Industry Consulting Project: Inside the MSc in Healthcare Innovation & Data Science program in Shanghai
What does it actually look like to study healthcare innovation on the ground in China? Here's a look at how our students are spending their International term in Shanghai, and why it matters for their careers.
Picture this: you're in Shanghai, working alongside data scientists, medical device engineers, and health startup founders, solving real problems for real companies. That's not a distant possibility in the MSc in Healthcare Innovation & Data Science at emlyon business school. That’s the International Term.
A full immersion at our Shanghai campus
Based in Shanghai, the Asian Campus Semester program as part of the International Term is one of the experiences that makes this program genuinely different from a traditional master's in health management or data science.
Seven weeks may sound short, but the international term is deliberately designed as a dense, high-impact experience - not only a study trip.
From day one, students are embedded in a professional project with local industry partners, operating in a city that happens to be one of the world's most exciting environments for health innovation. China's healthcare system is undergoing a radical digital transformation - from AI-powered diagnostics to connected hospitals to precision medicine at scale. Being immersed in this environment, working with local companies, and navigating a different cultural and professional context gives our students a perspective on global health innovation that simply cannot be replicated in a classroom.
The international term in Shanghai is structured around one core deliverable: the Industry Consulting Project.
The Industry Consulting Project: immersion in the healthcare ecosystem
The Industry Consulting Project (ICP) is at the heart of the International Term in Shanghai. Rather than working on fictional case studies, students are matched with industry partners and tasked with delivering concrete, actionable solutions to genuine business challenges, in health technology, data strategy, or healthcare operations.
The current cohort recently gathered for their ICP Kick-off Day, the official launch of this collaboration. Alongside their ICP mentors, students met representatives from three partner organizations, each bringing a distinct challenge to the table:
- SPH KDL HEALTH (Shanghai): a major player in the Chinese healthcare market, offering students exposure to hospital networks, pharmaceutical distribution, and health data systems at scale.
- OYMotion Technologies: a robotics and neural interface company working at the intersection of AI and physical rehabilitation, pushing the boundaries of what technology can do for patients.
- MustardTek: a health tech innovator tackling challenges in healthcare delivery and data-driven operations.
Each company walked students through their organization, their strategic priorities, and the specific outcomes they are looking for from this collaboration. From that point on, students are the ones in the driver's seat, applying their skills in data science, innovation strategy, and healthcare management to build something that matters.
What MSc in Healthcare Innovation & Data Science students actually do during the Industry Consulting Project?
The Industry Consulting Project is a consulting engagement. Students work in teams, supported by their industry mentor and the program's academic faculty, to analyze the company's challenge, gather and interpret relevant data, design solutions, and present their recommendations.
By the end of the international term in Shanghai, each team delivers a final report and presentation to their corporate partner. These aren't academic exercises filed away in a drawer - they're professional deliverables that companies actually use.
Why an international term in Shanghai?
The choice of Shanghai as the base for the international term is deliberate. China is home to some of the world's most ambitious health innovation ecosystems, where the pace of change in digital health, biotech, and health data infrastructure is accelerating faster than almost anywhere else. For students, building careers in health innovation, understanding this market, and building a network within it, is a meaningful professional asset.
Beyond the professional dimension, living and studying in Shanghai for seven weeks builds the kind of cross-cultural agility that global employers increasingly look for. Healthcare is a global industry, and the leaders shaping it needs to be able to work across cultures, systems, and contexts with confidence.
What this means if you're considering the MSc in Healthcare Innovation & Data Science
If you're exploring master's programs in health innovation, digital health, or healthcare data science, the international term is one of the things worth looking at closely, not as a selling point, but as a signal of what the program actually prioritizes.
Our MSc in Healthcare Innovation & Data Science program is designed for students who are looking for a challenging curriculum, real professional experience before graduation, and the opportunity to develop a global perspective on healthcare.
Companies that partner with us for the Industry Consulting Project – such as SPH KDL HEALTH, OYMotion Technologies, and MustardTek - choose to work with our students because they recognize the value of the collaboration. This reflects the level at which the program operates.
After graduating, alumni of the MSc in Healthcare Innovation & Data Science program seek positions as Clinical Data Managers, Product Managers, Digital Transformation Consultants, Innovation Project Managers, or Data Analysts, in consulting firms, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, startups, and public sector organizations.
Ready to take the next step? Download the brochure or apply!
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