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Research Degrees
Research at the GBSH
Located within the Faculty of Population Health Sciences, the School benefits from the Faculty’s focus on health and related areas of education and research. These institutional collaborations are reflected in the interdisciplinary manner that research themes have been identified. The three themes we are currently focusing on are:
- 1. Financial, operational, and systems improvements in healthcare
This theme represents a crucial area of inquiry in healthcare management. Rising costs, inefficient management, demographic stresses, and complex new technologies, not to mention the stresses of the interface between private and public enterprises, all pose huge challenges and opportunities for established and emerging healthcare systems. Our interdisciplinary staff will investigate various models and theories for developing operational strategies that support organizational learning for continued improvement and value creation. We will look to develop systems approaches that embed process improvements into healthcare management behaviours.
- 2. Consumerisation of health and healthcare through digitalisation
Consumerization of healthcare (CoH) theme covers the study, teaching and research of the trend of patients/consumers exercising more influence and engagement with their medical & wellness care often enabled by technology. To address this, many companies are exploring their role in the evolving health economy such as those in the retail, technology, and other related sectors so we anticipate exploring this topic with various partners. These companies are looking to address consumer and patient needs for better health outcomes. There are several important questions for our researchers to explore and address around challenges and opportunities of this evolving health ecosystem. Does health technology encourage behaviour change? Does wearable technology increase physical activity and healthier lifestyles? How does such digital technology differ across demographic groups and cultures? What research do we need to undertake concerning user behaviours before championing constructive digitalisation of the health and social care system? What is personalised care?
- 3. Future of health work and workforce
The future of health work and workforce research theme is a key area of inquiry in healthcare management today. As the demand for healthcare increases with demographic changes such as ageing populations, the demand for health professionals is growing as well. Yet, the pipeline of health professionals will not be able to meet this rapidly increasing need. The World Medical Association reports that there are currently 76 countries with less than one physician per every 1,000 people and three billion people globally without access to a health professional. Other research estimates shortages in the global healthcare workforce of 15 million by 2030. Our ambition is to combine areas such as human resource management, health policy, change management and health innovations to find ways to expand and improve productivity in healthcare services in new and innovative ways while exploring what the health workforce of the future might look like in terms of professional roles, training, and education.
