Fixing the other Health Care Issue; Unique Challenges

"Despite high per-capita spending, health care in Canada consistently underperforms, according to the Commonwealth Fund, which tracks indicators for accessibility, timeliness and outcomes across a number of developed countries. The system that is straining to meet demand today will face an even higher burden in the years ahead, as the population ages. A number of Canadian business schools are looking to meet this challenge by educating future health care managers to bring new perspectives to old problems.

The co-director of McGill's MD-MBA program believes that not only should managers in the health sector have some understanding of the medical world, but also doctors and other clinicians should have some business skills.

"At earlier stages of their careers, physicians are mostly involved in direct patient care," Dr. Vedatverter says, "but it doesn't take them too long to be in charge of small units in acute care centres, and then of larger units. Ultimately some become administrators and policymakers as well. Medical school training is focused on providing the best care to the patient, but then when you become an administrator, you start facing some issues about how to manage processes and resources. Without the proper training, managers often resort to intuition and experience to tackle the problem.""