In recent years, the department saw approximately 28 students apply. That figure jumped to the ballpark of 130 applications this year, according to the report.
This flurry of applications is something to take note of at Penn, which is “the only Ivy League school and the only major business school that actually has a department of healthcare,” Wharton professor and Chair of the Health Care Management Department Lawton Burns, PhD, said in the report. The department’s first class graduated in 1971.
The department sponsors three educational programs: PhD in healthcare management and economics, the MBA program in healthcare management and the BS in economics with a concentration in healthcare management and policy.
Dr. Burns said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care is one likely reason for the spike in student interest, but also recognition that healthcare is a global concern. China, for instance, is in the process of enacting reforms, too. “Healthcare is just a big ticket issue for everybody,” Dr. Burns said in the report. “It is big in the East as well as in the West.”
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