ANDREW CHOI, HEALTHCARE MBA

Just got back from the Haas Business of Health Care Conference Saturday - great event! Kudos to the co-chairs of the healthcare conference and the conference committee of the Haas Healthcare Association for putting together excellent panels and keynote speakers. It had a little something for everybody whether you were interested in biotech, pharma, device, diagnostics, hospital, or payer.

I didn't actually know what to expect, but the conference was dubbed as the 'largest MBA healthcare conference on the West Coast' so why not? It was quite a trek just getting up to Berkeley. I went into Consultant mode - took the earliest flight (6:30am) on Virgin America, rode the BART for an hour, and braved the cold rainy hike up to the Haas school. Why is Berkeley so hilly anyway?

By the time I got there I already missed the first keynote on healthcare reform. The first breakout session was very interesting - Realizing Comparative Effectiveness Research's (CER) Potential in the United States: Promoting Value while Encouraging Innovation. Having done work with the Health Economics team at GE Healthcare this summer, I understand the implication of placing a value on specific treatments. In some cases it is going to be decided that a treatment isn't worth the cost and potentially lead to restrictions on specific treatments. And when quote unquote death panel gets politicized and distorts the truth to the public this becomes a very sensitivity topic. The panel did a great job diving into the nuances of CER in finding the best therapeutic outcome for the patients. While I assumed CER was used to maintain cost in the system the panelists all agreed that CER has little to do with driving down costs and more focused on informed decision making based on clinical data. So while CER might not be driving down our spiraling healthcare costs, it's good to see how CER can help patients and physicans make better decisions by providing information on what therapies work best. Now the $286 million dollar question is how much is that worth?

The other panels all provided very thought-provoking perspectives. Jason Hwang from Innosight Institute who worked with Clayton Christensen on The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care dove into how we can potentially implement a disruptive solution for our broken healthcare system. He drew parallels to the computing industry and how we were able to take a centralized product, mainframes, and through disruptions created a decentralized solution that was more affordable and accessible to the consumers. By breaking down the current healthcare model into 3 specific tracks - fee for services, fee for outcome, and fee for membership - patients, physicians, hospitals, and healthcare providers can all start to dissect and disrupt the current model. But since each of them cannot make the changes on their own, Jason suggested an integrated healthcare provider like Kaiser might be the best possible candidate to lead the change. Not easy, but a well laid out plan, which is a good start.

After the event, there was a networking reception for some good drinks and mingling. There were a lot of companies represented at the reception and the Haas alums and students were very welcoming and hospitable to a fellow MBA from USC Marshall (I made sure I didn't talk about football).

Overall, very impressed and highly recommended next year for those in the healthcare industry. Well worth the trip!

When I was an undergrad I always thought networking was an awkward attempt at socializing and getting something you need from someone. It felt icky, sleazy, and a bit cheap. I thought I would just never engage in those tactics and I would never need to. The truth was I just wasn't very good at it and my mindset about networking was all wrong.

Actual relationships with people are a big key to success, and it’s also true that most people simply aren’t very good at quickly building mutually beneficial relationships with others.

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi is a guide to networking, or relationship building, in a mutually beneficial way that avoids the cold, sleazy tactics of randomly chatting people up and grabbing their business cards. It provides usable advice and action items you can use to build relationships quickly and find ways to make other people more successful in their endeavor. It also calls for you to take inventory of who you are and what you have to offer.

As an MBA and especially in this economy, networking is a must for you to find your dream job or start your business. The more meaningful connections you have, the more you will find opportunities start coming to you.

Keith Ferrazzi also has a new book out, Who's Got Your Back, that will be next on my books to read. You can also follow Keith thru:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Personal Blog

"It's ultimately about the people. The question is 'Are you leading in this world, walking around in this world inviting those people in?' That's what networking is all about." - Keith Ferrazzi

I have been amazed and fascinated by the usage of social media to mobilize and rally people to support disaster relief in Haiti. In 2007, I worked with an organization called Emergency Communities (now Lower Nine), one of the first nonprofit organizations formed as of the result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Executive Director and I were brainstorming ideas around how we can raise donations for a smaller organization like Emergency Communities by creating a massive marketing campaign to brand Emergency Communities as a viable alternative to inefficient, bureaucratic charity programs. The goal was to position Emergency Communities as an efficient, nimble grassroots relief organization that can provide immediate, compassionate support to survivors and families of victims of natural disasters. Without a huge marketing budget though, besides using Google Adwords and a couple other online mediums we were stumped as to other forms of donation and marketing methods.

Just in the last 2-3 years, social media has revolutionized the way consumers digest information and relief organizations have been harnessing social media tools to share information to those who want to donate money or provide assistance. Twitter and Facebook have given aid agencies, relief organizations, celebrities, athletes, and individuals the power to bypass TV and radio and appeal directly to the public. YouTube has provided us immediate images of the aftermath of the earthquake. And in less than 48 hours, the American Red Cross had received $8m directly from texts alone.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to join the universal relief efforts to help Haiti. Donate to international charities who have established relief funds, including:

• The United Nations Foundation
• American Red Cross
• Doctors Without Borders
• InterAction

Thank you.

The housing bubble offers some important lessons for health-care policy. The claim that something—whether housing or health care—is an undersupplied social good is commonly used to justify government intervention, and policy makers have long striven to make housing more affordable. But by making housing investments eligible for special tax benefits and subsidized borrowing rates, the government has stimulated not only the construction of more houses but also the willingness of people to borrow and spend more on houses than they otherwise would have. The result is now tragically clear.

As with housing, directing so much of society’s resources to health care is stimulating the provision of vastly more care. Along the way, it’s also distorting demand, raising prices, and making us all poorer by crowding out other, possibly more beneficial, uses for the resources now air-dropped onto the island of health care. Why do we view health care as disconnected from everything else? Why do we spend so much on it? And why, ultimately, do we get such inconsistent results?

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Sourced from Jay Parkinson MD. Great articles on the history of our healthcare system and the current "reform"-

There are two articles one must read to understand health care reform. How American Health Care Killed My Father by David Goldhill in The Atlantic and The Cost Conundrum by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker These are the two most important articles of the past year on health care. Please take the time to read and digest them… It’s an unfixable mess that will only be solved by complete restructuring from the ground up— the top down bureaucracy that satisfies the main players of the entrenched industry will only let you down. Stop arguing or even thinking about “reform” and contribute as best you can, as collective individuals, to something totally different and new. Now get to readin’…

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with Nathalie Gosset, Head of Marketing and Business Development of the Alfred Mann Institute (AMI) at USC. AMI was founded in 1998 when Alfred Mann, CEO of MannKind Corporation and a pioneer in the medical device industry, made his first $100 million gift to USC to develop an institute that supports research, development and commercialization of biomedical devices and other technologies.

I found out about AMI through a friend recently and wanted to learn more about AMI's role at USC since we don't necessarily get a lot of exposure to healthcare at Marshall. Through a couple Google searches, I stumbled upon Nathalie's personal website and besides her credentials as a marketing and business development expert in the biomedical industry, I realized she was also a guru in career development with her own eBook - How to Find Jobs that Do Not Exist Yet. In her book, she talked about "developing a reason for which this person would like to meet you" so I decided to do just that by "identifying my own uniqueness" and reached out to Nathalie. It worked-

First, a bit of background: Nathalie joined AMI in 2002 and created and implemented the new Business Development and Marketing function at AMI after leading the Engineering Department at the Institute for several years. At AMI, she is responsible for establishing the value of each innovation and for developing product specific business plans for each one of the new inventions. In 2007, she took one of them to full commercialization with nationwide mass market distribution.

The institute reviews and establishes the value of about 50 medical ideas submitted each year. Approximately six ideas are being accelerated toward commercialization at the institute at any given time. The institute selects the most promising inventions and provides patent management, business and marketing expertise, engineering services, regulatory know-how and financing of clinical studies. AMI is currently working on licensing a new minimally invasive Cardiac Output System technology potentially for hemodialysis and critical care settings.

I asked Nathalie about how she got started in career development and helping current professionals find jobs in this particular market. She told me about her own career path in switching from the telecom to biomedical industry by focusing on her specific uniqueness - the interests, passions, knowledge, skills, and connections that made her one of kind. Nathalie knew her passion was working with people and people development and she started coaching individuals in building their own skill sets and uniqueness. Eventually she put together all her 'wisdoms' into an eBook and developed presentations and speaking engagements on the topic.

We then talked about personal branding and some tips and tricks to create additional buzz for my personal website. She gave me some advice about building more depth and focus on my own 'wisdoms' that I can offer to others. She also pointed out some key biomedical associations in Southern California I should look into for professional networking - Southern California Biomedical Council and the IEEE Buenaventura Chapter

We had a wonderful conversation and I learned a lot about career development and networking opportunities in the biomedical field. After our conversation, I decided to take her advice and had an extreme blog makeover. Now I need to spend some time inventorying my 'wisdoms' before school starts again.

Before leaving 2009 behind, I want to leave you with a couple of videos and an ebook going into the new year. A couple of weeks ago, Sam Reid, former Marshall Net Impact president and Marshall alum, came back to campus and spoke about making a difference in whatever you are passionate about. His story is inspiring and you can read all about it here.

He showed us a video called Think Different. At the lowest point in Apple's history, Steve Jobs returned to the company and reinvigorated the Apple brand with this Think Different marketing campaign that aired around 1997. The rest is history -



Now, more than ever, we need a different way of thinking, a useful way to focus and the energy to turn the game around. Seth Godin, marketing guru, has a new ebook out - What Matters Now - great book with 70+ thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about heading into the new year. Here's an excerpt:

Passion
Some people ask, “What if I haven’t found my true passion?”

It’s dangerous to think in terms of “passion” and “purpose” because they sound like such huge overwhelming ideas.

If you think love needs to look like “Romeo and Juliet”, you’ll overlook a great relationship that grows slowly.

If you think you haven’t found your passion yet, you’re probably expecting it to be overwhelming.

Instead, just notice what excites you and what scares you on a small moment-to-moment level.

If you find yourself glued to Photoshop, playing around for hours, dive in deeper. Maybe that’s your new calling.

If you keep thinking about putting on a conference or being a Hollywood screenwriter, and you find the idea terrifies but intrigues you, it’s probably a worthy endeavor for you.

You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

Download it FREE here - What Matters Now ebook. All proceeds go to Room to Read

The main theme talks to how interconnected we are as a society. Just one person, by thinking differently and focusing his/her energy on making a difference can do just that. Just one person -



"Death is the single most important invention of life…If today was the last day of your life, would you do what you’re about to do?” - Steve Jobs

Think about that when you are making your New Year resolutions for 2010. See you next year!

I am sure most people have searched using Google.com, but have never heard of Google.org, Google's technology-driven philanthropic website which uses Google's strengths in information and technology to build products and advocate for policies that address global challenges.

One of the coolest products, Google Flu Trends, uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in near real-time in 20 countries. It can help both public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu.

Our team found that certain aggregated search queries tend to be very common during flu season each year. We compared these aggregated queries against data provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and we found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week. As a result, if we tally each day's flu-related search queries, we can estimate how many people have a flu-like illness. Based on this discovery, we have launched Google Flu Trends, where you can find up-to-date influenza-related activity estimates for each of the 50 states in the U.S.

Similar to leading indicators in the financial sector in spotting potential bubbles or market declines, health indicators can be very useful in seeing potential epidemics or diseases in the foreseeable future.

Check out Google Flu Trends:

As the MBA chapter of my life comes to an end (I can't believe it is almost over! 2 years went by soooo quickly) so does my blogging about the USC Marshall MBA program. And as such, my blog is going to go through an extreme makeover to reflect my personal interest and the next stage of my life changing the world as a healthcare professional in the business world.

For the past year and a half, I have strived to provide my perspective on the MBA program at USC Marshall and the ups and downs of the life of a business school student. Blogging consistently as a b-school student was not easy as you might have realized with my lack of postings this year. The academics, career, and community aspects of b-school were extremely demanding and finding time to blog was somewhat difficult. High praises to my peers from other schools like JulyDream and Paragon2Pieces who blogged week in and week out.

Blogging provided an outlet for me to reflect upon my experience and reading entries over the past two years helped me realize the knowledge and insights I have gained through business school. It also provided prospective students a better understanding of what goes on in the business school setting and in a small way I felt like I contributed to the business school community and built the brand at USC Marshall. I received tons of emails from prospective students wanting to know more about USC Marshall, MBA life, marketing, entrepreneurship, consulting, sustainability, Net Impact, GMAT, and the application process and I provided my insights and unsolicited advice whenever I could. Social media is a valuable tool and I hope USC Marshall will continue to push forward with these new technologies to provide prospective students the personal touch required to help them make the right business school decision.

I am not so much signing off, but just slowly phasing out of my business school life and ramping up for the reentry into the real world. I will still post tidbits about my life at Marshall and Net Impact, but slowly adding entries about my personal interest in the healthcare industry. Feel free to continue to email me with any questions about the program or anything in general - I am always happy to talk to anyone about anything anywhere (for the most part). Also, if you are a prospective USC Marshall student do look at some of these sites -

• USC Marshall website (obviously)
• USC Marshall Net Impact - Net Impact’s purpose is to assist emerging leaders in creating a better world through business. We do this by promoting positive business practices, discussing the latest ethical issues, integrating social responsibility into the Marshall School of Business culture, and helping students to achieve their professional goals within this context.
• USC Marshall - Society and Business Lab - The Lab engages with people and practices in the fields of social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, non-profit management, and sustainability that address issues of poverty, education, health, and the environment. Follow SBL: Twitter SBL and Blog
• USC|Sustainability - Looking to focus on sustainability at Marshall? Check out the USC Sustainability website
• Marshall Graduate Marketing Association - A great resource on marketing and CPG industries at Marshall
• Entrepreneur and Venture Management Association (EVMA) - The EVMA provides its members with access to a dynamic network of entrepreneurs and their ecosystem, with a focus on the Venture Capital community, from the USC family and the Southern California community

Have a wonderful holiday season. Bye for now!

One of the best classes I have taken so far at USC Marshall is MOR 571 Leadership and Executive Development with Professor McCall. Prior to business school, I had led in various contexts and read about great leaders, but never thought about my leadership philosophy or the language of leadership. This course has helped me explore the challenges of leadership through various approaches of great corporate and military leaders, corporate practices used to develop leaders, and derailment of leaders. It also helped me explore the strengths I have used or exploited as well as flaws I might have hidden or compensated for to get to where I am today.

The course explores the central challenge of leadership, which is creating a context for other people to be successful in achieving the organization's mission. Meeting this challenge depends on how leaders face five primary demands:

• setting and communicating direction,
• aligning people behind the direction,
• developing the temperament to handle the stress, ambiguity, and conflicts inherent in the job,
• setting and living values,
• and growth of self and others.

Part of the course includes the development of The Map of Your Life, which is basically a way for us to figure out for ourselves who we think we are, what is worth pursuing, what we offer and what we need, what brings us to life and what saps the life out of us.

While working on this exercise, time and time again, I go back to my conflicts between money vs. happiness and rat race vs. fulfillment. Just going through all my blog entries from the past provided some interesting perspectives on my view of the world and my internal conflicts throughout business school.



Anyway, we are going to have the distinguished Warren Bennis, a leadership guru and one of the top business thinkers, in class next Monday. Maybe I can get his thoughts on some of these conflicts I keep coming across...

Just discovered this film, which provides an interesting perspective on reasons why health care costs so much. The film talks to the history of for-profit hospitals, the increasing specialization of medicine, the problems with pay for performance, and markets for medical devices and diagnostics. Not sure if MBAs are part of the problem or part of the solution, but definitely provides some food for thought.

Trailer:

During the month of November, Money-Driven Medicine will stream for free as part of the Watch-In! for America's Health: Click here