AI Leadership for Healthcare Certificate Program Forthcoming from Maryland Smith

Healthcare professionals, including managers, administrators and clinical professionals, have an opportunity to learn and apply artificial intelligence (AI) to solve problems in healthcare through a new professional certificate program from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The 18-week-long AI Leadership for Healthcare launches Jan. 19, 2021. The fully online program requires no IT programming experience and is designed to provide a full perspective of the business of healthcare.

“In an intimate, cohort environment, participants will experience hands-on AI exercises guided by award-winning research experts,” says Christine Thompson, executive director of Maryland Smith’s Executive Education division, which is administering the new program. “Our hybrid learning model is ideal for working professionals. It blends live, virtual sessions and self-paced content.”

Among the aforementioned experts is the program’s academic director: Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) Gordon Gao. He says the new offering “answers a critical turning point that’s ahead – one in which AI no longer belongs to a handful of high-tech companies and is rapidly becoming an essential tool for daily work in healthcare.”

“However, the dazzling advances in AI have created a huge knowledge gap,” adds Gao, who also directs Maryland Smith’s Health Insights AI Lab, which collaborates with healthcare systems, market-leading companies and startups.

Four, sequenced modules comprise the new program. Participants will engage asynchronously and in live, online sessions – through each module:

Financial Insights for Healthcare will review the fundamentals of healthcare finance while showing how AI is applied across the revenue cycle. Topics include medical coding, denial management and fraud detection. Faculty: Melvin Seale, PhD, assistant professor and director of Graduate Studies and Dylan H. Roby, PhD, associate chair and associate professor, both in the Department of Health Policy and Management, UMD School of Public Health.

Healthcare Operations and Patient Engagement will introduce various AI tools that have been used to reduce costs, minimize waste and create value in the healthcare sector. The module also will show how to leverage AI for greater patient engagement by assessing patient preference, enhancing treatment precision, and improving service processes. Faculty: Michelle Dugas, PhD, senior research scientist at CHIDS.

Health Tech and Informatics will cover core health informatics knowledge, systems and management concepts. Participants will have the opportunity to learn strategies, methods and policies for applying data from clinical, administrative and analytical systems. The module will further cover current trends in cybersecurity, usability and cloud computing. Faculty: Kenyon Crowley, PhD, managing director of CHIDS.

Leading AI Transformation will show how to build AI capabilities across an organization and to lead with a data-driven strategy. Participants will learn how to cultivate an effective organizational culture, manage both change and the unique demands of introducing AI to the workplace. Faculty: Neta Moye, PhD, clinical professor of leadership and assistant dean of career services at Maryland Smith.

Collectively, the modules will lead participants through dozens of AI tasks. “It’s a high touch online learning experience,” Gao says. “The first module covers the essentials of healthcare finance as they relate to AI technologies within the healthcare industry. The second shows how to apply AI tools to solve challenges in healthcare operations. The third covers the essentials for AI technologies, and the fourth shows how to build out AI teams and manage AI projects.”

Essentially, AI Leadership for Healthcare “will provide professionals in this field with an understanding of how AI applications and strategies are being deployed across the core functions of healthcare,” says Thompson. “It will equip current and future healthcare leaders with the insights needed to critically evaluate AI opportunities, develop AI strategies and lead AI projects.”

January 15, 2021 is the deadline to register for AI Leadership for Healthcare.

Discounts are available for AIHC and HIMSS members and alumni of Maryland and other Big10 Conference schools.

For more information, write to [email protected].