Kaveh Safavi
Kaveh Safavi, M.D., J.D., is a senior managing director at Accenture where he is responsible for leading, developing and driving a growth strategy that differentiates Accenture’s offerings for providers, health insurers, and public and private health systems across the globe.
A seasoned executive, Dr. Safavi brings more than three decades of leadership experience to Accenture Health. Prior to joining Accenture in 2011, Dr. Safavi led Cisco’s global healthcare practice. Before that he was chief medical officer of Thompson Reuters’ health businesses, vice president of medical affairs at United Healthcare, and had leadership roles at HealthSpring and Humana. Among his many accomplishments was establishing one of the Midwest’s first electronic-health-record-enabled primary care practices.
Dr. Safavi has published numerous papers and is often quoted on healthcare issues in various media publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, The New York Times, Consumer Reports, US News and World Report, Harvard Business Review and The Economist. Recently, IT Services Report named him the #1 healthcare IT executive for 2020.
Dr. Safavi earned an M.D. from Loyola University School of Medicine and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. He is board-certified in internal medicine and pediatrics and completed his medical residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He serves on the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences’ Board of Visitors–Northwestern University, is a frequent guest scholar at the Stanford University Clinical Excellence Research Center and serves on the advisory committee of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
Health Systems Management: A Practicum with Northwestern Medicine (HCAK-957-5)
This practicum-based class will be a partnership between Northwestern Medicine (NM) and Kellogg. This partnership is designed to educate students about the challenges of leading a large health system and its role in an ever-evolving healthcare ecosystem. In small teams, Kellogg students will work on NM key strategic initiatives in conjunction with NM administrative staff and leadership over the course of the Fall and Winter Quarters. This class is similar to a lab-class where most of the work in the class will be on your projects with some class time for didactic lectures and guest speakers.
Class topics and speakers are designed to give students a view into running a large healthcare system. Potential class topics include Healthcare Financing, Healthcare Strategy, Healthcare Operations, Healthcare Innovation, and broad trends facing the healthcare ecosystem (such as alternative payment models, health equity, workforce recruitment and retention, consolidation).
The class will be a total of 1 credit, taken over 2 quarters. You will enroll in 0.5 credits in the Fall over 10 weeks and 0.5 credits in the Winter Quarter over 10 weeks.
Who should take the course? We hope that students interested in healthcare systems and the broader healthcare ecosystem enroll in this class, recognizing the outsized role that healthcare systems play. As the healthcare system evolves, a wide view of the value chain is critical to understanding how healthcare fits together as a cohesive business. This class aims to provide a unique opportunity to understand healthcare systems and the market no matter your future role in the ecosystem.
This class will be application based and open to 1Y, MD/MBAs, JD/MBAs, and 2nd year 2Y students. E&W students who are interested can reach out Professor Paul Campbell and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
While there are no formal perquisites for the class, it is recommended that you have background in healthcare and understanding of the healthcare ecosystem and/or have taken Healthcare Economics STRT-444-0 or Healthcare Strategy STRT-443-0.
