SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Online communities are helping patients find and share information and connect with each other at unprecedented levels. But can they also create social value by helping to bridge the disparities between rural and urban health care?

Information technology belongs in health care, but humans need time to figure out the best ways to work with machines like IBM’s Watson, participants said Oct. 21-22 at the 2016 Workshop on Health IT and Economics (WHITE) in Washington, D.C. Integration will require input from diverse players across the health care ecosystem, said keynote speaker Anil Jain, Explorys and IBM Watson Health senior vice president and chief medical officer. “Progress will be incremental,” he said. “We have a lot of smart people engaging with think tanks and other organizations.”

Professors at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business placed No. 1 in the world for "faculty quality" in The Economist's 2016 full-time MBA rankings, marking the third consecutive year atop the category. Prior to the current run, the school finished No. 2 for faculty quality in 2013. Overall, the Smith School finished No. 47 globally and No. 32 in the United States in the latest rankings, released Oct. 13.

UMD Smith School-Hosted Workshop on Health IT and Economics set for Oct. 21-22 in D.C.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Front-line protection of U.S. communities against disease epidemics relies on seamless information sharing between public health officials and doctors, plus the wherewithal to act on that data. But health departments have faltered in this mission by lacking guidance to effectively strategize about appropriate IT investments.

Meeting current customer demands won’t be enough in 2025, keynote speaker Calvin G. Butler Jr. said on Nov. 13, 2015, at the fourth annual Smith School Business Summit in Baltimore. “Meeting the current demands of customers is only part of it,” said Butler, CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. “You need to think about where your customers are going, and you need to meet them there.”

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Can you catch bad health habits from your peers? How about from your subordinates or even your boss? Yes, according to new work from the Robert H.

A team of MBA students from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business developed and presented a health care management solution to capture the fourth annual Cognizant Business Consulting Case Competition. The Smith MBA Consulting Club hosted the competition’s final round in Van Munching Hall on October 16-17, 2015.

When it comes to generating revenue, the U.S. health care system sometimes rewards quantity over quality. Fixing the flawed incentives will require greater transparency about the costs and values of services, experts said Oct. 9-10, 2015, at the sixth annual Workshop on Health IT and Economics, hosted by the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

On Oct. 6, 2015, undergraduates and alumni of the global fellows program at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, along with other Terps and local students, joined for a movie screening of ALIVE INSIDE and a discussion on ageing and managing four generations in the workplace. The event was presented in partnership with Helping Our Communities Honor Ageing (HOCHA) and the Alive Inside Foundation.