Anne Snowdon counsels studentsThe inaugural SCAN Health Virtual Business Case Competition open February 5.

Competition offers cash prizes to business students solving health system challenges

A virtual platform will enable business students from around the world to demonstrate their skill, knowledge, and innovative ideas to advance health sector supply chain innovation to a global audience.

The Supply Chain Advancement Network in Health (SCAN Health), an International Knowledge Translation Platform funded by the Government of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence, is launching its inaugural SCAN Health Virtual Business Case Competition on February 5.

Unlike the typical business case approach, which allows teams several hours or a few days to develop their solutions, the SCAN Health Virtual Business Case Competition takes place over two months through March 20, with the top three teams announced on April 4.

The case focuses on current real-world challenges faced by the United Kingdom’s Department of Health leading supply chain transformation across the National Health Service.

The case was developed based on an empirical case study conducted by Anne Snowdon, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Odette School of Business, and scientific director and CEO of SCAN Health. Participants in the competition are encouraged to form cross-disciplinary teams including students from business and health sciences faculties to foster collaboration across sectors to build leadership capacity in health sector supply chain.

To supplement knowledge of business processes in health systems, each student team will have access to a panel of expert advisors who are global leaders in health system supply chain and logistics strategy.

The first place team will be awarded $5,000, second place $3,000, and third place $2,000. All three top teams will be widely profiled across the entire SCAN Health global network including leaders in health systems, industry, government and academia from five countries: Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Australia, on the SCAN Health website, through social media and at the network’s events.

As a virtual business case competition, this is a low-cost opportunity for student teams to explore a real-world healthcare supply chain challenge. There is no cost for travel or registration.

Registration opens on February 5, and Round 1 submissions are due on February 18. Details and registration process for the SCAN Health Virtual Business Case Competition can be found at www.SCANHealth.ca.

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