UNC announces joint program

Beginning this fall, UNC will offer a dual-degree program that allows students to earn both their doctor of medicine and Master of Business Administration in five years.

UNC has already accepted students who have completed three out of four years of medical school for entrance into the program for fall 2012.

“This program shows how our best professional schools can work together to benefit students,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said.

Students can apply to the program when applying to the UNC School of Medicine or any time during their first two years in the M.D. program.

Accepted students complete the first three years of the M.D. program and spend their fourth year in the core and elective MBA courses. Electives in both programs are offered in the fifth year.

UNC joins more than 55 other U.S. and Canadian universities such as Harvard and Duke in offering joint M.D.-MBA programs.

But Cam Patterson, associate dean for medical entrepreneurship, said UNC’s program is unique because of its emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Many programs are set up just to teach physicians how to run a practice,” Patterson said. “That’s a good and noble thing, but not the direction we’re headed in.”

Jeff Kennedy, one of the program’s administrators, said the ultimate goal of the program is to better train and prepare people to be leaders in health care innovation and entrepreneurship.

“There’s a lot of business in medicine now,” he said. “We need to give the future health care leaders a skill set they can use in the changing health care landscape of today.”

Patterson said the program is in response to recent challenges in the health care industry.

“We are falling behind in our ability to provide the same high quality level care for everyone in the U.S.,” Patterson said. “It’s the perfect storm of challenges, but also a great opportunity to come up with new solutions.”

He said the program’s administrators want UNC to be the country’s leader in developing curriculum in health care innovation.

“We want them to develop the best ideas for improving quality and reducing cost of health care,” Patterson said.

Kennedy said the program will help UNC’s competitiveness.

“Both programs are very strong by themselves,” he said. “But by joining together, I think they can be even stronger and they’ll make UNC a very attractive destination.”

Patterson said the program will attract more students to UNC.

“We want to make sure they understand that UNC should be their destination for this type of education, that we provide something so singular and unique that there’s no other alternative but to come to UNC,” he said.

Patterson said the program is also a way for UNC to educate future leaders for its own institutions.

“It’s an investment in ourselves,” he said.

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