Mary Liang
“One of the real strengths of the program is the people you get to work with. My team members included physicians, nurses, researchers as well as individuals working in the insurance field and pharmaceutical/biotech. Everyone brings such a unique perspective to the topics; it really makes the conversations engaging and diverse.”
MSQM: Health Analytics
Industry:
Prior Education:
North Carolina State University
Biomedical & Electrical Engineering, 2014
Reflections
There are many challenges in the field of health care and this program does a great job getting people to think about the complexity of the issues. Our Value-Based Care class prompted people to think about unintended consequences around what might seem to be an obvious solution. The Analysis of Healthcare Effectiveness and Outcomes class furthers this idea in showing how determining what is effective needs to be thought about carefully as it’s a complex metric to capture. All the courses in this program help students develop critical thinking skills.
Before Fuqua
I was a Solutions Architect at a startup focusing on health care interoperability. Being at a small company really allowed me to experience other departments that I would not have been exposed to elsewhere. I worked with clients, collaborated with internal teams to improve product quality, and explored how we could expand our offerings.
After Fuqua
Mid-program I got a Healthcare Solutions Architect job at SAS. This program partly gave me the leg up to get it. I could speak more competently about health care in interviews than I could have before the program. At SAS, class topics come up daily, whether related to analytics or health care policy or overall business practices.
My Favorite Professor
Barak Richman, a professor for Ethics and Legal Issues in Healthcare Analytics, has been one of my favorite professors. He skillfully cold calls on students but without the normal fear that follows as other students can be called upon for help. Additionally, his classes are dynamic with most of the conversation coming from the students. He allows for side topics based on current events which really allows for students to test their understanding of the topics. He also has kept the cases we study relevant, so nothing feels out of date.