Executive management studies: the application of real-time science in health administration education

While sound scientific research, such as randomized controlled trials (RCTs), has produced findings leading to significant gains in healthcare, real-time science learning gives administrators and providers a way of responding to immediate need and rapid change while improving performance and the quality of care delivered. Real-time science learning is a cycle of team reflection on and exchange of theory and practical knowledge that produces many benefits for the individual, the organization, and the healthcare field. By questioning principles and analyzing information, teams generate recommendations for organizational improvement as well as develop their individual abilities to address other unforeseen demands in differentcontexts. All of this serves as a foundation for more rigorous scientific research that leads to the advancement of the healthcare field. This article shows how the Department of Health Management and Informatics at the University of Missouri-Columbia adapted real-time science into the Executive Management Study (EMS) requirement of the Master of Health Administration (M.H.A.) and the Master of Science in Health Informatics (M.S.) curriculums. The process is represented by a cycle of Health Administration Education, experienced through a Practical Application, which leads to the creation and dissemination of information and Research Advancing the Field.