Strategic management in life sciences and healthcare
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| 4 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-course assessment | Includes residential school |
Register for the course
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No current presentation - see Future availability |
| This course is expected to run until May 2010. | |||
Summary
A leading-edge course in strategic management for those working in the Life Sciences and related Healthcare sectors – both private and public – who are involved with the supply or purchasing of medicines, devices and related goods. The course equips you to challenge conventional wisdoms and develop coherent and credible alternative future scenarios that could lead to more effective ways of providing healthcare support to patients. You will acquire research, analytical and critical judgment skills enabling you to deal with important issues such as complexity, risk, strategic option development, portfolio management and strategic resource allocation.
Course content
The course is divided into four blocks, each block into a series of short books that take you from understanding who the important healthcare stakeholders are, what they do and how and why they do it, to a strategic debate of the key issues and opportunities in life sciences and healthcare and, finally, into a comprehensive future scenarios-building activity. The course makes extensive use of existing material, integrated with the core text, to ensure the continual contact with the important current issues and debates.
The aims of BS811 are:
- To provide an overview of how different healthcare systems around the world operate and how their interaction with healthcare suppliers acts as a driver within the industry.
- To describe how suppliers such as the pharmaceutical companies interface with the various healthcare systems and how this market differs from conventional markets.
- To analyse the business models for suppliers to the healthcare systems such as pharmaceutical companies, how these differ from companies in other sectors and how they are affected by the drivers outlined earlier.
- To critically analyse the role of regulation, finance, social policy and science on the sector.
- To analyse the limitations of the present model and understand why change is necessary.
- To analyse how the sector has changed in recent years and the causes of these changes. To use this information to predict in the short term how healthcare systems will change in the future and how supply-side stakeholders will need to change to meet these demands.
- To understand the significance of complexity, uncertainty and risk on long term planning and the role of innovation and knowledge management on future strategies.
- To understand, formulate and synthesise a range of scenarios to predict the shape of the sector in the long term and thus develop robust strategies for future planning.
- For the student to understand their position and that of their employer in the sector, in terms of organisation, management, market, suppliers, consumers, regulation, science, finance, social policy and ethics.
- To develop key skills for masters level study such as literature searching, critical reading and analysis, the synthesis of complex ideas and extensive information and the presentation of findings in different forms such as reports and posters.
Vocational relevance
The course is directed towards strategic decision-makers and those who have the potential to move into strategic positions and, crucially, those who want to equip themselves to influence the future directions of medicine discovery and healthcare provision.
Residential school
At the residential school you will work on case studies and scenario planning. Satisfactory attendance is required if you want to gain credit for this course. The cost of the residential school is included in the course fee.
Entry
The course forms part of the MBA (Life Sciences) (F38) programme. To register for this MBA you must have an honours degree or equivalent, and a minimum of three years’ experience in a managerial, professional or technical role. Usually this means that you are at least 25 years old. Although Strategic management in life sciences and healthcare (BS811) is worthwhile on its own, it is particularly aimed at those aspiring to the MBA (Life Sciences). You must still meet the same entry requirements whether you are studying this as a standalone course or as part of the postgraduate qualification. If you are taking the course as part of the MBA (Life Sciences) you must complete Stage 1 first. If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Preparatory work
Science and finance ‘primers’ will be provided to help you during the course, however, you may wish to read these before starting the course to make your study easier.
Qualifications
BS811 is a compulsory course in our
BS811 is an optional course in our
Some postgraduate qualifications allow study to be chosen from other subject areas. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
The course materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Other alternative formats of the course materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
You will need to make considerable use of a personal computer and the internet. After you have registered you will receive detailed information about the residential school site and the facilities available to help with the academic programme.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklets Meeting Your Needs and Meeting your residential school needs, which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, study guide, primers, DVD containing support resources such as case studies, articles, reports, video material etc., an e reader of existing and commissioned articles, a course website, access to the literature through The Open University library and online forums.
Computing requirements
This course has online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave. The course software is provided on CD-ROM or DVD.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new Windows computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual. Please note that you can use an Apple Mac or Linux computer if you can run Windows using Boot Camp or similar.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the course materials and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You will be able to contact your tutor by telephone, correspondence, email and through online forums. We may be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged to attend, where these will be held depends on the distribution of students taking the course. The minimum we will offer is one national day school at the start of the course followed by electronic tuition throughout the year. If numbers permit the amount of face-to-face tuition will increase with a corresponding decrease in electronic tuition. Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the final course starting date in May 2009.
How to register
We regret that we are currently unable to accept registrations for this course. Where the course is to be presented again in the future, relevant registration information will be displayed on this page as soon as it becomes available.
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A postgraduate course.
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