Profile: Business schools focus on health as Covid highlights challenges

Nora - New courses and centres, including UCL's Global Business School for Health, are launching as the pandemic puts leadership in the spotlight. As the pandemic amplifies the problems faced by health systems around the world - from ageing populations and rising costs to inefficiencies and increases in chronic conditions - business schools are responding with new programmes and institutions focused on healthcare. The need for business model innovation is increasingly evident as expenditure on healthcare outpaces growth in gross domestic product in many advanced economies. Leaders at the clinical, operational, strategic and policy levels find themselves under pressure to do more with less, extend health coverage, tackle shortages of staff and accelerate digitalisation. The skills taught at business schools, from operations and people management to innovation and finance, appeal increasingly to healthcare professionals and those in associated sectors. "There is a growing recognition that healthcare is not just a public service, it's a business," says Nora Colton, the inaugural director of University College London's Global Business School for Health. The school, launched in September, aims to educate the healthcare leaders of the future and address challenges highlighted by the pandemic.