MSc in Business Administration and Innovation in Health Care

Through a thorough understanding of the challenges that health care systems are facing around the world, you will learn to analyse health care innovations as business cases and develop actionable skills for their design and implementation.

About the programme

Innovation in health care at a radical scale will be a necessary part of the solution to the structural, demographic, technological and financial challenges facing health care systems. The skills required to enable these innovations are getting more important.

MSc IHC is designed to provide you with analytical and actionable skills in the unique context of health care organisations and companies. You will be trained to initiate, manage and implement innovations that will be necessary for the transformation that will take place at all levels of the health care systems. This will involve both its public and commercial parts and the important relationship between these two. The courses draw on industry experts, high quality academic faculty and real-life challenges.

What to consider

IHC is a full two-year master’s program offered together with the University of Copenhagen in health care innovation.

During the two years of studies you will involved in several innovation projects with companies, start-ups, hospitals and other health care organizations.

To build an interdisciplinary learning environment IHC welcomes applicants with bachelor’s degrees across a range of both business and health disciplines.

IHC has been developed and is delivered jointly by CBS and the University of Copenhagen (Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences).

Studying in English
If you do not have bachelor’s degree taught in English, we recommend that you read more about what to consider before applying for an English taught programme. 
See Studying in English on Student Life

Study environment 

The IHC program is founded upon an interdisciplinary learning environment, where you will interact with students possessing diverse backgrounds. These backgrounds span health, life, and social sciences, as well as individuals with a business background. Additionally, you’ll encounter a mix of students who bring work experience from both the healthcare sector and other industries. Notably, many IHC program participants work part-time in medtech or pharmaceutical companies in and around Copenhagen

Student life at CBS
Studying at CBS is much more than just preparing for and going to classes.

At CBS, there are more than 20,000 students with different backgrounds and nationalities. Teamwork is an essential part of studying at CBS both in classes and in extracurricular activities. 

With more than 100 student organisations, you also have plenty of opportunities to engage and connect with students across programmes and classes. 

Learn more about the vibrant student life at CBS, the student organisations, and the international environment on Student life

For internationals
If you are an international student, we have gathered a lot of information about what it is like to be an international student at CBS and how you can prepare for life in Denmark.

Read more on For internationals 

Teaching and exams

Interdisciplinary Learning and Teamwork
The IHC program places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and collaborative teamwork. Most of the courses are specifically designed for the IHC program, and you’ll take these courses alongside fellow IHC students.

First Semester
During the first semester, you’ll delve into healthcare innovation and management, explore healthcare systems, and gain insights into the organization of healthcare innovation. Additionally, you’ll attend classes in statistics. Some of these classes will feature guest lectures from the healthcare sector and related industries.

Second Semester
In the second semester, you’ll engage in a real-life healthcare innovation challenge. Alongside this practical experience, you’ll attend classes covering clinical processes and Health IT. Expect relevant innovation cases from the healthcare field, often presented by guest lecturers actively involved in healthcare innovation.

Third Semester
Courses in the third semester are open to students from other programs, providing an opportunity to interact with peers from diverse backgrounds. You can select between the following three tracks in the third semester:

1) Assessment and Digital Trends in Health Care, where focus is on healthtech assessment and IT- solutions in health car

2) Health Care and Bioentrepreneurship, where focus is on pharma and entrepreneurship, and

3) International exchange, where you will study aspects of innovation outside Denmark. The exchange stay will be with specific IHC partner universities. At the moment we have an exchange agreement with Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal.

Fourth Semester and Master’s Thesis
 The Master’s thesis project in the fourth semester is typically carried out in collaboration with one or two fellow IHC students. Throughout the IHC courses, you’ll encounter a blend of relevant theory and practical aspects.

Examinations 
You will undergo various types of exams in the IHC program. Some exams are written, allowing the use of aids. Others are written without aids.
The third variant is an oral exam, usually based on a written report submitted prior to the oral examination.

Time consumption
You should know that it is demanding to study in a graduate programme, and both the curriculum and workload is  significantly higher than at bachelor level. 

If you are studying on a full-time graduate programme, you should expect spending approximately 37 hours on average on your studies each week. The workload will vary during the year.

The time leading up to assignment submissions and exams can be hectic, and you can easily work more than 40 hours a week in this period. Preparing for oral exams can be especially time consuming, because you have to be able to explain and discuss the covered concepts and theories and learn things by heart.

Read more about Time consumption on Student Life

Student job
Most programmes are quite flexible in terms of combining studies with a student job. Most students work a maximum of 15 hours a week in order to have sufficient time for their studies.

Studying in Denmark - for internationals
If this is your first time studying in Denmark, you may find teaching and exam formats, the grading scale and the academic calendar very different from what you are used to.

Read about everything you need to know as an international student studying at CBS on For internationals > Academic information  

Career

Career Opportunities
Graduates find their jobs in a variety of segments such as:  

  • Private providers of health care, monitoring, safety
  • The globalized health industry
  • Hospitals
  • The Medico and Health-IT industries
  • Providers of software systems and applications,  incl. clinical decision support solutions
  • Pharmaceutical firms (in their care-directed functions)
  • Patient’s organizations
  • Public health administration at national, regional and municipal levels
  • Creating their own companies
     

Competence profile
In the competence profile you can read about the purpose of the programme and the competencies you achieve in the programme:Competence profile for MSc in Innovation in Health Care
 


    Course overview

    1st semester

    2nd semester

    3rd semester

    4th semester

    1st quarter

    Innovation in Clinical Processes and Health Care Delivery
    (7,5 ECTS)

    Choose one track (see details below)
     

    Assessment and Digital Trends in Health Care

    or

    Bio and Health Care Entrepreneurship

     

    Master's thesis
    (30 ECTS)

     

     

    Health Care Innovation and Management
    (7,5 ECTS)

    Managerial Statistics for Innovation
    (7,5 ECTS)

    Foundations of Health Care IT
    (7,5 ECTS)

    2nd quarter
    Health Systems and Innovation
    (7,5 ECTS)

    The Health Care Innovation Project 
    (15 ECTS)

    The Organization of Health Care Innovation
    (7,5 ECTS)


    You can read more about the programme, academic content and exams in the programme regulations for MSc in Innovation in Health Care

    Tracks

    Choose one of the following tracks on your third semester.

    Assessment and Digital Trends in Healthcare

    Course

    ECTS

    Frontiers of Digital Healthcare

    7.5

    Health Innovation Assessment and Advanced Cost Benefit

    15

    Register Based Epidemiology (at UCPH)*

    7.5

    *Takes place at University of Copenhagen (Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences)


    For more information contact credit-ihc@cbs.dk

    The page was last edited by: Web editor - Student Communications // 04/10/2024