The College's master's in health care delivery science program has exceeded the expectations of both students and faculty since it welcomed its first class of students last summer, according to Katy Milligan '90 Tu '07, the program's director. Admissions decisions for the first round of this year's applicants were delivered in December, and the second round of applications were due Jan. 30.
The program is run by a partnership between Tuck School of Business and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Milligan said. It is unique among peer institutions in that it brings together two very different sectors of campus in equal collaboration, as opposed to programs that may offer a master's in business administration with a concentration in public health, or vice versa, according to Milligan.
The collaboration results in a program that is "highly relevant and important," Admissions Director George Newcomb Tu '02 said.
The program aims to give professionals the tools and resources to actively transform health care delivery, maximizing quality and minimizing cost, according to the program's website. Because the program delivers the curriculum online and via short residential periods at the College, the inaugural class brought together 47 high-level professionals from all sectors of the health care industry, with an average of 23 years of work experience, according to Newcomb. Participants were able to keep their regular jobs while working toward a new degree.
"The students are fabulous," Ellen Meara, a TDI and public policy professor, said. "They have really interesting and highly varied experiences, and they're facing a set of challenges that are similar in many ways but unique to their local places."
Students have been equally enthusiastic about the way the program brings together diverse perspectives.
"Frankly, I think our health care system and institutions are not ideally set up for dealing with that because were all siloed into different areas," Brian Spence GR '13, a student in the program and an anesthesiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said. "We don't really communicate effectively amongst each other, and for meaningful change to be enacted to our health system, that needs to happen. This program really strives to build bridges so that people talk and understand each other."
During the course of the 18-month program, students work in small teams on Action Learning Projects, for which they implement the tools they have acquired in courses, according to Newcomb.
"They're wrestling with problems that the rest of the country hasn't even gotten to yet," Milligan said.
By learning new strategies for health care delivery and seeing how they can be implemented, executives throughout the industry have found that much of the negative attention directed toward new health care legislation is misguided, students said.
"A lot of people feel down with new legislation, but seeing this information and learning these new tools makes you feel that change is possible," Robin Kilfeather-Mackey GR '13, chief financial officer at DHMC and a student in the master's program, said.
Newcomb expressed his excitement over the students' insights in the health care system.
"It's really exciting to work with them because they really are working to change the health care system while they're in the program, and they're seeing results," Newcomb said.
In keeping with the program's goals, Newcomb said administrators strive to continue attracting students who can recognize problems in health care that need to be addressed and who are in a position to enact these changes.
"You're creating a cohort of people who are really capable of changing how health care is delivered in the environments that they're in," Newcomb said. "That's who we're looking for in the applicant pool people who not only have the desire and philosophical leanings to create change for better value in health care, but who have had the career experience and perspective to drive that change, and who have the level of authority to really enact these changes."
Over the past year, the popularity and interest in the program have increased among applicants, suggesting that the program has "hit a nerve," Eric Wadsworth, assistant professor at TDI and co-faculty director of the master's program, said.
"Making the case for this program and explaining what we're doing whether we're taking to physicians, leaders, community leaders, health care practitioners or payers has been the easiest sell of anything I've ever done," Wadsworth said.
The reputation of the program has been positively influenced by descriptions in national media like Forbes and The Financial Times, Newcomb said.
As a result, the program's admissions officers have continued to see high-level applicants, such as managers of Fortune 500 companies, according to Newcomb. Applicants come both as individuals and as teams sent from organizations.
The program has also attracted international attention, eliciting applications from students in France, China and India this year, according to Newcomb.
The final decisions for this year's class will be sent in April.
