By Suzanne J. Wood, PhD, MS, FACHE

The Department of Health Management and Policy at the Miami Herbert School of Business celebrates its nearly 45-year history as one of the oldest business school-based Executive MBA of Health Management and Policy (HEMBA) programs in the country. Having graduated over 1,000 students to date, it is worth noting that U.S. News and World Reports ranks the program as the number one Health Administration program in Florida and further as the number one Health Care Executive MBA program in the United States.

Leveraging our expertise in delivering health management and policy education and wishing to draw from a broader pool of less experienced applicants, in 2017 we launched an in-residence Master of Health Management and Policy (MHA) program geared toward early careerists. This resident MHA program serves also as a suitable option for applicants awaiting acceptance and matriculation into medical school. We further offer joint MD/MBA and JD/MHA degrees as well as a health administration undergraduate major and minor, each of which draw a significant number of pre-med and other service-oriented students.

Several years ago, Miami Herbert Business School’s HEMBA program adopted the gold standard for competency development and achievement, the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) competency model, which was also applied to MHA program development. The purpose of implementing this model was to assure that the programs could develop through their curricula the knowledge and skills necessary for graduates to excel in the field of practice. It was well understood among the academic and professional communities that, with the appropriate tools, graduates could successfully lead organizations to deliver quality outcomes, including the skills necessary to confidently assume challenges and advance innovative solutions to the complex problems of health services delivery today.

To develop high levels of competence, students are exposed to exceptional faculty, including two former Secretaries, U.S. Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, PhD, who served also in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Alex M. Azar, JD. Faculty are led by University of Miami President, Dr. Julio Frenk, former Secretary of Health, Mexico, and Dean, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as well as Dr. John Quelch, Dean, Miami Herbert School of Business, formerly Senior Associate Dean, Harvard Business School, and Dean, London Business School.

We are uniquely positioned in the marketplace, as the HEMBA and MHA programs are dually accredited by the Assembly of Accredited Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). In addition, we belong to the Business Alliance for Health Management Education (BAHM), membership of which comprises a small group of 17 of the most prestigious Business School based Health Management programs globally, including Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), and the University of California, Berkeley. Furthermore, we actively engage with professional colleagues through the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), recently spearheading the planning of its 2021 Annual Meeting, providing keynote speakers, and serving on committees as well as the board of directors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the need for healthcare trendsetters equipped to solve complex operational issues while harnessing opportunities for innovation. Miami Herbert’s HEMBA and MHA programs prepare executives, health care professionals, and early careerists to meet such challenges. With its distinguished business faculty, adjacent ties to UHealth, the University of Miami’s medical school, and partnerships with health care leaders worldwide, our programs offer rich learning experiences that position graduates for executive and other leadership roles across the healthcare landscape.

Suzanne J. Wood, PhD, MS, FACHE, Associate Professor of Professional Practice and MHA Program Director, Department of Health Management and Policy, Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, can be reached at sjwood@miami.edu.