Programs

• Wharton Health Care Club
• Health Care Business Conference
• Wharton Health Care International Volunteer Project
• Health Care Management Alumni Association

Wharton Health Care Club

The Health Care Club organizes professional, academic, and social activities for all Wharton graduate students who are interested in exploring opportunities in the health care industry. Members share their curiosity and experiences regarding current issues facing hospital, physician, managed care, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device organizations.

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Health Care Business Conference

The Wharton Health Care Business Conference is in its 11th year as the leading health care forum for industry professionals, academics, and students. The annual two-day event takes place every February in Philadelphia, PA, and typically draws over 500 attendees from across the nation. Corporate sponsors fund the conference's operations. The 2006 conference will be held on February 16th-17th at the Park Hyatt Bellevue in downtown Philadelphia.

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Wharton Health Care International Volunteer Project

Wharton students providing healthcare consulting services in developing nations.

Club Mission
WHIVP's mission is to improve healthcare services in developing nations. The program is designed to give students of the Wharton Business School's Healthcare Management Program the opportunity to participate in service projects for healthcare systems with severely limited resources and overwhelming health problems, such as the HIV epidemic.

History
Each year, small groups of students volunteer their services for two to three week consulting engagements. For the past four years, we have been working in South Africa with the City of Cape Town Health System. During the summer of 2004, 19 students completed four discrete projects for the public health system. Teams analyzed rising drug costs, developed clinic staffing models, recommended strategies for improving health promotion for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and trained staff in use of MS Excel. This past winter, a team traveled to India to create an HIV epidemiologic profile and improve HIV screening and data collection for the Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society.

2005/2006 Projects:

Botswana, August 14 - 27
With a national HIV infection rate of 35%, the healthcare system in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana is severely understaffed. Specifically, while economically stable, Botswana faces a critical shortage of physicians who can manage anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy. A free-standing clinic in Gaborone is the pilot site for TherapyEdge-HIV patient management software, which is designed to increase clinic capacity and improve quality of care by allowing non-MD's to manage care for HIV patients and prescribe available ARV drugs.

Four students will assess the clinic's financial position and operations in order to maintain the financial stability and solvency of the site during this critical pilot study and beyond.

India, December 23 - January 7
A team of ten students will increase access to surgeries which remove cataracts and treat blindness for many remote, rural, and culturally distinct sections of the local population.

We will be working on-site at the Aravind hospitals, a nonprofit organization working in the field of eye care. Aravind's five hospitals performed 228,000 surgeries in 2004. Aravind has started its own training institute called Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO). We will develop a management control matrix model for LAICO focusing on two hospitals to increase their expansion capacity.

How do we use donations?
Students must pay for their own airfare, accommodations, and in-country travel. A typical trip costs $4,000 per participant.

WHIVP seeks donations to offset the cost for students who are volunteering their time and energy to these worthy public health projects. We accept money and transferable travel rewards. Please contact the WHIVP Director of Fundraising if you would like to make another type of donation.

To Make a Tax Deductible Donation
All donations to WHIVP are tax-deductible.

Student volunteer consultants can provide invoices. Donation checks can be given directly to students. Checks and vouchers can be mailed, along with your return address so that we can provide a receipt, to:

WHIVP
205 Colonial Penn Center
3641 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6218

WHIVP is part of the Wharton Graduate Association, a tax-exempt organization pursuant to Section 501 (c)(3) of the IRS regulations. Furthermore, it is designated as a charitable organization pursuant to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations.

The WGA Tax Identification Number is 23-273-1689.

You can reach the Director of Fundraising, Ryan Berger, at: W.Ryan.Berger.WG06@wharton.upenn.edu

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Health Care Management Alumni Association

Coming soon.

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© Copyright 2006 Wharton Healthcare Business Conference