Academics
The Master of Science in Health and Social Innovation program is offered through a combination of live instruction via interactive video conferencing and individually paced modules. The courses will enable students to explore and apply principles of innovation, entrepreneurship and design thinking to solve complex health and social challenges.
The M.S. in Health and Social Innovation is a 36-credit graduate degree program that can be completed in two years. As a student in this program, you will explore principles of innovation, entrepreneurship, and design-thinking to solve complex health and social challenges. Students will take 18 core credits and 12 concentration credits.
Apply now for the fall of 2019! GRE is not required for this program.
Students will select a concentration in either Scientific and Medical Entrepreneurship, Health Science, Global Health Innovation, or User Experience (UX).
Upon completion, students will be able to:
- Use the principles of human-centered design to identify societal, community, and individual needs.
- Demonstrate skills required by successful entrepreneurs, including team building and leadership, negotiation, working in complex social and cultural environments, and applying theoretical frameworks for enhancing entrepreneurial success.
- Apply concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship in new ventures and existing ventures.
- Identify and apply tools, methods, and self-reflection techniques necessary to evaluate the market viability of new ideas.
- Identify various social, health, and biomedical enterprise strategies and critically assess their effectiveness in economic development and social transformation.
- Demonstrate the ability to develop and execute a work plan leading to a social, health, or biomedical innovation.
- Build strong professional relationships with and draw upon the resources of faculty, community practitioners and entrepreneurs, student colleagues, and external advisors.
- Test assumptions about health, social, and/or biomedical innovation design through rapid prototyping.
- Apply user research methods to iteratively refine concepts and prototypes.
- Explain basic principles of accounting, financing models, equity financing, investing and different types of funding including crowdfunding, angel investors, grants, and venture capital.
- Develop a sustainable business and financing model to advance a health or social innovation concept, emphasizing principles of growth strategies and scaling.
- Conduct a market analysis and apply the marketing mix as it relates to health and social enterprises.
- Develop a marketing plan for a social, health, or biomedical venture.
- Understand the basic patent and regulatory framework governing commercialization of drugs, devices, and services.
M.S. Health and Social Innovation students will leave the program prepared to impact the world around them.
By the end of this program, students will be able to launch their own start-ups, examine and impact innovation within existing organizations, and understand how change can be realized by examining policy and regulations. There are three concentrations: Health Science, User Experience (UX), and Biomedical Entrepreneurship. Through these concentrations, students will be equipped to tackle different health and social challenges of their choosing with a core curriculum steeped in methods of design thinking, principles of business, and market research.
