[Management qualifications for academic surgeons in the future: what can we learn from business administration?]

Health is a fundamental resource for social and economic development. Greater human development implies that people live longer and enjoy good health for a greater number of years. Healthcare systems should adapt to the new challenges posed by health: a sharp increase in population aging, the demand for more appropriate and transparent management, increased patient expectations, rising costs, and the emergence of ever more challenging economic contexts. At the vanguard of surgical development, surgical units in university hospitals play a fundamental role in the future of surgery and are therefore responsible for coping efficiently with these changes. To do this, effective surgical leaders are required. However, this poses the problem of how these future surgical leaders should be trained so that their training can be controlled and proactively influenced in advance. The present article reviews the arguments and need for management training among general surgeons, as well as knowledge of this process and its results. To maintain first-class healthcare and provide the most advanced medical education and biomedical research, modern surgical units in university hospitals will require effective surgical leaders. To train these modern leaders, business management programs are essential, both in undergraduate education and in specialized surgical training.