Business school teams up with clinical innovators: An opportunity for health system transformation

Healthcare represents one of the largest sectors in the economy with the health spending on average accounting for about 9% of GDP in OECD countries. Canada was projected in 2018 to spend about 11% of its GDP on healthcare with an expected health expenditure growth of 4.2%. Addressing this issue asks for a redesign of health delivery system and associated cultural shift allowing for incorporation of industry and business best practices. To make this redesign happen, system transformation requires seeking out new institutional mechanisms, partnerships, and forums where industry leaders in business and healthcare can develop a top-down approach with a shared vision, shared best practices, and support coming from a bottom-up approach through pilots and scaling-up initiatives. In this article, we describe one successful partnership initiative-Telfer Health Transformation Exchange at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.