Paving the Road to Success the MD-MBA Executive Way - Part 1
To meet tomorrow’s critical challenges, today’s emerging leaders in radiology need to become fluent in the language of business, develop strong leadership and communication skills, and understand the nuances of regulatory compliance, financial decision-making, and human resource management.
That’s the consensus that emerged from this year’s American College of Radiology (ACR) Forum — and it’s the guiding philosophy behind Yale University’s top-ranked, joint degree MD/MBA Program and Executive MD/MBA Program. A rarity just 10 years ago, today joint degree programs can be found at 53 institutions nationwide, but Yale is the nation’s only university to offer an MBA tailored for health care executives.
To learn more about Yale’s flagship program, ACR’s Daily News Scan sat down with program director Howard Forman, M.D., MBA, and 2003 Yale graduate David Larson, M.D., MBA, to discuss the facts, myths, and merits of this exciting educational initiative.
According to Forman — professor of diagnostic radiology, public health, and management and lecturer in economics — Yale’s standard MD/MBA program averages “five to six students” each year. The program is demanding, requiring students to compress six years of study in the science of medicine and the science of management into five intensive years. Once completed, the students emerge as competent “physician-managers” capable of “balancing clinical care with managing change in a tumultuous health care environment.” While the nation’s MD/MBA programs have historically been overrepresented with students of internal medicine, Forman says Yale’s program has seen a recent “broadening” of specialties to include dermatology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology, internal medicine, and more.
By contrast, Yale’s “MBA for Executives: Leadership in Healthcare” program attracts exceptional mid-career professionals interested in becoming “physician-executives” who can lead public, private, or nonprofit organizations. Yale inaugurated the Executive MD/MBA Program in the 2005-2006 academic year, and counts among its alumni two radiologists. Among this year’s class of 21 students, one-third are physicians, while the balance come from managed care, health care administration, private practice, and academia. Forman describes a handful of these students as “quite privately inclined entrepreneurs.” The median student age is about 40. Notably, this is the only executive MBA program offered by Yale University.
But Will They Stay?
Forman says the most pervasive myth of MD/MBA degree programs in general is that students become so business savvy that they abandon promising medical careers in favor of the bright lights and deep pockets of the private sector. At Yale, he says, this is a “very uncommon outcome,” as about 90 percent of its graduates go on to complete residencies. “Our MD/MBA students are very passionate about clinical work, and their management skills are going to complement that,” he says. “They ultimately end up tapping a very high degree of social purpose in their future clinical practice.”
Another myth: that the mixing of medicine and management principles compromises patient care. Forman disagrees. “If anything, a solid foundation in business principles can only lead to more efficient patient care and the ability to deliver a greater amount of care to more people.” He says the medical community has yet to express concern to him about Yale’s joint MD/MBA degree program. Indeed, he and some Yale students say radiologists in particular understand the synergies of integrating medicine with sound management.
Forman says the two-year executive program attracts the nation’s “cream of the crop” and is structured to allow students to continue working fulltime at jobs around the United States, and then convene for classes on the New Haven campus biweekly on Fridays and Saturdays. “The ideal candidate has already played an executive role and is now finding they are bumping up against limitations in their management skills,” he says. Most Yale Executive MBA graduates “continue to move onward and upward” at their current place of employment.
The Yale Executive Program requires “real sacrifices” from its students, Forman says, but exposes them to a revolving door of world-renowned faculty, distinguished visiting scholars, and leading experts drawn from every sector. “This year, we will be having the CEO from Aetna and the former secretary of the treasury speaking to them,” Forman notes. “Last year, we had Surgeon General David Satcher speak to them.” Yale encourages its students to meet, to network, and to develop “sector-spanning” relationships that help them succeed in their professions.
The Yale University Executive MD/MBA Program is always looking for a few good students. Applicants should have “a clear understanding of career goals and objectives, excellent academic and work track records, and embrace the notion of management education in health care practice,” Forman says. And although mid-career applicants greet the news with a grimace, the Graduate Management Admission Test is “absolutely required.”
The two-year commitment is indeed demanding. But Forman says graduates leave New Haven better positioned to thrive at their workplace, and “to help resolve some of the larger social and politically challenging issues about delivering health care to a nation of 300 million people, in a manner that is ethically just and in keeping with our sense of entrepreneurship and meritocracy.”
The Rising Tide of Professionalism
Charisse Jimenez of the American College of Physician Executives offers another perspective. Each year, she notes, the nation’s MD/MBA programs are graduating about 250 joint-degree holders. As the numbers add up, we will soon “see an emerging profession that we can’t even conceive of right now.” These swelling ranks will raise the bar on expectations and competencies, giving some organizations tremendous competitive advantages — and leaving others in the dust.
“In larger group practices, hospitals, health systems, and insurance companies, quality physician leaders are in desperate need,” she says. “Physician-executive recruiters are telling us that if an applicant doesn’t have an advanced management degree, he or she won’t even be able to get an interview, unless maybe you’re homegrown and have worked your way up.”
To be competitive in today’s challenging arena, then, organizations will thrive based on their understanding of the science of business, and will know how to effectively collaborate, negotiate profitable contracts, and keep their team on the cutting edge. Echoing the sentiment she often hears from junior and senior radiologists alike, Jimenez comments, “You don’t realize until you’re out in the big, mad world just how vitally important business skills really are. You can’t be an island anymore. Those days are gone.”