Guest blog by Marta Mota and Kate Sohn
Healthcare is a small but mighty (and rapidly growing) community at Booth. Healthcare Group (HCG) is key in bringing this community together and providing recruiting, networking, and educational opportunities for those passionate about and those interested in learning more about healthcare during their full-time MBA. On behalf of the Booth HCG co-chairs and club members, we’ve felt incredibly lucky to be able to shape the direction of the club this past year, particularly through our January trek to Boston and February conference in downtown Chicago.
Having gone to the Bay area last year, we were excited to switch coasts and explore the biotech hub that is Boston this year. With the help of a generous (and anonymous) alumni sponsor, we were able to cover the expenses of the trip for our members to make sure that everyone who wanted to attend could attend. Booth HCG visited 6 companies (Azenta, Biogen, Entrada, LRV Health, Sanofi, Tessera Therapeutics) over the course of 2 days. It was exciting to learn more about gene writing, endosomal escape vehicles, cryogenic storage, and more. We also had an alumni happy hour with University of Chicago and Booth alumni currently at Fresenius, LRV Health, MassHealth, Medidata, Optum Health, and OrisDX. Overall, all members of the trip were able to bond over a group dinner, shared rides, and even a surprise birthday cake.
Our conference this year was focused on “Health at What Cost? The Triple Aim of Healthcare”. The triple aim of healthcare refers to the great challenge in healthcare of balancing cost, quality, and patient experience. We had 3 dedicated panels focused on different functional perspectives (biotech, payor-provider, and investing) regarding the triple aim of healthcare. We also had a fireside chat with Shana Kelley of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, a session focused on generative AI with an interactive demo from Laguna Health and insights from the Blue Venture Fund, and a keynote speech on provider burnout from Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld of the AMA. During lunch, conference attendees were able to chat with nine different healthcare startups focused on improving health equity for LGBTQIA+ patients, addressing substance use disorder, building point-of-care blood testing for fertility clinics, and more. We are thankful for the support of Humana, HCSC, the Healthcare Initiative, the Polsky Center, the Gleacher Center, and all HCG volunteers who made this event a success!
It’s been an amazing year for healthcare at Booth and we are excited to hand over the reins to our wonderful co-chairs for next year! Our greatest takeaway is how awesome Booth alumni are from both our trek and conference outreach experiences. We love being a part of the healthcare community at Booth and look forward to seeing HCG continue to grow!
