Master of Science in Health Care Analytics Specializations
How Will You Make a Difference?
Our Health Care Specializations are an optional mechanism for students to organize their elective units toward particular career pathways. They provide depth in a particular area of the health care industry and allow students to communicate this depth to potential employers.
Specializations consist of the 30 elective units and are comprised of foundation electives and selected elective courses. Students must complete the foundation courses in order to claim the specialization and then can fill in the remaining units with selected electives from the list provided.
The Health Care Policy Specialization aims to prepare students to create and evaluate health policies. Students pursuing this concentration will be able to think strategically about the political, economic and social environment in which health care is delivered to inform critical policy creation and analysis. MSHCA students pursuing this specialization will take one 12-unit foundation course and a minimum of 18 units of elective courses for a total of 30 units.
Course examples include:
- Policy & Politics in American Political Institutions
- Program Evaluation
- Policy Analysis in Practice
- Behavioral Economics in Public Policy
- Elective Politics and Policy Making
- Critical Analysis of Policy Research
- Applied Econometrics I & II
The Health Care Administration Specialization aims to prepare students to lead operational business units, particularly in health systems and health insurance companies. MSHCA students pursuing this specialization will take one 6-unit foundation course and a minimum of 24 units of elective courses for a total of 30 units.
Course examples include:
- Health Care Operations
- Evidence-Based Management
- Strategy Development
- Project Management
- Advanced Project Cost Management With Power BI
- Operations Strategy
- Service Management
The Health Care Products and Entrepreneurship Specialization aims to give students the foundational skills to lead in the management and development of health care products. Students will gain core knowledge in areas of the entrepreneurial process, product strategy, and marketing. MSHCA students pursuing this specialization will take one 6-unit foundation course, a 12-unit capstone that will replace their existing Heinz systems/capstone requirement, and a minimum of 12 units of elective courses, for a total of 30 units.
- Lean Entrepreneurship
- Corporate Startup Lab
- A/B Testing, Design, and Analysis
- Making Products Count: Data Science for Product Management
- Applied Strategic Marketing
- Tech Startup: Market Discovery
- Social Innovation Accelerator
- Medical Devices
- Special Topics: Introduction to Venture Finance
- Leadership and Innovation Management
- Entrepreneurial Alternatives
- Funding Early Stage Ventures
- Contracts
I chose to self-define my concentration in Applied Data Science and AI/ML Strategy because I wanted to challenge myself with more advanced coursework in data science, AI, and machine learning, while also learning how these areas are applied in business and health care. I valued the flexibility to explore different perspectives, from the theory behind natural language processing, to an ML-focused independent study with HCA faculty, to using systems thinking and simulation to plan for complex scenarios. I also had the opportunity to take on client-facing projects that allowed me to apply what I was learning and better understand the needs of different stakeholders.
Danielle Savellano
MSHCA '26
