• Understand how learning occurs (from basic neural mechanisms to behavioral changes)
• Understand how to assess learning effectiveness
• Identify limitations and challenges of the current model of medical teaching
• Identify and understand the main teaching models (e.g., student-centered, teacher-centered)
• Identify and understand the main concepts and tools for effective teaching/learning
• Identify and understand how to effectively use educational tools
• Develop critical thinking on how to design an effective online course that aims to result in long-lasting learned skills for participants

• Learn different types of teaching strategies to find the right one for you
• Use your newfound knowledge to build your own course during Transforming Health Care Education: The Science of Learning and Art of Teaching
• Join a global cohort of others in health care looking to create their own teaching style
• An optional one-day workshop to present participants’ mock classes to faculty and TAs for review
• Experiment with different technologies to find what’s best for you in the rapidly growing world of long-distance learning

• April 1, Week 0: Tutorial Lecture
  This session will introduce the program, providing an overview of the key learning modules and goals. Participants will be guided through the objectives of the course and the importance of understanding how learning and teaching intersect with neuroscience, motivation, and technology. This will set the foundation for the journey ahead, preparing participants to reflect on their teaching practices and how they can evolve.

• April 8, Week 1: Neuroscientific Basis of Learning (Learning & Neuroplasticity)
  Understanding the basics of neuroplasticity to design effective educational programs.
• April 15, Week 2: Getting Ready and Engaging Attention in Learning (Learning & the Midbrain)
  How to engage students’ attention during the learning process using bottom-up (multi-sensory) and top-down strategies, managing cognitive overload, and understanding priming and pre-exposure.
• April 22, Week 3: Interaction and Relationships in the Classroom (Learning and the Limbic System)
  Understanding the biology of emotions and relationships and their impact on learning, the effects of stress, and the power of peer collaboration.
• April 29, Week 4: Consolidation of Learning (Learning and the Forebrain)
  Understanding memory consolidation and strategies to enhance it (retrieval, spaced learning).
• May 6, Week 5: Learning and Motivation (Learning and the Chemical Brain/Dopamine)
  How motivation works and what motivates students. Explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivation systems, and strategies to enhance student motivation.

• May 13, Week 6: Using the Traditional Lecture in an Effective Manner
  Preparing and delivering effective lectures, incorporating active breaks, student participation, mini-lectures, and experiential learning techniques (simulation, games, role-playing, service learning). Introduction to the flipped classroom and project-based learning.
• May 20, Week 7: Teaching to Promote Critical Thinking
  Learn the four elements (analogy) of critical thinking and how to design your program to foster critical thinking skills among students.
• May 27, Week 8: Teaching with Team-Based Learning
  Collaborative and peer tutoring learning techniques. Learn about the ideal size and duration of group activities, individual accountability, and preparing students for real-life projects through group learning.
• June 3, Week 9: Teaching with Socratic Discussions and Seminars
  Preparing for a Socratic discussion, using kinesthetic warm-up activities, ideal class sizes, and incorporating the case method into teaching.

• June 10, Week 10: Technology and Innovation in the Classroom
  Explore technologies to enhance teaching (learning management systems, social media, student interaction apps, and educational apps for lectures). Understand how to effectively design distance-learning online programs.
• June 17, Week 11: Assessment, Grading, and Feedback
  Why do we often get assessments wrong? Consider the motivational systems when designing evaluations. Understand how to use feedback as a form of assessment, explore new assessment tools using technology, and the challenges of measuring learning accurately.
• June 24, Week 12: The Final Class – Transformative Teaching and Learning
  Reflecting on the “why” behind teaching, connecting to the first class, and discussing the importance of physical, social, and emotional well-being as a teacher.

• Grasp the essential differences among boards of for-profit companies (including private equity and venture-backed firms) and nonprofit organizations
• Connect to and learn from women who have achieved demonstrable success as board members
• Appreciate the legal, operating, and regulatory issues and concerns for all board members, while gaining awareness of the differences posed by company or organization structure size and stage
• Learn the essential responsibilities and duties of board membership and leadership
• Develop your own individual action plans to seek and obtain board seats

• Get practical, real-world advice and information that you can use the moment you finish the program
• Opportunity to learn from accomplished women board members, renowned Harvard faculty, and leading experts in board compensation, legal and regulatory requirements, and board recruitment
• Professional networking with fellow executives
• Career-enriching experience in a small, personal setting of no more than 55 participants
• Development of individual action plan to use immediately

• Analyze clinical workflows with a focus on the clinical decision that can be improved with AI, and design new AI-enhanced workflows 
• Understand the nuances of different accuracy metrics to assess the performance of different AI models for specific use cases 
• Grasp the concepts of MLOps and machine learning model deployment 
• Identify the potential for model drift and how to account for it in a model maintenance plan 
• Plan and conduct change management for AI-powered process changes 
• Identify what team members—data engineers and scientists, MLOps specialists, and others—you need to fully implement a clinical AI project 

• Hear from experts in the implementation of AI into clinical practice, from health care institutions to health care tech CEOs
• Work through a real-world case study with the guidance of experts in the implementation of AI solutions into clinical practice
• Network with like-minded leaders from across the world through small group discussions in an interactive virtual environment.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Analyze a health care problem that may be solved with AI by using design principles
• Describe the different stages of AI development and implementation, and what skills are needed to successfully advance the project
• Identify necessary professional skills required in a successful health care AI team
• Guide a multidisciplinary team through the process of developing and implementing an AI solution into clinical practice
• Design a plan that includes the different elements of an AI health care project: workflow analysis, data and modeling, deployment and change management

• Review and understand basic radiological principles, applications, and effects
• Receive guidance, strategies, and updates from applicable radiological emergency planning and response government agencies
• Understand the need for, and application of, protective action guides in emergency planning and response
• Learn how local, state, and federal agencies can assist in radiological planning and response
• Understand radiological emergency planning as it applies to current nuclear power plants, future nuclear power plants, radiological medical emergencies, and radiological terrorism events
• Learn how the news and social media will report on your radiological emergency and how to prepare and successfully respond to that intense visibility
• Actively participate in two radiological event simulations covering techniques used for a technical response and for news and social media response
• Apply the knowledge learned to comprehensively review and upgrade your current radiological emergency planning

Participants in this course will include radiological, regulatory, and other professionals brought together by their commitment to protecting public health. This program is a unique opportunity to meet with and discuss radiological emergency management from the perspective of the many stakeholders involved in radiological emergency planning, response, and recovery. Participants will have many networking opportunities to interact with the lecturers and with their peers. Both novice and experienced personnel will benefit greatly from this program.

• Articulate the key issue in health care quality 
• Explain the fundamentals underlying the science of improvement 
• Define improvement aims 
• Form improvement teams 
• Analyze processes of care 
• Develop improvement indicators 
• Plot time series charts 
• Test and implement changes to improve health care processes 
• Monitor and evaluate results of tested changes and make decisions based on them 
• Conduct iterative testing of changes to achieve the desired result 

• A simulation exercise around a NACS (Nutrition Assessment Counseling and Service) case study example. The simulation exercise starts from developing the aim statement and goes through the step sequence of setting up the improvement team, flowcharting the process of care delivery, developing the improvement indicators, testing and monitoring changes in the process of care delivery, graphing the results of the tests on a time-series chart, and acting based on the results of the tests to iteratively make continuous improvements.  

• Design of each participant’s own health care improvement project. Each participant chooses the health care priority they would like to improve. They will receive guidance on setting the aim for the improvement, how they will measure that they have achieved the improvement and lay out their plan for how they will conduct it.  

• Implementation of health care improvement: Improvement projects, to be conducted by each participant over the next few months. These include data collection, analysis of processes, plotting of annotated time series charts, showing changes that have worked, and changes that have not. 

• Understand the state of mental health problems globally and in the U.S.
• Develop insights into the reasons for limited progress in realizing mental health equity
• Understand the key principles of transforming mental health care in diverse settings
• Identify the key policy actions needed to transform mental health globally

• Dynamic and interactive sessions led by expert Harvard faculty
• Foster personal and organizational growth through small group discussions with like-minded peers
• Become aware of the latest developments in evidence-based programs across the world
• Advance your executive and leadership skills in strengthening mental health care services

A carefully integrated curriculum permits participants to examine fundamental managerial issues from the perspective of several disciplines. A new program initiative or downsizing proposal, for example, may raise managerial problems concerning departmental and institutional strategy; the application and utility of systems analysis and quantitative analytical methods; basic economic trends and legal constraints; financial analysis and control; and organizational behavior, design, and development.

The overriding purpose for learning concepts, techniques, and skills in any of the management disciplines in this program is to understand their managerial use and limitations. For example, the course in financial analysis and control does not aim to develop expert accountants or to provide accounting skills, per se. The purpose in learning to analyze the cost and financial implications of program decisions, for instance, is: (a) to better understand the fundamental methodological issues involved, the driving factors behind any particular analysis, the limits of such analysis, and the need to blend this with clinical, strategic, and other non-financial judgements; and (b) to improve the ability of a participant both to manage staff and to interact more effectively with the fiscal affairs personnel in their hospital, health system, or medical school.

The program’s overall objective is to enhance and develop participants’ leadership abilities and effectiveness. This is accomplished by providing broader understanding of their responsibilities as leaders; perspective on some of the critical leadership and management issues they face; and understanding and awareness of concepts and techniques relevant to management.

Upon completion of the program, participants will have gained:

• Increased understanding of their responsibilities and tasks as leaders of clinical departments and members of the leadership group of their institution
• A broader appreciation of and insight into the external challenges facing, and changes occurring in, academic medical centers; the range of options and responses available; and the implications for their own institution, clinical service, and academic program
• New perspectives on issues they face currently and on those which arise in the future
• Knowledge of relevant concepts and techniques in several key management disciplines
• New methods to analyze problems and an enhanced capacity to identify the critical questions
• Greater effectiveness as departmental and institutional leaders in formulating and implementing new initiatives and managing change

Innovative Case-Based Learning: Mastering Leadership Through the Case Method

The principal method of instruction in the program is the case method, a technique pioneered and refined at Harvard Business School. Most of the cases present actual problem situations familiar to chairs of clinical departments. Special case materials based on field studies of specific issues faced by service chairs have been and continue to be prepared by the faculty.

The case method confronts the participant with an actual management problem, halted at a point where decisions must be made, and forces the participant to choose a course of action. Participants go through a three-step study process. First, participants study each case independently. Participants then meet in small discussion groups to test their individual analyses against those of their peers. Finally, the entire class discusses the case, with the professor as catalyst and guide. The professor points out considerations the class has overlooked; elicits from participants the lessons of experience; pursues each line of investigation to its conclusion; and finally, summarizes the discussion and draws out the major lessons it has taught.

Assigned readings and guest lecturers supplement and augment the use of cases. In addition, an important part of the learning process occurs during the informal exchange of insights and experience among participants and faculty.

Classes and discussion groups are scheduled six days a week. Preparation for classes averages six hours a day. Registration is scheduled for 3-4 pm on the first day of the program. The following Sunday is free except for cases to be prepared for Monday’s classes. Participants are required to free themselves of professional and family responsibilities for the period of the program so that full attention can be devoted to the educational experience.

This program covers both the theory and application of leadership and management skills for physician leaders. Throughout the program, participants will engage with individuals from different international health systems who are all facing similar health care challenges. In particular, you will:

• Apply broad strategic knowledge of the health care system in which you work to plan and implement changes in health care delivery at the organizational and unit level

• Articulate your highest priorities as a leader in a health care organization
• Demonstrate insight into, and appreciation of, the external challenges and changes occurring in health care systems worldwide as well as options for effective responses
• Employ concepts and frameworks in key disciplines, including, patient safety, quality improvement, innovation, financial management and control, and performance improvement
• Apply improvement methods when diagnosing and solving problems
• Employ best practices on leading and managing health care organizations
• Deploy change management skills

Harvard will provide ongoing support during the program, guiding you through the steps required for successful change and spread. With the support of and interaction with faculty, coaches, and peers, you will apply classroom learnings to the context of your home environment and culture.

This program is designed for physician health care executives and emerging leaders from around the world, including:

• Chief Executive Officers
• Chief Financial Officers
• Chief Medical Officers
• Chief Operating Officers
• Chiefs of Staff
• Clinical Department Directors
• Executive Directors
• Medical Directors
• Medical Superintendents
• Vice Presidents
• Other executives whose responsibilities require them to allocate substantial resources, develop policies, and provide organizational leadership and direction for personnel

Past attendees have come from six continents and 25 different countries, ranging from Norway to Brazil to Australia to Nigeria.

A Doctor of Medicine (MD) or equivalent (DO, MBBS, MBChB, BMed, etc.) is required for participation in this program. Fluency in written and spoken English is also required.

Early registration is encouraged, as space is limited, and programs often fill quickly.

Program participants will be physician leaders who are change agents and innovators from around the world, brought together by their commitment to improving health care through effective leadership. By assembling physicians who are changing the health care delivery system in their home countries, this course provides the unique opportunity to develop productive alliances and enduring partnerships with your fellow physician executives.

This program offers a small, personal setting where you will learn from your fellow executive education colleagues, as well as program faculty as you exchange valuable insights and best practices. You will leave Harvard having developed a global network of leading executives you can rely on for guidance as you return home and implement what you learned.

Participants in this program have diverse social and religious affiliations. We aim to make the program as accommodating as possible in order to meet participants’ cultural and religious needs.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently opened a new space for prayer, meditation, and quiet reflection that will be open during the program. Religious institutions, including a mosque, temple, and church are also within walking distance of the program location. Meal selection and timing will also be adjusted when possible to accommodate participants’ needs.