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The Role of MD and MBA Training in the Professional Development of a Physician: A Survey of 30 Years of Graduates From the Wharton Health Care Management Program Mitesh S. Patel, MD, MBA, Vishal Arora, Mamta S. Patel, BBA, June M. Kinney, MA, Mark V. Pauly, PhD, and David A. Asch, MD, MBA Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4X

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B y 2010, nearly 40% of U.S. medical schools had established a medical doctorate (MD) and master of business administration (MBA) dual-degree program, a fivefold increase since the mid 1990s. 1–3 Although many have speculated about the role of the MD and MBA degrees on physician career development or more broadly within society, 4–6 to our knowledge there has been little examination of its use after training. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania established a full time MBA program in health care management in 1971 and has since produced over 250 physician graduates. In addition to core MBA curriculum Abstract Purpose The number of medical schools offering MD and MBA training has increased fivefold in the last two decades. The authors evaluated graduates’ perceptions of the role of such training on their career and professional development. Method In 2011, the authors surveyed physician graduates from the Wharton School MBA Program in Heath Care Management at the University of Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2010. Survey responses were analyzed and evaluated using grounded theory. Results Among 247 eligible graduates, 59.9% (148/247) completed the questionnaire Please see the end of this article for information about the authors. Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Patel, 423 Guardian Dr., 1303B Blockley Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104; telephone: (734) 355-0817; e-mail: mpatel@upenn.edu.

including accounting, finance, marketing, and strategy, students in the Health Care Management Program enroll in a diverse range of health care-focused courses that cover health economics, management, and policy. By 2010, the program offered more than 15 health-care-focused courses including an immersive field application project where students are paired with health care companies to address real-world problems. The objective of this study was to evaluate graduates’ perceptions of the role of MD and MBA training on their professional development and career. The Health Care Management Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania provided e-mail contact information for all living physician or medical student graduates since its incep tion in 1971. We sent all graduates from 1972 to 2010 up to three e-mail correspon dences using contact information from Method Study sample and 89.9% (133/148) of them provided free-text responses. Approxi mately 85.1% (126/148) of respon dents were male and 79.7% (118/148) entered residency training; however, both rates declined slightly over time. Among respondents within their first decade after graduation, 46.2% (24/52) reported clinical practice as their primary work sector compared with 39.5% (15/38) among respondents 11 to 20 years after graduation and 19.2% (5/26) of respondents 21 to 30 years after graduation. Overall, graduates reported mostly positive attitudes and often noted the benefits of career acceleration, professional flexibility, and credibility in multidisciplinary

the Wharton alumni database. If possible, nonresponders were additionally con tacted through online professional net works. Ultimately, we excluded graduates prior to 1981 from analysis because of a small sample size of only 16 respon dents. Study coauthors (Mitesh S.P., D.A.A.) were also excluded from the sample. Study design We administered a two-part question naire electronically from September to December 2011. Part one requested sociodemographic characteristics, training history, and current pro fessional activities. Part two requested free-text responses to the following open-ended questions on the role of MD and MBA training on respondents’ professional career and development: • Please describe how (if at all) you use your MD and/or other medical training in your professional life; • Please describe how (if at all) you use your MBA in your professional life; are pursuing leadership and primarily nonclinical roles later in their careers. These findings reveal new insights for policies affecting physician workforce. Further study is necessary to evaluate whether similar trends exist more broadly. domains. The few negative remarks were focused on the opportunity cost of time and how peers in one discipline may negatively perceive the role of the other discipline’s degree. Conclusions Graduates with an MD and MBA report mostly positive attitudes towards their training, and many

Acad Med. 2014;89:1282–1286. First published online June 20, 2014 doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000366

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Academic Medicine, Vol. 89, No. 9 / September 2014