Public Health Entrepreneurship
The Public Health Entrepreneurship (taught by Teresa Chahine) 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 removing 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. COVID-19 has brought to light for many the complexities in drivers of health, and the role of entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral collaboration in eliminating health disparities.
We examine cases of entrepreneurship for health equity in the U.S. and globally, using a research-based framework to analyze the role of innovation and design thinking, resource mobilization, financial viability, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and systems strengthening. Cases include start-ups and new ventures within existing institutions, referred to as intrapreneurship. 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 extrapreneurship. This course brings together students from the Schools of Management, Public Health, Environment, Divinity, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and undergraduates.
