I’m a Computer Science and Healthcare Management major. When people hear me say this, they’ll often ask me why did you decide to study healthcare management? I don’t really have a personal story for it: no tale of a doctor saving a loved one like many of my classmates, no interest in potentially entering the field of medicine or management or consulting. I study healthcare management because of curiosity.
My thought process is more or less as follows: The United States spends upwards of three trillion dollars on healthcare a year. Healthcare is consistently one of the hottest topics in any political debate you’ll find on TV, and yet it’s something that I don’t understand at all. I’ll listen to politicians ramble for hours on hours, and sit there confused about what just happened. I can think of hundreds of questions that I have about our healthcare system. Why is the United States healthcare system so dang expensive? Why is the United States healthcare system so convoluted compared to other comparable countries? What’s a single payer system and what does it mean for how much I will have to pay? Why are healthcare outcomes so radically different across our states? Why do residents work such long hours, and how do they get feedback for their operations? These are all questions that I’ve asked at some points.
Not many universities in the United States offer a healthcare management department. Though I’m often the only engineer or frankly non pre-med in my classes, why not take these classes and try to get these questions answered?
