OIT 333 Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability

This course is a Bass Seminar. Project course jointly offered by School of Engineering and Graduate School of Business. Students apply engineering and business skills to design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries for challenges faced by the world's poor. Topics include user empathy, appropriate technology design, rapid prototype engineering and testing, social technology entrepreneurship, business modeling, and project management. Weekly design reviews; final course presentation. Industry and adviser interaction. Limited enrollment via application; see the website for details.

OIT 334 Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability

This course is a Bass Seminar. Project course jointly offered by School of Engineering and Graduate School of Business. Students apply engineering and business skills to design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries for challenges faced by the world's poor. Topics include user empathy, appropriate technology design, rapid prototype engineering and testing, social technology entrepreneurship, business modeling, and project management. Weekly design reviews; final course presentation. Industry and adviser interaction. Limited enrollment via application; see the website for details.

OIT 342 Revenue Optimization

Systems for revenue optimization, also called yield management or revenue management, combine the use of information technology, statistical forecasting, and mathematical optimization to make tactical decisions about pricing and product availability. A familiar example is the passenger airline industry, where a carrier may sell seats on the same flight at many different fares, with fare availability changing as time advances and uncommitted capacity declines. Revenue optimization practices have transformed the transportation and hospitality industries, and are increasingly important in retail, telecommunications, entertainment, health care and manufacturing. In this course students learn to identify and exploit revenue optimization opportunities in different business contexts. The main focus is on classical revenue management, where capacity is fixed and perishable, but closely related topics like markdown management and customized pricing are also covered. Legal issues related to revenue optimization and customer perceptions of fairness are discussed, and current practices in different industries are surveyed. The course aims to give students a broad understanding of both current revenue optimization practices and nascent opportunities: in pursuit of that objective, roughly half of the class sessions are devoted case studies, visiting speakers from industry, and student presentations on course projects (see below). However, another goal is to give students an appreciation for the core technical content of revenue optimization systems, including statistical forecasting methods and the formulation and solution of optimization problems. The lectures, homework assignments and class discussions aimed at that second goal draw heavily on skills developed in two GSB core courses: OIT 265 (Data and Decisions) and OIT 245 (Modelling). Course projects, which have a 40% weight in course grading, are done in teams of 3 or 4. Each student team makes a presentation that describes and analyzes a revenue optimization opportunity confronted by a real company or non-profit organization (the Stanford Athletics Department and the Sierra Club are examples of the latter). The ultimate purpose of the project is to demonstrate how revenue optimization techniques learned in the course can be applied in real settings.

OIT 343 D-Lab: Design for Service Innovation

Design for service innovation is an experiential project course in which students work in multidisciplinary teams to design new services to address the needs of an underserved population of users. Teams work with a partner organization and their customers to identify an unmet need, develop and prototype new service designs (including web services, services with a product component, educational campaigns etc), test these services with real customers and develop an implementation plan. Strategies for fundraising from investors and foundations are also explored and tested. In 2011 - 12, we will offer two sections: one focusing on financial services and one focusing on health services. The specific domains for the two sections will be announced in the fall based on the needs of partner organizations. Possible domains for financial services include: financial literacy for young adults, planning for major expenses at retirement, financial services for the underserved. For health services: transition to adulthood of pediatric patients with chronic conditions, managing chronic conditions, transitions to nursing care for elderly patients. Our aspiration is to develop new services that are financially viable and can have a meaningful impact in the life of our users.

OIT 344 Design for Service Innovation

Design for service innovation is an experiential course in which students work in multidisciplinary teams to design new services (including but not limited to web services) that will address the needs of an underserved population of users. Through a small number of lectures and guided exercises, but mostly in the context of specific team projects, students will learn to identify the key needs of the target population and to design services that address these needs. Our projects this year will focus on services for young adult survivors of severe childhood diseases. For the first time ever, children who have cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, major cardiac repairs, organ transplants, genetic metabolic disorders, and several forms of cancer are surviving. The first wave of these survivors is reaching young adulthood (ages 18-25). Many aspects of the young adult world are not yet user-friendly for them: applying to and then entering college, adherence to required medication and diet, prospects for marriage and parenthood, participation in high school or college sports, driving, drinking, drugs, and more. Our aspiration is to develop services to improve these young adults? options for a fulfilling and satisfying life. The course is open to graduate students from all schools and departments: business (MBA1, MBA2, PhD, Sloan), Medicine (medical students, residents, fellows and postdocs), engineering (MS and PhD), humanities, sociology, psychology, education, and law. Students can find out more about this course at: http://DesignForService.stanford.edu. Admission into the course by application only.

OIT 355 Data Based Decision Making

This course will focus on collecting, organizing, and using data as an aid to making managerial decisions. It has two related threads. The first focuses on advanced statistical and machine learning techniques for data analysis. The second is concerned with business data base organization and construction, including data collected from web site visits. Students will manipulate and use large data sets that they will collect from corporate sources, field projects, or library files. Topics include: advanced regression analysis, analysis of time series, forecasting, discriminate analysis, classification trees, clustering, neural networks, relational data bases, data mining, and data warehousing. This course can be considered as a follow-on to the Data and Decisions course. It covers advanced data analysis techniques, and issues of collecting and organizing data in data warehouses. This is a "learn by doing" course, with lots of hands-on use of software. In particular, four software packages will be used in the course. Two group projects are involved -- one to make a presentation to the class on some aspect of data mining. The second involves collecting a large data set and applying the techniques of the course to "mine" it. We expect to have about three visitors from companies that are actively using data mining.

OIT 356 Electronic Business

This course focuses on the intersection of strategy and information technology. It considers how you can take advantage of new technology opportunities and how they change the structure of firms, industries and value chains. Case studies include Salesforce.com, Apple, Google, Netflix, Linden Lab (Second Life), Amazon (The Kindle), Social Games and OpenTable. For a typical class, you will prepare an in-depth case study, and the class discussion will start from the business problems presented by the case study, how one might address them, what is the role and impact of the enabling technologies, and what are some general lessons one can draw beyond the problems presented by the case.

OIT 357 Value Chain Strategies

This course addresses how the increasingly large number of firms that use or provide outsourcing and "offshoring" can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Students who complete the course will have a framework and a set of concepts that can be used to position a firm for strategic advantage in these supply networks. Positioning in and strategic analysis of product markets is covered in a variety of courses and books. A distinguishing feature of this course is that it addresses positioning and strategic analysis for firms operating as part of a network of providers, sellers and buyers... the factor markets. The course takes a general management perspective and provides examples through cases and discussions with visitors. The major theme of the course is that these firms must carefully consider how they position themselves in both the product and factor markets.

OIT 361 Technology Concepts for Managers

Electronics, computing, networks and software applications have become an integral part of business. The course is aimed at the student who wishes to learn those electronic and computer science concepts needed to understand how computers, networks, and the software that runs them operate, but who lacks background in engineering or computer science. The premise of the course is that adequate knowledge of technology is now a prerequisite for a successful manager, but that knowledge does not have to be at the level of rigor required in the practice of engineering or computer science. This course is intended to provide a basic literacy in these areas, with an emphasis on implications for managers and organizations. A meaningful course that focuses on particular technologies is difficult because rapid changes in any technology can quickly render today's lessons obsolete. Therefore, this course will stress fundamentals and trends, rather than a snapshot of the current status of different technologies. As a result, classroom coverage of current "hot" topics in technology is subordinate to giving the technology concepts necessary for one to learn such current (and future) topics on their own. Investigation of technology will be facilitated by lectures readings and homework assignments. Students will have an opportunity to investigate and learn more about a particular technology in more depth as part of a term project.

The general flow of the course will focus upon four areas approximately as follows: Part I Electronic Systems: Fundamental Electronics (2 sessions), Digital and Microelectronics (2 sessions), Computer Hardware and Systems (2 sessions), Technology Trends (1 session), Communications including wireless (2 sessions); Part II Networks: Networked Computing (1 session), the Internet (2 sessions); Part III Software: Software and software development (3 sessions), Data Base Technology (1 session); and Part IV The Web: Clients and Servers (1 session), Case study of a web site (1 session), Video/Multimedia (1 session).

The course is specifically designed for students with liberal arts or soft science backgrounds who have career ambitions in high-tech or who wish to be more technically aware as managers. Students with hard science, engineering or computer science backgrounds are welcome but must avoid redirecting the class discussion into narrow or advanced material that causes dysfunction to less technical colleagues. Students may elect either to take a final exam or do a term project. Students electing to do a term project will create it as a Web page. Separate training for building a Web page will be offered.

OIT 362 Supply Chain Management and Technology

Firms in many industries are scrambling to develop innovative ways to move products from raw materials through manufacturing to customers more quickly and efficiently. Some are responding by necessity to competition, both domestically and internationally. Others are capitalizing on the continuing stream of dramatic improvements in information technology. They redesign their supply chains to gather, process, transmit, share, and exploit vast amounts of information quickly and cheaply. Still others are applying the radically different philosophy of seeking a cooperative approach among all the players in the supply chain. Huge improvements have been enjoyed by firms able to optimize over their entire supply chains and figure out how to share the resulting gains while breaking down the traditional adversarial relationships. Some redesign their chains to bypass unneeded stages. Other innovations derive from deregulation and lower tariffs. This course examines many of the recent innovations in this area.

OIT 374 Supply Chain Management and Analytics

Supply chain management is about the coordination of information, material and financial flows from suppliers to consumers. It involves the integration of multi-organizational interests, and is now generally viewed as a source of great competitive advantage. The advances of information technologies and the increasingly availability and accessibility of data have created great opportunities to increase the performance and efficiency of a supply chain. This course is about:
1. Analytical methods and models that have been developed to make use of data to intelligently operate the supply chain.
2. Analytical methods and models to evaluate, through the quantification of the costs and benefits of, supply chain improvement initiatives or supply chain restructuring opportunities.

OIT 384 Biodesign Innovation: Needs Finding and Concept Creation

This is the first quarter of a two-quarter course series (OIT 384/OIT 385). In this course, students learn how to develop comprehensive solutions (most commonly medical devices) to some of the most significant medical problems. Students can take a two-unit version of the course by registering for OIT581/OIT 583 when offered.

The first quarter includes an introduction to needs finding methods, brainstorming and concept creation. Students learn strategies for understanding and interpreting clinical needs, researching literature and searching patents. Working in small entrepreneurial multidisciplinary teams, students gain exposure to clinical and scientific literature review, techniques of intellectual property analysis and feasibility, basic prototyping and market assessment. Students create, analyze and screen medical technology ideas, and select projects for future development. Final presentations at the end of the winter quarter to a panel of prominent inventors and investors in medical technology provide the impetus for further work in the spring quarter. Course format includes expert guest lecturers, faculty-led practical demonstrations and coaching sessions, and interactive team meetings under the mentorship of Biodesign fellows. Projects from previous years included: prevention of hip fractures in the elderly; methods to accelerate healing after surgery; less invasive techniques for bariatric surgery; point of care diagnostics to improve emergency room efficiency; novel devices to bring specialty-type of care to primary care community doctors. More than 40,00 patients have been treated to date with technologies developed as part of this program and more than ten venture-backed companies were started by alums of the program.

Students must apply and be accepted into the course. The application is available online at http://www.stanford.edu/group/biodesign/courseapplication.html.

OIT 385 Biodesign Innovation: Concept Development and Implementation

wo quarter sequence (continuation of OIT385 - see OIT384 for complete description of the sequence). The second quarter focuses on how to take a conceptual solution to an important medical need forward from early concept to technology translation, development and possible commercialization. Students expand on the topics they learned in OIT384 to learn about prototyping; patent strategies; advanced planning for reimbursement and FDA approval; choosing translation and commercialization route (licensing vs. start-up); marketing, sales and distribution strategies; ethical issues including conflict of interest; fundraising approaches and cash requirements; financial modeling; essentials of writing a business or research plan; strategies for assembling a development team. Students continue to work in multidisciplinary teams to select a final concept and develop a business plan. Final presentations are made to a panel of prominent venture investors and serve the role of a VC pitch. (OIT581 or OIT384 are a pre-requisite).

New students in the winter quarter will need to submit an application at http://www.stanford.edu/group/biodesign/courseapplication.html. Students who took OIT581/OIT384 in the winter quarter are automatically accepted into the spring quarter.

OIT 520 Modeling Health Care Systems

In 2001 the US organ transplantation system was changed: the new system promoted broader geographic sharing of organs, and utilized a new rule for prioritizing patients on the transplant waiting list. The new system was the culmination of three years of analysis based on a complex simulation model of the organ transplant waiting list. The same year, the National Institutes of Health awarded a team of researchers from Stanford Business School, University of California San Francisco, and Kaiser Permanente a $2 million grant to evaluate new approaches in the management of patients with complex clinical needs. These new approaches would be developed and evaluated using a combination of mathematical and computational models. At about the same time, a Silicon Valley startup (Entelos Inc) completed a round of financing exceeding $41 million to develop commercial mathematical models that can expedite the drug discovery process.

Both the public and the private sector are now investing considerable resources and capital in the development of models for the health care system. The hope is that these models will result into more effective usage of scarce clinical resources, more efficient drug development and discovery, and in general better quality of care and lower costs.
In this second year seminar, we will explore the recent developments in health care systems modeling by discussing the following questions:

• What are the main drivers behind the increasing interest in models for health care systems?
• How does one determine which problems in health care can be addressed effectively by mathematical and computational models?
• What are the main challenges in the development of these models?
• What does it take to make the transition from the computational model to real life?
• Can mathematical models improve the delivery of medical care and catalyze the discovery of new treatments?
• Will others be able to replicate the success of companies like Entelos, or is Entelos the lucky child of the bubble?
• What does the future hold for health care modeling?

We will discuss these questions by reviewing evidence presented in industry reports, in the academic and in the popular press. Industry leaders in this high-potential space will be invited to join in the discussions.

OIT 522 Field Trips to Grassroots Innovators in Health Care: Improving Access and Outcomes for the Underserved

Some of the most impressive innovations in health care are developed at hospitals and other non-profit organizations by dedicated health care professionals (drs, nurses, administrators) who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and work hard to solve an important health care problem they face in their everyday patient encounters. Because of limited financial resources and because they often target underserved market segments, these innovations lack a validated business model and commercialization pathway. In this seminar we will gain hands-on experience of some of these grassroots innovations through field trips to a local public hospital (a candidate hospital is San Francisco General Hospital) and a non-profit product incubator (hopelab.org). We will then work in teams to identify and address the main barriers to commercialization for two specific innovations presented in these field trips: An electronic referral system to promote access to specialist care in underserved communities; A video game to promote healthy lifestyles in at-risk youth. We will learn and apply the brainstorming approach to come up with innovative solutions to overcome these barriers. On the last day we will meet key executives in both organizations to present our recommendations.

OIT 530 Advanced Modeling Seminar

Modern spreadsheet and simulation software now makes it possible for general managers themselves to model complex and uncertain business situations on their personal computers. This seminar will consist of hands-on experience with advanced applications for modeling situations that include both uncertainty and discontinuous change. These situations often are called "ill-behaved" because they defeat the traditional tools of analysis covered in the Foundations Modeling courses. For example, financial spreadsheet models involving discontinuous change, such as winning an auction or unexpectedly altering a production process or marketing campaign (so-called "black swan" events), may arise in business projections, but actual models of such events are rarely, if ever, considered for optimization under uncertainty. As another example, the Operations formulas used to estimate throughput times in models involving congestion and delay often cannot be applied to systems that include unexpected service interruptions or complex routing of items (e.g., modern hospitals). The mission of this seminar is to utilize recent advances in software and the speed of modern multi-core PC's that have produced easy-to-use tools for interactively building and analyzing such models.

Each day, students will build models of these more-realistic situations, using the software tools "hands-on" and working with the instructors as coaches in a laboratory setting. We will use a more advanced version of the Excel Solver add-in, called Risk Solver, which combines optimization with Monte Carlo simulation, as well as ExtendSim, a graphical tool for constructing and analyzing discrete event simulation models. Exercises will include optimization under uncertainty such as Value at Risk in financial statement projections, capacity expansion plans involving Real Options, customer service and manufacturing workflow systems, courtroom scheduling, and airport security policies.

The first 2.5 sessions of the course will focus on learning and using Risk Solver to analyze risk-based spreadsheet models with an emphasis on interpreting Value at Risk and Conditional Value at Risk constraints in such models. The second 2.5 sessions will focus on learning and using ExtendSim to model operational situations in services and manufacturing, with an emphasis on dealing with congestion and delay in complex settings.

Who should take this seminar? Our intended audience consists of students who:
a. Want to develop a deeper appreciation for how discontinuous change, risk, and uncertainty affect decision-making in financial and operational settings, and
b. Want to learn how advanced optimization and simulation software allows you to examine easily the effects of such events directly, rather than through complex and unwieldy mathematical approximations.

How much computer background is necessary? We want the seminar to be illuminating, fun, and easy to master. The seminar is designed specifically for both non-technical ("poet") and technical ("quant") students who have completed the introductory concepts of optimization with Excel Solver, as covered in Foundations Modeling (either basic or advanced), and are comfortable building Excel spreadsheets. We will assume that students have no prior experience with optimization of risk-based models or with discrete event simulation software, and would like to gain that experience now in a hands-on, build-your-own-model setting. Students will use the software both for individual preparation via tutorial documents and for classroom exercises. Each session will be team-taught by Professors Moore and Patell and will be a combination of lectures, demonstration, and coaching to help you experiment with the tools.

Enrolled students with Microsoft Windows laptops will install and use educational versions of the two applications, Risk Solver and ExtendSim, both of which include non-expiring licenses that can be used after graduation. Students without laptops may co-pilot in class with another student or use a GSB-owned loaner laptop computer that will be provided in the lab classroom. For students using their own laptop, it must run the Windows operating system (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) and Excel 2007 or Excel 2010. Macintosh laptop users must either install the Parallels application or use Boot Camp to run the same Windows and Excel software or use a GSB Windows loaner laptop. All files used in the seminar, including templates to get you started, will be saved to CourseWork for convenient access.

OIT 538 Environmental Science for Managers - Accelerated

This course satisfies the MBA distribution requirement in Optimization and Simulation Modeling (OSM). It is challenging but doable for students without an undergraduate degree in science or engineering; it does not assume experience in environmental science or quantitative analysis beyond admission requirements for the MBA program. Students will learn fundamental science of ecosystems, climate and energy systems, by building decision-support models for managing these systems. In so doing, students will develop widely-applicable skills in model representation in a spreadsheet, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation.

Students are strongly encouraged to take the follow-on course on renewable energy, OIT 540 Environmental Science for Managers II.

For the joint MBA-MS in Environment and Resources degree, students are required to take OIT 540, and either OIT 538 or OIT 539.

OIT 539 Environmental Science for Managers - Advanced

Similar to OIT 538, but allocates more class time to environmental science and implications for management and policy, and less class time to fundamentals of modeling/optimization/simulation.

Students are strongly encouraged to take the continuation course on renewable energy, OIT 540: Environmental Science for Managers II.

For the joint MBA-MS in Environment and Resources degree, students are required to take OIT 540 and either OIT 538 or OIT 539.

OIT 540 Environmental Science for Managers II

This course provides an introduction to renewable sources of electricity and fuel, and is required for the joint MBA-MS in Environment and Resources degree.

Students are strongly encouraged, but not required, to take OIT 538 or OIT 539 prior to taking this course.

OIT 542 Price and Revenue Optimization

This is the Advanced Application option in the menu of courses that satisfy the Management Foundations requirement in Modeling for Optimization and Decision Support (MODS). Three core modeling topics are covered in rapid-review fashion - model representation in a spreadsheet environment, optimization theory, and stochastic models - but primary emphasis is on the application domain described immediately below. OIT 542 is a two-unit course, with nine class sessions plus a final exam.

Systems for price and revenue optimization - also called yield management, dynamic pricing, or revenue management - combine the use of information technology, statistical forecasting, and mathematical optimization to make tactical decisions about pricing and product availability. A familiar example is the passenger airline industry, where a carrier may sell seats on the same flight at many different fares, with fare availability changing as time advances and uncommitted capacity declines. Over the last 25-30 years, revenue optimization practices have transformed the transportation and hospitality industries, where fixed capacity and advance reservations by customers are important structural factors. But model-based, data-driven pricing systems are increasingly common in other industries that have different structures, such as financial services and retail clothing.

In this course students learn about the model structures and modelling techniques that underlie systems for price and revenue optimization. Two topics are given roughly equal emphasis: model-based tactical pricing, including customized pricing and retail markdown management; and classical revenue management, where automated logic is used for booking control (that is, to make yes-or-no decisions in response to booking requests from customers), rather than to set prices explicitly.

OIT 542 is tailored to students who already have command of basic modelling techniques and wish to learn about their application in an important business context. To be specific, a prior college course on optimization modelling is assumed as background. (Typically, such courses focus on linear programming, or linear optimization, with secondary coverage of non-linear programming and discrete optimization.) Various aspects of optimization theory will be covered in quick-review format, along with the basics of spreadsheet model representation and stochastic modelling, in order to standardize terminology and establish certain conventions that facilitate grading. In exceptional cases, for students who have strong math background and high mathematical aptitude but no prior coursework on optimization, the background knowledge assumed in OIT 542 may be acquired through self-study; appropriate study materials will be suggested by the instructor upon request. The course is entirely appropriate for second-year MBA students who have completed either base or accelerated MODS in their first year.

OIT 542 draws on knowledge acquired and skills developed in two other Management Foundations courses that are taken simultaneously: Data and Decisions (OIT 265) and Microeconomics (MGTECON 200 or 203). Students are required to construct and analyze at least one model for every class session.

OIT 556 Electronic Business and Commerce

Beyond the hype surrounding the rise and fall of "dot-com" businesses, Information Technology has fundamentally changed the costs of transactions and communications, affecting the ways firms are internally managed and the ways they deal with customers and business partners. This course focuses on approaches to value creation using Information Technology and their application to a variety of business settings. It explores ways in which firms can use electronic business to create value, and strategies for capturing a portion of that value. The course will examine such issues as: how Information Technology affects information flows within the firm; electronic commerce ? applications and pitfalls; how electronic business is likely to change traditional supply chains, logistics and payment systems; and the impact of electronic business on established industries and companies.

OIT 561 Technology Concepts for Managers

The goal of this course is not to turn art historians into engineers. Rather, the goal is to provide a basic understanding of the concepts behind computing and communication technology. The course is designed for students from diverse, non-technical backgrounds, with an orientation towards the prospective manager. Technology concepts are discussed using business contexts. The need for a particular technological solution is established in the business context. Then, feasibility, complexity, scalability and cost of possible solutions are compared, and thus an understanding of the basic concepts behind the technology is obtained.

OIT 562 Supply Chain Management & Technology

Supply chain management (SCM) deals with the management of materials, information and financial flows in a network consisting of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers. The coordination and integration of these flows within and across companies are critical in effective supply chain management. In this course, we introduce key concepts and new developments in information technologies (IT) for use in SCM. In particular, the advances of information technologies such as enterprise systems, the Internet, collaborative network, operational analytics and wireless technologies have a profound impact on how supply chains are structured and run. You are all challenged to think, discuss, share, and debate on the issues brought up.

OIT 563 Technology and Markets

This course covers the role of technology in today's market environments. The focus is on the function of technology as an enabler of markets and as a tool that increases the efficiency of markets. Some topics covered are the role of technology in consumer-to-consumer markets, electronic clearing mechanisms, technology enabled methods for improving business-to-consumer market efficiency, the effect of Internet based systems on markets for procurement and the use of information systems in today's financial markets. In the end of the course, the students are expected to have an understanding of how to use technology as a strategic tool in competitive environments as well as the current state of technology applications in markets from a general manager's point of view.

OIT 571 Homeland Security: Operations, Strategy and Implementation

This course is a Bass Seminar. This course covers a variety of topics in homeland security: bioterrorism (attacks with contagious agents such as smallpox or non-contagious agents such as anthrax, and attacks on the food supply), pandemic influenza, nuclear security at ports and around cities, the biometric aspects of the US-VISIT Program, the intersection of homeland security and immigration, and suicide bombings. For each of these topics, students will typically read one academic paper that focuses on the operations aspects of the problem, and one reading about the strategic aspects of the problem. For each topic, the professor will spend part of the class lecturing on the problem (including how the results of the academic paper were implemented), and a student will be assigned as a discussant (in addition to a classwide discussion).

OIT 581 Biodesign Innovation Core, Winter

OIT 581 is a two-unit version of the Biodesign Innovation course (OIT384). In this course, students learn how to develop comprehensive solutions (most commonly medical devices) to some of the most significant medical problems. In OIT581, students learn the basic principles of biodesign innovation: methods of validating medical needs; techniques for analyzing intellectual property; basics of regulatory (FDA) and reimbursement planning; early market analysis; design principles; brainstorming and early prototyping; university licensing. Course format includes expert guest lecturers and faculty-led practical demonstrations. Students apply the concepts learned by serving as "commercialization and marketing consultants" to multidisciplinary teams of students in the four-unit course (OIT 384). Consultants interact with their teams on a regular basis and provide a consulting report on market analysis and competitive dynamics. Projects from previous years included: prevention of hip fractures in the elderly; methods to accelerate healing after surgery; less invasive procedures to perform bariatric surgery; low cost healing devices for diabetic ulcers; point of care diagnostics to improve emergency room efficiency; novel devices to bring specialty-type of care to primary care community doctors. More than 40,000 patients have been treated to date with technologies developed as part of this program and more than ten venture-backed companies were started by alums of the program.

Students must apply and be accepted into the course. The application is available online at http://www.stanford.edu/group/biodesign/courseapplication.html.

 

OIT 583 Biodesign Innovation Core, Spring

Two quarter sequence (continuation of OIT 581 -- see OIT 581 for a general description of the Biodesign Innovation course and OIT384/385 for a description of the four unit option). The second quarter focuses on how to take a conceptual solution to an important medical need forward from early concept to technology translation, development and possible commercialization. Students expand on the topics they learned in OIT581 to learn about prototyping; patent strategies; advanced planning for reimbursement and FDA approval; choosing translation and commercialization route (licensing vs. start-up); marketing, sales and distribution strategies; ethical issues including conflict of interest; fundraising approaches and cash requirements; financial modeling; essentials of writing a business or research plan; strategies for assembling a development team. Students serve as "commercialization consultants" to a multidisciplinary team in OIT385. Students interact regularly with their team and prepare a consulting report that outlines a funding strategy and validates the financial model developed by the team. (OIT581 or OIT384 are a pre-requisite).

New students (i.e. students who did not take OIT581/OIT384) in the winter quarter will need to submit an application at http://www.stanford.edu/group/biodesign/courseapplication.html.

 

OIT 586 The Future of Health

Consider the following facts about US health care:

• From 1960 to 1990, the annual growth rate in health care expenditures averaged 11 percent.
• That rate dropped to 6.5 percent in the early 1990s, but spending accelerated again in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
• We are now spending almost 15 percent of the GDP in healthcare. If the historical 30 year pattern is sustained over the next few years, 20 percent of the GDP will be spent on health care by 2010.

In this seminar, we will examine the major factors that will shape the future of health care over the next five years. Three broad categories of such factors will be considered:

1. Demographics: The aging of the baby boomers accelerates the demand for health services.
2. Technology: Technological innovation expands the array of medical treatments available for conditions that were otherwise untreatable. Technology is expensive.
3. Consumerism: Health care is a classical experience good whose cost is subsidized by health insurance. The role of consumers in shaping the demand of this product is confounded by the presence of insurance coverage and by the experience nature of the products.

We will examine the specific forces affecting each of these factors and the implications of these on the overall health care system, the payers, the providers, the innovators, and the consumers. In particular, we will examine how each of these factors contributed to the deceleration of health cost growth in the early 90s and in the subsequent acceleration in the late 90s. We will use this analysis to develop and examine scenarios for the future. The seminar will include: a. Mini lectures from the instructor developing the relevant themes and facts for each session; b. Discussion during which the facts will be synthesized into comprehensive scenarios and analyses; c. Industry guests will contribute their own perspective to the discussion and analysis. Preparation outside of class will focus on background readings. You should be prepared to discuss answers to the preparation questions included in the outline and to support your answers with a careful articulation of your assumptions and logic.

OIT 587 Global Biodesign

Seminar examines the development and commercialization of medical technologies in the global setting focusing primarily on Europe, India and China. Faculty and guest speakers from industry and government discuss the status of the industry, as well as opportunities in and challenges to medical technology innovation unique to each geography. Topics related to development of technologies for bottom of the pyramid markets will also be addressed. Application required.