MD/MBA with rad onc?

[bamdstudent]

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Hey,

I'm currently a medical student and I'm exploring pursuing an MD/MBA. I've also been doing clinical and research work in rad onc and unless I have some life-changing amazing experience in another specialty during rotations, I plan on pursuing rad onc after med school.

I am interested in an MBA for several reasons. I have some experience in business through an internship and classes and I like the study of business as well as the impact someone with a background in business can make. I'm interested in the delivery of health care, improving quality in health care, policy in health care, etc and I feel that I would be able to have a greater impact both in my practice and as a physician in the community with a business background.

My question is this: how would an MBA look when applying for residency, when applying for a job after residency, and is it worth it? Doing an MBA will take 1 extra year + $60-70k more in loans + interest on previous med school loans. My primary interest is in medicine and rad onc, so before I decide to pursue an MBA, I want to know what benefit, if any, I can get from it.

Since a lot of you are much more advanced in their careers than I am, I would really appreciate your input on what good or bad an MBA would bring me in the context of my goal to get into rad onc.

Thanks!

 

[hot sauce]

Since a lot of you are much more advanced in their careers than I am, I would really appreciate your input on what good or bad an MBA would bring me in the context of my goal to get into rad onc.

Thanks!

I doubt having an MBA will make a significant difference in your chance of matching into radiation oncology.

 

[tonguetalker]

would it hinder ones chances if they had an MBA as opposed to a PhD?

 

[hot sauce]

I am not a program director so this is just MHO.

I don't think an MBA is a bad thing and if you have an interesting story or passion like the OP it might be helpful to make you stand out (depending on the program - the chair at UCLA for example might think it was really cool). However, bamdstudent already has some business background and you can probably play that up with your interest in health policy without the mba.

But for the most part I don't think an MBA really helps or hurts you. At some programs I believe a phd is a bonus (if you got good publications) but not to the point that you should do a phd just to improve your chances.

So I would say phd is better than mba for applying but phd takes a lot longer than an mba and I wouldn't recommend either if your goal is simply getting into rad onc.

 

[Gfunk6]

From my very limited experience with MD/MBAs, I would concur with hot sauce. We see one or two in the applicant pool each year. How PDs and rankings committees view these types of dual degrees depends on their application as a whole.

I will say, the few MD/MBAs applicants I've spoken with have wowed the socks off of me. These folks come from great med schools and graduated from the top five business schools in the country to boot. Their thoughts on combining medicine and business were always well thought out and clear.

 

[bamdstudent]

Thanks for the input! While I do have some ideas on how I could have a greater impact by combining business and medicine, I'm still relatively new to the idea and thankfully do still have a couple years before I have to decide whether or not to go for the MBA. The more I hear about the MBA in healthcare management and what others have done with an MD/MBA though, the more receptive I become to the idea.

If any of you know anyone personally who has gone through with an MD/MBA and even more specifically someone in the field of rad onc, it would be great if you could get me in touch with them through PM!