A national hub for healthcare innovation, Boston is awash in research and discovery in the health and life sciences. The Questrom Health Sector Part-Time MBA (HSM) program is your ticket for admission to all of it.
Whatever your specialty or area of interest—health services delivery, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics—the HSM program will prepare you for the kinds of challenges faced every day across the industry and give you the insight and expertise you need to make a difference. By pursuing this specialization within your MBA, you’ll be ready to dive right into the health & life sciences sector with both skills and confidence.
Program Details
Success in the ever-changing health and life sciences industry calls for a cutting edge curriculum. As a Top 5 business school in healthcare management (US News 2019), Questrom’s HSM program will prepare you to not just keep up with the industry, but to become a leader.
Since 1972, the HSM program has equipped talented students with the insights and skills they need to obtain distinguished careers in the health sector through an innovative, experiential curriculum, intensive skills education, and global learning experiences.
Here on campus, you'll benefit from the diversity of your peers—who have backgrounds in everything from healthcare to marketing to finance—and from experienced faculty who will cover an extensive range of topics with you, including health sector information technology and drugs, devices, and diagnostics. And, the network you build along the way will last far beyond your time at Questrom.
Outside of the classroom, you’ll gain valuable experience through clubs, case competitions, summer internships, international field seminars, and more. There’s even an annual student-led health & life sciences conference that brings in students and professionals across all sectors of the US healthcare industry. Best of all, you’ll have the chance to study in the world-class Boston health sector scene, collaborating with and learning from leaders in the nation’s premier center of health and life science organizations.
We also offer an extensive Health Sector Mentoring Program, which connects you with alumni and other professionals who will support and guide you through your time at Questrom. After you graduate, you’ll become part of our vibrant HSM alumni network and reap all the benefits it has to offer.
You can enroll in The Health Sector MBA as a part-time student and can complete the program on either of our 2 PEMBA tracks.
Part-Time HSM Degree Program Requirements
The part-time Health Sector MBA program and our Professional Evening MBA program share the same core curriculum. However, with the Health Sector MBA you’ll be able to specialize your MBA degree with our Health Sector targeted electives. Students must take 3 of the required Health Sector courses and choose 2 additional Health Sector electives in order to earn the Health Sector specialization.
The required Health Sector courses follow this path:
Health Sector Issues and Opportunities (QSTHM703)
This course provides a dynamic introduction to the health sector, beginning with the burden and distribution of disease and current patterns of expenditures. While the emphasis will be on the American system, a global context will be developed. The basic elements of insurance and payment, service delivery, and life sciences products will be described, and put in the context of the unique economic structure of the sector. The intense challenges of the sector will be explored, as well as both the ethical issues presented and the opportunities that emerge. Public policy and technological and practice development as drivers of change will be addressed throughout.
Strategy, Economics, and Policy in the Health Sector (QSTHM820)
This course studies the strategic and economic issues facing insurers, providers, and life-sciences companies in the healthcare sector. The course will adapt tools from health economics, strategy, and finance to understand the problems faced by these firms. The course will also examine the problems faced by regulators, who must craft policies that shape the healthcare sector: which hospital mergers to allow; what procedures health insurers must cover; how public programs ought to reimburse life-sciences companies; how quality of care is measured and rewarded; and so on.
Choose ONE of the following:
Health Service Delivery: Strategies, Solutions and Execution (QSTHM710)
The overarching theme of this course is health care organizational transformation. The course will provide knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement high performing health care systems capable of delivering accessible, high quality, efficient services. It will draw upon relevant information from disciplinary areas of study including strategy, operations, marketing, finance, law, human resources, quality improvement, and information technology.
Drugs, Devices, and Diagnostics: New Challenges, Strategies, and Execution (QSTHM717)
This course will examine issues and opportunities in life sciences focused on the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices sectors and the life sciences service industry supporting these sectors, through the eyes of the CEO. The course will investigate who manages these companies and what are the strategies that are used to build successful enterprises. Students will be introduced to individuals and institutions at every stage of the development cycle from idea generation and start-up fundraising to manufacturing, commercialization and global expansion. We will specifically look at key elements of strategy and the execution by examining companies, that have either succeeded or failed, by discussing the pros and cons of different approaches and teasing out the lessons one can derive from leaders in the field and case studies examining their approaches.
Electives
Professional Evening MBA students at Questrom have choices—9 electives within the program to be exact. Health Sector MBA students are only required to take 4 health sector electives and may use the additional 5 electives as they wish. You can either take additional Health Sector MBA electives, or explore any elective we offer that fits your interests.
Here’s a sample of some of the Health Sector MBA electives you’ll be able to choose from.
Health Service Delivery: Strategies, Solutions and Execution (QSTHM710)
The overarching theme of this course is health care organizational transformation. The course will provide knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement high performing health care systems capable of delivering accessible, high quality, efficient services. It will draw upon relevant information from disciplinary areas of study including strategy, operations, marketing, finance, law, human resources, quality improvement, and information technology.
Drugs, Devices, and Diagnostics: New Challenges, Strategies, and Execution (QSTHM717)
This course will examine issues and opportunities in life sciences focused on the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices sectors and the life sciences service industry supporting these sectors, through the eyes of the CEO. The course will investigate who manages these companies and what are the strategies that are used to build successful enterprises. Students will be introduced to individuals and institutions at every stage of the development cycle from idea generation and start-up fundraising to manufacturing, commercialization and global expansion. We will specifically look at key elements of strategy and the execution by examining companies, that have either succeeded or failed, by discussing the pros and cons of different approaches and teasing out the lessons one can derive from leaders in the field and case studies examining their approaches.
Bench-to-Bedside: Translating Biomedical Innovation from the Laboratory to the Marketplace (QSTHM801)
The subject of the course is the translation of medical technologies into new products and services for the healthcare system. The course begins with a rigorous study of university research commercialization including intellectual property, licensing and planning, creating, funding and building new entrepreneurial ventures. Concepts and tools are presented for assessing new technologies and their potential to be the basis for commercialization. Cross- disciplinary teams of students will be formed which will evaluate translational research projects currently being developed at Boston University and other local academic research institutions, to develop a go-to-market strategy. There will be a case studies and guest lecturers to discuss examples of both success and failure in technology commercialization.
Advances in Digital Health (QSTHM817)
Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming the health sector. Health information technology now permeate every segment of the health value chain, starting with the search for health information, to improving patient outcomes, to improving health. In this course students explore the evolving digital health landscape through a mix of case studies, practitioner talks, individual papers and team projects. Students will enhance their digital health requirements and systems selection toolbox. They will develop competence in current digital health technology standards, gain a deeper understanding of the strategic drivers of digital health through the eyes of the healthcare CIO and CMIO, the operational challenges from the perspective of the end user and the healthcare providers, and challenges of incorporating digital health technologies into existing workflows.
Health Sector Marketing (QSTHM833)
This course provides an in-depth understanding of health sector marketing in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors for both products and services (hospital, ACOs, payers, life sciences, pharma and biotech, medical devices, medical software, and so on). The course explores how the tools of marketing (e.g., consumer behavior, pricing, promotion, channels, branding, communication, segmentation, etc.) can be employed in the rapidly changing health sector with particular attention to changing organizational structures, financing, technologies, market demands, laws, channels of distribution, on-line and mobile applications, and regulations which require new approaches to marketing. Topics to be addressed include marketing to physicians, DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) Marketing, new product development particularly for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, adoption of medical and service innovations, typical decision making units in the health sector, traditional as well as social media, and social marketing. The course will have you keep in mind always while making marketing decisions that medicine, in the purest sense, is a profession with an intellectual discipline, a tradition of service, and an ethical code of conduct, and that service to the patient, as individuals and in the aggregate, is foremost in marketing decision making.
Health Sector Consulting (QSTHM840)
This is an applied consulting project course that aims to develop reflexive practitioners who can elicit client requirements, translate requirements into a problem statement and develop actionable solutions that meet client needs. The course uses a mix of case studies, individual memos and team project deliverables to systematically apply skills developed over the course of the MBA to solve real-world health sector problems. Students work on the consulting assignment in teams of up to four students based on having a shared interest in a prospective consulting project. These projects are curated in partnership with sponsor organizations to be executable within the framework of an academic semester. Projects in the past have ranged from improving the departmental revenue cycle within an academic medical center, developing an international pricing strategy for the introduction of a new product by a pharmaceutical company, to improving safety culture at a large hospital. These projects all have active involvement of the project sponsors who provide access to their organizations and provide ongoing feedback over the lifecycle of the consulting engagement.
Driving Health Sector Innovation (QSTHM848)
This course examines an array of compelling opportunities for innovation, incremental and disruptive, across products and services, created within existing organizations or by starting new businesses. It bridges design and implementation, examining the unique and complex array of elements that make successful innovation in the health sector so difficult, and developing the skills and knowledge needed to effectively address those challenges. The course provides a conceptual framework, and then emphasizes hands-on engagement, concrete exercises, written cases, and in-class speakers who are engaged in real-world innovation initiatives. Students will have the opportunity to focus on areas of particular interest and relevance to current or future work. They will leave better equipped to drive or support the viable, value-creating innovation so desperately needed in the health sector.
Managing and Improving Quality: Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification (QSTOM840)
Lean and Six Sigma are powerful improvement methodologies that promote process improvement, cost reduction and significant enhancement of bottom-line profitability. The purpose of this course is to thoroughly examine the concept of quality, to define it in terms that are useful for managers, to survey the ideas of major quality thinkers and theorists, to develop proficiency in the use of quality tools, and to consider the challenges of quality program implementation in real business situations. Throughout the course we will investigate similarities and differences between quality management in manufacturing and service contexts. The course has three major objectives. The first goal is to define quality and explore important philosophies and useful frameworks for managers or consultants. The second goal is to focus on the Lean and Six Sigma tools available for the pursuit of lasting quality improvements. The third is to bring the experiences of Lean Six Sigma practice into the classroom. We'll benefit from the expertise and experience of Lean and Six Sigma professionals who will help us to understand the challenges of Lean and Six Sigma implementations and analyze the lessons they have learned from projects they have undertaken.
Intellectual Property Strategies (QSTSI814)
This course covers the ways in which companies use intellectual property to protect their investments in knowledge assets. Traditionally a concern for technology-intensive businesses, patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets have become important business tools throughout the knowledge-based economy. A good understanding of what IP assets are and how they work has become essential for managers in all types of organizations. This is not a law course, nor a how-to manual rather it is intended to develop your analytical understanding of fundamental economic and legal aspects of intellectual property systems, and how they drive competition and strategy.
Note: Courses QSTHM710 and QSTHM717 will count as a HSM elective if not taken as an HSM core course.
Program Takeaways
Not only will you get the chance to specialize your focus with our intensive electives, but all Health Sector MBA students also get the opportunity to add an internship to their MBA. Full-time students are required to take this opportunity to break out of the classroom and experience hands-on learning to bring their education straight into the field. Part-time students may waive the internship requirement with applicable work experience, pending permission of the Health Sector MBA faculty director.
You won’t just develop bonds with your diverse classmates while you’re here, the benefits of being a student in the program will continue even after you complete it. We’ll connect you with alumni and professionals who share your health sector interests and goals. Even after graduation, you’ll be reaping all the benefits that our Health Sector MBA alumni network has to offer.
Focus Areas
Don’t worry about being pigeonholed—you can tailor your Health Sector MBA with a custom focus area through a combination of Career Pathways and Learning Communities, or simply take electives that fall within a focus area you’re interested in. We give you options so that you gain the skills you need to thrive in any sector. No matter what, you’re leaving with a valuable MBA from BU.
Related Degree Programs
You can take on the Health Sector MBA at a full-time or part-time pace. Or, tackle two areas at once with our joint degree options. It's your vision. We'll help you make it real.
- Full-Time MBA
- Part-Time MBA
- MBA+ MS in Digital Technology
- Health Sector MBA+ MD
- Health Sector MBA+ MPH
You can enroll in The Health Sector MBA as a part-time student and can complete the program on either of the two PEMBA tracks.
Take the Next Step
See for yourself how the Questrom experience can transform your world. Attend an admissions event in-person or online, grab coffee with a student, sit in on a class, and more. Ready to apply? Once you've submitted your materials, we'll start the review process. We're happy to answer your questions along the way.