Prestige of medical school for leadership positions

[shindotp]

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How important is the ranking/prestige of a medical school in the long run for someone who wants to reach leadership roles in medicine (such as a department head, chief medical officer/dean of medicine, CEO, etc.)?

Do you think the rankings show any indication of how much you'll learn at the medical school that will help in the long run to obtain leadership positions?

Thanks.

 

[scube]

I think it matters more what you do at the school you attend. I am at a small school (each class has 72 students) so I am on several committees and hold a few leadership positions that I would not have gotten if I had gone to a big prestigious school. Pick a school cause it feels right and then work hard. I might be wrong but I don't think it matters that much. Unless you want to hold high political office.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

How important is the ranking/prestige of a medical school in the long run for someone who wants to reach leadership roles in medicine (such as a department head, chief medical officer/dean of medicine, CEO, etc.)?

Do you think the rankings show any indication of how much you'll learn at the medical school that will help in the long run to obtain leadership positions?

Thanks.

Doesn't matter except for the highest political positions (surgeon general) and then only maybe. I know heads of hospitals who went to podunk schools. The dean of Harvard medical school for a while was trained at Rochester and Case. That's not to say those aren't excellent schools but neither is top ten. He became dean because of his research accomplishments, not his education pedigree.

 

[shindotp]

I see I see, thanks a lot.

 

[njbmd]

It's not the school that you attend but your performance at said school. Those who get "A"s end up in research; those who get "B"s end up as department chairs; those who get "C"s end up rich.

Seriously, knocking out AOA (if your school has a chapter) and acing boards will get you noticed more than your medical school alone. During fourth year, you can always do some away rotations at the some of the top spots (provided you have the grades) and get some one-on-one experience and mentoring.

 

[shindotp]

Contacts with powerful people are far more important to get those juicy bureaucratic positions. Being lovey dovey with bureaucrat committees at your university might help you to meet these kinds of people.

Since I don't give a crap about myself being that kind of person, I focus my energies on treating the people that need medical care the most. I can't stand the personalities of bureaucrats anyways.

Thanks for the advice...

That's fine that you want to focus on treating individual patients. While you do that, I'll be focusing on maintaining the quality of medical care for every patient in my hospital.

 

[DrJosephKim]

You can get one perspective by taking a look at some of these physician executive profiles:

http://www.acpe.org/Education/Institutes/Spring/Election.aspx

Most people gain management and business skills beyond medical school and residency. It all comes with experience.

 

[shindotp]

Wow that's a pretty awesome link!!!

Btw, I'm surprsied none of them have an MPH. I was planning on getting either an MPH or an MBA.

 

[Slim147]

I recently did an externship program between year one and two with a doctor who by no means went to a prestigious med school. He is now the CEO of one of the larger physician groups in California. His father owned a supermarket and he helped manage it as a teenager. After med school he went to night classes and got his MPH and was later elected to the board, then to be CEO/Chairman. Really cool guy to work with. He is also involved in a lot of policy decisions made in the state.

One thing he did say was that if you want to go into that sort of thing, then certain specialties can help. He did internal med and infectious disease. Every specialty pretty much consults with infectious disease and this enables him to know just about everyone in the group, a bonus if you are aiming for leadership. Anyway, just something to consider.

 

[shindotp]

Wow, I was actually really considering infectious diseases. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[sunset823]

I actually had a similar question - I am interested in getting a medical leadership position, particularly in health policy, or being in academic medicine - I currently work with a woman who's been immensely successful as a junior faculty, but her degrees are from HMS (MD) and Oxford (PhD) - none of the schools I would attend even closely match that, they're not top-40. Say I go to my state school, would that completely block me off from academic medicine/leadership positions? Or could I try to work my way up there, join AMSA leadership, etc, to get myself noticed down the road?

 

[Rzarecta]

I actually had a similar question - I am interested in getting a medical leadership position, particularly in health policy, or being in academic medicine - I currently work with a woman who's been immensely successful as a junior faculty, but her degrees are from HMS (MD) and Oxford (PhD) - none of the schools I would attend even closely match that, they're not top-40. Say I go to my state school, would that completely block me off from academic medicine/leadership positions? Or could I try to work my way up there, join AMSA leadership, etc, to get myself noticed down the road?

Of course it won't knock you off academic medicine/leadership positions. Your state school is an academic university. Honestly, if you want to be that kind of physician get involved in leadership organizations in medical school, strive for AOA, research etc. The only limiting factor is you.