Tag: healthcare

Beryl Py Lee (PMBA 40), Catherine Briggs (Biostatistics), Francis Monsada (MBA 2017), Gary Wang (Biostatistics), and Laurel Li (MBA 2017) competed on January 23rd at the Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition  at Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management against Top 20 MBA/MD/PhD programs globally.

The 13^th annual event was held at Northwestern University on Saturday, January 23, 2016. Eleven teams were selected to compete in the final showdown.  This year’s case focused on the merits of and concerns with direct-to-consumer marketing.    Teams from the Kellogg School of Management took the top two spots.  A team from University of Chicago, Booth School of Business placed third.  Judges were executives from the sponsoring company – AbbVie.

Team member Beryl Lee shares a few memories and insights:

“The acclaimed Laurel Li led the team’s opening presentation and Catherine Briggs presented our enlightening proposal. We were enthused to apply our interdisciplinary backgrounds although to be fair we had expected the case to be about blockbuster drugs in the USA or global health initiatives in Africa, as all of the cases seemed to have been within those territories in the past. This was a surprising and admittedly very timely twist.”

In 2015, Poets & Quants included the Kellogg Biotech and Healthcare Case Competition in its list of 20 Top Global Business School Case Competitions.  This year more than 35 teams applied to participate. From this group, eleven teams representing nine different schools were invited to compete in Evanston. The nine schools were:

-Anderson School of Management, UCLA

-Booth School of Business, University of Chicago

-ESADE Business School (Spain)

-Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley

-Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

-Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

-McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

-Olin Business School at Washington University

-Said Business School, University of Oxford (UK)

The weekend started with an informal reception on Friday evening. Saturday, teams presented and attended the Kellogg Business of Healthcare Conference. Saturday evening featured a case debrief, dinner and an award ceremony.  More about the competition can be found at: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/departments/hema/activities/case_competitions.aspx

“Healing is an art. Medicine is a profession. Healthcare is a business.” Nothing could be more true than that statement from Edie Varley that helped kick off the first session of the 2016 Leadership Perspective series that focused on doctors who transition into healthcare management positions. The “MD to VP” session was held Jan. 5 with more than 60 in attendance. Edie Varley is an Executive MBA alumna and director of discernment for Olin’s Executive MBA program.

Whether impacted by technology, views on patient care, or the political landscape, healthcare is changing before our eyes. As a result, gaining an understanding of the business impact of the changes in healthcare is becoming more vital. While leadership in healthcare has always been a focus, now more than ever, MDs are looking to balance clinical backgrounds with an understanding of business to ultimately impact the industry.

These three leaders are doing just that. Dr. Ken Yamaguchi, Dr. Mary Jo Gorman and Dr. Chuck Lucore are all trained physicians and while healing and caring for others is still central to their core, they all now serve in business roles: Ken as executive vice president and chief medical officer at Centene, Mary Jo as managing capital partner of Prosper, and Chuck as president & chief executive officer of St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, IL.

All three earned an MBA via WashU’s Executive MBA program.

An orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Yamaguchi still sees patients in addition to his duties at Centene. “Being a physician is what I am passionate about and my role as EVP and CMO at Centene is what I am most excited about,” he shared, finding a beautiful balance between healing and and his thirst to keep learning.

“For me, business provided the next puzzle to solve,” shared Dr. Mary Jo Gorman who is a serial entrepreneur.

“As an interventional cardiologist, I saw immediate results when seeing patients and as CEO the results take longer to see, although are equally rewarding as each day I know I am helping hundreds or thousands of people and not just the patients I used to see,” shared Dr. Chuck Lucore.

What does the future of healthcare hold? All three agreed they needed a crystal ball. And, all three agreed healthcare needs more doctors with MBAs.

Olin professors Selin Malkoc and Joe Goodman shared their research on healthcare decision making among vulnerable populations at a recent Society for Medical Decision Making conference. WashU faculty Leonard Green, Mary Politi, and John Schneider, MD, also participated in the interdisciplinary research and panel discussion. Link to video of their presentation.

Epharmix, a St. Louis-based health technology startup created by a team of recent Wash U alumni, including Joe McDonald, MBA’15, medical students and physicians  has raised $765,000 from a group of five investors according to a report in the St. Louis Business Journal, July 28, 2015.

Epharmix creates condition-specific digital interventions for medical care that provide follow up care via texting messages and other contact with patients.

Founders include WashU alumni: Blake Marggraff (CEO); Avik Som (CMO); Evan Huang (CTO); and Joe McDonald (COO and CFO). Epharmix also has a team of advisors that includes Dr. Will Ross, a nephrologist and associate dean for diversity and assistant professor of medicine at WUSM.

A Healthcare Hackathon will be held this weekend, March 20 – 22,  at CIC @4240 Duncan. Wash U and the Skandalaris Center are sponsoring the event. It’s not just for programmers or people with software solutions!  People from universities and industries with varied and multiple areas of expertise are invited to bring their knowledge and innovations to find solutions to challenges in healthcare.

Discount codes are available for registration: contact sc@wustl.edu to request a code.

The hackathon will offer:
·         opportunities to connect to St. Louis healthcare entrepreneurs
·         educational breakouts on hot healthcare issues + skill building
·         help to commercialize your ideas
·         chance to bring many disciplines and skillsets to work on your idea
·         FREE FOOD

More information and registration available here.