Everyone benefits from better health, yet almost no country in the world can sustainably afford its healthcare system. While technology has the potential to dramatically improve patient outcomes, translating innovation into real-world impact remains difficult: developing novel drugs, diagnostics, and care models often requires billions of dollars, and most technological advances never become scaled products. The purpose of this course is to examine real-world, industry-based opportunities to improve healthcare and biotechnology products. The course provides an introductory framework for understanding how technologies - across biotechnology, digital health, and healthcare delivery - become viable products and businesses. Topics include defining product requirements, healthcare macroeconomics, reimbursement and policy, financing and capital formation, market dynamics, and structuring R&D programs that maximize the probability of real-world adoption. The course begins with the patient and works backward to understand how healthcare systems can better align the needs of all stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, providers, payers, regulators, investors, and researchers. Each technology area is explored through case-based seminars featuring relevant companies, with a focus on business models, adoption barriers, and real deployment lessons. What differentiates this course from traditional health policy or health data offerings is its industry-centric and early-venture perspective. Invited seminar speakers from industry will share how their teams apply data and AI/ML to longstanding challenges in care delivery, drug development, diagnostics, and system-level efficiency. The course emphasis is on AI-in-action and practical guidance on crafting R&D and product strategies that increase the likelihood of translating technology into scalable, real-world impact.
2 units · Medical Satisfactory/No Credit
Everyone benefits from better health, yet almost no country in the world can sustainably afford its healthcare system. While technology has the potential to dramatically improve patient outcomes, translating innovation into real-world impact remains difficult: developing novel drugs, diagnostics, and care models often requires billions of dollars, and most technological advances never become scaled products. The purpose of this course is to examine real-world, industry-based opportunities to improve healthcare and biotechnology products. The course provides an introductory framework for understanding how technologies - across biotechnology, digital health, and healthcare delivery - become viable products and businesses. Topics include defining product requirements, healthcare macroeconomics, reimbursement and policy, financing and capital formation, market dynamics, and structuring R&D programs that maximize the probability of real-world adoption. The course begins with the patient and works backward to understand how healthcare systems can better align the needs of all stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, providers, payers, regulators, investors, and researchers. Each technology area is explored through case-based seminars featuring relevant companies, with a focus on business models, adoption barriers, and real deployment lessons. What differentiates this course from traditional health policy or health data offerings is its industry-centric and early-venture perspective. Invited seminar speakers from industry will share how their teams apply data and AI/ML to longstanding challenges in care delivery, drug development, diagnostics, and system-level efficiency. The course emphasis is on AI-in-action and practical guidance on crafting R&D and product strategies that increase the likelihood of translating technology into scalable, real-world impact.
Offered in Spring 2027 at Stanford University.