Greater Emphasis on Health Outcomes and Drug Therapy Costs/Benefits Highlights In-Demand Careers 

Greater Emphasis on Health Outcomes and Drug Therapy Costs/Benefits Highlights In-Demand Careers

Healthcare is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries. In the U.S., industry experts say healthcare spending accounts for almost 20% of our GDP (what measures the monetary value of goods and services produced here).

The healthcare industry — how we take care of people and the assessments, treatments, medicines, and technologies that come into play — will continue to grow as new medical advancements and offerings emerge. As the industry evolves and becomes more complex and competitive, the industry realizes the business side of healthcare needs more attention.

New Focus on Outcomes and Drug Costs and Benefits

Two healthcare business focus areas, health outcomes and pharmacoeconomics, are getting new attention and resources. These areas are part of what some healthcare professionals call the melding of two worlds — medicine and business.

Health outcomes is the study of healthcare and its effectiveness — how to improve it, drug development, drug usage, or medical devices, and healthcare services in general.

Pharmacoeconomics focuses on the costs and benefits of drug therapy.

What It’s Like to Work in a Health Outcomes Job

People who work on the outcomes side of healthcare perform their work in a variety of ways, including clinical research, data collection and analysis, research and development and in the technology and medical device areas.

If you’re wondering what your focus could be working in the health outcomes side of the healthcare business, it depends on the role and your employer. You could work in an office where you spend time on research and data evaluation. You might work in a public health department alongside other municipal office employees. You could be an independent health outcomes consultant working from home as a contractor in a nonprofit organization. Or you could be in the field collecting data for a federally funded health study.

Taking a closer look at real people working in this field, a quick search on LinkedIn reveals many people using “health outcomes” somewhere in their profile, for example:

•  “On a mission to improve the health outcomes for everyone … a technology leader with two decades of experience in information technology and healthcare.”
• “I help health organizations achieve positive health outcomes.”
• “Experienced healthcare executive and senior attorney … committed to improving health outcomes and access.”
• “Helping healthcare organizations create better patient experiences, reduce complexities and improve patient and health outcomes.”

What It’s Like to Work in Pharmacoeconomics

If your professional focus is pharmacoeconomics, you concentrate on the economics side of medicine related to drug development and drug efficacy. You might spend your time evaluating the economics of a certain drug therapy, analyze how to reduce drug costs or how to measure costs and outcomes of drug therapy. The focus of your work to compare one drug to another, or you might be on the logistical side of the equation – the production, distribution and storage of drugs.

Just as it is for a health outcomes professional, where you do this work will be dependent on your role and who you work for. You could work in academia, for a pharmaceutical company, for the government or a healthcare provider.

Another LinkedIn search query shows the many people working in pharmacoeconomics and their focus areas and passions:

• “Experienced health/pharmaceutical economics, policy and outcomes researcher.”
• “Action-driven medical professional … and expert-level communicator and collaborator with healthcare practitioners.”
• “I am passionate concerning pharmacoeconomics which can be used to affect patients positively and lead to decreased costs for the health care system.”
• “Perform cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses for pharmaceutical therapies as well as healthcare programs.”

Learn more about UC’s 100% online Health Outcomes & Pharmacoeconomics program.

Accredited Master’s Degree in Health Outcomes & Pharmacoeconomics

The two healthcare business focus areas of health outcomes and pharmacoeconomics overlap and complement one another, as we can see from our LinkedIn research.

The Master of Science (MS) in Health Outcomes & Pharmacoeconomics degree at University of Cincinnati (UC) incorporates the best of both healthcare business worlds in a fully online program. Introduced recently, the accredited, nationally recognized graduate-level program prepares you for a career in health care research, administration, medical affairs, public and private health systems, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries and more.

The course curriculum includes a total of required semester credit hours to satisfy the degree requirements. You can customize your experience here by choosing courses that best align with your personal and professional goals.

We designed this online program for a working professional who needs to balance school with job responsibilities and their personal life. And because we know flexibility is key to a great educational experience, you can choose to study full- or part-time — whatever schedule is best for you.

When you enroll in the MS in Health Outcomes & Pharmacoeconomics program, you’re introduced to a mix of courses that benefit your healthcare business goals, whether those goals include a health outcomes or pharmacoeconomics focus or both specialty areas.

Featured courses from the curriculum include Biostatistics & Research Methods, Ethics in Scientific Research-Pharmacy, Drug Development, Leveraging Analytics and Business Intelligence Tools for Healthcare and Use of Real-World Data in Health Outcomes Research.

For your capstone project, the Advanced Health Care Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Reporting course prepares you to use healthcare data to make decisions and transform healthcare delivery and the health of individuals and populations.  Throughout the semester, you’ll spend time drafting, revising, and finalizing a journal-ready paper. At the end of the term, you’ll be ready to professionally communicate your capstone work, having mastered the conventions of scientific communication, clear writing, and proper style.

Ready to Find Success in These Healthcare Growth Areas?

The healthcare industry’s focus on health outcomes and pharmacoeconomics is expected to grow. More qualified professionals are needed to work in these areas.

If one or both specialty fields are of interest to you, why not take the first step and connect with a UC Enrollment Services Advisor? The representative can answer specific questions about the online MS master’s degree program and cover the more personal aspects of why people choose UC. We’re known for the one-on-one support we offer from the day you start until you graduate and how we help active-duty military students, veterans and military family members achieve their educational dreams.

Our advisor team is here to take your calls Monday–Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST at (833) 347-5495. Let them know how we can help you get the most from your UC Online experience.