Wharton’s Long Track Record of Teaching the Business of Healthcare
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania features the oldest healthcare program among U.S. business schools—and, as it happens, also one of the best. As at Fuqua, the Wharton program is interdisciplinary in its approach, drawing on faculty not only from Wharton but also from the university’s medical and nursing schools, as well as healthcare practitioners, to teach students interested in healthcare-related careers. There are 10 standing professors within the healthcare management department, another 11 secondary professors and more than a dozen affiliated lecturers and adjunct professors.
Signature Health Care Management Major
Wharton offers a Health Care Management (HCM) major, which interested students must choose as part of their initial application to the school. Five credit units are required to complete the major, including two courses that every HCM major must complete: “Healthcare Services System” and “Healthcare Field Application Project (FAP).” The first provides an overview of the healthcare system and how it evolved—focusing on payors, providers and suppliers. As part of the second course, FAP, teams of five or six students each consult on a real-world management problem for a health-related firm.
After completion of these core courses, HCM majors can choose three additional healthcare electives. Healthcare electives focus on topics including hospitals, integrated delivery systems, pharma and biotech companies and managed care organizations. Some on offer in the current term include “Management of Health Care for the Elderly,” “E-Health: Business Models and Impact” and “Healthcare Entrepreneurship.” Those seeking even greater specialization in a given area can also take up to four credit units from other Penn schools, including the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing.
Wharton celebrates the diversity of experience represented by its HGM majors, sharing a range of details—as well as student bios—for the Class of 2015 as well as each of the current classes. There are 68 HCM majors in the Class of 2016 and 79 in the Class of 2017 (representing 8 and 9 percent of each class, respectively). Hailing from every corner of the globe, many but not all of the students profiled cite prior healthcare experience, including at healthcare-focused consulting firms, medical device companies and private equity firms invested in healthcare services companies. There are also three students who hold MDs and a registered nurse in each class.
Centers, Special Programs and Extracurriculars
Wharton’s Health Care Board Fellows program gives first-year students the chance to spend 12 months as “observers/visitors” on the boards of participating healthcare nonprofits, including the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Association for Non-Profit Homes for the Aging, Power Up Gambia and the Go4theGoal Foundation.
Another program, Wharton Global Health Volunteers (WGHV), gives students the opportunity to develop service projects in public health systems with extremely limited resources. Partner organizations have included Aravind Eye Hospital, Aurora Venture, Doctors of the World and WHO Healthy Environments for Children Alliance, and projects have sent students to Botswana, El Salvador, Tanzania, Brazil and India.
For students who want access to cutting-edge healthcare research, there’s the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute (LDI). Founded in 1967 following the advent of Medicare, the LDI conducts interdisciplinary research on health services in conjunction with Wharton as well as Penn’s health and communications schools.
In terms of student clubs, the Wharton Health Care Club (HCC) serves the professional and academic needs of students pursuing careers in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical devices, consulting and other sectors of the healthcare industry. Its sponsored events include career advice panels and chats, social events and a speaker series that has drawn healthcare industry leaders from companies including GE, Kaiser Permanente and Medtronic to speak on issues surrounding healthcare venture capital, insurance, biotech and healthcare administration, among others. Another group, the Penn Biotech Group, is a cross-disciplinary organization that helps educate students about biotechnology and its ties to science, medicine, business and law—drawing members from Wharton, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Law School and the Medical School.
Wharton also features an annual Health Care Business Conference each February, which typically draws more than 500 attendees from across the nation. The 2016 conference—entitled “The Innovation Game: The Race Between Entrants and Incumbents”—took place just last week and featured as its keynote speakers Eli Lilly President and CEO John C. Lechleiter; Farzad Mostashari, CEO and founder of Aledade, a startup aimed at helping primary care doctors form accountable care organizations (ACOs); and Tom Spann, founder and COO of Accolade, a technology platform designed to improve the consumer healthcare experience.
There is also an array of resources available at Wharton to help MBA students secure internships and full-time positions in healthcare-related fields. These range from biotech and healthcare career treks to a mentor program for HCM majors pairing students with senior executives in the healthcare industry. Finally, Wharton has an active Health Care Management Alumni Association that hosts regular networking and career development events. Of the Class of 2015, Wharton reports that 6.1 percent of graduates took jobs in healthcare.
Admission Requirements
Though the admissions process they undergo is the same as any other MBA applicant to the Wharton School, prospective HCM majors must indicate their interest in the major on the application form in response to the question that asks about “an intended major” or “areas of interest.” They are encouraged to use the application essays to discuss their interests and background in the healthcare field and their motivation to pursue the HCM major. Applicants will be reviewed by the Wharton Admissions Committee as well as by June Kinney, associate director of the Health Care Management Program.
“Candidates for the Health Care Management (HCM) Program must demonstrate an abiding interest and passion for meeting the business and leadership challenges posed by the health care field,” reads the school’s website. “The department looks for many types of interests and backgrounds in order to create a microcosm of the health care industry within each class.
