MS in Healthcare Decision Analysis
USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Key Information
Campus location
Los Angeles, USA
Languages
English
Study format
Blended, Distance Learning
Duration
2 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
USD 70,521 **
Application deadline
Request info *
Earliest start date
Request info
* Domestic Students: July 1; International Students: June 1
** Total Cost by Program Estimated. Academic Year 2022-23: $2,137 per unit
Introduction
Master the Business of Healthcare
USC Healthcare Decision Analysis is a specialized graduate program that directly prepares you for business careers in healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, consulting, health insurance, and medical technology.
Our real-world STEM training provides strategic management tools and actionable insights for improving healthcare value, access, reimbursement, and health outcomes.
All program courses emphasize project-based learning allowing active exploration of real-world healthcare business challenges.
Lectures from leading industry executives offered across all program courses provide unique access to critical insights from experts in their respective fields.
High Demand, Real Impact
A partnership between USC Mann and the Price School of Public Policy, the Schaeffer Center brings together health policy experts, seasoned pharmacoeconomics specialists, and faculty across USC and other leading institutions to solve pressing challenges in healthcare.
Program Benefits
- Acquire a portfolio of analytics capabilities to optimize healthcare business decisions.
- Apply strategic management tools to make an immediate impact in any healthcare business.
- Gain policy insights to lead organizations through the changing health reform landscape.
- Learning by doing through team collaborations and scenario-based learning problem-solving representing current real-world situations and critical decision pathways.
- Lectures from industry executives are offered across healthcare decision analysis courses, offering unique access to insights and critical skills from experts in the respective fields.
- Professional development through dedicated support from program staff and networking opportunities.
Admissions
Curriculum
The USC Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis is a specialized graduate program that directly prepares graduates for business careers in the healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, consulting, health insurance, and medical technology industries. Our real-world STEM training provides strategic management tools and actionable insights for improving healthcare value, access, reimbursement, and pricing. Students learn to build, evaluate and apply quantitative models and analysis to optimize business decisions and outcomes in the biopharmaceuticals, medical technology, health insurance, and consulting industries.
Program Hybrid Course Format
Courses are offered in a hybrid format which combines in-classroom instruction on the beautiful USC campus on weekends and online webinars on select weeknights. The hybrid format allows full-time students, dual-degree students, and working professionals to maximize their learning experience while having access to best-in-class campus facilities, innovative instructional technologies, and learning and networking opportunities with healthcare industry executives and mentors.
Requirements for Degree Completion
The Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis degree requires the completion of 33 units with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.
Core Courses (Select Up to 33 Units)
- HCDA 502 Comparative International Healthcare Systems (3 units)
- HCDA 503 Competitive Healthcare Intelligence (3 units)
- HCDA 506 Foundations of Insurance and Global Access (3 units)
- HCDA 507 Foundations of Product Development and Commercialization (3 units)
- HCDA 510 Business Implications of Healthcare Policy (3 units)
- HCDA 515 Healthcare Decision Analysis and Modeling (3 units)
- HCDA 520 Health Economics and Outcomes Methodology (3 units)
- HCDA 525 Healthcare Literature Analysis and Applications (3 units)
- HCDA 540 Executive Leadership and Healthcare Marketing (3 units)
- HCDA 550 Healthcare Innovation: Creativity to Value (3 units)
- HCDA 553 Advanced Pricing Strategies (3 units)
- HCDA 560 Managing Effective Partnerships and Mergers (3 units)
- HCDA 580 Seminars in Healthcare Decision Analysis (1-3 units)
- HCDA 589 Healthcare Consulting Enterprise Team Project (3 units)
- HCDA 590 Directed Research (1-3 units)
- HCDA 599 Special Topics: Introduction to Healthcare Data Analytics (3 units)
Elective Courses (Select Up to 9 Units)
- BPMK 500 Biopharmaceutical Marketing Management (3 units)
- BPMK 503 Biopharmaceutical Advertising and Communication (3 units)
- BPMK 504 Market Access and Reimbursement Strategy (3 units)
- BPMK 506 Biopharmaceutical Product Pricing & Competition (3 units)
- BPMK 508 Biopharmaceutical Marketing Research and Analytics (3 units)
The Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis program features a distance learning option for active working professionals who cannot regularly travel to a traditional classroom.
Distance Learning Option
The distance learning option provides the flexibility to pursue graduate education while maintaining the comprehensive curriculum, academic rigor, and team collaboration emphasis at a top university program.
- Access to expert faculty and executive guest lecturers
- Collaborative virtual activities and team assignments
- Engaging in lectures and class breakout discussions
- On-campus residency to engage with peers, faculty, executive network, and alumni
- Powerful virtual learning tools
Enterprise Team Projects
In the complex, dynamic world of healthcare, commercial teams are challenged to perform multiple feats: launch new products, gain formulary status, increase margins, expand market share, and outwit competitors — usually against impossibly tight deadlines.
Now, a commercial organization with more projects than people to manage them can speed up results and shorten their list by outsourcing a project to a team of graduate students from the USC Healthcare Decision Analysis & Biopharmaceutical Marketing programs.
The USC Enterprise Team Projects team consists of 5-7 graduate students who contribute approximately 1,200 hours to the effort over four months.
Projects can be structured around problems or opportunities including new product commercialization, value and access, pricing and reimbursement, competitive intelligence, product marketing, brand strategy, pipeline and business development, and other key business areas.
Program Outcome
Program Learning Objectives
The purpose of the USC Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis program is to prepare graduates for business careers in healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, medical technology, and health insurance industries. Below is a list of learning objectives:
- Integrate strategic leadership and business management skills to advance the performance of healthcare enterprises.
- Apply healthcare subject matter expertise to navigate and solve dynamic industry challenges.
- Build, evaluate, and apply quantitative models and analysis to optimize healthcare business decisions and outcomes.
- Contribute functional expertise to interdisciplinary teams creating solutions to complex problems.
- Maintain high professional and ethical standards in the advancement and innovation of healthcare for all stakeholders.
Scholarships and Funding
Faculty Merit Scholarship
The division awards the Faculty Merit Award to individuals who have been admitted to either the 33-unit Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis or the 27-unit Master in Biopharmaceutical Marketing program based upon academic merit and personal qualities as detailed in their application. The recipient is selected by a committee of reviewers comprised of faculty and staff.
Eligibility: All applicants who have applied to either the 33-unit Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis or the 27-unit Master in Biopharmaceutical Marketing for the Fall semester will be taken into consideration.
Gallery
Career Opportunities
USC Master of Science in Healthcare Decision Analysis is a specialized graduate program that directly prepares you for business careers in healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, consulting, health insurance, and medical technology.