Friday Factoid: Kellogg’s Health Enterprise Management Program

An often unsung program at Kellogg is the school’s Health Enterprise Management program, and a “star” within this program is the Global Health Initiative (GHI)—co-founded by Kellogg professor Daniel Diermeier, with several students in leadership and advisory roles—in which academics, students, corporations and nonprofits create products that solve medical problems around the world. As evidence of the program’s profile, in 2006, the GHI received a $4.9M grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop diagnostic devices capable of identifying the HIV virus. Another impressive experiential offering is the multidisciplinary “Medical Innovation” class, which brings together industry leaders, top faculty members and students from several of Northwestern’s graduate schools (Law, Engineering, Medicine and Business). During this two-term course, students experience the “entire innovation life cycle” from a variety of perspectives: scientific, legal and entrepreneurial/managerial. Students even shadow surgeons and observe clinicians to facilitate their own brainstorming sessions for an innovative product—an actual product is created and presented to potential investors. Clearly, Kellogg provides students interested in health care with an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty (and then sanitize them after).