This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Global Top 250 Hospitals 2026 report.
Valuation Director,
Brand Finance USA
Each year, Brand Finance’s Global Top 250 Hospitals study provides a definitive benchmark of reputation, clinical excellence, research leadership, and international standing across the global hospital landscape. For the world’s strongest hospital brands, this measurement does more than celebrate achievement – it reveals an underutilised strategic asset: the ability of a trusted academic medical centre (AMC) brand to create tangible commercial value for partners, affiliates, and health systems globally.
As demand for high-quality care continues to rise globally, AMCs are increasingly exploring structured brand licensing and affiliation programmes. These programmes enable institutions with strong reputations to extend their influence, support improvements in the global health system, and generate new revenue streams, all while protecting their brand’s reputation and integrity. Brand Finance’s approach demonstrates how research, valuation, and financial modelling create the evidence base needed to do this credibly.
From brand strength to brand value
Brand strength is our starting point. Brand Finance’s research shows that a strong AMC brand influences how patients choose care providers, how healthcare professionals (HCPs) select employers, and how international partners evaluate capability.
Research collected across dozens of markets across HCPs - including doctors, consultants, medical researchers, and academics - consistently shows that teaching excellence, clinical quality, and innovation perceptions shape referrals, willingness to recommend, and research collaboration.
However, understanding how this brand strength converts into financial value requires deeper analysis. This is where Brand Finance’s structured licensing methodology comes in.
A four-phase approach to licensing analysis
Brand Finance applies a four-phase framework to quantify value and support licensing negotiations:
Brand discovery
Through management interviews, agreement reviews, and desk research, we identify how the brand is currently used, the benefits transferred through partnerships, and the elements that matter most.
This includes assessing global brand strength using hospital research databases and benchmarking against peer institutions.
Research-based affiliation impact
Market research with clinical stakeholders, current and prospective patients, medical students, and payors can help isolate the derived impact of affiliation. This measures how behaviour changes when stakeholders recognise the affiliation. For example, whether awareness of an AMC partnership increases referrals, improves talent attraction, or boosts perception of clinical quality.
Financial impact modelling
Behaviour changes are then mapped to affiliate business models. For example:
- Increased referrals > market share uplift
- Higher perceived quality > price premium or improved payor rates
- Talent advantages > reduced hiring costs
This modelling enables us to estimate the incremental revenue or cost savings from affiliation, providing a rational basis for a fair and sustainable royalty rate.
Evidence pack for negotiations
Finally, Brand Finance produces a defensible, data-driven evidence pack that institutions can leverage in negotiations. This includes recommended royalty structures, financial ranges, benchmark rates, and scenario modelling. Together, this ensures clarity, consistency, and credibility when working with partners.
The benefits for leading AMCs
A well-structured and robust licensing strategy allows AMCs to:
- Expand their global reach while safeguarding brand standards and integrity
- Generate new and sustainable revenue streams
- Strengthen academic and research networks
- Improve care quality in partner institutions through structured knowledge exchange
- Demonstrate the commercial contribution of brand investment to boards and stakeholders
Brand Finance’s experience shows that such programmes, when professionally assessed and managed, can deliver meaningful annual income for health systems while supporting their broader missions.
Key takeaways for AMC leaders
As the global healthcare landscape evolves, AMCs will continue to be judged against the world’s best through independent rankings and research. But the real opportunity lies with converting a brand’s strength into measurable impact – operationally, reputationally, and financially.
Licensing analysis bridges reputation and value, enabling the world’s top AMCs to expand their influence and accelerate improvements in global healthcare.
