The Why and How of Entrepreneurship Education in Healthcare Training

Healthcare entrepreneurship is teaching students how to create companies, and more broadly, how to create value through medical practice, technology, education, intrapreneurship and social entrepreneurship as well. There are a host of large scale and individual level positive (opportunity) and negative (avoiding consequence) drivers of healthcare entrepreneurship programs. Entrepreneurship is, by its very nature, a versatile life school. Entrepreneurship education in healthcare training can benefit healthcare professionals, employers, consumers, hospitals, and the US economy. Challenges to implementing entrepreneurship education programs relate to finances, faculty, institutional characteristics, logistics, and time. The validity and methodology of assessing outcomes varies widely amongst programs. As there is no consensus on measures used to assess the short term or long-term value of these programs and peer reviewed literature on programs is minimal, the value of these programs as currently deployed is relatively unknown and certainly questionable. A review of entrepreneurship education in STEM, Pharmacy, Nursing, Public Health, Dentistry, Occupational Therapy, and Physician training programs was conducted. Large variety can be found in course structure, pedagogical techniques, and the trainee population. A combination of didactic and active learning techniques, team-based learning, use of technology, and incorporation of a final project were common. Topics emphasized frequently in programs include thinking and problem solving, social skills, engineering, leadership, and a host of business and systems related knowledge and skills. Weaknesses in entrepreneurship education curricula and research are noted, and suggestions for future programs and data reporting are described.