During the summer after my First Year at Fuqua, I interned at a major biotechnology firm where I was tasked to develop a pricing strategy for an established drug to ensure continued access. Having been in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors, I have also wondered how the delivery of health care actually works and what aspects go into access at the hospital level. Duke University Hospital Experiential Learning Program (DUH ELP) provided an opportunity for me to explore that very question.
With assignments matched by the president of the Duke University Hospital, visibility and criticality of projects are high. I had an opportunity to partner with a newly expanded clinic to assess access concerns and explore strategic considerations for the future. Stakeholder analyses within the hospital across operations, finance, pharmaceuticals, and clinic directors, physicians, and analysts shed insight into the problem. Utilizing the foundations that I learned from the MBA classes from my First Year, I continuously pivoted through a complex problem that seemed to hit a dead-end at every corner. Ultimately, tools obtained from Strategy, Health care Markets, Strategic Modeling, and Operations courses lit the path to a strategic recommendation for the hospital that was well-received.
Often times, the most rewarding experiences at business school are those that come from an experiential learning project. While classroom topics with case discussions often help bring business situations into life, experiential projects allow you to jump into the case without a written ending. The DUH ELP work helped me understand the hospital systems better, which will ultimately help me make better decisions as I continue on my journey in the health care industry as a biopharmaceutical professional.