|
Can MBAs Cure Health Care's Ailments?
B-school grads are finding opportunities in the medical field, where they can make money -- and a difference
BusinessWeek, March 22, 2006 by Francesca Di Meglio
Sometimes one night can change everything. Last October, as part of a class on the anthropology of health care, Woodrow Lucas, a second-year student at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, stayed overnight at a pediatric-care unit in a nearby hospital. Lucas, a student in the joint program on divinity and business who wants to enter the health-care sector when he graduates, says the experience forced him to see how hard doctors and nurses work and the delicate balance between cost and treatment. "It's not just about cost management," he adds. "Often, it's a life-or-death situation."
Lucas says since then he's become more driven to help people take control of their own health care by using his business skills and spiritual sensitivity. He adds that today's business students have the chance to use their skills to help improve the quality, lower the costs, and increase access to health care despite the obvious contradictions. Most agree that those tasks are even more difficult than they sound. But experts say there are MBAs like Lucas who view the nation's health-care challenges as opportunities to make money and help people.
The full text of this article can be viewed at BusinessWeek.
|
