Interviews: avoid any mentioning of business?

[nychila]

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At mid- and lower-tier schools that are likely more interested in producing primary care physicians and specialized physicians to serve their local community (eg. NYMC, Wayne State, Penn State), should an applicant with certain exposure to business avoid any mentioning of business-related topics at interviews? Eg. Personality being very competitive, result-orientated, creative with methods of efficiency, etc.

While I realize one can argue that a surgeon can compete against disease and time, while making sure that the patient survives with good prognosis, and not generate financial waste, medical school adcoms seem to dislike business practices in general, and only focus on producing doctors who are compassionate and will only focus on patient-care (and maybe a little bit of research). I understand that US News top-20 schools are more likely to favor applicants with very diverse interests in public health and business administration, ie. potential leaders in medicine.

 

[MedPR]

At mid- and lower-tier schools that are likely more interested in producing primary care physicians and specialized physicians to serve their local community (eg. NYMC, Wayne State, Penn State), should an applicant with certain exposure to business avoid any mentioning of business-related topics at interviews? Eg. Personality being very competitive, result-orientated, creative with methods of efficiency, etc.

While I realize one can argue that a surgeon can compete against disease and time, while making sure that the patient survives with good prognosis, and not generate financial waste, medical school adcoms seem to dislike business practices in general, and only focus on producing doctors who are compassionate and will only focus on patient-care (and maybe a little bit of research). I understand that US News top-20 schools are more likely to favor applicants with very diverse interests in public health and business administration, ie. potential leaders in medicine.

I like how you group every 21+ school together and automatically assume that none of them care about public health or creating leaders in medicine. Good for you 👍

 

[NickNaylor]

At mid- and lower-tier schools that are likely more interested in producing primary care physicians and specialized physicians to serve their local community (eg. NYMC, Wayne State, Penn State), should an applicant with certain exposure to business avoid any mentioning of business-related topics at interviews?

No.

 

[Barcu]

Primary care specialities are just as interested in saving money. In many ways they are more so, since more efficiency means more people treated.

More importantly, why would you leave out your interests? If you are interested in business, you want to make sure the school you go to has the opportunities for you.

 

[theseeker4]

At mid- and lower-tier schools that are likely more interested in producing primary care physicians and specialized physicians to serve their local community (eg. NYMC, Wayne State, Penn State), should an applicant with certain exposure to business avoid any mentioning of business-related topics at interviews? Eg. Personality being very competitive, result-orientated, creative with methods of efficiency, etc.

While I realize one can argue that a surgeon can compete against disease and time, while making sure that the patient survives with good prognosis, and not generate financial waste, medical school adcoms seem to dislike business practices in general, and only focus on producing doctors who are compassionate and will only focus on patient-care (and maybe a little bit of research). I understand that US News top-20 schools are more likely to favor applicants with very diverse interests in public health and business administration, ie. potential leaders in medicine.

Being below the top 20 schools hardly means focusing on primary care.... Wayne state for example matches a good number of students to various non-primary care specialties each year, and they are hardly alone in that aspect among sub-top 20 schools. I fail to see at all how talking about being competitive, etc. could possibly be a detriment at any school. 😕

 

[nychila]

What I meant was less research oriented schools are likely to be more focused on producing physicians who will serve their area than produce doctors who are interested in medicine, but have strong interests in public health, business, administration, etc. Of course my classification of top 20 US News schools was a completely arbitrary number.

Physicians usually are not, and probably don't have time, to think about saving money from their surgical staff and operations. Please enlighten me if I'm mistaken, but I get the sense that less research-oriented schools are primarily interested in producing doctors who will just be doctors, and do that well. So mentioning side interests might scare them off, and they will think that the applicant should instead go to schools that has many opportunities to offer (which are above my capacity), switch to MPH, MBA, or MHA as a career...?

 

[theseeker4]

What I meant was less research oriented schools are likely to be more focused on producing physicians who will serve their area than produce doctors who are interested in medicine, but have strong interests in public health, business, administration, etc. Of course my classification of top 20 US News schools was a completely arbitrary number.

Physicians usually are not, and probably don't have time, to think about saving money from their surgical staff and operations. Please enlighten me if I'm mistaken, but I get the sense that less research-oriented schools are primarily interested in producing doctors who will just be doctors, and do that well. So mentioning side interests might scare them off, and they will think that the applicant should instead go to schools that has many opportunities to offer (which are above my capacity), switch to MPH, MBA, or MHA as a career...?

You are probably over thinking it. I don't think you need to worry about it no matter where you apply as schools like diversity, they are not likely to look down on someone with a broader view of medicine, and they are not likely to look down on an interest in business unless you explicitly state "I admire CEOs who manage to steal the most money from their investors" or something like at. Include your interests in your application unless they are obviously offensive to the adcoms likely to be reviewing your application.

 

[LaughingMan]

Being below the top 20 schools hardly means focusing on primary care.... Wayne state for example matches a good number of students to various non-primary care specialties each year, and they are hardly alone in that aspect among sub-top 20 schools. I fail to see at all how talking about being competitive, etc. could possibly be a detriment at any school. 😕

Agreed---my brother for example matched into Ortho and he graduated from Wayne.

 

[MedPR]

What I meant was less research oriented schools are likely to be more focused on producing physicians who will serve their area than produce doctors who are interested in medicine, but have strong interests in public health, business, administration, etc. Of course my classification of top 20 US News schools was a completely arbitrary number.

Physicians usually are not, and probably don't have time, to think about saving money from their surgical staff and operations. Please enlighten me if I'm mistaken, but I get the sense that less research-oriented schools are primarily interested in producing doctors who will just be doctors, and do that well. So mentioning side interests might scare them off, and they will think that the applicant should instead go to schools that has many opportunities to offer (which are above my capacity), switch to MPH, MBA, or MHA as a career...?

Medicine is a business. Any physician not thinking about cutting costs probably won't have his/her business for very long.

 

[MiracleforMD]

No.
/thread.

 

[novafan3000]

No joke man I am worried about this too-I am getting started on an MBA in my gap year. Healthcare debate it seems has almost become more about the money than people actually getting the care they deserve. I feel that having a business background and understanding financial markets is crucial to delivering a comprehensive, caring treatment and running an efficient practice. I am curious too if I should incorporate my experience in business into interviews and personal statements. I feel like businessmen are so frowned upon and its unfortunate because its our insight I believe can fix much of our waste in the system.

 

[lovesfall]

Given the current climate I think it is important everywhere to help find new ways to deliver care effectively and affordably. Front line people (i.e., doctors) are huge stakeholders in these efforts. Even if hospital administration plays a larger role than the physicians, being educated in business as a physician may (a) help you be a champion and support the larger efforts or suggest better ways to improve things all around, or (b) lead to a career for you in hospital administration down the road. You can be a good doc and still keep an eye on the financial picture, and arguably providing good care may well involve having some awareness of the cost of the care you're providing.

 

[Praefectus]

Given the current climate I think it is important everywhere to help find new ways to deliver care effectively and affordably. Front line people (i.e., doctors) are huge stakeholders in these efforts. Even if hospital administration plays a larger role than the physicians, being educated in business as a physician may (a) help you be a champion and support the larger efforts or suggest better ways to improve things all around, or (b) lead to a career for you in hospital administration down the road. You can be a good doc and still keep an eye on the financial picture, and arguably providing good care may well involve having some awareness of the cost of the care you're providing.

+1. Having a business mind/background helps with upward mobility in the hospital hierarchy. You'll deal with billing or budgeting at some point, so it would be silly to discourage those abilities.

 

[nychila]

Thank you everyone for your input. I guess it's NOT true that less-research-oriented schools just want to produce doctors, because they want the hospital administrators to handle the business aspect of medicine, eg. to increase efficiency of operations, so that everyone specializes within the specific roles. My misconception was that those schools do NOT want their medical students to pursue administrative-heavy or private practice management roles...