BAHM_Case_Competition_PressRelease_4.6.2021
Business School Group Holds Global Student Competition Focused on COVID-19-Fueled Telehealth Expansion
Students from leading MBA programs are collaborating across campuses and continents; winners will be announced at an April 9 symposium featuring a panel of international telehealth industry leaders
Austin, TX, April 6, 2021 – In response to COVID-19’s disruptive impact on both health care and higher education, The Business School Alliance for Health Management (BAHM), a global consortium of leading MBA health management programs, is holding its first international student competition with a focus on telehealth solutions for underserved communities worldwide.
The event involves more than 80 MBA students from BAHM-member universities based in North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Capitalizing on this past year’s widespread adoption of online learning, the event is the first in the competition’s 10-year history to promote collaboration across different university campuses and continents. Seven of the 21 competing student teams represent a mix of schools and countries.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the health care market, expanding the reliance on telehealth and the promise inherent in the digital delivery of care,” said BAHM President Kevin Schulman, MD, MBA, a professor of medicine and economics at Stanford University.
“This new landscape has presented a tremendous opportunity for future health care leaders at our BAHM-member schools to collaborate virtually and to innovate across borders, turning an unprecedented public health crisis into an avenue for potential solutions that promote access and equity in health care throughout the world.”
The competition winners will be announced at an April 9 virtual closing symposium that will include a panel discussion on “The Promise of Telehealth: Technology, Investment and Policy.” Moderated by Ingrid Nembhard, an associate professor of health care management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania’s Health Care Management Department, the panelists are Afsane Jetha, Managing Partner & CEO of Alta Semper Capital LLP, Carlos Nueno, President of International Operations, Teladoc Health, and Joshua Williams, Ontario Ministry of Health.
BAHM was founded in 2010 to promote education, research and thought leadership in the business of health care field. Since then, its membership has nearly doubled to 21 leading MBA programs with a health sector focus, and its composition has become increasingly international.
The case competition has always been an annual BAHM focus, challenging students to develop business-based solutions to salient industry challenges. Most competitions have been held on BAHM-member campuses, most recently at Harvard Business School in 2019. The 2020 competition hosted by Boston University was moved from an in-person event to a virtual format as a result of the pandemic.
This year’s competition, entitled “Telehealth Business Models in Underserved Communities,” is hosted by the Strathmore Business School Institute for Healthcare Management in Nairobi, Kenya; the IESE Health Care Management Program in Barcelona, Spain; and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Health Care Management, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two additional BAHM international schools—The Indian School of Business, in Hyderabad and Mohali, India, and the INCAE Business School in Costa Rica—are serving as collaborating institutions.
“The pandemic has energized awareness of the potential and need for telehealth across all markets,” said Steve Sammut, a senior health care management fellow at The Wharton School, visiting associate professor at the Strathmore Business School and chair of the competition’s organizing team. “The competition has challenged students to put the new technology into the care equation in imaginative ways to improve health care in underserved communities across the globe.”
Competition participants were introduced during a symposium and virtual student mixer on Dec. 9, 2020, formed teams in January and submitted their projects in March for judging by a team of distinguished academics, health care and telehealth industry leaders from around the world. The student teams are competing for cash prizes and the first-prize project will be considered for publication in BAHM’s Health Management, Policy & Innovation journal.
Registration for the April 9 awards symposium and telehealth panel discussion is open through April 8. To register, click here. For more background about the case competition, click here.
About the Business School Alliance for Health Management (BAHM)
Formed in 2010, BAHM supports business school health management programs and their faculty, students, and graduates in educating the next generation of leaders and advancing thought leadership in the field. BAHM initiatives include educational webinars, research collaborations, an annual student case competition, the promotion of business of healthcare scholarship, and the publication of the online journal, Health Management, Policy & Innovation (HMPI).
BAHM member schools are: Baruch College Zicklin School of Business; Baylor University Hankamer School of Business; Boston University Questrom School of Business; Emory University Goizueta Business School; Georgia State University J. Mack Robinson College of Business; Harvard Business School; HEC – Paris; IESE Business School, University of Navarra; INCAE Business School; Indian School of Business; Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; Strathmore University Business School; University of Colorado – Denver; University of Miami Herbert Business School; University of Michigan Ross School of Business; University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management; University of Toronto Rotman School of Management; University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business; Vanderbilt University Owen School of Business; and Yale School of Management.
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