Welcome to this special issue magazine on the key issue of Business & Health co-developed by WashU Olin School of Business, its Business of Health initiative, and the Council on Business & Society and its member schools.

The future of healthcare, how it is managed, how it is financed, and how tech can help improve systems and patients’ health has become a major challenge of our times. This special 101-page issue that addresses these questions features a Foreword and Afterword by Olin’s Dean and Professor Mike Mazzeo and Prof. Patrick Aguilar, Managing Director of Health, and 19 research-backed articles from leading faculty at WashU Olin Business School; ESSEC Business School; IE Business School; IIM Bangalore; Keio Business School; Smith School of Business, Queen’s University; Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin; Warwick Medical School; Warwick Business School; and Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.

These insights come under 3 Sections.

Why Change is Hard and how Business can help Health:

Explores the challenges and paradoxes facing innovation and re-organization in hospitals, private equity’s impact across healthcare institutions and practices, the questions healthcare leaders should ask before trusting patient data, public-private partnerships in health, and building business cases to sustain innovation funding.

What Makes it Work? Evidence-Based Levers for Culture and Trust:

Puts the spotlight on motivation and how healthcare institutions can use it to empower their medical staff, how healthcare employee burnout can be avoided by specific leadership qualities, team dynamics and the culture of care, the truth behind “medical errors”, social responsibility as a primer for employee trust and strategic advantage, the rise of the Medical Crisis Director role, and the psychology behind people’s attraction to natural health interventions.

The Next Frontier – Innovation, Technology & Global Reach:

Tackles how to fast-track the use of AI in clinics, hospitals and teams, how collaboration between healthcare teams, AI and the patient give rise to new competencies, using tech to improve nursing performance, how advances in tech and innovation are accelerating precision medicine, adopting a planetary health lens to blend sustainability into business and health, using smart phone technology to progress healthcare in developing countries, and using a strategy of accessibility, availability, and affordability as a model for inclusive health around the world.

Business and Health: Deepen your knowledge and join the debate!

Developed to advance the debate on one of the key societal issues of our times, this special issue has as a vocation to provide knowledge, research and insight in a readable and engaging way.

It also hopes to spark thought, ideas and action for healthcare practitioners, policy-makers, academia, instructors, and students with a passion to challenge, improve, and build a better world through business and health. Join in the debate via the CoBS on LinkedIn.

The Editorial teams at WashU Olin and the CoBS.

Useful links:

• Download this magazine and a host of additional knowledge content on the CoBS website downloads page
• Read a related article: Healthcare innovation for an aging society

Learn more about the Council on Business & Society

The Council on Business & Society (CoBS), visionary in its conception and purpose, was created in 2011, and is dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and tackling issues at the crossroads of business, society, and planet including the dimensions of sustainability, diversity, social impact, social enterprise, employee wellbeing, ethical finance, ethical leadership and the place responsible business has to play in contributing to the common good.  

• Follow the CoBS on LinkedIn
• Download magazines and learning content from the CoBS website downloads page.

Member schools of the Council on Business & Society.

• ESSEC Business School, France, Singapore, Morocco
• FGV-EAESP, Brazil
• School of Management Fudan University, China
• IE Business School, Spain
• Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
• Keio Business School, Japan
• Monash Business School, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia
• Olin Business School, USA
• Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada
• Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa
• Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.