Digital Health
The future of health care is digital
Digital technologies and big data offer tremendous opportunities to improve health care. Taught by Harvard Medical School faculty, this Harvard Online course explores the opportunities and difficulties facing widespread adoption in the US and explores innovative frameworks to think strategically about adopting and implementing digital transformation in your organization.
3–4 hours per week
3–4 hours per week
What You'll Learn
Millions of health-related data points are captured every day, from individual-level information collected by our personal devices and tests at the doctor's office to population-level data about disease prevalence and treatment outcomes. Digital technologies have transformed how we buy and listen to music and how we plan our travel. Can health care be next?
Throughout this online course, you’ll take part in a fictional hackathon, working alongside other learners to determine which digital tools to invest in. With the help of real-world case studies and protagonists, you will become the judge and evaluate how well the hackathon competitors fit the needs of patients, physicians, payers, and, ultimately, future health care ecosystems. In doing so, you’ll consider the impact digital tools have on patients, providers, and payers to understand how data tracking and digital technologies can improve patient care, enhance communications between doctors and patients, increase employee benefits and happiness, and share data to track health trends and develop solutions.
The Harvard Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Harvard Medical School designates this enduring material for a maximum of 14.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Upon successful completion of the course, participants will have access to claim their credits through the Harvard Medical School’s continuing education platform.
The course will be delivered via HBS Online’s course platform and immerse learners in real-world examples from experts at industry-leading organizations. By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Understand how digital technologies can address critical pain points in health care
- Learn how to think about applications of collecting and using data to inform health care, and the privacy risks and analytical pitfalls unique to health care data
- Explore the opportunities and difficulties of enabling digital approaches, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, apps, and sensors
- Navigate the systemic barriers and often conflicting needs of health care stakeholders in bringing digital technologies to market
- Become adept at analyzing gaps in health care that can be closed with technology and data
Your Instructor
Stanley Y. Shaw, MD, PhD is the Associate Dean for Executive Education at Harvard Medical School. In this role, he directs Harvard Medical School's programs for companies and individuals in the health care industry that provide insights into leadership behaviors and emerging technologies. These programs educate learners across diverse sectors of health care, such as tech, IT, biopharma, investing, and care delivery organizations. A practicing cardiologist, Dr. Shaw’s research studies how digital tools, bioinformatics, the gut microbiome, and patient-reported data can be leveraged to better assess health and disease.
Real World Case Studies
Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.
Katherine Chou
Marcus Osborne
Learn from the Senior Vice President of Walmart Health on using digital technologies to make health care more affordable and accessible.
Christine Lemke
Discover how to build a digital health company, like Evidation Health, focusing on providing value for the patients, providers, and investors.
Sean Duffy
Hear from the CEO of Omada Health on designing user-friendly digital tools for optimizing patient success.
Who Will Benefit
Rising Leaders
Rising health care leaders across the industry who are managing, investing in, or developing solutions for digital transformation.
Healthcare Investors and Consultants
Investors, bankers, and consultants interested in investing or working with innovative health care technologies.
Tech Entrepreneurs
Developers and entrepreneurs wanting to create tools and technologies to improve health and health care.
