Standing before us is Professor Larry Van Horn, dressed uncharacteristically casual in a plaid shirt and jeans (he is famous on campus for his sport coat and bowtie combination). To his side sits Emily Anderson of the Career Management Center. Behind Larry the title slide of a presentation reads, “Learning to Lead in the Nation’s Healthcare Capital.”
Larry begins his presentation and immediately assumes his habit of bobbing about, capturing the audience with his passion for the healthcare industry and its future in the United States, or, in Larry’s words: “How we are coming un-glued due to healthcare.”
One of Larry’s favorite tactics is to joke casually, speaking in what surely must be hyperbole, only to then hit you with the bomb of factual information. His mind is a treasure trove of statistical information concerning U.S. healthcare. Without gazing at the screen he tells us how the healthcare industry currently comprises 17.5% of America’s GDP.
“A matter of national security,” he says, and the audience of eighteen of us laughs. What’s he talking about?
“Once it hits 22.5% of GDP,” Larry explains, “it affects our ability to fund National Defense.”
The room falls silent.
It isn’t so bleak. It’s just his way of waking students up to the realities of the healthcare industry, and how a Health Care MBA—especially from a program partnered with a highly-ranked academic medical center such as Owen’s—is not just useful in tomorrow’s economy but necessary. And while an Owen Health Care MBA might find one swift employment with one of the hundreds of healthcare companies that have spawned from Nashville healthcare giant HCA, it also provides the opportunity to demonstrably affect people’s lives.
Larry says that one of the biggest draws of the Health Care MBA and concentration is how students get the chance to “Do well by doing good.”
Another draw? The class he teaches dually with Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper, who acts as the Alan Colmes to Van Horn’s Sean Hannity. Larry says that he sees it as his goal to keep Cooper from spending the nation’s money needlessly. We laugh again, perhaps happy if not relieved to know that there are multiple perspectives represented in Owen’s healthcare program’s faculty. The only catch to the class: the early morning schedule on Mondays and Fridays, adopted to enable time with Congressman Cooper, whose schedule requires him to travel throughout the week.
“It’s miserable,” says Larry, smiling wide before adding, “I have a great time.”
When Emily Anderson takes the floor to speak on behalf of the Career Management Center, she mentions how the healthcare program is by far the most robust program when considering the range of possibilities. She mentions how 25% to 30% of students will concentrate in healthcare, and a full one-third of all hires will be healthcare related.
Together Emily and Larry answer questions and tell us how we can still learn what we need from the program even if we can’t concentrate in healthcare (take the required Economics of Healthcare for the big picture and choose electives accordingly), and if the Health Care MBA might help one determine public healthcare policy (yes, quite emphatically).
If you have any questions or would like any more information about the Health Care MBA please click one of the links below:
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