With the anticipated changes in the health care industry due to the Affordable Care Act, health care organizations are under pressure to make affordable care possible and sustainable over a longer term -- without impacting quality of care or the provider's ability to co-create value to the patient using alternative delivery care models.

It’s that challenge that drove Oakland University’s business school Dean Mohan Tanniru to spearhead the recent Health Care Transformation Forum, which looked at issues through the lens of the patient-physician relationship, within a physician practice, small clinic or large hospital.

“By hosting this forum, we hoped to advance learning about the complexities of health care and explore opportunities to see how business research and practice can help support effective health care transformation,” Tanniru says.

Throughout his 13 years in family medicine, Dr. Christopher Milback firmly believed in the benefits of preventative health care.

But it wasn’t until he completed his capstone project for his Executive MBA (EMBA) degree at Oakland University’s School of Business Administration that he was able to connect the positive impact of preventative medicine to health care’s bottom line. For his capstone assignment, Milback made a case for investing upfront not only in primary medical care, but investing equally in well-chosen preventative measures.

Many North American health-care organizations are expected to face a leadership succession crisis based on a survey of 117 senior industry executives and managers by American Management Association/Corporate Learning Solutions and reported in a February press release on the AMA's website.

Fewer than 7 percent of health-care organizations are seen as well prepared to deal with a sudden loss of key leaders, according to the survey. Only 8 percent possess a robust leadership pipeline and 44 percent have only adequate bench strength.

Dr. Muhammad Haitham Al-Midani loves a good challenge.

It is that drive to solve problems that first drew him to the medical field, and, later, to join the first cohort in the OU School of Business Administration's Executive MBA (EMBA) program.

To help business leaders stay up to date in rapidly evolving business sectors, Oakland University offers the Executive MBA program in health care management and information systems leadership.

The program, designed for highly motivated professionals, is one of very few in the country and the only one in Michigan to offer different, but complementary concentrations.  The program prepares professionals to be successful leaders in a dynamic global business environment. Launched in 2000, the EMBA already has many successful alumni in leadership positions.