Facing an increasingly complicated health-care industry, more students are turning to joint MD-MBA programs to become informed about the business and clinical sides of health care administration, MD-MBA program directors from several universities around the country told The Dartmouth.
As interest peaks, more universities are beginning to offer joint MD-MBA programs to accommodate student demand, the program directors said.
A typical medical education does not necessarily train future doctors to manage the business-related aspects of medicine, according to Andrew Vogel, associate director of graduate programs at the University of Cincinnati. MD-MBA programs can fill that void.
"Medical students like the idea of being able to leave well-armed with all of the knowledge and skills that they need in order to be able to open their own business or be an effective businessperson," Vogel said.
The number of programs offering a joint MD-MBA degree has doubled since 2003, according to Maria Chandler, faculty advisor of the MD-MBA dual degree program at the University of California, Irvine and president of the National Association of MD-MBA Programs.
Many large corporations have begun to train graduates in administrative and executive work with the intention of placing them in medical director positions nationally, Chandler said.
Student interest in completing a joint medical and business degree appeared during the 1970s, and by the 1990s, a handful of schools had developed options for obtaining a dual degree, according to Howard Forman, director of the five-year MD-MBA program at Yale University.
Currently, many medical schools have an MD-MBA plan, an alternative to a plan or intentions to institute the program in the near future, Forman said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"For a long time, physicians were often a one-man shop and they were able to get by because they could set their rates and manage their office the way they saw fit," Forman said. "Beginning in the '70s, external pressures forced physicians to think more as capitalists and as market participants."
Dartmouth's MD-MBA program, a partnership between the Dartmouth Medical School and the Tuck School of Business, has seen a steady increase in enrollment since 2004, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Students pursuing their graduate studies are recognizing the advantages of instruction in health systems, organizational dynamics and financial issues, according to James Ebert, who directs the Boonshoft Physician Leadership Development Program at Wright State University's Boonshoft School of Medicine, where the MD-MBA program is run alongside a Masters in Public Health program.
"One thing that's fueling the rise [of MD-MBA programs] is the fact that the programs are being made available," Ebert said. "The MD-MBA-prepared physician is in a position to assume a leadership role within a group practice or step up to a role in a community or academic hospital setting."
Many medical students use the preparation to open private practices, while others utilize the flexibility to pursue careers in finance or quality assurance, Ebert said.
Students are also driven by a desire to solve the nation's current health-care crisis and to participate directly in the administration of clinical care, Chandler said.
"I don't believe that every physician needs an MBA. It is a way to streamline the process so that a physician doesn't have to have 20 years of experience in order to be effective at leading," he said. "I think these students understand that it's going to take more than what physicians had in the past."
The Association of MD-MBA Programs, currently composed of more than 50 member institutions, will convene in April at Boston University in order to discuss the influence of dual-degree holders in the career field and to conduct research in changes in health-care leadership, Chandler said.
