Strathclyde MBA project presented at healthcare management forum Dubai

Four students from the Strathclyde Business School Dubai campus who obtained their MBA in 2012 were invited recently to present their dissertation at the Healthcare Management Forum held in Dubai. The Forum, sponsored by Ernst & Young and SAP, was attended by senior management professionals in the healthcare sector of the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) region. The opportunity came about after a meeting with the organisers of the event who were keen to introduce the project’s topic to their audience since it was the first time such a concept was being studied at a regional level.

The project titled 'Rethinking Value in Healthcare – A Case Study from an Outcomes and Cost Perspective', undertaken by Ahmed Al Saheb, Ali Sleiman (seated left in photo), Foaad Nami and Ranjana Abraham (right), under the guidance of Dr Peter Keenan and supported by the CEO of the biggest public hospital in Dubai, explored a new way of understanding costs of healthcare providers. The project uses 'time driven activity based costing' which was propounded by Harvard Business School professors, Michael Porter and Robert Kaplan in the November 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Costs were estimated at a patient and procedure level in the cardiac care unit of the hospital to determine the true costs of providing healthcare to individuals. The project also explored how value is perceived by various stakeholders in the healthcare sector.