PHILADELPHIA, July 5, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced that the executive education division of The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) will join Wharton's Aresty Institute of Executive Education. The reorganization will allow the University of Pennsylvania to better serve leaders in health care management.
The programs offered by LDI will now reside in Wharton Executive Education. Both Wharton Executive Education and LDI have served clients in the health care industry independently, and have collaborated in the past by sharing faculty and other resources. This reorganization will formalize the relationship by clustering the University's health care executive education expertise within one organization. LDI will continue to be the nexus of the University's health services research and health policy expertise.
David A. Asch, MD, MBA, executive director of LDI, said, "The health care industry is large, growing rapidly, and faces a unique set of management issues. LDI and Wharton Executive Education are uniquely positioned to help health care providers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device manufacturers expand their senior management capacity."
"Wharton Executive Education is thrilled to welcome these dedicated individuals into our organization," said Vice Dean Jon Spector, director of Wharton Executive Education. "Not only will it allow us to serve a wider range of health care clients-it also shows the benefits of integrating knowledge," a major theme Penn is pursuing along many dimensions across campus.
Dr. Asch added that LDI's experience in serving health care providers will be an asset to Wharton's clients in other sectors of the health care industry, such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices. "Providers are the ultimate decision makers for what products get used, and how health care is actually delivered. Our understanding of this end of the market can translate to insights for many of Wharton's existing clients."
Working with Penn's schools of medicine, business, nursing, communication, dental medicine, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, LDI is the center of Penn's activities in health services research and health policy. Wharton Executive Education is internationally renowned for providing premier executive education to the world's top corporate leaders. By grouping the executive education experts from both organizations together under Wharton Executive Education, the University is now better positioned to assist the leaders in the health care industry.
Under the new plan, LDI's three-member executive education team, led by Rosemary Bloser, will combine with Wharton Executive Education's health care industry group, led by Judy McHugh. Together, the team will be responsible for working with leading health care companies, from the inception of the relationship through program design, delivery and follow up. Dr. Kathy Pearson, who serves as academic director for a number of LDI's programs, will stay on in this role and continue to serve clients.
About Wharton Executive Education
Each year, Wharton Executive Education works with more than 8,000 business leaders on its campus in Philadelphia, at Wharton West in San Francisco, and at sites around the world. The Wharton Learning Continuum is Wharton Executive Education's model for delivering Impact Through Education(tm)--supporting companies and individuals in a 9- to 12-month learning process that is designed collaboratively with clients, delivered by Wharton faculty, and monitored to produce specific outcomes.
About LDI
The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) is the center of the University of Pennsylvania's activities and programs in health services research, health policy, and health care management executive education. A formal cooperative venture among Penn's schools of medicine, business (Wharton), nursing, communication (Annenberg), dental medicine, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, LDI works to improve the health of the public through multidisciplinary studies on the medical, economic, social, and ethical issues that influence how health care is organized, financed, managed, and delivered. LDI represents one of the earliest efforts to promote collaborative scholarship in health care through formal partnerships within the same university among the clinical, management, and social sciences.
About the Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania-founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school-is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The school has more than 4,600 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; and an alumni network of more than 81,000 graduates.
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