Bond University will be the first in Australia to offer aMaster of Healthcare Innovations, when the ground-breaking program is launched later this year.
The Gold Coast University will join a small number of leading international institutions in the USA and Europe that are delivering a Master degree to healthcare ‘change makers’ wanting to lead and influence important health reforms.
Through the program, Bond aims to educate students on how to analyse healthcare systems and explore how contemporary, evidence-based health, educational, business and research practices can create a more effective, efficient and sustainable healthcare industry.
The Master of Healthcare Innovations has been designed with doctors, nurses and allied health workers in mind - as well as health administrators and other professionals - who may have reached a midpoint in their careers and harbour a desire to move towards influential leadership roles.
Bond University is now accepting enrolments for the program, with the first cohort of post-graduate students to commence in September (2019).
Professor of Innovations in Medical Education at Bond University, Janie Smith, said the global health landscape was changing and systemic reform was critical for healthcare to be sustainable and meet the needs of a 21st century society.
“In the first world, our healthcare systems are still very much based on an acute care model and this needs to change,” she said.
“Chronic disease causes 90 per cent of all deaths, and we know most of these deaths are preventable.
“We are also dealing with an ageing population, with people over the age of 65 expected to double by 2056. What we already know is people use healthcare most in the last five to ten years of their lives, so we need to improve our systems now, to be able to cope with this increasing demand.
“Technology is developing rapidly and the healthcare industry needs to embrace disruptive technologies that are available now to enable us to work smarter and more effectively.
“Perhaps most importantly, healthcare workforces have always been siloed - we need a paradigm shift that ensures doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and others in the industry are talking to each other and working more collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams.”
Professor Smith said, from the outset, Bond wanted to deliver a contemporary Master degree.
“We wanted to create a program that was innovative in and of itself; that embraced the new technologies and systems available to us,” she said.
“There is a real need for the workforce to be systems thinkers and designers – leaders who are going to create and influence positive change, and make a big picture difference to how healthcare is approached and delivered in the future.
“The Master of Healthcare Innovations takes a good hard look at healthcare and the way we are doing things now, and asks the tough questions - what can we do better, and how?”
With an emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross-industry learning and collaboration, Bond’s Master in Healthcare Innovations has been developed in partnership with Queensland Health and the Gold Coast Health and Hospital Service.
The University’s Health Sciences & Medicine faculty also collaborated internally, leveraging its internationally renowned Centre for Research and Evidence-Based Practice (CREBP) and drawing on Bond’s strengths in business and research education by partnering with Bond Business School and its Transformer program.
Bond University’s recently-appointed Executive Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine, Professor Nick Zwar, said the Australian-first program further strengthened the University’s leading health faculty.
“There are other universities offering a healthcare innovations subject here and there, but Bond will be the only university in Australia to deliver a cohesive Master program,” he said.
“Globally, this kind of degree is only being offered at a small number of institutions internationally, in Copenhagen University in Denmark, as well as Penn University and Ohio State University in the USA, with intensive workshops offered at Harvard University’s Macy Institute, which is generally considered to be leading the way in this exciting, nascent area of healthcare education.
“Bond University is pleased to be joining global leaders in the field who are educating and empowering the healthcare professionals of tomorrow to create positive, lasting change to our healthcare systems.”
Offered full-time (one year) and part-time (two years), Bond’s Master of Healthcare Innovations program will be delivered to small cohorts via intensive workshops, blending traditional and online learning to cater for interstate or international students, and those balancing studies with work.