A firm's operations encompass all the activities that are performed in order to produce and deliver a product or a service. An operations strategy refers to a set of operational decisions that a firm makes to achieve a long-term competitive advantage. These decisions may be about the firms facilities, its technology/process choices, its relationships with both upstream and downstream business partners etc. The goal of this course is to provide students with an understanding of how and why operational decisions are integral to a firms success. The course builds on concepts from the core Operations Management course and the core Strategy Formulation course. It is highly relevant to anyone whose work requires the strategic analysis of a firms operations, including those interested in consulting, entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, investment analysis, and general management. The course consists of four modules. The first module, Strategic Alignment," explores the question of how a firms operations should be structured so as to be consistent with the firms chosen way to compete. The second module, "Firm Boundaries," considers the question of what operational activities should remain in house and what should be done by a business partner and the long-term implications of these decisions on competitive advantage. This module also addresses the issue of managing the business relationships with supply chain partners. The third module, "Internal Operations," considers key decision categories in operations, e.g., capacity decisions, process choices, IT implementation, and managing networks, and shows how these decisions can lead to distinctive capabilities. The final module, "New Challenges," is set aside to address new topics that reflect the current trends in the business environment."
This course covers a review of mathematical statistics and probability theory at the Masters level. Students will be exposed to theory of estimation and hypothesis testing, confidence intervals and Bayesian inference. Topics include population parameters, sufficient statistics, basic distribution theory, point and interval estimation, introduction to the theory of hypothesis testing, and nonparametric procedures.
Main group and transition metal organometallic chemistry: bonding, structure, reactions, kinetics, and mechanisms.
The only prerequisites needed include General Chemistry II Lectures (specifically, kinetics, and at the level of UN1404 or UN1604) and Organic Chemistry II Lectures (at the level of UN2046 or UN2444). Advanced knowledge from classes, including but not limited to physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, advanced organic chemistry, and synthetic methods, is NOT required.
This course will introduce the statistical methods for analyzing censored data, non-normally distributed response data, and repeated measurements data that are commonly encountered in medical and public health research. Topics include estimation and comparison of survival curves, regression models for survival data, logit models, log-linear models, and generalized estimating equations. Examples are drawn from the health sciences.
The importance of designing, building, and leading sustainable organizations is indisputable. Sustainability encompasses not only the environmental footprint of an organization but also the way in which firms treat workers and customers both within their firm and supply chain network. Understanding the role of operational excellence and strategic supply chain management in achieving sustainability is critical for effective leadership.
This course examines a variety of approaches to designing sustainability into an organization’s operations and how to measure and reduce a firm’s operational environmental impact. We also explore themes of risk, accountability, and sustainability within global supply chains. What challenges do firms face in being socially responsible when managing globally distributed supply chains? Three themes comprise this course: (1) designing sustainable operations, (2) drivers and consequences of sustainability, and (3) global sourcing and social responsibility.
• Designing Sustainable Operations. Sample cases include – REI Rentals, All Birds, IndigoAg, Supply Chain Hubs in Humanitarian Logistics.
• Drivers and Consequences of Sustainability. Sample cases include – Fiji Water, Aspen Ski Company.
• Global Sourcing & Social Responsibility. Sample cases include – IKEA, Ready Made Garment Industry, Roche & Tamiflu.
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the Law School Curriculum Guide at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the Law School Curriculum Guide at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the Law School Curriculum Guide at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
This is a Law School course. For more detailed course information, please go to the Law School Curriculum Guide at: http://www.law.columbia.edu/courses/search
course decription
This course introduces students to advanced computational and statistical methods used in the design and analysis of high-dimensional genetic data, an area of critical importance in the current era of BIG DATA. The course starts with a brief background in genetics, followed by in depth discussion of topics in genome-wide linkage and association studies, and next-generation sequencing studies. Additional topics such as network genetics will also be covered. Examples from recent and ongoing applications to complex traits will be used to illustrate methods and concepts. Students are required to read relevant papers as assigned by the instructor, and each student is required to present a paper during class. Students are also required to work on a project related to the course material, with midterm evaluation of the progress.
We will use one main textbook: The fundamentals of Modern Statistical Genetics by Laird and Lange (Springer, 2012). For further reading, an excellent book is also Handbook of Statistical Genetics, Volume 1 (Wiley, 2007). Another good book is Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Genetic Analysis by Ken Lange (Springer 2002).
A comprehensive overview of methods of analysis for binary and other discrete response data, with applications to epidemiological and clinical studies. It is a second level course that presumes some knowledge of applied statistics and epidemiology. Topics discussed include 2 × 2 tables, m × 2 tables, tests of independence, measures of association, power and sample size determination, stratification and matching in design and analysis, interrater agreement, logistic regression analysis.
This elective course covers accounting tools useful to consultants, as well as for students with an interest in a firm’s finance function, general management, or private equity.
There will be a particular focus on performance measurement and management.
Performance measurement is a key determinant of success for today’s companies that sell a wide range of products and services to a wide range of customers differentiated in their needs. While financial accounting (GAAP) information is a useful shortcut toward gaining some understanding of a firm’s financial health, consultants and managers need a more solid understanding of the firm’s strategy and mission, as well as disaggregated information that helps assess how the firm is performing along its strategic objectives.
There is overlap between this course and the half-semester course “Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)” course. This course expands on many of the concepts taught in FP&A and supplements them with industry insights and guest speakers. For this reason, this course is mutually exclusive with the elective course “B8007 – Financial Planning & Analysis”. If you have taken FP&A, you will not be able to enroll in this course for credit. Please contact me immediately in case of such a conflict.
The following specific topics will be addressed:
• Profitability analysis to assess individual products
• Customer relationship management using customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Budgeting and variances
• Performance evaluation for profit centers and investment centers
• Performance-based pay: team incentives, relative performance evaluation, etc.
• Corporate governance: the C-suite and the role of compensation consultants
• The “War of Metrics”: Cash Flow, EVA, Balanced Scorecards, etc.
• Innovative ways to deviate from GAAP rules to better measure value creation
• Issues specific to multinational enterprises (MNEs), e.g., taxation
• Industry-specific insights: performance measurement in key industries
Test Course for Vergil Launch Demonstration
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Unrelenting technological progress demands entrepreneurs, executives, and managers to continually upgrade their skills in the pursuit of emerging opportunities. As “software eats the world”, executives from all industries are increasingly called upon to be “Full Stack”: capable of making competent decisions across domains as diverse as digital technology, design, product, and marketing.
In this course, we begin with primers on code, design, and product management. Once the foundation is laid, we examine the best practices for building great products and exceptional teams. We conclude with an overview of how technology is changing the way products are marketed, distributed, and monetized. Our goal is to equip “non-technical” executives with the terminology, tools, and context required to effect change in a software and internet-driven world.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To provide an understanding of the technologies that we encounter everyday, and how history can inform the technology decisions executives face today.
To become familiar the concepts that underpin modern computer programming, empowering managers to engage with engineers credibly and confidently.
To shed light on the processes and tools designers use to solve user-facing design and architecture challenges.
To clarify what product managers do, walk through the nitty-gritty of managing software development, and equip executives with the best practices for evaluating and improving their products.
To prepare managers to identify, recruit, and nurture the technical talent they will need to succeed in today’s highly competitive labor market.
To familiarize students with the dynamic context in which technology products live, ensuring the profitable and widespread delivery of those products.
Generative Artificial Intelligence is a type of AI that learns patterns from data to create new content in various types of media (text, images, audio, video). At its heart a generative AI system has a large language model (LLM) that is essentially a large (trillions of parameters) neural network that has been trained on a mix of vast amounts of data as well as human input. Applying generative AI to actual problems in business often requires that the LLM underlying the AI be customized to the business problem, either by attaching a data source (e.g., operating procedures, 10k reports, marketing plans, balance sheets, etc.) to the LLM (a process known as Retrieval-Augmented Generation or RAG) or by retraining the neural net with additional data (a process known as fine tuning). adjusting the parameters of the underlying LLM. Embedding generative AI into organizational processes requires
that we gather appropriate data and reprogram the LLM to use the data either through RAG or fine tuning.
The focus of this course is to give you a working knowledge of what it takes to customize and assemble a customized generative AI application. We will use OpenAI’s GPT as our base model and learn how to build a RAG and how to customize using simple fine tuning. About 50% of the class time will be devoted to a group project where you will, in small groups, build your own customized AI application. All programming will be in Python and we will use libraries like tensorflow, langchain and faiss.
STUDENTS WILL NEED TO COMPLETE AN INTRODUCTORY PYTHON CLASS (https://courseworks2.columbia.edu/courses/152704) OR PASS THE BASIC PYTHON QUALIFICATION EXAM (https://cbs-python.com/) BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS. SEE https://academics.gsb.columbia.edu/python FOR DETAILS
This course analyzes the unique characteristics and strategies of investing in the healthcare sector from the perspectives of venture capital firms investing in early-stage healthcare enterprises, entrepreneurs creating and managing such business entities, and private equity firms seeking to build value-creating health care platforms. The course is focused on innovative business models of early to mid-stage healthcare services companies (payers, providers, HCIT firms) that improve quality of patient care, lower costs, and facilitate access to such services, as well as the opportunities and challenges of early-stage biotechnology companies discovering and developing novel compounds. It considers how investors and entrepreneurs can assess, value and manage the inherent risks to succeed in this large, complex, and dynamic sector. This course will address these issues through a mixture of lectures, case studies, and guest speakers (investors and entrepreneurs) from the healthcare sector. Note: Some understanding and prior experience in the healthcare/pharma industry will be highly useful. Students need to attend the first class session to understand material covered later in the course. Evaluation is 25% class participation, 25% mid-term assignment (short paper on questions or case study), and 50% final (individual) paper. "
Regression analysis is widely used in biomedical research. Non-continuous (e.g., binary or count-valued) responses, correlated observations, and censored data are frequently encountered in regression analysis. This course will introduce advanced statistical methods to address these practical problems. Topics include generalized linear models (GLM) for non-Gaussian response, mixed-effects models and generalized estimating equations (GEE) for correlated observations, and Cox proportional hazards models for survival data analysis. Examples are drawn from biomedical sciences.
Sports analytics refers to the use of data and quantitative methods to measure performance and make decisions to gain advantage in the competitive sports arena. This course builds on the Business Analytics core course and is designed to help students to develop and apply analytical skills that are useful in business, using sports as the application area. These skills include critical thinking, mathematical modeling, statistical analysis, predictive analytics, game theory, optimization and simulation. These skills will be applied to sports in this course, but are equally useful in many areas of business.There will be three main topics in the course: (1) measuring and predicting player and team performance, (2) decision-making and strategy in sports, and (3) fantasy sports and sports betting. Typical questions addressed in sports analytics include: How to rank players or teams? How to predict future performance of players or teams? How much is a player on a team worth? How likely are extreme performances, i.e., streaks? Are there hot-hands in sports performances? Which decision is more likely to lead to a win (e.g., attempt a stolen base or not in baseball, punt or go for it on fourth down in football, dump and chase or not in hockey, pull the goalie or not in hockey)? How to form lineups in daily fantasy sports? How to manage money in sports betting? How to analyze various ``prop'' bets?The main sports discussed in the course will be baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and golf. Soccer, tennis, and other sports will be briefly discussed.
Students are welcome to pursue any sport in more detail (e.g., cricket, rugby, auto racing, horse racing, Australian rules football, skiiing, track and field, or even card games such as blackjack, poker, etc.) in a project. Class sessions will involve a mixture of current events, lecture, discussion, and hands-on analysis with computers in class. Each session will typically address a question from a sport using an important analytical idea (e.g., mean reversion) together with a mathematical technique (e.g., regression). Because of the "laboratory" nature of part of the sessions, students should bring their laptops to each class.
This course will situate the Jewish book within the context of the theoretical and historical literature on the history of the book: notions of orality and literacy, text and material platform, authors and readers, print and manuscript, language and gender, the book trade and its role in the circulation of people and ideas in the early age of print.
We don’t think about databases much, right? At least not when they’re working right. But they’re all around us. They’re in every product we use. And when they don’t work (think about the iCloud, LinkedIn, or Ashley Madison data breaches in which hundreds of millions of emails and passwords were exposed) the consequences can be extreme.
Every modern company stores their data in a database (it’s like a really big version of Excel), and if you want to analyze the data, you may be expected to know how to access it yourself. In fact, at many companies are requiring even their business leaders to have an understanding of databases. At the very least, knowing how to set up and interact with databases will improve your ability to GSD (get stuff done), strengthen your understanding of how technology works, and make you less of a pain for developers to work with.
In this class, we’ll explore basic SQL (the most common database language) for business analytics. At the end of the course, students should have a deeper understanding of how databases work, how they fit into the general technology stack, how to connect to databases, and know how to browse and exporting data from databases.
We don’t think about databases much, right? At least not when they’re working right. But they’re all around us. They’re in every product we use. And when they don’t work (think about the iCloud, LinkedIn, or Ashley Madison data breaches in which hundreds of millions of emails and passwords were exposed) the consequences can be extreme.
Every modern company stores their data in a database (it’s like a really big version of Excel), and if you want to analyze the data, you may be expected to know how to access it yourself. In fact, at many companies are requiring even their business leaders to have an understanding of databases. At the very least, knowing how to set up and interact with databases will improve your ability to GSD (get stuff done), strengthen your understanding of how technology works, and make you less of a pain for developers to work with.
In this class, we’ll explore basic SQL (the most common database language) for business analytics. At the end of the course, students should have a deeper understanding of how databases work, how they fit into the general technology stack, how to connect to databases, and know how to browse and exporting data from databases.
This course explores the theoretical foundations underlying the models and techniques used in mathematical genetics and genetic epidemiology. Topics include use and interpretation of likelihood methods, formulation of mathematical models, segregation analysis, ascertainment bias, linkage analysis, genetic heterogeneity, and complex genetic models. The course includes lectures, discussions, homework problems, and a final exam. My single most important objective for this course is for students to be able to break down any mathematical modeling problem logically into all its component parts, to express each part" accurately, and to know how to "add" all the pieces back up and to check the accuracy of their result."
Students in this course will learn and practice the fundamental methods and concepts of the randomized clinical trial: protocol development, randomization, blindedness, patient recruitment, informed consent, compliance, sample size determination, crossovers, collaborative trials. Each student prepares and submits the protocol for a real or hypothetical clinical trial.
The drug development from compound discovery to marketing and commercialization registration is a lengthy and complex process in which statisticians play an important role from the beginning to the end. The main objective of this course is to provide students with working knowledge of methodological and operational issues that arise in different stages of the drug development that involve statistical contributions.
Topics include: Introduction of drug development; design and analysis of non-clinical studies (toxicology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics) and Phase I/II/III studies; issues in clinical studies including non-inferiority, meta-analysis, and endpoint selection; overview of safety reporting systems such as MedDRA (Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities), CTC version 3 (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events), and preparation for the FDA advisory committee drug approval process. In addition, the views and positions of different regulatory bodies, such as the FDA or EMEA, on design and analysis issues will be discussed.
This course is designed to expand the clinical reasoning, diagnostic acumen, and management skills of Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) students when dealing with complex patient cases. Emphasizing multifaceted conditions, comorbidities, and intricate care coordination, students will analyze patient cases requiring advanced critical thinking and interprofessional collaboration.
This clinical course is designed to further develop the role of the student to provide care to individuals with complex, comorbid, advanced, or terminal illness and their families.
This class will focus on how analytics have generated value in a broad range of industries. Each class will be taught by a different faculty member with specific subject matter expertise and will focus on one specific industry and on how it has been transformed through the use of analytics.
DROMB8152
From the ads that track us to the maps that guide us, the twenty-first century runs on code. The business world is no different. Programming has become one of the fastest-growing topics at business schools around the world. This course is an introduction to business uses of Python for MBA students. In this course, well be learning how to write Python code that automates tedious tasks, parses and analyzes large data sets, interact with APIs, and scrapes websites. This might be one of the most useful classes you ever take. Required Course Material Students must have a laptop that they can bring to class - Mac or PC is fine, as long as your operating system is up to date (at least Windows 10 and Mac OS 11). This course does not require a textbook. (Optional Reading: Python for MBAs, Griffel and Guetta) Any required readings will be provided via Canvas. Slides and files will be uploaded to Canvas after each class.
Students will need to complete an introductory Python class (https://courseworks2.columbia.edu/courses/152704) and pass the Basic Python Qualification exam (https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/courses/python#basic_qual) before the first day of classes.
Intended for advanced graduate students, this course considers classic and recent works in materiality and material culture in the early modern period (ca. 1400-1700), especially as they are fruitful for the history of science and knowledge. Class sessions will include discussion, museum visits, and hands-on work in the Making and Knowing Lab. Topics to be considered: embodied knowledge, material complexes, materialized concepts and identities, agentive matter, human-environment relations, and material imaginaries.
This course is designed for those students (or any researchers) who want to gain a significant familiarity with a collection of statistical techniques that target the measurement of latent variables (i.e. variables that cannot be measured directly) as well as methods for estimating relationships among variables within causal systems. This course covers: both continuous and categorical latent variable measurement models (i.e. exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory models, latent class and finite mixture models), as well as estimation of relationships in hypothesized causal systems using structural equation modeling. Data analysis examples will come from health science applications and practical implementation of all methods will be demonstrated using predominately the Mplus software, but also the R software.
This course will cover some of the fundamental product decisions together with the basic analytic and data science tools to support them that are currently being used to run the most exciting online marketplaces in the world. More specifically, among others, we will address the following questions: How does Uber or Lyft match drivers to passengers? How does Airbnb select the set of listings to show to a guest in a search? How can we build an algorithmic, scalable reputation and trust system in an e-commerce platform such as Amazon? How should advertisers optimize their decisions in today’s online advertising marketplaces run by Google and others?
Verticals of interest include the following:
• Matching platforms like those for ride-hailing, lodging, dating, labor, and food delivery.
• Internet advertising platforms including search engine advertising, display advertising, and sponsored products.
• Retail platforms including those for physical goods like Amazon, Etsy, and possibly also those for virtual goods like the App Store/Play Store and gaming platforms.
As statistical models become increasingly complex, it is often the case that exact or even asymptotic distributions of estimators and test statistics are intractable. With the continuing improvement of processor speed, computationally intensive methods have become invaluable tools for statisticians to use in practice. This course will cover the basic modern statistical computing techniques and how they are applied in a variety of practical situations. Topics to be covered include numerical optimization, random number generation, simulation, Monte Carlo integration, permutation tests, jackknife and bootstrap procedures, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods in Bayesian settings, and the EM algorithm.
This course will provide students with the applied skills and conceptual understandings necessary to reason about, critique, conceptualize and apply key artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to their domain. Specifically, this course will provide students with a high-level understanding of the essential algorithmic, logical, statistical and computing principles that drive the systems currently described as "artificial intelligence," including linear and logistic regression, penalized regression, random forests, support vector machines (SVMs), deep learning, natural language processing (NLP) and large-language models (LLMs). The approach of this course is interdisciplinary, and we will approach interacting with these tools on two levels. The first is to understand the basic principles, assumptions and tradeoffs that each system leverages to achieve its results. The second is a "use-modify-create" approach to interacting with these technologies in the Python programming language. To achieve this, a large portion of early assignments will be focused on building your applied Python programming skills so that they can be leveraged towards domain-relevant examples and problems in the latter half of the term.
In this course students will synthetize knowledge from the core with knowledge from both specific department required courses and from certificate required courses. The course deliverable is a written paper combining analyses of a student’s selected data set that uses two of the following methods: (linear regression, logistic regression, nonlinear modeling, mixed effect modeling, machine learning, survival analyses). Students will demonstrate understanding of summarizing (numerically and graphically) data for purposes of specific analyses, presenting results, and interpreting them in the context of public health. Finally, students will also demonstrate the ability to present various stages of the analyses, to ask questions in large collaborative settings, and to troubleshoot their work.
In this course, you will learn to design and build relational databases in MySQL and to write and optimize queries using the SQL programming language. Application of skills learned in this course will be geared toward research and data science settings in the healthcare field; however, these skills are transferable to many industries and application areas. You will begin the course examining the pitfalls of using Excel spreadsheets as a data storage tool and then learn how to build properly-designed relational databases to eliminate the issues related to spreadsheets and maintain data integrity when storing and modifying data. You will then learn two aspects of the SQL programming language: 1) the data manipulation language (DML), which allows you to retrieve data from and populate data into database tables (e.g., SELECT, INSERT INTO, DELETE, UPDATE, etc.), and 2) the data definition language (DDL), which allows you to create and modify tables in a database (e.g., CREATE, ALTER, DROP, etc.). You will additionally learn how to optimize SQL queries for best performance, use advanced SQL functions, and utilize SQL within common statistical software programs: R and SAS.
In this course, you will learn to design and build relational databases in MySQL and to write and optimize queries using the SQL programming language. Application of skills learned in this course will be geared toward research and data science settings in the healthcare field; however, these skills are transferable to many industries and application areas. You will begin the course examining the pitfalls of using Excel spreadsheets as a data storage tool and then learn how to build properly-designed relational databases to eliminate the issues related to spreadsheets and maintain data integrity when storing and modifying data. You will then learn two aspects of the SQL programming language: 1) the data manipulation language (DML), which allows you to retrieve data from and populate data into database tables (e.g., SELECT, INSERT INTO, DELETE, UPDATE, etc.), and 2) the data definition language (DDL), which allows you to create and modify tables in a database (e.g., CREATE, ALTER, DROP, etc.). You will additionally learn how to optimize SQL queries for best performance, use advanced SQL functions, and utilize SQL within common statistical software programs: R and SAS.
The Capstone Consulting Seminar is a required course for the M.S. Theory and Methods track and M.P.H. students in Biostatistics. It provides experience in the art of consulting and in the proper application of statistical techniques to public health and medical research problems. Students will bring together the skills they have acquired in previous coursework and apply them to the consulting experience. Learning will take place by doing. Over the course of the semester students will attend consultation sessions of the department's Biostatistics Consultation Service. Students will participate in the consultation interaction and will present their report in class for discussion or comment on another student's presentation.
This is the last of three Diagnosis and Management courses designed to educate students on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of common acute and critical illnesses via a systems-based approach. Pathophysiologic alterations, assessment, diagnostic findings, and multimodal management will be discussed. The course will examine social determinants of health and health disparities that may impact patients and family outcomes. Focus will be on the differential diagnosis and comprehensive healthcare management of commonly encountered acute and chronic physical illnesses using didactic lectures, case studies and simulation.
The course introduces students to budgeting and financial control as a means of influencing the behavior of organizations. Concepts include the budget process and taxation, intergovernmental revenues, municipal finance, bonds, control of expenditures, purchasing, debt management, productivity enhancement, and nonprofit finance. Students learn about the fiscal problems that managers typically face, and how they seek to address them. Students also gain experience in conducting financial analysis and facility with spreadsheet programs. Case materials utilize earth systems issues and other policy issues. A computer lab section is an essential aspect of the course, as it teaches students to use spreadsheet software to perform practical exercises in budgeting and financial management.
The course introduces students to budgeting and financial control as a means of influencing the behavior of organizations. Concepts include the budget process and taxation, intergovernmental revenues, municipal finance, bonds, control of expenditures, purchasing, debt management, productivity enhancement, and nonprofit finance. Students learn about the fiscal problems that managers typically face, and how they seek to address them. Students also gain experience in conducting financial analysis and facility with spreadsheet programs. Case materials utilize earth systems issues and other policy issues. A computer lab section is an essential aspect of the course, as it teaches students to use spreadsheet software to perform practical exercises in budgeting and financial management.
.
Strategic concepts and frameworks are necessary components of analytic thinking for students working in domestic and global health policy, healthcare and health systems. This course will address the intersection of health policy and strategy. Class sessions will consider how policy decisions and potential regulations impact an organization as well as questions related to strategic planning.
Venture capital has played a major role in shaping many of the innovations that form our modern society, ranging from the ideas that spawned the tech giants to life-saving medications. In recent years, there has also been an explosion of venture investment in new areas of healthcare – namely digital health and tech-enabled healthcare services.
This course aims to provide some insight into the world of venture capital through a healthcare lens. We will explore a range of topics, from fund formation, to identifying an investment target, to negotiating and closing an investment, to managing growth, to achieving an exit. One class will focus on what makes venture investment different in healthcare than in other industries. All along the way, we’ll look at some notable successes and failures to learn how venture capital can create enormous value, and where – and why – it has come up short.
The course will conclude with a VC pitch session to give students the experience of presenting their ideas to real venture investors. Students will work in groups to create and present their pitches and will learn what this experience is like for both entrepreneurs and investors. Afterwards, the investors will also discuss their experiences in the field and provide some insights to students from a career perspective.
See CLS Curriculum Guide
APORETICS: Paintings without Painters and Painters without Paintings
This seminar will be organized around aporias. Starting with Plato's
Meno
, aporia is used to describe a state of numbed confusion, exposing a gap in knowledge that can be leveraged to temporarily undermine certainty. Optimally, aporia is not merely confusion or resignation in the face of contradiction, but a state of affairs that makes a demand on us. These double binds, paradoxes, impasses, and blind spots will be our guides through a history of painting and treated as a lens to explore the contemporary desire to unknow what painting was or to ask what types of experience it attends to. Making painting impossible again, at least for our seminar, might be the only way for painting to pose questions of its more recent triumphalist mode, which seems to celebrate all that it knows of itself while potentially overworking its painters.
Readings from philosophy, art history, artists' writings, and critical theory will be worked through over the course of the seminar along with presentations on individual artists.
“…an aesthetic of aporias, the property of this painting being to deliver everything at once, as if by syllepsis, the one and its other, the rule and its exception, the law and that which breaks it, all the way to the dissolution of the institutional apparatus which frames and produces it.” - Jean Clay, Martin Barre’s Dispositif: the Encrusted Eye.
Prerequisite: registration as a nutrition degree candidate or instructors permission. Discussion of pathology, symptomatology, and clinical manifestations with case presentations when possible. Laboratory assessments of each condition. Principles of nutritional intervention for therapy and prevention.
Topics of linear and non-linear partial differential equations of second order, with particular emphasis to Elliptic and Parabolic equations and modern approaches.
This course introduces students to persons of color whose impact on public health have largely been left out of US history. From African American physicians whose work has gone unnoticed to policy makers whose legacy has yet to be written, this course will review unsung heroes, their impact, the discrimination and structural racism they faced, and the work they left behind. Students will also engage in oral history projects highlighting the works of these policymakers.
Courses on public opinion and political behavior (including the GR8210 seminar taught by Professor Shapiro) ordinarily move briskly through a wide array of topics having to do with how American tend to think and act. This class has a narrower scope but tries to delve more deeply into the literature. We focus on four topics that are arguably crucial understanding contemporary American politics (and perhaps the politics of other times and places).
The first topic addresses what might be thought of as the legacies of slavery: prejudice, resentment, racial/ethnic group identification, issue preferences on topics that are directly or indirectly connected to race/ethnicity, and group differences in political behavior.
The second topic considers the literature on partisanship and polarization, as well as related topics on “macropartisan” change and party realignment. What are the causes of micro- and macropartisan change, and what are its consequences?
The third topic is support for democratic norms, civil liberties, and respect for the rights of unpopular groups. How deeply committed are Americans to democratic values and constitutional rights?
The fourth topic is the influence of media on public opinion, a vast topic that includes the effects of advertising, news, social media, narrative entertainment, and so forth.
Although we will be focusing on just four broad topics, time constraints nevertheless prevent us from covering more than a fraction of each scholarly literature. Students are encouraged to read beyond the syllabus, and I am happy to offer suggestions.
Climate change is the world’s most perfect public policy problem: it’s more global, more long-term, more uncertain, and more irreversible than most others. It stands alone in the combination of all four. That also turns it into the world’s most perfect global externality problem: the benefits of fossil-fuel use are internalized, the costs largely externalized. And while misguided market forces are the root cause of climate change, guiding them in the right direction is fundamental to the solution. In this course we explore the fast-changing global climate policy landscape shaping business. We explore the economic principles at work, analyze individual corporate and finance efforts to lead, dive into the regulatory environments around the world, and look to how the clean-energy race creates unique challenges and opportunities.
Digital health is the use of any and all digital resources to improve health by making it safer, more efficient, maximize outcomes and lower costs. It is transforming the delivery of healthcare and behaviors of all health sectors. The size and scope are fast growing and difficult to define at this point in its history. The Covid-19 pandemic has magnified the importance and uses of digital health.
This course provides an overview of digital healthcare in the US, focusing on how and why digital health is revolutionizing healthcare for providers, patients and payors. Students will be equipped with the vocabulary, concepts and tools to understand the dynamic aspects of digital healthcare in today's environment, including its definition, its role in improving patient outcomes, provider satisfaction, reduction in costs and why this is accelerating. Students are encouraged to take the perspective of the executive and policy-maker in class discussions. In addition, the course surveys current digital tools and investment strategies in digital health.
Integrated individual-level health claim, biometric and risk data have many business uses across insurance, consulting, disease management, engagement and other digital healthcare organizations. The purpose of this course is to provide training to meet the data analytical job demands of these organizations with practical, hands-on experience exploring real corporate longitudinal data.
The Course introduces students to the fundamentals of case competitions and prepares them to compete in select case competitions over the course of the year. Case competitions afford students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to dynamic health care organizational and industry problems. The Course covers topics ranging from the framework for breaking down cases to common analytical techniques and presentation skills. We will build the foundational skills for students to prepare and deliver comprehensive, professional analyses in competitive settings.
This course examines the underlying economics of successful business strategy: the strategic imperatives of competitive markets, the sources and dynamics of competitive advantage, managing competitive interactions, and the organizational implementation of business strategy.
The course combines case discussion and analysis (approximately two thirds) with lectures (one third). The emphasis is on the ability to apply a small number of principles effectively and creatively, not the mastery of detailed aspects of the theory. The course offers excellent background for all consultants, managers and corporate finance generalists.
This two-semester course demonstrates that it is both possible and useful to think about public policy rigorously: to examine underlying assumptions; to understand how formal models operate; to question vagueness and clichés; and to make sophisticated ethical arguments. An important goal of the class is to have students work in groups as they apply microeconomic concepts to current public policy issues having to do with urban environmental and earth systems. The course includes problem sets designed to teach core concepts and their application. In the spring semester, the emphasis is on the application of concepts to analyze contemporary policy problems. Some time is also devoted to international trade and regulation, and industrial organization issues. Students not only learn microeconomic concepts, but also how to explain them to decision-makers. Student groups take on specific earth system policy issues, analyze options through the use of microeconomic concepts, and then make oral presentations to the class.
This two-semester course demonstrates that it is both possible and useful to think about public policy rigorously: to examine underlying assumptions; to understand how formal models operate; to question vagueness and clichés; and to make sophisticated ethical arguments. An important goal of the class is to have students work in groups as they apply microeconomic concepts to current public policy issues having to do with urban environmental and earth systems. The course includes problem sets designed to teach core concepts and their application. In the spring semester, the emphasis is on the application of concepts to analyze contemporary policy problems. Some time is also devoted to international trade and regulation, and industrial organization issues. Students not only learn microeconomic concepts, but also how to explain them to decision-makers. Student groups take on specific earth system policy issues, analyze options through the use of microeconomic concepts, and then make oral presentations to the class.
The events over year and a half have brought a renewed focus and an increased sense of urgency to recognize and address inequality in our society and institutions. These events have challenged organizational leaders to respond with comprehensive strategies to promote equity and embed racial and social justice within their organizational domains of influence. To achieve this and advance equity, an intentional and dedicated focus that recognizes the harmful effects of systemic inequities is required.
Historically in healthcare, structural inequities have resulted in disproportionately poor outcomes for marginalized groups in our society. The intersections of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity gender expression, language, disability, religion and other characteristics further identifies disadvantages and poor outcomes for marginalized groups—notably those with less access to power and resources. Additionally, false notions of racial superiority, white supremacy culture, and explicit or implicit biases contribute to disparities in patient outcomes among people of color and other socially marginalized groups.
This course will explore how leaders are able to effectively advance health equity by dismantling systems of oppression and racism in health care. The focus will be to examine leadership imperatives to establish a collaborative consciousness to instill and promote just policies and practices. To this end, the course will require students to develop an understanding of self-identity and an awareness of how one’s individual actions impact interactions between colleagues, team members and others. The course will provide strategies for effective leaders to establish a foundation to advance diversity management, promote equity and establish inclusion best practices within organizations. In particular, the emphasis will be on leadership accountability to initiate conversations and set forth strategic actions to sustain organizational change.
One of the lessons learned during COVID is the importance of clear communications. Effective public health communications saves lives; bad communications creates fear, uncertainty and worse. Good communications can also make better health policy and expand budgets, saving even more lives.
But too often, senior executives in the public, private or non-profit sector expect that their good works alone are sufficient to gain the support of others, maintain funding, or advance a critical policy agenda. Unfortunately, it isn’t so. In an age of media oversaturation, rapid technology advances that continually atomize people’s attention, and intense competition among interest groups for decisionmakers’ hearts, minds and budgets, successful health professionals must include issue advocacy and communications in their arsenal of weapons to keep their interests relevant and compelling, to move others to action, or to affect public policy.
This course focuses on the practical aspects of issue advocacy and public health communications. It is designed to give the public health professional an introduction to issue advocacy and public health communications, and an understanding of the critical components of developing and implementing such campaigns.
Recent years have seen closer integration of countries around the world, with increased flows of goods and services, capital and knowledge. There are two alternative views concerning globalization: one, reflected in the protest marches from Seattle to Genoa, argues that globalization has hurt the poor, has been bad for the environment and is governed by undemocratic institutions operating behind closed doors, advancing corporate and financial interests of the more developed countries. The other argues that globalization is the only means by which developing countries will be able to grow and eradicate poverty. This course tries to enhance understanding of these alternative perspectives. It analyzes the underlying forces that have led to globalization and identifies its effects, particularly in developing countries and when and why it has had the adverse effects that its critics claim and when and why it has had the positive effects that its proponents argue for. It also examines the need for international collective action, discusses the structure and conduct of international economic organizations and assesses the extent to which they are to be blamed for the failures of globalization or should take credit for its successes. The course ends with a discussion of alternative reforms of the global economic architecture."
This is the first of four didactic courses that discuss techniques for anesthetic administration and related technologies in the context of various surgical and diagnostic interventions in diverse anesthetizing locations. Focus is assessment and management of monitoring modalities and other techniques in the perioperative environment. Cultural humility will be incorporated into care plans to develop anesthetic management individualized to patient identities and cultures while including an emphasis on social and cultural health disparities.
This lab is the first of three lab/simulation courses. Focus is placed upon essential technology and procedures utilized in the management of the patient during the preoperative, intraoperative, and the postoperative period. The course activities promote a synthesis of lecture content obtained in Principles & Practice of Nurse Anesthesia I course. Lab/simulation experiences will develop the psychomotor skills and critical thinking inherent to the practice of nurse anesthesia. Specific procedural skills must be safely demonstrated. Cultural humility will be incorporated into care plans and simulations to develop anesthetic management individualized to patient identities and cultures while including an emphasis on social and cultural health disparities.
Individual projects in composition.
Climate risk is real. It is costly to the economy, society, and the world, as evidenced by high and ever-increasing Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) estimates. Most businesses and corporations, meanwhile, experience climate risk mostly indirectly, via policy, technology, and market risks. This class focuses on climate risks head on, exploring to which extent they also pose direct financial risks to business now and in the near future. Along the way, we will answer a number of questions, such as: If climate change is so costly, why does it not show up (more) in asset prices? If climate pollution is so bad, why is polluting so profitable? We will also dive into questions around insurability of physical assets like real estate, stress testing of financial assets, and corporate scenario planning. Lastly, we will discuss risk as opportunity for those relatively better able to take advantage of risks and uncertainties.
This course is designed to equip healthcare management, public health and policy graduate students with
the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare settings. The
course covers the fundamentals of AI, its applications in healthcare, ethical considerations, and strategic
implementation. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify opportunities for AI deployment,
manage AI projects, and evaluate their impact on healthcare operations and/or patient outcomes.
This is the fourth didactic course that discusses the various methods and techniques of anesthesia administration with an emphasis on the physiological basis for practice. Alterations in homeostatic mechanisms and advanced anesthetic management throughout the perioperative continuum of patients undergoing advanced, complex surgeries and procedures are emphasized. Cultural humility will be incorporated into care plans to develop anesthetic management individualized to patient identities and cultures while including an emphasis on social and cultural health disparities.
Open to all SIPA with pre-req or concurrent-req: Macroeconomics.
This course aims to provide a well-rounded understanding of financial development over time and across countries, with an emphasis on public policy. Topics include a review of the foundations and processes of financial development; the roles of markets, instruments, and institutions; issues related to systemic financial stability; links to financial repression and globalization; and the developmental and oversight roles of the state. Financial activities arise in response to the interplay of a few easily identifiable frictions and related market failures, operating within an evolving institutional environment and uncertain macroeconomic context. Finance has both a bright side (welfare-enhancing financial development) and a dark side (financial instability and potential excess finance).
This conceptualization of financial development is supported by a review of the fundamental foundations of finance through simple modeling exercises, statistical illustrations of financial trends, and references to specific country experiences, many drawn from the work of IMF or World Bank financial sector-related missions.
Recitation slots will be used for guest lectures on frontier issues or for instructor-led discussions. These sessions may cover some of the analytical underpinnings for subsequent lectures, explore the policy implications of recent topics, or actively debate themes of special interest to students.
The course is intended to help students understand the role that financial markets and monetary policy play in the global economic environment that they will have to face in the future. It also provides an understanding of the underlying institutions, both political and economic, that either make financial markets work well or that interfere with the efficient performance of these markets. The course develops a series of applications of principles from finance and economics that explore the connection between financial markets and the macro economy. In addition, given the instructor’s prior position as a governor of the Federal Reserve, the class also provides an inside view on how the most important players in financial markets, central banks, operate and how monetary policy is conducted. The course will have a strong international orientation by examining monetary policy and financial crises in many countries and possible reforms of the international financial system. We will also focus on current events reported in the financial press with an extensive and open-ended discussion of 20-30 30 minutes in every class in which we will use the analytic frameworks developed in class to help us to understand these developments.
Technological innovation has been transforming the financial services industry, and further disruption is almost a certainty. Financial Technology (“FinTech”) start-ups are tackling many realms of consumer financial services, including mobile payments, foreign exchange, marketplace (peer-to-peer) lending, saving and investing, financial advice (robo-advisers), and property-casualty, health and life insurance.
The goal of this course is to understand the economic and technological forces driving this change and to learn how to harness them in a responsible way. The curriculum is organized by product areas within consumer financial services, and for each area we’ll cover the underlying economics, the technology, the public policy issues, the competition, and the potential for collaboration between start-ups and the incumbents. Note that we will not cover in depth the topics of cryptocurrencies and blockchain - if these are your primary interests, there are other courses offered focusing specifically on these topics.
A key component of the course is a collaborative team student project: each team will propose and develop a prototype for a new fintech venture. At the end of the semester each team will present its project to the class, and a guest from an NYC venture capital firm will join us and provide feedback.
Are Google search practices anticompetitive? Should Facebook be broken up? Does Amazon have too much market power? The course will present the economic rationale for competition policy and provide students with an understanding of the practice of competition law. Through the examination of prominent antitrust actions, we will review the economic theories underlying competition law and we will discuss how competition policy places limits on firm behavior and affects firm strategies and managerial choices. The course will start with an overview of the institutional framework of competition policy in the U.S. and in the E.U. and an economic analysis of welfare implications of market power. Then, it will address different types of actions that are the focus of competition policy enforcement: mergers, collusions, and unilateral conducts. These actions will be analyzed through the study of well-known antitrust actions in the U.S. and in the E.U. In particular, the course will focus on recent cases in the digital economy.
The purpose of the course is to help students understand, predict, adapt to and shape the evolving world of political economy from the various vantages they will hold during their careers. Part One examines the foundations of modern political economy laid by the grand masters Smith, Marx, Keynes and Schumpeter. Part Two examines development in American political economy during the 20th century. Part Three examines whether events so far in the 21st century signal sea changes in American and international political economy.