MS in Healthcare Decision Analysis

Master the Business of Healthcare

USC Healthcare Decision Analysis is a specialized graduate program that directly prepares you for business careers in healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, consulting, health insurance, and medical technology.

Our real-world STEM training provides strategic management tools and actionable insights for improving healthcare value, access, reimbursement, and health outcomes.

All program courses emphasize project-based learning allowing active exploration of real-world healthcare business challenges.

Lectures from leading industry executives offered across all program courses provide unique access to critical insights from experts in their respective fields.

High Demand, Real Impact

A partnership between USC Mann and the Price School of Public Policy, the Schaeffer Center brings together health policy experts, seasoned pharmacoeconomics specialists, and faculty across USC and other leading institutions to solve pressing challenges in healthcare.

Program Benefits

• Acquire a portfolio of analytics capabilities to optimize healthcare business decisions.
• Apply strategic management tools to make an immediate impact in any healthcare business.
• Gain policy insights to lead organizations through the changing health reform landscape.
• Learning by doing through team collaborations and scenario-based learning problem-solving representing current real-world situations and critical decision pathways.
• Lectures from industry executives  are offered across healthcare decision analysis courses, offering unique access to insights and critical skills from experts in the respective fields.
• Professional development through dedicated support from program staff and networking opportunities.

Innovation: Forging New Frontiers

Since our founding in 1905, the school has fueled pioneering initiatives in research, education, and practice while fostering new generations of leaders. Our impact includes groundbreaking laboratory discoveries, novel regulatory approaches, meaningful health policy reforms, and transformative collaborations in medication management and chronic disease prevention. Curricular advances include launching the first PharmD, regulatory science doctorate, and healthcare decision analysis programs, among many others.

• 8th most innovative university, citing research from the school’s Papadopoulos Lab (ranked by Reuters)
• 4 American Pharmacists Awards Pinnacle Awards (a national record)

Full Spectrum

Our programs span the entire pharmaceutical continuum—from discovery and development to regulation and from translation to patient care and outcomes.

Alumni Network: Lifelong, Worldwide

The moment you join the school, you become part of the renowned Trojan Family—a vast, supportive international network. Our alumni hold leadership roles at major pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, top medical centers, NASA and Jet Propulsion Lab, and many other dynamic environments—and are dedicated to helping USC students and fellow graduates. We give you a world of opportunity.

• 20K+ global USC pharmacy alumni
• 32 USC pharmacy global partners
• 8 USC international offices

Community Commitment: Building A Healthier Society

Through health fairs, community clinic partnerships, public health campaigns, and unparalleled collaborations to manage chronic disease, the school’s students, faculty, and alumni demonstrate an ongoing commitment to improving the health of the community we serve. And through our Science, Technology and Research (STAR) program, we help new generations of underrepresented high school students pursue careers in the life sciences.

• 50+ annual health fairs
• 600+ graduates of our STAR program
• 10 fotonovelas in multiple languages on public health issues

Location is Everything: In the Heart of Los Angeles

Our location on a major academic medical center campus in the heart of a vibrant city offers extraordinary opportunities for internships, community engagement, and mentoring. With 140 countries represented and 224 languages spoken, Los Angeles is filled with diverse cuisine, cultural institutions, and recreational offerings. L.A. is home to more theaters, music venues, and museums than any other U.S. city, and you can ski, hike and surf in nearby beaches and mountains.