Kellogg curriculum and student experience in healthcare management

Practice business with purpose

Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK) builds upon the rigorous MBA core curriculum to give students an in-depth, cross-disciplinary study of complex problems of an evolving healthcare sector. What sets the program apart is our unique healthcare management MBA pathway. Students follow a curated progression of faculty-recommended courses designed to provide a deeper, more holistic understanding of healthcare as it relates to intersecting industries, such as finance, public policy and economics.

Opportunities available to all Full-Time MBA students are below. Kellogg also offers a joint-degree program for MD students in partnership with the Feinberg School of Medicine. Additional details for the MD-MBA Program are found here.

Kellogg Admissions

Discover more about the Kellogg application process and gain additional insights on the student experience.

Visit Admissions

Healthcare at Kellogg has rightfully become one of the most impactful pathways at Kellogg. Taking classes with leading professors like Craig Garthwaite, David Dranove, and Katie Arnold has allowed me to exponentially increase my healthcare knowledge from an economics, strategy, and product development standpoint, and these are skills and lessons I use daily in career now.

Chuck Feerick `18 / Innovation Director, Anthem, Inc.

1 / Foundation

HCAK foundational courses integrate fundamental managerial disciplines, such as economics and strategy, while taking a deep dive into the industries that make up the healthcare sector.

2 / Depth

Advanced courses apply foundational concepts to specific problems facing managers in the life sciences and payer-provider sectors. These two tracks prepare students for the unique strategic and managerial challenges in these fields.

3 / Experience

As the pathway capstone, students participate in experiential learning courses and opportunities to test and hone learning theories to real-life contexts.

HCAK pathway

Expand All

Collapse All

Use the HCAK Pathway guide to determine which courses are most relevant to your personal and professional goals.

The Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK) pathway prepares students for the unique challenges and opportunities in the healthcare sector. Foundational HCAK offerings integrate fundamental managerial disciplines (e.g., economics, strategy) with deep exposure to the industries comprising the healthcare sector, while advanced courses apply these concepts to the specific problems facing managers in the life sciences and payer/provider sectors. As a capstone to the pathway, HCAK students may test and hone their skills through an experiential or field course.

Faculty sponsors: Craig Garthwaite (Strategy)

Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK)

Pathway

1 | Foundational

Healthcare Strategy
STRT 443

Health Economics
STRT 444

These courses expose students to a set of fundamental issues facing health enterprises in the healthcare sector (both life sciences and payer/provider segments). We recommend students take at least one of these courses. They are designed to have limited overlap and many students choose to take more than one.

2 | Depth

Life Sciences / Products Track

These courses prepare students for the strategic and managerial challenges unique to life sciences companies.

Critical Issues in the Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and Medical Device Industries
HCAK 453

Biomedical Marketing
HCAK 470

Pharmaceutical Strategy
HCAK 931-5

Intellectual Capital Management*
STRT 441
*Recommended that students complete the healthcare option for final project

Payer / Provider Track

These courses address foundational and topical issues in healthcare services.

Leadership in Today's U.S. Health Systems
HCAK 924-5

Strategy and Execution for a Successful Healthcare Delivery System
HCAK 935-5

3 | Experiential / Field

Medical Product Early Stage Commercialization
KIEI 611

Medical Technologies in Developing Countries
KPPI 673-5

Healthcare Strategy Consulting Lab
STRT 947

NUVention Medical Innovation I
HCAK 615

NUVention Medical Innovation II
HCAK 616

Forging and Funding Health Care Startups
HCAK 927

These courses offer an opportunity to apply and hone by "going deep" in a particular field project.

Last edited November 11, 2019. For any questions regarding this page, please email kellogg-registrar@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Expand All

Collapse All

Beyond the Classroom: Clubs & Events

The program for Healthcare at Kellogg goes well beyond the classroom to offer a rich mix of co-curricular, professional, mentorship and academic opportunities. The Healthcare Club delivers a diverse platform of opportunities and activities for Kellogg students to gain awareness, develop relevant skill sets and build successful careers in the healthcare industry.

Open to participants around the world, the Biotech and Healthcare Case competition is one of the oldest and best-known healthcare competitions. This annual event features teams of students who tackle complex healthcare questions beyond a class setting.

Mentorship Program

For more than 30 years, HCAK has hosted the Mentorship Program to provide students with opportunities to gain insights from nationally recognized healthcare executives. HCAK hosts one-on-one sessions as well as small group lunches with visiting executives throughout the winter and spring quarters.

Scholarships

Students interested in the HCAK program are eligible for renewable tuition scholarships. There is no formal process for applying for a scholarship. Students applying to Kellogg should indicate on their application that they are interested in the HCAK program by checking the appropriate box. Scholarships are renewable for the second year of MBA study conditioned on demonstrating ongoing interest in healthcare.

Career Opportunities

Kellogg’s Career Management Center is a recognized industry leader that connects growth-minded Kellogg students with a diverse range of employers across industries, functions and geographies. The CMC provides customized support for students, whether they are going through traditional on-campus recruiting or an off-campus real-time search. Kellogg’s CMC has some of the best results in the industry. In 2017, 94% of students received a job offer by three months post-graduation with a median base salary of $125,000. The list of healthcare-related companies that have made job offers to our students showcases the strong demand for Kellogg talent.

Biotechnology Amgen Biogen Genentech, Inc. Gilead Sciences Regeneron Sanofi Genzyme Consulting Bayer Corp.-Business Consulting BDC Advisors The Boston Consulting Group Chartis Group McKinsey & Company Navigant Consulting, Inc. Sg2 ZS Associates HealthTech Accolade Actualize Therapy Evidation Health iRhythm Mango Health Omada Health Proteus Digital Health Teladoc Tempus Zipongo	Medical Device Abbott Baxter Healthcare BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co) Boston Scientific Danaher Corporation Edwards Lifesciences Intuitive Surgical Medline Industries Medtronic, PLC Nevro Corporation Stryker Varian Medical Systems Pharmaceutical AbbVie AstraZeneca Celgene Eli Lilly and Company GlaxoSmithKline Horizon Pharma Pfizer, Inc Johnson & Johnson Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA	Provider & Services Anthem, Inc. athenahealth, Inc. Blue Cross Blue Shield Cardinal Health Cigna CVS Health DaVita Humana, Inc. Intermountain Health Jacaranda Health Kaiser Permanente Northwestern Memorial Hospital Oak Street Health Procured Health Sutter Health UCLA Health UnitedHealthGroup University of Chicago Medical Center

Speaker Series

Healthcare at Kellogg will hold a series of five lunch-time talks on key areas of the healthcare sector. Each presentation is designed to give meaningful insights to all students, regardless of experience in the industry. Examples of topics covered in the HCAK Speaker Series have included:

October 8, 2020 Healthcare at Kellogg and Broad Overview of the U.S. Health System with Professor Craig Garthwaite
October 15, 2020 U.S. Health Insurance System (Public and Private) with Professor Amanda Starc
October 21 2020 Health Providers: Market-Level Perspective with Professor David Dranove
October 26, 2020 Life Sciences: BioPharma and Medical Devices with Professor Craig Garthwaite
November 3, 2020 Entrepreneurship in Health Care with Professor Peter McNerney