The Physician's MBA: Is It Worth It, and Where to Start

We begin by discussing the paths these physicians took to get their MBAs, and what their individual goals were for this extra degree. Dr. Aneesa Majid works at VIR Chicago and is the CEO of Zipdata, a biotech company working to get rid of fax machines in health care. She completed her MBA at Kellogg before her move into the biotech industry. Dr. Roger Tomihama is an associate professor of interventional radiology at Loma Linda, a former navy doctor, and is just starting his MBA program at Wharton.

They discuss the different types of MBAs, including the traditional MBA path and the healthcare specific MBA. They both recommend IRs do the traditional track because it opens up many more networks outside of the physician community, and allows you to develop a business mindset, which may be more limited in a group of physicians only. Dr. Tomihama recommends talking with both physicians and non physicians who have done MBAs to better understand the culture and the expectations before signing up. It is important to do your research about which institution is best for your goals, as well as looking at specific program criteria. For example, some institutions don’t require physicians to take the GMAT before applying.

Finally, we discuss how physicians can grow their business knowledge without getting an MBA. Many IRs need a better understanding of business especially if they are interested in starting an OBL. Dr. Majid and Dr. Tomihama recommend educational material provided on Coursera or AAPL as ways to gain important information without the huge time and monetary investment of an MBA, which is not feasible for all physicians, especially those who want to maintain their clinical IR practice.