HIM has reason to celebrate, said Dr. Joel Shalowitz ’82, who is a professor of Health Industry Management, director of the HIM program and an internist in private practice.

"Our program model is perhaps 20 years ahead of its time and is used as a model at many other schools,” he said. "It focuses on the business of health care. Health Industry Management is primarily discipline-based, not industry-based, so students learn the skills of general management, then specialize in health care topics.”

Shalowitz said this multidisciplinary approach is one key to the success of the program, which has graduated more than 1,000 students who have entered the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical devices, venture capital and insurance, among other areas.

Whichever field they’ve chosen, they report high job satisfaction, he noted. "They feel their careers are more personally and professionally rewarding than those in other fields. They feel they’re contributing to society and making people’s lives better.”

The November dinner celebration was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and Baxter International. On the following day, the 20th annual Malcolm T. MacEachern Symposium, titled, "Revolutionizing Tomorrow’s Healthcare Delivery,” took place at the Feinberg Pavilion of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.