

.

kryzak · Answer

Cheers terry, thanks for adding the review for Haas. I forgot about UCSF.

clarksdv2 · Answer

Just clarify a couple things: The Biomedical Enterprise Program (BEP) is offered by Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. You have the option of pursuing your MBA either from Sloan or HBS. However, most of the BEP cohort go to Sloan. You can either matriculate into the program or apply in your first year at HBS or Sloan. The application involves 2 extra essays and additional recommendation for the HST board. If you are short listed you will interview for your MBA program and interview for BEP with 5 person panel. This program is more robust than Wharton's, Duke's or Kellogg's. You receive a second masters degree, which requires a thesis. You take not only health care/biotech focused business classes, but also MD courses over at Harvard Medical School as well as participate in a clinical experience at Massachusetts General Hospital. The biotech ecosystem in Cambridge/Boston is extensive from startups to multinationals along with the related VC and MC life science practices. Hope this helps.

terry12 · Answer

Clarks, I was kinda hoping you would come around and provide specifics on the BEP

I'm curious about the med classes... do you take the classes along with HMS students? And what subjects do you take?

dghazer · Answer

No one has mentioned Michigan's program. They offer a dual degree and I think Michigan's Health Care Management program is always at the top of rankings...worth taking a look at.

clarksdv2 · Answer

You take the same classes as the HMS students and you have to get a B or higher. The first class you are required to take is pathology which is a 1st yr med school class. Then you have to take at least one molecular/cellular class, one large organ class, biostatics/epidemology, and some electives within HMS or HST. For example, I plan to take Cell & Molecular Immunology, Hematology, Cell Matrix Mechanics and Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering to meet my requirements.

refurb · Answer

syings,

I'm in the same boat as you! I work as a scientist for big pharma. I'm aiming to start Fall of 2009.

Obvious Wharton's HCM program has a great reputation, as does Duke's. However, it seems to me that big pharma recruits from all the top 15 schools.

NN

x97agarwal · Answer

Guys,

I stand corrected on some of my comments, however, I can feel the pain the industry is facing at the moment. I think that the leaders of tomorrow have to re-engineer the business model - the R&D structre right now in big Pharma stifels innovation and productivity is extremely low. I am sure some of the people in this forum after attending B-school will become future leaders and lead the industry out of its current slump.

Cheers.

terry12 · Answer

No worries, x97. There's no doubt that big pharma's in big (sorry, couldn't resist) trouble. I'm in 100% agreement with you on the problems inherent in pharma's R&D structure. Do you ever read Derek Lowe's In the Pipeline blog? Really informative, especially for someone like me who hasn't spent any time in R&D:

https://www.corante.com/pipeline/

clarksdv2- The class offerings sound terrific. Pathology's actually a lot of fun. And I'm glad you don't have to take Anatomy

syings · Answer

Thanks for your replys. We don't need to fight about big pharma's future here. They can figure their way out themselves.

I got a lot useful information from the posts. BTW, I only have 3 years WE upon matriculation. Is that too short for Wharton? I heard that they prefer people have at least 5 years WE.

terry12 · Answer

That doesn't seem too short, especially with a previous graduate degree. If you want to get a more complete picture you can check the Wharton HCM resume book and look at work experience of recent grads. I linked to the resume book in the Wharton HCM thread a few days ago.

Health care Management programs

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