Ali Abid and Marissa Mar, Graduate Student Representatives
About the Program
Delivery format
The UBC MHA program is delivered in an executive education style, geared towards the working professional with classes occurring over the weekend.
Mission/Vision
To provide an integrated and collaborative program focusing on health systems, policies and management to prepare tomorrow’s health care leaders in an increasingly complex healthcare world.
What makes this MHA different from other MHA programs in Canada?
The MHA is offered by the School of Population & Public Health, under the Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with the Sauder School of Business. The MHA also offers a voluntary internship for second year students, with opportunities to place students in various Health Authorities, hospitals, and other organizations. Recently, the MHA partnered with the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL). Under this new strategic alliance, students if qualified are eligible to apply for the Certified Health Executive (CHE) designation.
In January 2014, the MHA began concurrent MD/MHA program, the first of its kind in Canada. This program was established to enrich medical school students with advanced management and business skills.
Unique delivery design
The program fees include tuition, textbooks and course materials, and professional development activities. Classes are taught in a compressed modular format at UBC Robson Square on the weekends every three to four weeks.
Overview of faculty
Instructors in our program come from a collaboration with the School of Population and Public Health under the Faculty of Medicine and the Sauder School of Business. Recently, the MHA program welcomed Dr. Craig Mitton as Program Director and Dr. Nick Bansback as Associate Director.
Dr. Craig Mitton is the Director of the MHA program and a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation and an Associate Professor in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. Craig held a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award from 2006-2012 and from 2005-2009 was at UBC Okanagan where he held a Canada Research Chair in Health Care Priority Setting. He is a member of the International Society of Priorities in Health Care and co-chaired the Society’s 2012 conference in Vancouver. He has published a book entitled the ‘Priority setting toolkit: a guide to the use of economics in health care decision making’ and has authored or co-authored over 90 peer reviewed publications.
Dr. Steve Morgan is the Director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, where he executes research and knowledge translation on health care policy, with an emphasis on pharmaceutical policies that aim to balance three sometimes-competing goals: providing equitable access to necessary care, managing health expenditures, and promoting valued innovation. He teaches Health Policy for the MHA program. He has published over 150 articles, book chapters, and reports, and has served as a policy consultant to governments in Canada and abroad. He writes regular editorials in major newspapers and can be followed on Twitter at @SteveUBC.
Recent Publications
Saunders, B. (2013) An environmental scan of program evaluation in distributed medical education programs in Canada. Unpublished masters project, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Winner of the RE McDermit Memorial Prize.
Bowen, R. A., Sattayapiwat, A., Gounden, V., & Remaley, A. T. (2013) Blood collection tube-related alterations in analyte concentrations in quality control material and serum specimens. Clinical Biochemistry. 47(3):150-7.
Bowen, R. A. & Remaley, A. T. (2014) Interferences from blood collection tube components on clinical chemistry assays. Biochemia Medica. 24(1):31-44
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Student Profiles
Marcus Blouw is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He has clinical appointments to the sections of Adult Respirology and Critical Care Medicine. His clinical workplace includes an outpatient clinic, hospital wards, intensive care units, a long-term mechanical ventilation unit and the Gift of Life Program (Manitoba’s provincial organ donation organization). He is also the developer and director of the Internal Medicine Procedure Service – a new teaching initiative for physicians in training at the University of Manitoba, and he is involved with clinical research trials in critical care. Marcus is active in numerous quality improvement and patient safety initiatives within his workplace, and is interested in improving patient care through more efficient workflow and improved workplace communication. It is through these quality improvement initiatives that he became interested in health administration and the MHA program. Marcus hopes to cultivate health management and leadership skills that will translate into safer, more effective and more efficient healthcare delivery.
For Marcus, the most notable features of the MHA program thus far are the diversity of experience within the cohort and the numerous opportunities for professional relationship development and collaboration. MHA students bring a wide range of skills and perspectives to the group, and this shared experience and knowledge is proving to be a wonderful asset to bring back to the prairies.Outside of work and school, Marcus enjoys being active, being outdoors and travelling. He takes every opportunity he can to enjoy the fresh air, and so has been making the most of his monthly trips to Vancouver.
Ryan Dirnback: I am currently a Registered Nurse working with both the Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon Division and Northern Health.What makes me unique is that I know exactly what it feels like to be a patient in the healthcare system. This is something that many Administrators lack. I have spent months in hospital. Knowing what the patient is thinking and feeling cannot be learned by attending a lecture or by reading a textbook. Knowing how our interventions will impact the human element is invaluable.I put a great deal of value on the experiences of individuals in the system. This is where my primary passion lies. I am also passionate about education. I would be grateful to use my expertise in one of these areas in the future.
During my undergraduate years at the University of Northern British Columbia, I developed a very positive working relationship with one of my professors who recommended that I consider the MHA degree. Beyond that, the MHA is a great program as it serves as a solid foundation for any leadership position in health care.
Academically, the MHA program has been demanding to put it simply. Instead of having a course delivered over many weeks in other graduate programs, we receive it over a few days, while working full time. In addition, we often do not get much lead-time to prepare prior to class. This has taught us the skill of being able to prepare over a very short time period, which is something I am sure we will use regularly upon graduation.
Overall, the MHA has been a great experience. We are exposed to every facet of the system, including Quality of Care, Health Policy, IT, Program Planning as well as Human Resource Management and more. We are also well versed in business related subjects like Finance, Accounting, Economics, and Economic Evaluation. We receive instruction from experts in their respective field that bring real examples and exercises into the classroom. Over the past two years, I have realized that we have a great group that represents the best and brightest. We are all very fortunate to have these individuals as the future leaders of healthcare in BC and abroad!
Dawn Hay is a first year student in the Masters of Health Administration program. After beginning her nursing career in the operating room, she entered the field of Clinical Research with the UBC Dept. of Ophthalmology. This early exposure to clinical trials in new treatments for Age-related Macular Degeneration and other retinal conditions laid the ground work for her interest in the drug development process. While in this position, she also had the opportunity to travel to China as part of her involvement with a tele-ophthalmology program. Throughout her career with ‘big pharma’ and most recently as a Clinical Team Lead with a Contract Research Organization, the knowledge that the drug treatments in development are impacting patient outcomes keeps her focused on the big picture.
Dawn chose the UBC MHA program as it provides instruction in many different core competencies necessary for health care leaders. Having one program that offers a wide variety of topics including finance, human resources, government policy and ethics will provide her with the variety of skills and knowledge to succeed in future positions. Although it is a challenge to juggle the demands of this intense program with home and work life, already she has been able to put into practice concepts from several of the courses. After completing the program, Dawn plans to use the skills from her MHA to continue her career in the drug development and clinical trial industry.
Andrew Pinfold: I retired from a 10 year career as a professional cyclist in 2011, where I was fortunate enough to win a fair few bike races including a couple national titles. Currently, I am the Program Director for Western Canada’s largest youth cycling team. I am also the Managing Director for Global Relay’s Bridge the Gap Fund which helps aspiring elite Canadian cyclists reach the professional ranks. Lastly, I am a director and coach at a multidisciplinary health and wellness facility in Burnaby called Catalyst Kinetics group, where part of my job involves coaching some of members of the Canadian National Cycling Team.
In 2008, I completed a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Victoria with a focus in medical geography. My graduate work solidified my view that prevention or working “upstream,” is one way to reduce the escalating burden on the health care system. I saw the MHA as opportunity to further pursue my interests in health while still being able to be involved with the world of cycling because of its executive learning structure.
I’ve been very pleased with the MHA program. The variety of the course work that we do has been enlightening. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have been applying what I am learning in class to my working life outside of healthcare. In addition,I am really humbled by the intelligence and backgrounds of my classmates. I have made some great friends in the program and commend it for assembling such a diverse and talented cohort.
My interests lie in exploring why certain interventions work in some contexts while not in others. In the near term I am working with BC Ambulance on a pilot project looking at a tool to identify sepsis earlier. With this project I am looking at identifying barriers, best practices, and lessons learned from the implementation phase of this pilot project at the individual, organizational and environmental levels. My hope is to find this type of project interesting and if so, look forward to pursuing work in this area.