If this should be in dual degree feel free to move but I'd appreciate input from ER docs in particular...
I am applying for medical school now and will be starting (hopefully) in 2011. Things might change, but I think that I would like to eventually practice as an ER physician in a large city. I'm thinking about doing a combined MD/MBA program. What advantages/opportunities do you think this might give a doctor in an ER/hospital setting?
--I will always want to practice medicine clinically, but might want to be involved in the administrative/policy-making side of medicine as well.
Thanks in advance for any input.
I'm a fourth year MD/MBA student, entering my final year in a month. I definitely think that skills I've learned will be extremely useful throughout my career, and not even in the way I assumed they would just a year ago. I thought that the greatest benefit would be from the finance and accounting that I would learn; that knowledge is helpful, but its been the other stuff that I've found most interesting and applicable to ED management.
In my Information Technology class, we learned about the ins-and-outs of large scale IT transformation of a business, knowledge that I'm able to apply to health IT in hospitals and in the ER. For my class project, I evaluated the IT infrastructure of my med schools ER and was able to come up with recommendations for improving work flow and reducing costs.
Right now, in Operations Management, I'm learning how patients flow through a clinic setting, how to evaluate where bottlenecks arise and how to strategically place your assets to minimize wait times and maximize physician time for actual patient care.
I've used my "spare time" during business school to work for a private equity firm that invests in health care facilities, so I'm putting to use my finance/accounting knowledge in a healthcare setting, while making a nice little stipend. I'm also using the job as a case study for my strategy class, evaluating how the private equity firm should move forward while adjusting to changes in healthcare and how the state pays for low-income patients.
As you can see, I'm a big fan of the combined degree, especially for people who know how they want to use it in the future. Many of my classmates are using it as a post-third year, pre-residency mental vacation, which I would consider a valid reason if it didn't cost another $55k in loans (plus, many of these people regret going to B-school). If you just want a break at some point during med school, do a year of research that will boost your CV without adding to your debt load. If you're willing to work hard to obtain some useful skills that will impact your career, go for the MBA and don't look back.
