Project Overview

Project Description:
MBA student teams researched the opportunities and threats of a community-wide electronic health records (EHR) database for organizations in various sectors of the healthcare industry. An electronic health record database can combine inpatient and outpatient medical data from multiple healthcare providers. Teams presented their research to a panel of executives from the healthcare and information technology industries.

The teams' analysis addressed the impact on business models of hospitals, outpatient care providers, physician practices, research organizations and pharmacies. Specific issues addressed include the following:

• Which types of organizations (among direct competitors) stand most to gain
• The value organizations can obtain
• How the “owner” of the EHR system can appropriate that value (i.e., revenue model)
• The costs organizations will incur to participate in the system
• Incentives that might motivate organizations to participate, and
• Strategies they might pursue to promote community-wide adoption.

Professional Value

“The ability to effectively present ideas is an essential business skill. Having students deliver their results to an industry panel, while it can be intimidating, is an important step in the development of the students and their business skills."
            Terry Rapoch, VP of IT Services, NCR  

“From working with students, the Center staff assisted in their ongoing development efforts of health information technology projects in the Dayton community. The class also served as an excellent launching point for the development of HIT curricular content for students in the health professions training programs, and students in other appropriate and related disciplines throughout the university.”
            Kate Cauley, Ph. D., Director of Center for Health Communities 

Student Value

“I gained a better understanding of how to translate information and data into strategy and recommendations. Just gathering the information is one thing, but presenting in a way in which it is useful in a real sense is quite another thing.”
              Lisa Arose

“This project reinforced my belief that an MBA at Wright State stands for quality and the skills learned are relevant and applicable in the business world today. Clearly, the opportunity to work a real life project is a valuable summary of all the skills acquired in an MBA.”
              Moctar Mohameden