MSc in Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management

Do you have an interest in issues surrounding healthcare innovation? Are you interested in how we can meet healthcare demand with limited resources? Do you want to know how we can manage organizations in constantly changing healthcare systems? Then Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management could just be the program for you. The program focuses on the analysis of health systems and the translation of the results into innovative solutions; you’ll learn how to come up with, implement, manage, evaluate and improve innovative solutions. After you have completed your studies, you'll be an innovative professional who is able to influence the future direction of healthcare. Your broad skillset will open up many different career paths, including careers as a manager, care purchaser, a senior policy advisor, consultant or researcher.

Fast facts

• Insight into innovations in healthcare at the organizational, governmental, individual and (inter)national level
• Focus on multiple disciplines, including management, economics and policy
• 1-year full-time or 2-year part-time, taught in English. *Due to a curriculum revision, part-time intake will not be possible in 2023. This is for one year only
• Study load - full-time: 12-14 hours classes, 4 hours group work, 18-20 hours independent study; part-time: 6-7 hours classes, 2 hours group work, 9-10 hours independent study
• Starts in September

Why this program?

Never has the need for innovation in healthcare been greater than today. Consumer demands and expectations are rising. Aging and the advancement of new medical options have led to a growth in healthcare expenditures. Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management offers a multidisciplinary approach and brings together both theory and practice in its focus on innovation. And it does so on all possible levels, from micro-to-macro-level, from individual organizations to (inter)national healthcare systems, from patient relations to the process of caretaking.

Influencing the future of healthcare: innovation Across Europe, healthcare has become one of the biggest employment sectors. State involvement in healthcare features an unprecedented growth. These developments raise fundamental questions, such as:

• how to organize and implement patient-oriented healthcare,
• how to guarantee universal access to a fair package of health services,
• how to provide high-quality healthcare while containing costs,
• how to improve the performance of healthcare systems in general and healthcare providers in particular.

Key to all these issues is the need for innovation. The Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management program will therefore give you solid insight into all aspects of healthcare innovation at all levels and from different disciplines (including economics, financial and strategic management, policy sciences, innovation and quality management, process management). It will provide you with the competences needed to play a key role in initiating, governing, evaluating and managing healthcare innovations. And it will give you the ability to critically analyze health systems, to translate the results into innovative solutions and to influence the future of healthcare.

Improve your research skills In addition to the theoretical knowledge you'll gain, you will also improve your practical research skills and employability skills. So you will not only learn about for example the economics of healthcare or process management, you will also learn how to conduct scientific investigations into these or other topics. You’ll practice all the stages of academic research, including designing the research, collecting data, data analysis and reporting the findings.

Key topics The key topics of the program are:

• health economics
• innovation management
• quality management
• governance
• process management
• managing change and implementation
• strategic and financial management in healthcare

Career event In addition to your internship, you’ll also have other opportunities to get in touch with future employers. Each year, the Healthcare Policy Innovation and Management program organizes a one-day career event. This day consists of a plenary panel discussion, workshops and a network meeting. You’ll be able to talk to alumni and to representatives from different healthcare organizations. Who knows, you may even meet your future employer there.

Internships At the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, we consider internships an indispensable experience. You will gain practical and professional experience and will rapidly develop from working on assignments in small groups to becoming an independent researcher. And internships not only enhance your studies by giving you practical experience, but they also give you an edge when looking for a job. For their thesis, past students have undertaken research intersnhips here at Maastricht University or at other universities, care providers, health insurers and consulting firms as far away as Asia and South America. Topics have ranged from the effects of telemonitoring for patients with heart failure to the provision of integrated diabetes care in Krakow.

Master's thesis During the second half of the program, you will actively participate in research and complete a master’s thesis under the close supervision of the academic staff. Past topics have included:

• Effects of day surgery units on hospital efficiency in Austria (Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, Vienna)
• A cost of illness study of HIV/AIDS patients in Bogotá, Colombia (Universitad del Rosario)
• Integrated care in Europe: what is measured and how? Identification of indicators and measures used in practice (WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen)
• The Impact of Healthcare Financing Methods on Hospital Discharge Processes (Mazumdar Shaw Medical Center, Bangalore)

Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management research at Maastricht University The staff involved with the master’s program in Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management conducts research that focuses on creating value-based healthcare, including, among others:

• Innovations in health services, particularly for long-term conditions. Purpose of this research is to supply policy, practice, and industry with evidence-based knowledge that helps enhance the quality, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of healthcare.
• The evaluation of interventions (health technology assessment and health economics). This research supports decision-makers who are deciding about healthcare innovations.
• Psychosocial, clinical and environmental determinants of healthcare problems, such as the need for care, social participation, independency and quality of life among older persons, innovative healthcare programs and interventions for the elderly.
• The knowledge gained from this research serves as input for the courses of Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management.

The Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences started on 1 January 2007. The faculty was the result of a merger between the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine.

Medicine

The Faculty of Medicine was the first faculty to be established at Maastricht University. The University was officially established on the 9th of January 1976, although the first medical students began their studies in September 1974. The Faculty of Medicine was the second in the world that applied the Problem-Based Learning method. The other faculties of Maastricht University , i.e. Arts and Culture, Economics and Business Administration, General Sciences, Health Sciences, Law, and Psychology adopted educational systems and research organisations akin to that of the Faculty of Medicine.

The Faculty developed into a community with a staff of around 1200 (academics, administrative and support staff), and approximately 1950 medical students. Since 1992 staff and students are based at the complex of buildings of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Psychology, and the University Hospital (Academisch Ziekenhuis Maastricht) which opened in 1991.

Health Sciences

The Faculty of Health Sciences offered a broad range of disciplines that made the faculty unique, not only in the Netherlands but also in Europe. The format allowed students to integrate their discipline and research work into all areas related to society, sickness and health. By way of research and specific (undergraduate and postgraduate) education, the Faculty of Health Sciences contributed to the quality improvement in healthcare.

At the moment the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences has some 2,500 students enrolled in its broad spectrum of educational programmes leading to a Bachelor's and/or Master's degree. Health Sciences examines the relationship between health, lifestyle, disease prevention, care and cure. The Health Sciences curriculum covers the entire field of health sciences: biological, behavioural and social health sciences. Three questions take centre stage throughout the course:

1) What is health? 2) Which factors influence health? 3) How can we influence these factors?

To ensure a good quality of health care not only doctors are needed, but nurses and paramedics are also important, too. But also the expertise of other professionals is essential: the health scientists.