What jobs with a MD-MBA, MD-JD, other dual degrees?? Specifics

[mazeymaze]

So...there's all this talk of dual degrees and how great they are and how competitive they make you in the end BUT aside from MD-PHD no one really mentions, specifically, what the HELL you do with a MD-JD or a MD-MBA. Shed some light anyone? Please? specifics?

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[DrBowtie]

More in hosptial admin, start your own business, Do consulting work. Basically, not your usual MD job.

 

[Law2Doc]

So...there's all this talk of dual degrees and how great they are and how competitive they make you in the end BUT aside from MD-PHD no one really mentions, specifically, what the HELL you do with a MD-JD or a MD-MBA. Shed some light anyone? Please? specifics?

You won't get a lot of specifics because there aren't that many combos out there as a percentage. I'll take a stab.
There isn't a clear path for MD-JD, probably because there are so few of them. You basically have to figure out on your own what you want to do and be a pioneer in convincing employers why they could use someone with both degrees. The obvious combo path would be working at an administrative agency drafting health policy legislation. Or academic/teaching - perhaps something related to medical ethics and law. In legal practice the clearest paths seem to be practicing health law, medmal or being a professional witness. I see no application for a JD in direct clinical medicine.
The MBA-MD combo is a bit more useful, and there is a board devoted to that lower down on SDN. Health/hospital administration or working for the pharmaceutical or insurance industries seem like the most likely paths for a combined degree. There are healthcare consulting firms out there and financial firms that work with the health industry and might be receptive to an MD/MBA. Thus you'd also have to be somewhat of a pioneer with this combination of degrees, but perhaps not as in the wilderness as you would be with a JD/MD.
There is no evidence that folks with combined degrees command a higher income than the MD alone, a point that was vehemently made by a repeat poster with his own website (dedicated to this issue) to this board some time ago. I don't doubt this, although his other conclusions were suspect.
My personal view is that unless you have in mind a specific career where you think you need both degrees, just get one. Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

[LizzyM]

MD, JD: I know a few. One did medical malpractice defense work for a number of years while continuing to work in emergency medicine. Another continued his usual work in pathology but also taught law/ethics to med students. The third is in occupational medicine and is particularly interested in occupational and environmental law as it relates to his employer's business and workers' health. All went to law school after med school graduation.

MD, MBA: They often work as physicians and manage their group practice (they'd be the managing partner if they were in a law firm rather than a medical practice).

MD, MPH: All over the map but often in government agencies (CDC, state, county & local health departments), in academic medicine (epidemiology and health services research), management of clinical facilities(particularly facilities that might be considered safety nets), health education and communications.

 

[Law2Doc]

MD, MBA: They often work as physicians and manage their group practice (they'd be the managing partner if they were in a law firm rather than a medical practice).

I doubt this is a good reason to get an MBA if this is what people are in fact doing with it. Managing partners in law firms are rarely MBAs and there's similarly no reason to do so in a medical practice. An MBA does not teach you how to run a business. It is a nice bolstering of already existing business skills but a bad place to try and get your initial business acumen. You'd be better served by buying a few good books and hiring a competent accountant. In business, folks tend to use an MBA to move up in the ranks rather than to actually initially get in the door. Unlike the MD or JD, it doesn't qualify you to do a particular profession, and is really an add on degree to an existing skillset. This is the reason most of the better MBA programs require you to show up already having worked for a few years before you enroll. For the most part, the MBA when combined with the MD perhaps tends to make you a more credible candidate for a (hospital/healthcare) administrative job. But don't think you get to be managing partner of a medical partnership just because you have a dual degree. Good interpersonal skills will take you much farther in this respect.

 

[LizzyM]

I doubt this is a good reason to get an MBA if this is what people are in fact doing with it.

I'm saying that this is what the people I know who have both degrees are doing. I suspect that most of them did the MBA after practicing medicine for some time and discovering an interest in "management" of the group practice and a desire to upgrade their skills. There is a certain credibility that goes with the MD/MBA such that both the docs and the suits think that the guy at the table understands their point of view.

Whereas most (all) lawyers have had training in contracts, business law, etc. that helps prepare them to be a managing partner, docs who are leaders in a group practice have no such "basic training" and often get the same through an executive MBA program.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm saying that this is what the people I know who have both degrees are doing. I suspect that most of them did the MBA after practicing medicine for some time and discovering an interest in "management" of the group practice and a desire to upgrade their skills. There is a certain credibility that goes with the MD/MBA such that both the docs and the suits think that the guy at the table understands their point of view.

Whereas most (all) lawyers have had training in contracts, business law, etc. that helps prepare them to be a managing partner, docs who are leaders in a group practice have no such "basic training" and often get the same through an executive MBA program.

An executive MBA program is very different than the MBA you would get in a joint degree. An executive MBA program tends to be a matter of weeks of courses (eg Wharton's and Columbia's is just every other weekend for 2 years, hardly the same pace or material coverage) with a focus largely geared toward the enrolling audience. A full blown MBA is generally two years of full time study and requires you to take courses in finance, accounting, management, marketing, operations, etc., and does not cover a particularly basic business skillset you would need to run a small partnership. While I don't dount that an MD/MBA has some credibility, I think it's a waste of time to get that full blown degree in the hopes of being managing partner of a medical practice. I have no similar problem with the so called "executive MBA", although I think it's not what the OP was talking about.

 

[Shredder]

So...there's all this talk of dual degrees and how great they are and how competitive they make you in the end BUT aside from MD-PHD no one really mentions, specifically, what the HELL you do with a MD-JD or a MD-MBA. Shed some light anyone? Please? specifics?

check the md/mba forum and look at some brochures from schools, there are a lot of answers there