As academic health centers experience unprecedented disruption and change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, chairs are being asked to become more extensively involved in institutional decision making with regard to programs, staffing, operating and capital budgets, and other issues. These responsibilities are in addition to their traditional concerns within their own departments. At the same time, chairs have to consider to a greater degree the relationship between institutional priorities, departmental decisions, and collaboration with other services. These new tasks call for new leadership and managerial skills.

The Program for Chairs of Clinical Services (PCCS) brings together chairs of major clinical departments in teaching hospitals and health systems and an experienced interdisciplinary faculty for two weeks of intensive and systematic study of some of the critical leadership and management issues facing chairs, their departments, and teaching hospitals.

Curriculum

The curriculum of the program is organized around the following interrelated courses taught by a faculty experienced in executive education for physicians and other key decision-makers in the health system:

• Competitive Strategy
• Health Policy
• Financial Analysis and Control
• Innovative Problem Solving
• Operations Management
• Organizational Issues
• Leadership Challenges

A carefully integrated curriculum permits participants to examine fundamental managerial issues from the perspective of several disciplines. A new program initiative or downsizing proposal, for example, may raise managerial problems concerning departmental and institutional strategy; the application and utility of systems analysis and quantitative analytical methods; basic economic trends and legal constraints; financial analysis and control; and organizational behavior, design, and development.

The overriding purpose for learning concepts, techniques, and skills in any of the management disciplines in this program is to understand their managerial use and limitations. For example, the course in financial analysis and control does not aim to develop expert accountants or to provide accounting skills, per se. The purpose in learning to analyze the cost and financial implications of program decisions, for instance, is: (a) to better understand the fundamental methodological issues involved, the driving factors behind any particular analysis, the limits of such analysis, and the need to blend this with clinical, strategic, and other non-financial judgements; and (b) to improve the ability of a participant both to manage staff and to interact more effectively with the fiscal affairs personnel in their hospital, health system, or medical school.

Teaching Method

The principal method of instruction in the program is the case method, a technique pioneered and refined at Harvard Business School. Most of the cases present actual problem situations familiar to chairs of clinical departments. Special case materials based on field studies of specific issues faced by service chairs have been and continue to be prepared by the faculty.

The case method confronts the participant with an actual management problem, halted at a point where decisions must be made, and forces the participant to choose a course of action. Participants go through a three-step study process. First, participants study each case independently. Participants then meet in small discussion groups to test their individual analyses against those of their peers. Finally, the entire class discusses the case, with the professor as catalyst and guide. The professor points out considerations the class has overlooked; elicits from participants the lessons of experience; pursues each line of investigation to its conclusion; and finally, summarizes the discussion and draws out the major lessons it has taught.

Assigned readings and guest lecturers supplement and augment the use of cases. In addition, an important part of the learning process occurs during the informal exchange of insights and experience among participants and faculty.

Program organization

Classes and discussion groups are scheduled six days a week. Preparation for classes averages six hours a day. Registration is scheduled for 3:00 – 4:00 pm on the first day of the program. The following Sunday is free except for cases to be prepared for Monday’s classes. Participants are required to free themselves of professional and family responsibilities for the period of the program so that full attention can be devoted to the educational experience.

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This could lead to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing empowering patients, transforming the practice of medicine, and saving the health care industry over $150 billion by 2025.1

This growing role of AI in health care organizations can harness data already being collected to inform and improve clinicians’ decisions and service to patients. Hospital and system leaders can make informed systems decisions to improve process and performance Unfortunately, many leaders responsible for making these decisions don’t know where to begin in applying AI for the best outcomes. This is where AI for Health Care: Concepts and Applications comes in.

For health care professionals, this program will help you think like a data scientist. It takes a “zero-to-AI” approach, using Harvard faculty to introduce AI beginners to key foundational concepts. This course outlines health care-specific subtleties that arise and places AI in the larger health care systems context. Find out how AI can change the relationship between doctor and patient and learn key principles for implementing ethical AI for progress with AI for Health Care: Concepts and Applications.

Course faculty will use group discussions, active learning strategies, case studies, and master classes to explore such topics as AI creation, potential implementation challenges, business models for AI in health care, and the future of the field over the next 5 years. Additionally this course is designed to encourage networking among participants, fostering a long-term support system you can lean on after the program concludes.

Solving Health Care Challenges with AI

There are many ways AI is helping overcome long-standing health care challenges:

• Diagnosis: AI is able to process complex images, like CT scans, along with health records to make an accurate diagnosis in near real-time. A 2019 study found that AI correctly diagnosed diseases 87% of the time when reviewing medical imaging, compared to 86% by health care professionals.3 By combining the AI skill set with that of clinicians, the rate of misdiagnoses goes down, also helping reduce physician overload and in turn improving productivity.
• Precision Medicine: AI has played a substantial role in the emerging field of precision medicine, which defies the one-size-fits-all approach to health care. Precision medicine is heavily based in data, taking into consideration a patient’s behaviors, environment, genome, and medical history to develop a more personalized treatment plan. AI helps manage the massive data sets used to inform this approach, allowing clinicians to better understand the patient, provide more specialized care, and more efficiently target resources. This has ultimately been proven to better treat disease and improve patient care.
• Prediction Models: By using prediction models, clinicians can identify how a patient compares to others with a similar diagnosis, helping calculate potential outcomes. For example, it can help when determining if a patient is at higher risk of death, may need extra support to prevent complications, or can be released from the hospital shortly.

However, evidence also shows AI is also involved with important risks such as algorithmic bias. As individuals who develop AI carry implicit bias and health care systems exist in societies with prejudice, these biases end up being reflected in algorithms. It is crucial to think proactively about bias when developing and implementing AI by taking strategic actions to minimize the risk of algorithmic bias to ensure AI is helping – not further harming – the communities it serves.

1 Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Takes Precision Medicine to the Next Level, Frost & Sullivan

2  From $600 M to $6 Billion, Artificial Intelligence Systems Poised for Dramatic Market Expansion in Healthcare, Frost & Sullivan

3 A comparison of deep learning performance against health-care professionals in detecting diseases from medical imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis, The Lancet Digital Health

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Participating in Guidelines for Laboratory Design: Health and Safety Considerations will help you address this issue by providing you with an understanding of how lab design options impact the health and safety of laboratory users and the environment. With this knowledge, you will be able to incorporate the needs of all stakeholders and ensure your labs are safe, free of health hazards, and promote a healthier environment.

Participants in this program will explore and address health and safety considerations for diverse laboratory types and gain the skills they need to create a safe laboratory environment. This program covers general laboratory design challenges, as well as issues specific to chemistry, microelectronics clean room, engineering, animal, biosafety, clinical, and sustainable laboratories. Participants also address issues with new laboratory construction, renovation, and decommissioning. Implications of COVID-19 on laboratory design will also be discussed.

This course provides a unique opportunity for architects, EHS professionals, engineers, lab users, and lab managers to collaborate on laboratory design.

Guided Laboratory Tours

The online version of this program will feature three laboratories. You will participate in a virtual tour of Harvard’s newly completed Science and Engineering Complex and hear directly from the building’s designers and EHS professionals. You will also learn about Boston Children’s Hospital’s Clinical Laboratory and the MIT.nano building.

The on campus version of this program features guided tours of chemistry, clean room, nanotechnology, clinical, biosafety, and animal research laboratories at leading academic and medical institutions in the Boston area. These tours help reinforce concepts taught during the course and ensure you leave able to apply what you learned to your organization’s facilities and projects.

Previous guided tours have included:

• Open labs at the MIT Koch Institute
• Animal labs at the MIT Koch Institute
• Clean rooms at Harvard University
• Chemistry research laboratory renovations at Harvard University
• Clinical laboratories at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

The Importance of Health and Safety in Lab Design

For most architects, engineers, and constructors, building codes are the only significant guide on matters of health and safety. Few have any background for intentionally designing for health and safety in laboratories and other technical facilities.

When practitioners move beyond basic building codes to frameworks such as Sustainable Design, health and safety may be compromised further as another design consideration takes priority. By designing to code and not directly addressing the specific health and safety issues present in laboratories, architects, engineers, and constructors open themselves to potential professional, reputation, and legal liabilities.

This program will provide you with the requisite knowledge to thoroughly and proactively design for health and safety.

The post Online: Guidelines for Laboratory Design: Health and Safety Considerations appeared first on MassBio.

A great course for people new to the field of clinical research. Gain a thorough understanding of the drug development process, clinical research conduct, compliance, regulation, data, budgets, and key roles in the industry.

Each session is taught by an instructor currently working in that topic area. 
They work at organizations including:
Boston Children’s Hospital • Centrexion Therapeutics • Deciphera Pharmaceuticals • EMD Serono, Inc. • EndPointe Clinical Resources, Inc • Epizyme • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health • ImmunoGen, Inc., • Johnson & Johnson (Janssen Oncology) • Medidata • Merck • Propel Careers • QurAlis • Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co.

This course meets for 10, three hour sessions:
Session 1: Overview of the Clinical Research Process
Session 2: Clinical Research Personnel, Service Providers, and the Site Selection Process
Session 3: Human Subject Protections and Regulatory Oversight
Session 4: Clinical Trial Conduct, Monitoring and Record Keeping
Session 5: Components of Ethical Evaluation of Human Research and Privacy Considerations
Session 6: Recruitment and Retention, Drug Compliance and Accountability, and Study Close-Out Procedures
Session 7: Pharmacovigilance in Drug/Device Development
Session 8: Audits & Inspections: Ensuring Clinical Research Quality
Session 9: The Role of Data Management in Clinical Research
Session 10: Study Budgets and Contracts: Evaluation and Negotiation

Feedback from recent students

“I just want to thank you again for providing this amazing content! Every teacher was outstanding. I feel so lucky I was able to do this from the West Coast, thanks to the video platform.”

 
“This program was very informative and I believe it is definitely most effective when taking all 3 parts.  Each section built up on the section before it and it all came together with the last section delivered by Judson and Lauren.  The third section really pulled it all together for me and was definitely when I had my “ah ha moment”.  Until then I was still quite concerned that I was struggling to narrow down what area I would like to pursue and if I was going to be able to find an area that would be a good fit without having a college degree.”

The post Clinical Research Certificate Course – Clinical Research: Principles, Protocols and Procedures appeared first on MassBio.

• Member Rate: $850
• Non Member Rate: $1,025

Description

The post Transitioning to Leader – February 2024 appeared first on MassBio.

This online program is designed to build on your leadership and management skills. This course will empower you with cutting-edge skills and confidence to tackle the challenging situations you face as a leader. These techniques can be used by any stakeholders; be you a physician leader, practicing physician, residency director, or nurse manager.

Harvard faculty will enhance your ability to think and act strategically, adopt innovative approaches, and face the most complex situations and conversations with greater confidence. By the end of the program, you will have built the confidence and developed the skills necessary to be more effective at managing conflict, having difficult conversations, and negotiating with others.

In this online program, you will increase your confidence in the critical management areas of:

• Navigating conflict
• Providing feedback
• Skillfully approaching negotiations

Harvard faculty will use a combination of learning approaches such as teaching mini case studies, interactive classroom discussions, and helping you apply newly learned skills to real work situations.

By the end of the program, you will have built the confidence and developed the skills necessary to be more effective at managing conflict, having difficult conversations, and negotiating with others.

The post Online: Conflict, Feedback, and Negotiation in Health Care appeared first on MassBio.

• Member Rate: $850

• Non-Member Rate: $970

Description

Given the current environment of global supply chain challenges affecting daily lives from retail to technology, the biotechnology industry is no different in experiencing raw materials delays and shipping drug substance for further processing before our therapies get to our patients. This course is recommended for Supply Chain staff, R&D Managers, and anyone with an interest in how supply chains work in the Biopharma industry.

Schedule

1. Monday, March 4th, 2024, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST
2. Tuesday, March 5th, 2024, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST
3. Thursday, March 7th, 2024, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST

Agenda

Session 1:

• Supply Chain Overview
• Compliance Considerations and Requirements
• What is GMP?

Session 2:

• Tech Transfer Process & Operations
• Clinical and Commercial Manufacturing
• Operations Support
• Material Flow for Chemicals and Raw Materials

Session 3:

• Raw Material Challenges
• COVID and Post COVID Reality
• Emerging New Technologies

The post Supply Chain Management – March 2024 appeared first on MassBio.

• Member Rate: $850
• Non Member Rate: $970

Description

The post Presenting with Persuasion, Clarity, and Strength – March 2024 appeared first on MassBio.

• Member Rate: $1,200

• Non-Member Rate: $1,320

Description

The post Accelerated Leadership – March-April 2024 appeared first on MassBio.