What does a future with high-quality, affordable healthcare for all look like and how do we get there? This is the contemporary healthcare question Boston College MHA students answered at this year’s 3-day immersion event.

Held July 20-22 on the picturesque Chestnut Hill campus, BC’s innovation weekend was an opportunity for students enrolled in the online MHA program to assemble in-person, connect with peers, get to know faculty, network with healthcare leaders, and use creative problem solving to tackle important modern healthcare obstacles.

Tomorrow’s Leaders Connect with Today’s Experts

Dr. Douglas Rosendale - Boston College Innovation Weekend

Dr. Douglas Rosendale moderated a panel discussion to kick off Innovation Immersion Weekend. Photo: Justin Knight

The long weekend represents the on-campus element of BC’s online immersion short course taught by Dr. Douglas Rosendale. As part of the BC Woods College of Advancing Studies connection experience, 24 Master of Healthcare Administration students had the opportunity to listen to and participate in panel discussions guided by industry leaders from prominent hospitals, healthcare organizations, research centers, insurance companies, and private healthcare practices.

The in-person immersion event also provided online students with multiple opportunities to network and form professional relationships with today’s healthcare thought leaders, research scientists, healthcare presidents, CEO’s, executive directors, and SVPs that are local to the Boston area.

Diverse MHA Program Students Working Together

 BC’s Innovation weekend facilitates collaboration between peers. These students work side by side in the healthcare industry but are often not operating together to accomplish larger healthcare objectives.  The participants are nurses, physicians, clinicians, and administrators who come from healthcare facilities, insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare start-ups and more.

This provides an opportunity for professionals from diverse backgrounds to augment each other’s experience and knowledge to possess a more rounded view of healthcare today and how they can help produce the solutions needed to create a better healthcare system in the future.

Becoming the Change: Envisioning the Future of Healthcare as Affordable and Available

As a unique MHA program element, Innovation Weekend gives students the opportunity to use their experience and knowledge to work together with others, diving deep into a complex health-focused problem and surfacing with a plan for a better future.

Many MHA students hail from one of 17 Boston-area healthcare institutions that have partnered with the BC program. Photo: Justin Knight

In 2018, students explored the question, “Envision a future with high-quality, affordable healthcare. How do we get there and how will we deliver this to all patients?” Students worked together to innovate, think creatively, and challenge the status quo. They came up with defensible solutions to present to a panel of judges comprised of local healthcare leaders. Through these exercises, participants of the MHA program immersion weekend trained to be the risk-taking pioneers of healthcare’s future.

Healthcare professionals who would like to take part in this exclusive immersive experience should learn more about the BC Online Master of Healthcare Administration Program and how it can help enhance your career and transform your professional life into one that fits with your values and goals.