Academics and student experience
Healthcare academics and student experience
Don't just keep up with the healthcare industry, be the ones that drive it forward. Our HCAK Program combines the core foundational training of an MBA with a curated focus on the business of healthcare that is necessary for long-term success as a leader in the sector.
Whether your focus is on healthcare, entrepreneurship or strategy, you'll get exposure from industry leaders and innovators on what it takes to be at the forefront of healthcare in today's landscape. You'll learn from professors and experts who are at the very center of shaping what healthcare is today and where it must go tomorrow. Your academic experience will also feature curated independent learning opportunities and personalized mentorship from Kellogg alumni currently working in the healthcare field.
HCAK has been pivotal to my Kellogg experience. [It] has enabled me to develop my skill sets across strategy and leadership through a healthcare lens — challenging me to broaden my knowledge, allowing me to go deep into an industry I love, and immersing me in a vibrant community of healthcare peers.
Take a Deep Dive into healthcare
Immerse yourself in our Deep Dive course, a unique learning opportunity with students across the Full-Time, Evening & Weekend and Executive MBA Programs. Held over three weekends in Miami, Chicago and San Francisco, you'll gain a deeper understanding of challenges leaders face, while uncovering new avenues for the evolving industry.
Healthcare Pathway
Life Sciences/Products Track
These in-depth courses help you apply foundational concepts to specific industry issues and stakeholders, while also preparing you for the strategic and managerial challenges that are unique to life sciences companies.
- Biomedical Marketing: HCAK 470
- Pharmaceutical Strategy: HCAK 931
- Digital Health: HCAK 970-5
- Value Creation and Capture in Early-Stage Biopharmaceuticals: HCAK 960-5
- Value Creation and Capture in Chinese Healthcare: HCAK 973-5
- Growing & Sustaining Success in Biopharmaceutical Firms: HCAK 985-5
- Intellectual Capital Management*: STRT 441
*Recommended that students complete the healthcare option for final project.
Payer/Provider Track
Hone your knowledge and skills through these in-depth courses on what it takes to help shape and guide a successful healthcare system in the U.S. and around the world.
- Using Analytics to Create and Capture Value in Healthcare: HCAK 941-5
- Managing Heath Care Services in a Value Based Setting: HCAK 951-5
- Value Creation & Capture in an Evolving Healthcare Market: HCAK 980-5
- Strategy and Execution for a Successful Healthcare Delivery System: HCAK 935-5
As part of your capstone experience in HCAK, you’ll participate in experiential learning courses so you can start applying academic theories to real-life situations.
- Global Initiatives in Management (GIM): INTL 473
- Medical Technology Financing and Commercialization: HCAK 611
- NUVention Medical Innovation : HCAK 616
- Forging and Funding Health Care Startups: HCAK 627
- Medical Technologies in Global Public Health : SSIM 673-5
- Healthcare Strategy Consulting Lab : STRT 947
- Health Systems Management: A Practicum Course with Northwestern Medicine : HCAK 957-5
Healthcare Entrepreneurship Initiative
Hone your knowledge and skills through these in-depth courses that will see you advance your healthcare entrepreneurship skills.
- NUVention Medical Innovation: HCAK 616
- Medical Product Financing and Commercialization: HCAK 611
- Pharmaceutical Strategy: HCAK 931
- Value Creation and Capture in Biopharmaceuticals: HCAK 960-5
- Managing Health Care Services in a Value Based Setting: HCAK 951-5
- Digital Health for the Entrepreneur: HCAK 975-5
- New Venture Launch: ENTR 466
- New Venture Development: ENTR 464
Take part in an independent study on a particular topic or area of interest while receiving dedicated support, mentorship and guidance from the HCAK team.
Independent study projects will be listed in the Fall along with applications to participate. Projects will take place in the Winter and Spring quarters.
Work with healthcare organizations to help solve real-world challenges and receive guidance for those looking to start their own venture.
Healthcare certificates
The healthcare industry is a dynamic landscape filled with both challenges and opportunities. Success requires understanding the modern healthcare system and solving difficult managerial and strategic problems while navigating a complex and changing policy environment. To propel the next generation of leaders in this space, Kellogg offers a certificate in healthcare available to our Full-Time, Evening & Weekend, and Executive MBA students.
The certificate will equip you with a foundational knowledge of the entire healthcare ecosystem, while also allowing you to tailor your courses to your career goals.
To earn the Full-Time and Evening & Weekend certificate, you must complete at least four healthcare-specific credits. At least three of these credits must be beyond the minimum degree requirements for a student’s MBA. Our Executive MBA students must complete three qualifying elective credits specific to the certificate above and beyond degree required elective credits.
Speaker series
Perspectives on the Business of Healthcare
Leading C-suite business executives speak about their careers and broad issues of interest in their particular sector of healthcare. Speakers are selected from the highest industry tiers across the healthcare ecosystem, exploring current trends and sharing their strategic foresight of where the industry is going.
Healthcare at Kellogg Executive Chat
This informal executive chat series provides a distinctive space for students to ask candid questions of healthcare executives. The chats are intentionally capped at no more than 15 students during lunch. This format helps build unique opportunities for in-depth conversations with leaders in healthcare.
Faculty Speaker Series
HCAK holds a series of five lunchtime talks on key areas of the healthcare sector. Each faculty speaker presentation is designed to give meaningful insights to all students, regardless of experience in the industry. Past subjects include the U.S. Health Insurance System (Public and Private) by Professor Craig Garthwaite, Health Providers: Market-Level Perspective with Professor David Dranove, and Entrepreneurship in Health Care with Professor Peter McNerney.
As an emergency room doctor, I learned firsthand how creating high-quality healthcare outcomes for individuals and populations demands a deep working knowledge of healthcare system leadership, strategy, administration, financing and innovation. The disparities and innovation of the COVID pandemic again ignited my passion for contributing to healthcare leadership within premier health systems and disruptive industries, prompting me to begin my own Kellogg MBA Healthcare journey.