Modern medicine could reduce disease greatly yet fails to reach millions of people in part due to poor management in the health sector. In its efforts to address global health delivery, MIT Sloan School of Management is engaging its students through an innovative, hands-on course, ghdLab, that blends classroom learning and action-based field projects.
Over the
span of several months which includes an intensive period on site, teams of
four students partner with an organization on the front lines of care delivery.
Together, they design an action-learning
project to address factors that limit their delivery of health care. The goal
is to connect education and impact. Since October 2008, close to 150
experienced MIT graduate students have conducted 36 unpaid projects in Kenya,
Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, and India,
each around 1,000 person-hours. Partner organizations set their project's focus
and offset some costs. Support from MIT Sloan School of Management's generous
alumni and friends makes up the rest.
Partnering students and faculty with community programs, clinics, hospitals, and medical practices to work on practical solutions is a win-win approach for all involved. By grounding focused projects in current management techniques and building on research and data, innovative solutions to pressing challenges can be discovered.
