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Campus - 19.07.2019 - 00:00 

Health care gaining in significance

Health care is a central sector in Switzerland. At the University of St.Gallen, students and various institutes examine a wide variety of issues in this field. At the same time, a degree course of medical students – the Joint Medical Master HSG/UZH (JMM-HSG/UZH) – is coming into being at the HSG. By student reporter Thomas Tarantini.

19 July 2019. The St.Gallen Cantonal Hospital (KSSG) and the University of St.Gallen (HSG) are two important pillars in Eastern Switzerland. The establishment of the Joint Medical Master is bringing the two institutions closer together. At the HSG, various institutes and schools have been working on health care for many years. "Health care is a complex and dynamic sector of extreme social significance which includes a wide variety of industries. From medicine and care to economics, politics and management, it comprises a multitude of perspectives," explains Harald Tuckermann, Director of the Center for Health Care (CHC) at the HSG.

Center for Health Care

The University of St.Gallen’s Center for Health Care, which was established in 2012, reflects the complexity of the sector. Organised by six institutes, the CHC combines the perspectives of management, law and economics and serves as a hub for interinstitutional projects. Thanks to this pooling of interdisciplinary expertise, it aims to make contributions to the academic and public discussion in the health sector in as unbiased a way as possible. In this respect, something has now also happened on the part of the students.

Students set up the Health Care Club

The Health Care Club has been an officially accredited association at the University of St.Gallen since April 2019.  President Marion Rauch remembers: "We started the first Facebook call in order to find out about students’ demand for health care issues. The great resonance of more than forty replies clearly confirmed the interest that we had suspected." With the help of various cooperation ventures, the student association also wants to do justice to the complexity of the sector. Initial events focus on the hospital of the future, changes in the pharmaceutical industry and organ donation.

The association team has already established contact with the Center for Health Care. "We’ve already been given support by the CHC and would like to further intensify cooperation in the future," Marion emphasises. Tuckermann on his part welcomes the students’ increasing activity. The association reinforces the significance of the issue at the University and can simultaneously offer an important interlinkage for the students of the Joint Medical Master HSG/UZH (JMM-HSG/UZH) with the economic and social sciences.

 

 

 

 

In order to drive a society forwards, two aspects are particularly important: education and health.

 

 

 

 

 

Harald Tuckermann

 

 

Director of the Center for Health Care (CHC)

 

 

 

 

Joint Medical Master in St.Gallen

The JMM-HSG/UZH is the result of cooperation between the HSG and the University of Zurich (UZH), as well as the KSSG and the St.Gallen University of Applied Sciences. During their undergraduate studies in Zurich, the medical students will already attend some initial courses in St.Gallen. These courses are about two of the three specialisations that characterise the new degree course: interprofessional cooperation and primary health care. From the Master’s Level onwards, this is complemented by the third focus – management and governance – which the HSG will offer with its traditional core subjects.

In this way, the JMM-HSG/UZH consistently implements the new orientation of Swiss medical training and prepares the prospective physicians for their future everyday working lives. Tuckermann reports that work on the curriculum is in full swing, in time for the start in Autumn Semester 2020. The Health Care Club at the HSG is also adding its contribution. Marion reveals: "Our contact with the organisers of the JMM-HSG/UZH has provided us with an opportunity to present our association to the students of the new degree course at the HSG Kick-off Day in September 2019, for we want to offer an interesting and versatile platform to them, too."

The significance of health care is on the increase at both institute and student level. Both camps are making an effort to ensure that Eastern Switzerland will be able to offer new educational perspectives on health care and will assume responsibility. Tuckermann sums this up: "In order to drive a society forwards, two aspects are particularly important: education and health."

Thomas Tarantini studies Business Innovation (MBI) and Business Journalism.

Image: Adobe Stock / Panuwat

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