Healthcare Management and Leadership unit launched at MGSM

Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) has launched a new unit for MBA students, ‘Healthcare Management and Leadership’, which will be offered for the first time in term four 2013 to those that wish to lead, govern or manage within the healthcare sector.

MGSM Deputy Dean Associate Professor Guy Ford said the specialist unit came about due to the fact that the healthcare sector “has its own unique set of challenges that warrant a very specific focus”. Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor Professor Bruce Downton added, “The healthcare systems of Australia and around the world have become incredibly complex and very fast-paced,” and “this needs a new set of leadership skills and [an] understanding … of how health systems have evolved to the state they are today.”

It has been two years in the making, following engagement and feedback from key healthcare industry leaders, including more than a dozen current CEOs. And not only have healthcare leaders been consulted on the unit but, as Ford explained, they will also help deliver it. From companies such as Ramsay Health Care, Cochlear, Ashurst and more, CEOs will be “leading the first half of the classes in conjunction with our own strategy and leadership experts,” said Ford. The unit will be led by MGSM academics Graham Millett and Professor Mark Compton MA.

Downton said the Macquarie University campus provides “a unique circumstance for Australasia”, providing students with access to “a university hospital, the hearing hub, having the Cochlear headquarters on the campus of the university, as well as many healthcare organisations within a stone’s throw of this campus”. This, he said, means the students will be able to have an experience which is both broad and in-depth, working with real senior executives from companies involved in healthcare.

MGSM will be holding information sessions about the unit on 5 and 22 August from 6-7 pm, with registration available here. Ford stressed that the unit is “not exclusive to healthcare professionals - this is exclusive to anybody who wants to understand more about this sector and the challenges that it faces, and solutions to enable the sector to move forward”.