MDCRC 6180 - Global Health Innovation: Systems and Processes

The gap between the health and well-being of underserved populations, both within and between country borders, continues to widen, and the need for strong leadership in healthcare innovation to address this gap has never been greater. This course utilizes an interdisciplinary perspective to analyze how healthcare systems operate, with specific focus on areas within the complex infrastructure that are prone to breakdown. Together, we will examine the role of innovation in addressing these issues through understanding the methods for identifying gaps and improvement opportunities within healthcare processes. Priorities in global health policy and healthcare economics in low-resource countries will be reviewed, with a focus on their relationships to healthcare innovation and successful program implementation. This course provides an introduction to global health systems and innovation project concepts and includes topics such as quality improvement (QI), root cause analysis, qualitative methods in QI, engineering concepts for low-resource health innovations, regulatory affairs (U.S. FDA and global), global health systems, venture/entrepreneurial financing, international healthcare finance, philanthropic and research grants in global settings, and global innovation partnerships. Multidisciplinary guest presenters and content experts from across the University campus and from partner institutions locally and internationally will provide opportunities for students to engage with expert advisors.