Unique Components

The Department of Health Policy and Management (HPM) has created a number of special programs and activities, both curricular and cocurricular, that enhance the basic academic components of the MHA and MPH degrees.

The Thomas P. Ference Health System Simulation

The Health System Simulation was designed by a team of HPM faculty members, alumni in senior hospital executive positions, and simulation experts to provide students with an opportunity to experience the challenges of executive leadership and strategic decision-making in a realistic exercise. The Health System Simulation effectively emulates the full breadth and complexity of a competitive multi-hospital marketplace.

The Consulting Practice

The Consulting Practice provides second-year HPM and HPM certificate students with a professional consulting experience working directly with senior client representatives on a current strategic, policy, marketing, or operational challenge. Student consulting teams work under the guidance of a senior faculty member with extensive consulting experience who serves as the engagement partner. Client organizations have included hospitals, clinics, health plans, community service organizations, and public health organizations.

Case Challenge

The Case Challenge is a co-curricular event presented twice annually by HPM and open to all Columbia graduate schools, including the Mailman School, P&S, Business, and SIPA. Students form single-school or interdisciplinary teams to present their analyses and recommendations on a complex healthcare case to a panel of judges. Cases are created by EMHM students as their final assignment in Strategic Management, and a new case is selected for each challenge. Judges include senior executives, experienced consultants, and HPM faculty. Past cases have included public health initiatives, hospital systems, medical devices, pharmaceutical distribution systems, and insurance firms. 

Master Classes

Master Classes are executive seminars in selective subject areas in health policy and management that are not a core part of the Executive Masters of Healthcare Management curriculum. They are designed to provide an integrative experience building on completed coursework. Master classes offer an intensive learning environment for students to utilize knowledge and apply frameworks from a range of public health management and policy courses. Topics vary from year to year and have included: Global Health Policy, Private Health Insurance and Public Policy, the Pharmaceutical Industry: Politics, Economics, and Policy, Wall Street and Healthcare: The Intersection of Cash and Care, Evolution of Healthcare Financing, and the Vertical Integration of Finance and Delivery.