The Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas has added a Master of Science in Health Care Innovation to help meet the demands of the rapidly growing health care field. Health Care Innovation provides students the skills necessary to be innovators within the constantly evolving health care industry.
“Health care is a growing field, especially in the Twin Cities,” said program director Kate DiAna. “People want to be in health care. Many times, they call us and say they’d like to do the Health Care MBA, but we require experience to go into that degree. The Master of Science in Health Care Innovation allows an entry into the health care field. It gives people something they’ll be able to take into their organization and use right away. It also gives them the opportunity to earn a master’s degree to get to the next level, but within a reasonable amount of time.”
The specialty program focuses on tools needed for high performance in health care. It includes an emphasis on customer experience, innovation and lean execution, giving students a core set of business skills with a strong focus on health care systems and new models of care delivery. It enables mid-level health care managers, often with clinical backgrounds, to lead successful innovation initiatives within the health care industry. The program also enables professionals from outside of the health care industry to refocus their professional skills on the challenges of health care while gaining significant contextual knowledge needed to transition to this new sector.
“The Master of Science in Health Care Innovation is giving people the opportunity to be creative in health care, which has not necessarily been a creative field in the past,” DiAna said. “Health care is changing a lot, and they’re looking for people who can bring in new ideas to all different pieces of the health care system. In some big corporations, we’ve seen this become an important internal piece where they really support innovation – they might have an innovation center or they might teach design thinking. Our program is really about teaching people to think in a different way and to come up with creative solutions.”
The one-year program uses a blended format with students coming to campus one Saturday per month and completing their studies through weekly online modules, making it convenient for them to participate in the program while continuing their full-time professional employment.
To learn more about the Master of Science in Health Care Innovation program, sign up for the Health Care Innovation Case Study on Wednesday, April 18.
