Business schools for physicians

There are a handful of business schools that focus on a physician audience. These programs can be especially beneficial for physicians who plan to stay in the health care delivery environment. If you are thinking about a career in another industry such as pharma, biotech, consulting, or finance, you may want to consider other b-school options where you will have a greater opportunity to meet influential classmates and expand your professional network.

MBA programs focused in health care or that target physicians are excellent environments where you will meet other physicians and health care executives who are dealing with challenges surrounding hospital management, practice management, quality improvement, patient safety, resource utilization, health care reform, accountable care, hospital leadership, delivery transformation, physician alignment, and much more.

The U Mass Amherst online MBA program for physicians is provided in collaboration with the American College of Physician Executives.

The Kelley Business of Medicine MBA for physicians is one of the newer programs that targets physician executives and delivers most courses online.

The University of Tennessee has a Physician Executive MBA Program that utilizes a novel class schedule.

The George Washington University offers a Healthcare MBA Online for health care executives.

Earlier this year, the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University recently partnered with Lancaster General Health to offer a health care MBA for physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators.

Thinking about an MBA? Keep in mind that some MBA programs are based on structured cohorts while others provide much greater flexibility in when you start and finish.

Medical Staff Executive Committee

Becoming a physician executive of a hospital or health system could mean involvement at the level of the Medical Staff Executive Committee (also called the Medical Executive Committee).

What can you find online about your Medical Staff Executive Committee or Medical Executive Committee? Here are just a few examples from several health care organizations:

Here's an example from University of North Carolina:

The Medical Staff Executive Committee consists of the Officers of the Medical Staff, the Clinical Department Chairs, the Chief Nursing Officer, the President of UNC Physicians and Associates, the Deans of the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry or their designees, the President of the Housestaff Council, and the President and Chief Operating Officer of UNC Hospitals.

At Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, the The Medical Executive Committee (MEC) is the primary governance committee for the independent medical staff.  The MEC, with input from the medical staff, makes key leadership decisions related to medical staff policies, procedures, and rules, with an emphasis on quality control and quality improvement initiatives. They are also responsible for adopting and implementing medical staff policies and procedures, and creating medical staff appointment and reappointment criteria.

The MEC represents and acts for on behalf of the Medical Staff, enforces medical staff rules and policies and is responsible for ensuring that the medical staff functions as efficiently and effectively as possible.   This group also manages the process for proposing and evaluating the medical staff bylaws and rules and regulations—the legal documents that define the purpose, structure, and authority of the medical staff. 

At the NIH, the Medical Executive Committee, comprised of the various clinical directors of the NIH intramural clinical research programs and other senior medical and administrative staff, advises the Clinical Center Director and develops policies governing standards of medical care in the Clinical Center. The Committee represents and acts for the Medical Staff and other clinical professionals in the Clinical Center, and enforces the rules and policies of the Clinical Center.

In NYC for the 2013 ACPE conference

I'm in NYC for the 2013 American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) conference. If you're here, I look forward to seeing you this weekend.

Not familiar with ACPE?

ACPE is the nation's largest health care organization for physician executives — doctors who hold leadership and management positions. Since its founding in 1975, the primary focus of the College is to provide superior leadership and management skills to physicians and encouraging them to assume more active roles in the leadership and management of their organizations. It has grown exponentially in that time, from 64 members to more than 10,000.

50 Most Influential Physician Executives - 2013 (Modern Healthcare)

Modern Healthcare has a list of "50 Most Influential Physician Executives - 2013"


The honorees were chosen by readers and the senior editors of Modern Healthcare and Modern Physician for their leadership in the varied sectors of the industry, whether provider organizations, government agencies, associations, insurers or supplier companies. This year's program is sponsored by Cejka Executive Search.


You'll see many familiar names like John Kitzhaber, Eric Topol, Farzad Mostashari, Regina Benjamin, Gary Gottlieb, Atul Gawande, Reed Tuckson, Margaret Hamburg, Elliott Fisher, and many others.

I think it would be very interesting to put all these names on a map. We would probably see a heavy representation from the East Coast.

Physician Executive Profile: Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H.

Occasionally, we will feature a physician executive profile so that you can see how some of these individuals navigated their careers to an executive level. Today, we feature:

Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer is Director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement, UC Davis Health System, and a Distinguished Professor in the UC Davis School of Medicine (Department of Emergency Medicine) and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Dr. Kizer’s professional experience includes positions in academia and the public and private sectors. His previous positions have included: President, CEO and Chairman of Medsphere Systems Corporation, the nation’s leading commercial provider of open source healthcare information technology; founding President and CEO, National Quality Forum, a Washington, DC-based quality improvement and consensus standards setting organization; Under Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and chief executive officer of the nation’s largest healthcare system; Director, California Department of Health Services; and Director, Emergency Medical Services Authority, State of California. He has served on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and as Chairman of the Board of The California Wellness Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted to health promotion and disease prevention, as well as on the governing boards of managed care and health IT companies, several foundations and various professional associations and non-profit organizations. He also has worked in various capacities over the years with numerous foreign countries on health-related matters.

Physician Executive jobs

Looking for some Physician Executive jobs? Take a look at some of these physician executive openings on the new NonClinicalJobs Job Board.

Healthcare executives share their views on leadership, career development, mentorship and education

Modern Healthcare has an upcoming complimentary webinar titled, "The 5 Most Significant Emerging Trends in Healthcare Information Technology"

Healthcare executives share their views on leadership, career development, mentorship and education

Thursday, January 24 at 7 pm Eastern

Join a lively panel discussion and Q&A with two healthcare IT experts as they discuss how to best align IT strategy within their organizations as well as goals and strategies for developing new leaders within their departments.

Healthcare Reform has created significant challenges and opportunities in healthcare management. In addition to elevating the importance of IT in healthcare, it has also raised important concerns about cultivating the necessary talent to fill a quickly growing skills gap. Many CIOs report that they cannot find qualified individuals to fill critical IT positions. And the demand for qualified IT managers is only expected to increase.

Attendees of this LIVE webinar will gain a better understanding of the critical role of healthcare IT management including:

• How to align your IT goals with your organization's strategic mission
• Tactics to maximize your team and/or how to further your career and personal financial position
• Creating new opportunities for personal and/or staff advancement
• Tools to enable yourself and your organization to remain competitive, compliant and compassionate

Register for this webinar here.

Sponsored by: University of Phoenix, Health Administration Program

ACPE, ACMPE, ACHE where the E = Executives

Recently, I've received a number of questions from people who find themselves a bit confused by these similar acronyms where the AC = American College and the E = Executives. Let's take a look at these 3:

• ACPE = American College of Physician Executives
• ACMPE = American College of Medical Practice Executives
• ACHE = American College of Healthcare Executives

ACPE is the nation's largest health care organization for physician executives — doctors who hold leadership and management positions. Founded in 1975.  http://acpe.org

ACMPE merged with Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) in 2011 to form the MGMA-ACMPE.  http://www.mgma.com

ACHE is an international professional society of more than 40,000 healthcare executives who lead hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations. Founded in 1933. http://www.ache.org

Physician Executive Journal Highlights Physician-to-Physician Communication

PerfectServe helps reduce sentinel events caused by clinical communication gaps

Knoxville, Tenn. (March 15, 2012) — In a recent article by Diane Shannon, M.D., published in the January/February 2012 issue of the Physician Executive Journal (PEJ), the importance of direct communication between physicians is highlighted as an essential ingredient for effective care coordination.

The article, entitled “Effective Physician-to-Physician Communication: An Essential Ingredient for Care Coordination,” quotes Lon McPherson, MD, senior vice president of medical affairs and chief quality officer at Munroe Regional Medical Center as saying that “lack of direct communication between physicians leads to delays in patients receiving the assessment and treatment they need.”

Also included in the article are thoughts from Dr. Timothy B. Bullard, chief medical officer at Orlando Health. Dr. Bullard stated root cause analyses at his organization demonstrated that it is common to “uncover a gap in communication about a critical piece of information” which ultimately led to the adverse event in the first place.

Photo from the Physicians' IT Symposium at #HIMSS12

Last week, I was in Las Vegas attending the 2012 HIMSS Conference. Monday was the Physicians' IT Symposium and the room was filled with physician executives such as CMOs, CMIOs, medical directors, and others. Here's a photo of some of us during the lunch break:

Recognize any of them? They're all using social media, so you'll find them on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. From L to R:

• Dr. Luis Saldana @lsaldanamd
• Dr. Steve Davidson @sjdmd
• me @DrJosephKim
• Dr. Dirk Stanley @dirkstanley
• Dr. Wen Dombrowski @HealthcareWen

The HIMSS conference was a lot of fun and we had a great time sharing ideas, talking about health care, and eating. 

HIMSS12 coverage is sponsored by HP. HP’s extensive portfolio of products, solutions, services and relationships can help your healthcare organization achieve quality business practices and provide quality patient care.

Vote: 50 Most Influential Physician Executives

Make sure to vote in the "50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare" (formerly the 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare) recognition program. Modern Physician and sister publication Modern Healthcare co-sponsor this annual recognition program.

My friend Harry Greenspun is running and he's Senior adviser, healthcare transformation and technology
Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

There are a number of highly-influential physician executives on this list. You can read about their affiliations here.

Featured Physician Executive: David B. Karpf, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is David B. Karpf, M.D.

David B. Karpf has more than 20 years of experience in guiding the clinical development of novel therapeutics, both at growing biotechnology firms and within large pharmaceutical companies. David is responsible for all clinical, regulatory and medical affairs functions related to advancing Virobay’s growing pipeline of novel product candidates.

From CMO to CEO of a hospital

Congratulations to Dr. Jeff Sperring who is the new President and CEO of Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health! Dr. Sperring (age 42) was formerly the Chief Medical Officer of Riley since 2009.

Here's a snippet from a recent press release:

As president and CEO, Dr. Sperring will be responsible for providing overall strategic direction and leadership for pediatric services throughout IU Health. This includes direct operational and strategic oversight of pediatric programs, services and facilities at Riley at IU Health, along with shared program oversight for pediatric programs based in the community hospitals. Dr. Sperring will serve on the senior executive team for IU Health. 

When Dr. Sperring first joined IU Health, he was appointed director of the Pediatric Hospitalist Program for Methodist’s Children’s Pavilion as part of the Riley Children’s Health Partnership. He led the expansion of the program to IU Health North in 2005 and then both IU Health West and Riley at IU Health in 2007. Later that year, Dr. Sperring was appointed associate chief medical officer at Riley at IU Health and assumed the position of chief medical officer upon the retirement of Dr. Richard L. Schreiner. 

Dr. Sperring is a graduate of Emory University and received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1995. He completed his pediatric residency at the Naval Medical Center San Diego and served as an officer in the United States Navy Medical Corps from 1995-2001. Prior to joining the faculty at Riley, Dr. Sperring was a community pediatrician at the Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and New Castle Pediatrics in New Castle, Ind. He and his wife Amie, a graduate of Indiana University School of Nursing, reside in Noblesville, Ind.

The transition from CMO to CEO wasn't very common in the past, but we're seeing more of these transitions as physician executives demonstrate their exceptional ability to effectively lead complex hospital systems.

Featured Physician Executive: Maurizio Voi, M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Maurizio Voi, M.D.

Earlier this week, the following press release was issued about Dr. Voi:

Curis Announces Appointment of Maurizio Voi, M.D. as Chief Medical and Chief Development Officer

- Dr. Voi brings over 20 years of broad industry experience including development of XALKORI® (crizotinib), Erbitux® (cetuximab), Sprycel® (dasatinib) and Gemzar® (gemcitabine for injection) -

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced the appointment of Maurizio Voi, M.D., as Chief Medical and Chief Development Officer. Dr. Voi will be responsible for the Company's development, clinical trial and regulatory affairs operations, as well as biomarker and translational medicine activities.

Featured Physician Executive: Dr. Douglass Given

This week, our featured physician executive is Dr. Douglass Given. The following information about Dr. Given is from the Arrowhead Research Corporation website:

Dr. Douglass Given is a biotechnology industry executive and investor with extensive experience in founding, operating, and financing companies for the successful development and commercialization of innovative technologies. Dr. Given is Chairman and CEO of Vivaldi Biosciences Inc., Chairman of VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and an Investment Partner at Bay City Capital LLC.

Featured Physician Executive: Cristoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Cristoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder and Partner, Longwood Founders Fund

Dr. Westphal founded Longwood Founders Fund, a venture capital fund based in Boston, and serves as General Partner.

In addition to these roles, Dr. Westphal is the Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Sirtris, which he co-founded in 2004 and led as Chief Executive Officer until 2010. Under his leadership, Sirtris established itself as a recognized pioneer in the research and development of drugs targeting the aging process enzymes. In 2007, Dr. Westphal successfully guided the company through its initial public offering, resulting in recognition by the Boston Globe as one of the Globe 100 top companies of 2007. In June 2008, GSK acquired Sirtris for $720 million.

Get my Physician Executive Journal articles from Amazon

If you missed some of my previous Physician Executive Journal articles about non-clinical careers for physicians, you can purchase them from Amazon.com.

Here are some of my recent articles that have appeared in the Physician Executive Journal:

Non-clinical career opportunities for physician executives.(PEJ Career Center)(Viewpoint essay): An article from: Physician Executive

Understanding the CME enterprise.(Continuing Medical Education): An article from: Physician Executive

Retirees may consider non-clinical "encore" career.(Career Choices): An article from: Physician Executive

Physician leaders and executives here at the Connected Health Symposium #CHS11

I'm in Boston attending the Connected Health Symposium. Here, we're hearing about a number of different innovations that are revolutionizing the world of health care. I've seen a number of physician leaders and executives who have demonstrated leadership within various organizations and who are influencing the evolving world of health IT. Some of these physicians are working in industry while others are in academia. Some continue to see patients while others are fully engaged in business, administration, or medical management.

Here are some of those physicians who were here at the conference:

• David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, Former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
• Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, Harvard Medical School
• Robert Galvin, MD, CEO of Equity Healthcare
• Brent James, MD, MStat, Chief Quality Officer & Executive Director, Institute for Health Care Delivery Research at Intermountain Healthcare
• Joseph Kvedar, MD, Director of the Partners Center for Connected Health
• William Shrank, MD, Director of Evaluation of the Innovation Center, CMS
• Elizabeth Mort, MD, VP of Quality and Safety, Associate CMO, Mass General Hospital
• Gilbert Mudge, MD, VP, International Programs, Partners HealthCare, President of Partners International Medical Services
• M. Turner Billingsley, MD, CMO of Intersystems
• Peter Tippett, MD, PhD, VP of Industry Solutions and Security Practices, Verizon Business
• Kevin Schulman, MD, MBA, Duke University
• Julian Goldman, MD, Partners HealthCare Biomedical Engineering
• Jasper zu Putlitz, MD, President of Robert Bosch Healthcare
• Jeff Benabio, MD, Kaiser Permanente
• Steven Locke, MD, Harvard Medical School
• Kamal Jethwani, MD, Partners Center for Connected Health
• Jay Sanders, MD, President & CEO of the Global Telemedicine Group
• Nick van Terheyden, MD, CMIO at Nuance Communications
• and many others!

Mark your calendars for the Connected Health Symposium next year. This is a great conference where you'll see innovative ideas that are likely to transform the future of health care. You'll also meet physician leaders and executives who are in influential positions and you'll want to get to know them.

Featured Physician Executive: Howard Grant, J.D., M.D.

This week, our featured physician executive is Howard Grant, J.D., M.D.
President/CEO Lahey Clinic

A physician, attorney and health care chief executive, Howard R. Grant, JD, MD, the president and chief executive officer of Lahey Clinic, has played a vital role in influencing patient safety and superior clinical care for more than two decades at some of the nation’s most preeminent health care institutions.

At Geisinger Health System, Dr. Grant was the executive vice president and chief medical officer responsible, with his administrative colleagues, for operations and budgets for 27 clinical service lines, and physician and administrator recruitment. He was also charged with aligning clinical operations with Geisinger Health Plan, a not-for-profit insurance company.

Featured Physician Executive: Samuel Nussbaum, MD

This week, our featured physician executive is Samuel Nussbaum, MD
Executive Vice President, Clinical Health Policy, Chief Medical Officer for WellPoint, Inc

Dr. Samuel Nussbaum is Executive Vice President, Clinical Health Policy, Chief Medical Officer for WellPoint, Inc., and Interim President of WellPoint’s Comprehensive Health Solutions Business Unit.

Within Clinical Health Policy, Nussbaum oversees corporate medical policy, clinical pharmacy programs, and public health policy. He also has responsibility for HealthCore, WellPoint’s clinical outcomes research subsidiary. As the leader of Comprehensive Health Solutions, which includes WellPoint’s provider relations, care and disease management, imaging management, personal health guidance companies, and WellPoint’s pharmacy solutions group, Nussbaum is responsible for focusing on the issues of medical cost, quality of care and enhancing member value through innovative health solutions.