Through my career, I’ve learned that medicine evolves daily. Medical training has provided the necessary tools to treat patients, yet systemic issues remain with far more elusive solutions. Although my engineering background has molded my analytical approach, successful medical leadership requires extra skills to address concerns of all involved parties. With this in mind, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) tailored to physicians will enhance my knowledge of the broader issues affecting clinical medicine and empower me to enact meaningful change beyond my patient panel.
Although residency prepared me to become a clinician, the most challenging issues involved advocating for resources, improving education, and ensuring patient safety among the greater institutional goals, particularly financial viability. During my terms as the Association for Residents and Fellows co-chair, we focused on eliciting resident concerns and bridging the gap between residents and our graduate medical education (GME) department. Our most successful project involved developing a subcommittee with GME and hospital leadership to update faculty teaching compensation to better reflect the institution’s educational commitment.
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For example, our department head and neck cancer program has inherent complexities leading to several unmet needs. After meeting with stakeholders, we’ve aligned our departmental goals with those of the cancer center and streamlined assessments and referrals to key providers. Furthermore, we’ve improved the patient experience with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tubes by coordinating interdepartmental staff education and developing a patient resource manual. Through such experiences, I’ve been able to meaningfully impact our patients, but look forward to learning methods to better optimize quality, variance, and patient and provider