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| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Why MD + MBA = An Improved Healthcare System (Part I) |
![]() There was a time when, if considering a professional degree, you had three choices: medical school, law school, or business school. These days, lines are quickly blurring as professionals in every field are seeing the value of an MBA. Nowhere is this more striking than in the medical profession, where the demands of a rapidly changing healthcare system require doctors to be ever more business savvy. Costanzo “Zino” Di Perna, MD, is the Medical Director for the Dignity Health Cancer Institute of Greater Sacramento, and a physician with Mercy Medical Group Inc. In his work as a thoracic surgeon, he handles about 500 cases a year and oversees a large practice. He’s particularly interested in developing and implementing new healthcare technologies, as well as digital healthcare initiatives. Zino is also enrolled in the Berkeley MBA for Executives program. In this two-part series, we sit down with him to find out first, why he feels a business degree is critical to his own professional success and, in our next installment, why it may be important for more MDs to add MBA diplomas to their office walls. Part I: New Skills, New Opportunities Q: In your work as a physician what are the greatest demands on your time and creativity? A: As a thoracic surgeon, I perform lobectomies, complete lung removals, lung cancer surgeries, and esophagectomies, as well as reconstructing everything in the chest. I’m also developing a virtual tumor board that employs a global cancer network, allowing cancer patients to get hundreds of second opinions. Q: What’s an example of a new skill you’ve gained through the Berkeley EMBA program, and how have you used it in your own work? A: In her course, Leading and Managing Organizations Associate Professor Dana Carney taught us the art of negotiation and of strategically leading the conversation. I’m already using this when talking with vendors, other doctors, and administrators. It’s helping me to negotiate contracts, insurance coverage, and patient care. Q: Can you give me an example of a problem or opportunity you now see differently? A: I’m more respectful of our limited healthcare capital, how precious it is. Rather than blaming the administration for not giving us what we need, I now understand how difficult it is to obtain both capital and resources. They don’t teach that in medical school. Q: You recently completed the EMBA program’s Silicon Valley Immersion Week, focused on entrepreneurship. What was the most helpful thing you learned? A: The healthcare industry could learn from small Silicon Valley start-ups about how to work with limited resources. I also saw many companies that are focused on selling products to health-care systems. Companies that want to be successful in this industry need to develop cost-effective initiatives that will preserve resources. There are no more deep pockets here. We need to do more with less. Q: How have you managed to balance a demanding medical practice with getting your MBA? What would you say to other doctors who might be interested in doing the same thing? A: I’d tell them to be very organized and determined. You have to be extremely motivated to get this degree while continuing to practice medicine. A lot of the Haas group work can be done through phone calls or Google Hangouts. It isn’t easy, but the payoff will be substantial. Since I enrolled at Haas, many physicians have come up to me and said that they’re interested in doing it, too. Within my own group of colleagues, I’ve already encouraged two physicians and one nurse practitioner, who will be in the class of 2016. —Kirsten Mickelwait ![]()
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| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Why MD + MBA=Improved Healthcare System (Part II) |
![]() As the demands of a rapidly changing healthcare system require doctors to be ever more business savvy, Costanzo “Zino” Di Perna, MD, and EMBA 15 (performing surgery above), sat down with us to discuss first, why he feels an MBA is important to his own professional success, and here, why it may be important for more MDs to add MBA diplomas to their office walls. Zino is the Medical Director for the Dignity Health Cancer Institute of Greater Sacramento, and a physician with Mercy Medical Group Inc. In his work as a thoracic surgeon, he handles about 500 cases a year and oversees a large practice. He is also a student in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. Part II: Why it’s no longer enough to be an excellent physician Q: What do medical professionals need to know now that they didn’t used to? A: In the current healthcare climate, it’s no longer enough to be an excellent physician. In order for our practices and hospitals to survive, we need to better understand the financials and the business models. The doctors – the ones who are actually in the trenches – need to be given more control over financial decisions. We’re also too siloed – each physician is focused on generating revenue in his or her own vacuum, but the overall result is that expenses become sky high. A lot of funds are wasted. Q: We know that an increasingly complex healthcare system requires doctors to be more focused on the business side of their practices. How is that currently working? A: As physicians, we’re handling more and more cases, and we’re also expected to help with the administration and assume more directorship roles. However, physicians haven’t been trained in management, while many non-clinically trained administrators don’t fully understand the medical and clinical issues required to make optimized business decisions. Q: How will having doctors and nurses with integrated medical and business skills improve things? A: Only doctors know what actually works in the operating or exam room. Their informed decisions could ultimately save money for Medicare and the larger healthcare system. Doctors need hybrid training so that we can understand both sides. Management training should be a requirement in medical school, if you think about it. Q: Why should medical professionals consider getting MBAs? A: Because it empowers them to take control and give their patients better care. Our current healthcare system is a profit-driven industry that has lost sight of the patient’s welfare – both medically and financially. With an MBA, the physician can not only build his or her practice, but can also grow within a new evolving healthcare business, which is changing daily. —Kirsten Micklewait Want to learn more about what it would be like to add an MBA to medical expertise? ![]()
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| FROM Haas Admissions Blog: Working an EMBA into Your Work-Life Balance |
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Work-life balance can be challenging. And yes, keeping your job, home life, and studies in sync when you’re enrolled in an executive MBA program is even more so. But: Students tell us that strengthening their time management skills and honing a razor-sharp ability to prioritize are among the abilities they gain in the process. And, this juggling act is one you don’t have to manage alone. Here are some ways the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program helps you make EMBA studies work for you. ![]() The block rocks: How our format makes it work We offer advantages that smooth the way. One of the most important, according to our students, is block scheduling. You’re on campus for three days every three weeks, in addition to four immersion weeks. Knowing your class schedule well in advance makes it easier to organize your calendar. Being on campus, students tell us, frees them to focus solely on their studies. They unplug from other concerns. They plug into dynamic classroom discussions and even more invigorating after-class sessions back at the hotel or in one of the area’s acclaimed restaurants. These often late-night meet-ups are where long-lasting friendships are formed, life philosophies are debated, and startup ideas explored—just one way in which your scholarly life becomes a social life. And with the Program Office handling all hotel reservations and shuttling you to campus, all you have to do is get to Berkeley (or wherever your Immersion Week is happening). Plus, our convenient location gives you your choice of three airports if you’re coming from outside the Bay Area. Family matters For many of our students, going through the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program is a family affair—especially since they are here, in part, to make a better life for their families. ![]() We work to support that as much as possible. For Luke Johnson, vice president of Business Development & Growth Initiatives at Christus Health in Dallas, Texas, the block programming was a lifesaver. “We had a two-and-a-half year old and my wife had just given birth to our second child. That made us all very thankful for a program structure that gave me two weekends at home,” he says. We also incorporate families into the program as much as possible. The annual Spousa-Palooza (the brainchild of two members of the class of 2014) gives students the opportunity to bring their spouses and partners to campus for a weekend. There’s also an end-of-term celebration that welcomes your kids. Events like these give everyone the opportunity to see where mom or dad disappears to every few weeks. “When my kids, ages 9 and 11, came to campus they got to sit in my seat in the classroom. That’s when ![]() they really understood what I was doing and tuned into my excitement. Plus, they’re now a couple of real Bears fans,” recalls Laura Adint, senior director of West Coast Practice Operations with Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group. Take your learning to work Most of our students find that the line between work and school soon starts to dissolve when they begin taking classroom learning to work. Here’s what Mike Alter, chief of staff at Napa’s Huneeus Vintners says about that, “So much of my coursework informs what I do every day. I’m able to leverage the lessons about mergers and acquisitions and investing I learned from in Corporate Finance. The Entrepreneurship class has helped me think through how to employ entrepreneurial approaches even in a mature business environment.” When what you’ve learned starts to affect how you work, the work/life balance shifts once more, and you start to realize an early return on your investment in your studies and yourself. Find additional insights on ROI, work/life balance, and more in our students profiles. ![]()
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