Copenhagen Business School and the University of Copenhagen  Master of Science Program in Health Care Innovation

In Fall of 2015, Copenhagen Business School and the University of Copenhagen will launch a Master of Science Program in Health Care Innovation. The program design can be found here. One of the first international programs to be designed around the competency and pedagogical frameworks presented by the GENiE Group is the Master of Science Health Care Innovation degree to be offered by Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in collaboration with the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, in Denmark. New university programs can be offered by Danish universities only on receiving government accreditation or approval. Key to being accredited is proving a labor market need for these graduates. As a result, recent reports and policy documents referring to strengthening of innovation capacity in the Danish health system were scrutinized and a range of senior executives representing diverse stakeholder groups were each interviewed to gauge their opinions on whether these skills sets were needed as well as to get a sense of the estimates of the number of graduates that the Danish market could absorb.

Reports, including Inno +  The innovative Denmark  2013 (1), The Digital Path to Future Welfare — The eGovernment Strategy 2011-2015 (2),  and The Boston Consulting Group’s Evaluation of Future Opportunities in Medicon Valley (3) all strongly propound the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in optimizing healthcare delivery and access as well as in building a world class ecosystem in life science entrepreneurship in Denmark.  The executives, like those interviewed for the GENiE Group articles, were overwhelmingly supportive of education and training in innovation as they felt that it would fill a key caveat in the health system’s ability to attain full potential. It was conservatively estimated that the Danish health system could absorb approximately 5,000 graduates with about 30 percent joining provider groups and 25 percent joining consultancies, which play a key role in the Danish health system. A third would be foreigners, who generally return home.

1.         Danmark, Ministeriet for Forskning I og VU. INNO+ - the innovative Denmark. Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education; 2013.

2.         Danmark, Regeringen DR (forening), KL, Danmark, Digitaliseringsstyrelsen. The digital path to future welfare: eGovernment strategy 2011-2015. The Danish Agency for Digitisation; 2011.

3.         Boston Consulting Group. Evaluation of Future Opportunities in Medicon Valley [Internet]. 2012