Three Lessons I Didn't Expect To Learn in Business School as a Physician

In my early pre-med days, I remember my advisors coaching me on how to prepare for the long journey to medicine: Be good at biology and chemistry, do well on the MCAT, and get active in biomedical research. I suspect a lot of other doctors from my generation similarly loaded up on science experience, without enrolling in a single business class in college or medical school.

But now, we elder millennials make up a large portion of the country's physician-leaders, and we work in an environment where success requires a firm understanding of the healthcare economic landscape. For instance, a self-employed doctor must ensure their practice offers enough to meet patient demands while also keeping up with reimbursement changes from payers. And a physician employed by a large health system benefits from understanding how their work adds value to their organization. These are just two examples of the many economic considerations physicians must keep in mind.

Unsurprisingly, physicians are increasingly turning to formal business education to enhance their careers in medicine. The percentage of medical schools with dual MD-MBA programs has soared from 25% in 2002 to over 60% today, and the portion of physicians with business training is estimated to have tripled over the same period. More than 20 top-tier business schools now offer part-time graduate business programs specifically tailored for practicing physicians. I completed one myself, and along the way, I learned three significant and unexpected lessons.

1. I gained a deeper appreciation for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Those of us who go into the health sciences tend to follow a straight path from education to licensure and employment. Clinical care stays in sharp focus the whole way — that’s where our expertise lies, and it’s the reason we sacrifice sleep, birthdays, and years of stable income. We’re heavily trained for the most important part of our job, but we all know it takes more than top-notch clinical skills to build a successful career in medicine, especially if you want to practice on your own terms.

Most physicians are unfamiliar with the intricacies of building a product to compete in the free market, or with the inherent risks involved, unless they actively seek out that knowledge through personal experience or professional training. I chose the latter and, in the process, I learned from the success stories of pioneers outside the medical field. An entrepreneur turns their vision into reality without having any assurance that consumers will embrace it. Even the owners of very small businesses, like barbershops and delis, need to stay vigilant in the face of market forces and work continuously to set themselves apart from the field. The road to a medical degree is grueling, but job security is all but guaranteed for those who make it, especially given our growing, nationwide physician shortage. That’s something we often take for granted. After all, everyone needs healthcare.

2. The complexity of the healthcare system makes it challenging to apply economic principles from other sectors.

I chose to get a master's degree in healthcare management, which is an MBA program specifically designed for healthcare professionals. (The precise name of the degree varies across business schools.) In my general business courses, I learned clean and elegant economic concepts — things like supply and demand curves and pricing a product to appeal to different consumer groups.

My program’s curriculum also included healthcare-specific coursework, during which we observed that business formulas rarely apply to the healthcare system in a straightforward way. That’s largely because supply and demand dynamics falter when so much depends on third-party payment systems. The dynamic is no longer “what is the consumer willing to pay?” but rather, “what is the insurance company willing to reimburse?”, usually after the service has already been rendered. Further, a lot of healthcare is non-elective, meaning provider organizations must offer it even if it results in economic loss. These are just a few of the reasons why the economic considerations for launching a healthcare company, especially a service-oriented one, are far broader than for a coffee shop or software firm.

3. There’s an urgent need for leaders who can generate system solutions within a complex healthcare economy.

Currently, low patient satisfaction plagues US healthcare. In order to transform the system, you need to understand both macroeconomic concepts and trends that highlight pain points in the system (e.g., socioeconomic factors leading to delays in care). Deep understanding of these complexities are limited to healthcare professionals who pursue education outside their clinical specialties.

This realization underscored why leadership training was a significant part of my business education. At the outset of my program, every student in my year was assigned to a professional coach. Mine was a psychologist by training, and I found our meetings to be incredibly helpful. But, at the time, I thought of them as a perk of being at my particular business school, rather than a core component of my business education. With the benefit of hindsight, I now see leadership coaching as more than merely an added bonus. For physicians pursuing management positions in healthcare, the opportunity to learn leadership skills — from an expert, in a one-on-one setting — is invaluable. In general, no organization gains as much from an individual who can read a balance sheet, or even propose a plan for sustainable competitive advantage, as they do from one who can do those things while also motivating others and supporting team members during challenging times.

Business school scrutinized my leadership strengths and weaknesses more than any previous experience had. For example, one thing my coach had me do was take a personality test called the Hogan Development Survey. It evaluates “the dark side of personality” in order to identify how you’re inclined to think and act during high-pressure situations. The purpose is to recognize problematic traits that might emerge — traits that can interfere with performance and put relationships at risk — and learn how to mitigate them in advance. I wasn’t prepared for the survey results (20-plus pages of data) to reveal and give a name to so many aspects of my motivations and communication style. But, what really made the HDS so impactful was having a coach to help break down the results and teach me how to use them to bolster my leadership skills — listening, providing feedback, nurturing talent, supporting teams through adversity, etc.

Often, the most valuable lessons are the ones you don’t expect to learn. I decided to take business classes at night and on weekends — on top of working a busy medical job and having a social life — because I wanted to supplement my clinical training with managerial and operational know-how. But those skills were only a small part of what I gained. Now, whenever I’m in a position to give advice to highly motivated medical students or trainees, or physicians fresh out of residency, I encourage them to consider business school for the way it can transform their understanding of the labyrinthine healthcare system, as well as of themselves. Our clinical expertise is our No. 1 skill, and it always will be. By supplementing it with business acumen, we can drive much-needed innovation and improve satisfaction within healthcare teams and across the patients we care for.