Designing and sustaining technology innovation for global health practice

Lectures: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

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Prof. Jeffrey Blander

Prof. Utkan Demirci

Innovation in global health practice requires leaders who are trained to think and act like entrepreneurs. Whether at a hospital bedside or in a remote village, global healthcare leaders must understand both the business of running a social venture as well as how to plan for and provide access to life saving medicines and essential health services.

We will:

Each week, the course features a lecture and skills-based tutorial session led by industry, non-profit foundation, technology, and academic leader's to think outside the box in tackling and solving problems in innovation for global health practice through the rationale design of technology and service solutions. The lectures provide the foundation for faculty-mentored pilot project from MOH, students, or non-profit sponsors that may involve creation of a market or business plan, product development, or a research study design.

We will show how innovative technologies and service based solutions will shape and redefine the global health care marketplace. Students will learn how technologies can enhance service delivery, distribution systems, in-service training, and medical education. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to design an innovative field based solution to address a current or emerging global health problem. Students' proposed solutions will draw upon understanding of tools and principles acquired and will be presented as an application design during the final days of the course. All students will have a faculty mentor to apply for field travel assistance from MIT and Harvard to implement the proposed project plan.

This interdisciplinary course will teach students how to critique and analyze various management programs and technology systems available within the global health space. Lectures and tutorials will offer didactic and experiential learning opportunities. The tutorials will serve as interactive discussion and training sessions to introduce the skills that will be used by the students to design an original field project and funding proposal. Skills will include those used by professionals in health economics, disease management, drug distribution, business planning and human resources in health.

To provide a unique learning environment that brings together students and faculty from diverse backgrounds including medicine, business, law, engineering, public health, education, and social policy to harness their creativity and experience for the purpose of enhancing health care delivery in resource poor settings.

Upon completion of this course, students would be expected to be able to:

The main course activities consist of two elements:

The students will form multidisciplinary groups to analyze, develop, and present a specific disease or health systems design program which will incorporate (but is not limited to) drug distribution, in-service training in rural areas, and diagnostic test development as presented during lectures and tutorials. A packet of materials will be distributed at the first tutorial that includes readings, written exercises, and instructions for the field project design.

This activity will be devoted to planning a field based pilot project. Students will be divided into three groups of four, and each group will meet to discuss and plan potential project designs. Each student group will then be responsible for working together as a team to develop a proposal and to discuss it with their preceptor.

Jeffrey Blander

Jose Gomez-Marquez

Utkan Demirci

Project topic presentations

Project proposals due

Group/mentor meeting

Project selections due

David Steinmiller

Elizabeth Bailey

Michael Lytton

Track selection

Stakeholder analysis due

Team presentations

Stakeholder and event diagramming

Ben Bauman

Vikram Kumar

Joanna Lowell, BVGH

Gail Cassell

Team meeting

Reflection paper 3 due

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