Public Health Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship

Graduate / Professional

This is a case-based course about innovation and entrepreneurship for health equity and drivers of health. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires addressing obstacles to health such as poverty, racism, gender and other biases and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, healthy foods, safe environments, and health care. We refer to these as drivers of health. The cases in this course bring to light the complexities in drivers of health, and the role of entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral collaboration in eliminating health disparities. Class discussions are aimed at providing students with experience in understanding potential benefits and pitfalls of applying public health entrepreneurship to improve health equity and drivers of health. We examine cases of entrepreneurship for health equity in the U.S. and globally, using a research-based framework to analyze the role of design justice, resource mobilization, financial viability, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and systems strengthening. Cases include start-ups and new ventures within existing institutions, referred to as intra preneurship. We also examine cases of collective impact, or innovating across multiple institutions. Over the years, students in this class have began referring to these as extra preneurship. This course brings together students from the Schools of Management, Public Health, Environment, Global Affairs, Divinity, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and undergraduates. Not open to auditors. ½ Course cr HTBA