Academic Program

The BEP curriculum emphasizes the key domains of business, basic biomedical science, and clinical medicine. Students are taught by experts in each area and interact with other students pursuing careers in those domains. Through this integrative experience, students develop the multidisciplinary skills they need to be successful leaders in biomedical business. 

 

The curriculum consists of the following key elements:

 

Management stream subjects are composed of core courses and electives from Sloan's wide-ranging curriculum. The biomedical science subjects, drawn from the HST curriculum, familiarize students with medical terminology and extend their understanding of physiology (molecular, cellular, and systems) and pathophysiology. BEP students take MIT Sloan business subjects with MBA students and Sloan Fellows and biomedical science and engineering subjects alongside HST's MD and PhD students. These HST and MIT Sloan subject offerings complement special integrative BEP subjects that together provide students with essential business tools and a fluency in the languages of basic biomedical research and patient care. 

 

During the BEP clinical experience, students come to understand the process and culture of the health care enterprise, including both patients and health care institutions, which are the customer and key beneficiaries of any successful biomedical enterprise. Electives in technology, biology or business complete the BEP experience. 

 

All BEP students are required to complete a master's thesis. The goal of the thesis is to provide students with a research experience that integrates both biomedical technology and managerial considerations involved in some real-world issue. Students' thesis work must be co-supervised by a Sloan faculty member and an HST thesis supervisor with relevant biomedical expertise. The HST thesis supervisor can be drawn from MIT, Harvard Medical School, or any of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals. In the case of BEP/Sloan Fellows students, one thesis will satisfy thesis requirements for both degrees. 

 

All BEP students must also take a minimum of 36 units of biomedical sciences restricted electives.