Welcome & Track Overview
Welcome to the Healthcare Leadership Track!
Mission
The Healthcare Leadership Track seeks to create the next generation of healthcare leaders by providing avenues for students to learn in an interdisciplinary environment about patient safety and quality improvement, innovation and technology, and healthcare policy and economics, to address the need for effective healthcare provider leaders to implement change in our healthcare system.
Vision
To develop future physician leaders who will advance the access, cost, or quality of healthcare. The CMMS notes that “Fewer than five percent of the nation’s healthcare leaders are physicians.” This track can help to grow those numbers.
Purpose
Due to the rapidly transforming landscape of healthcare, a comprehensive understanding of health systems, organizational components, economics, policy, and the third-party ecosystem is necessary for future medical practitioners to successfully navigate the world of patient care. Such an understanding, partnered with personal leadership development, will empower the next generation of providers to contribute towards the improvement of existing infrastructures and innovate to ultimately provide sustainable, quality care for patients.
After acquiring medical education and training, newly minted physicians are equipped with the biomedical knowledge and clinical skills to heal. While the ultimate imperative of medicine to improve the human condition has been consistent throughout history, the delivery of healthcare has been anything but static. In the age of healthcare reform, political influences, advances in technology, the transformation of social infrastructures, and the integration of interdisciplinary and cross-industry actors, are significant hurdles for the new physician. It is with a sound understanding of systems knowledge that the future physician can understand how players in the healthcare industry ultimately impact patient care.
We hope our graduates will be able to fulfill their duties as patient-advocates by pursuing initiatives within policy, innovation, and patient safety and quality improvement. The cultivation of leadership skills, exposure to managerial aspects of healthcare, and familiarity with quality improvement metrics ensure that the modern, multidisciplinary team-based approach to care is successfully delivered.
It is the purpose of the Healthcare Leadership Track to graduate physicians equipped with this comprehensive approach to question the status quo and have the agency to drive change. Ultimately, this understanding will translate to understanding patients, what prompts illness, and how to confront illness in a way where the patient’s full experience is understood; an approach aligned with Georgetown University’s Jesuit mantra of Cura Personalis.
Curriculum & Organizational Structure
Curriculum and Track Requirements
- Summer Module between M1 and M2 years
- Group breakout sessions for discussions on leadership branding and leadership development
- Concentration-specific lectures
- Concentration Teaser Talks and Meet & Greet with concentration director
- Capstone Project by end of M4 year
Capstone Project
The purpose of the project is to create a deliverable that demonstrates a level of mastery of the themes and topics of this track and the student’s chosen concentration
- Project can include but is not limited to presentations, abstracts, publications, pitch decks, business plans, business proposals.
- Project can be done either as an individual or a group with 2-6 students
- Each project must be approved by a concentration director
- Each project must have an advisor/mentor who is approved by a concentration director
Concentrations
The scholarly track offers 3 main concentrations: Healthcare Economics and Policy, Innovation, and Patient Safety/Quality Improvement. These concentrations are designed to provide direction and focus into three areas of healthcare students may be interested in; however, there is flexibility to pursue interests that may fall along a spectrum of these topics. Direction and mentorship are provided to allow for growth and development of interests in these areas. There will be a lecture series with guest lecturers with expertise in each concentration.
For more information on each concentration, please contact concentration student leaders.
Healthcare Policy and Economics
Students will be introduced to healthcare economics including lectures on the various reimbursement models and management at individual practice, regional, and national level systems. Students will have the opportunity to pursue specific interests within the vast realm of healthcare policy, including and not limited to pharmaceutical/medical device evaluation and approval from a regulatory standpoint, policies regarding NIH funding distribution and practices, the legislative process concerning bills pertaining to healthcare in the United States Congress, advocacy organizations in the D.C. area and their intersection with healthcare, the Department of Health and Human Services response to healthcare issues of national importance such as the Opioid Crisis, ethical issues regarding technologies/developments in healthcare and their regulation, policies surrounding healthcare for veterans in America, and NGO influence in healthcare. Students will practice creating policies to address healthcare challenges at home and abroad, create public relations/communications strategies to advance healthcare policy interests, and learn about physician advocacy organizations and their influence on the well-being of American patients and physicians. Lastly, students will have the chance to learn from physicians who have bridged the medicine-business overlap in hospital or practice level administration as well as those working to improve our healthcare system outside of the patient-physician setting.
- Concentration Director: Ryung Suh, MD, MPP, MBA, MPH
Healthcare Innovation
Students will be introduced to healthcare startups, the application of medical technology to clinical practice, health information technology, entrepreneurial business planning, pharmaceutical and medical device development, and personalized medicine utilizing genetic therapy. Other topics covered will be quantitative and qualitative assessments for cost-efficiency, application of medical technology to clinical practice, and the process of defining standards of care while implementing innovative technology and therapeutics in today’s complex healthcare system. This track will partner up with StartupHoyasMed in organizing events. Such events will be encouraged but not required.
- Concentration Director: Mark Smith, MD; Kevin Degroot; Kevin Maloy
Patient Safety and Quality Improvement
Students will be introduced to basic concepts in quality improvement, patient safety, human factors engineering, effective communication, and leadership. Students will be presented with opportunities to apply their knowledge via personal reflections, group discussions, and clinical practice. Students will have access to key faculty and advisors via speaker events, case discussions, engagement in research, and national/international conferences (if desired). Students will learn to collaborate with a variety of organizations, from student-run to corporate, whose goals overlap, ultimately understanding how to navigate a clinical and administrative system to advocate for positive change.
- Concentration Director: Carole Hemmelgarn, MS
Track Objectives & Competencies
Track Objectives
At the completion of the Healthcare Leadership Track, students will:
- Develop an understanding of basic economic principles, policy, and their application to healthcare
- Demonstrate the skills needed to critically analyze the application of innovative medical technology to patient care
- Develop quality improvement measures based on patient safety initiatives to implement in the delivery of healthcare
- Demonstrate effective teamwork and leadership skills in the development and implementation of new healthcare goals
- Formally present thoroughly developed interests and scholarly pursuits in healthcare improvement
School of Medicine Competencies
The Healthcare Leadership Track is designed to further facilitate the medical student’s mastery of the following defined School of Medicine competencies:
- The ability to evaluate critically new knowledge and to determine its relevance to the clinical problems and challenges presented by the individual patient
- An understanding of current and proposed strategies for the organization, financing, and delivery of healthcare
- The ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with patients and colleagues
- The ability to learn independently with a critical awareness of the scope and limits of one’s knowledge, skills, and values
- An understanding of the ethical dimensions of the physician-patient relationship and of the ethical dilemmas encountered in health care, at the bedside as well as in the formulation of health care policy
Leadership & Contact Information
Core Leadership (Track Director)
- Track Director: Ray Mitchell, MD, MBA, MACP, FAAP, FACR (mitchelr@georgetown.edu)
Senior Leaders (Student Leaders)
- M2025: Madeline Karsten (mbk79@georgetown.edu)
- M2025: Griffith Gosnell (ggg19@georgetown.edu)
- M2026: Yumin Gao (yg351@georgetown.edu)
- M2026: Jacqueline Sandling (js5155@georgetown.edu)