Why Doctors Aren’t Enough
You may not know what a Masters in Health Administration means now, but I promise in 10 years, you will. My program, amongst so many others, is proving everyday why doctors are no longer enough to provide care to those who need it in the ever-evolving field of healthcare.
As an undergraduate, I entered my university set on becoming a doctor. I had a deep love for biology and the human body (which I still love today) and thought that practicing medicine would be the most stimulating (and frankly, appropriate) way for me to do what I loved. I didn’t give a second thought to the innumerable paths I could take to make a difference in healthcare because in all honesty, I didn’t know otherwise.
As a student from a privileged community, I was taught to reach for the stars and pursue a career with a comfortable lifestyle and established path to success. Yet, as it turns out, the movers and shakers of the world are increasingly interdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and are creating their own paths.
We are at the beginning of entrepreneurship in healthcare. In a space with no guidebook for success, we must create our own.
Many of my fellow MHA students are interested in pursuing hospital management or health consulting, but also healthcare-related startups, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and social impact ventures. We tackle the systems that run healthcare in this country- everything from improving affordable access to healthcare coverage to shortening wait times in clinics. We devise new pricing models for medicines and integrate cutting edge technology in hospital operations. Healthcare professionals are expected to have broad industry knowledge because today’s challenges are stratified across various players in the field.
My peers are interested in policy, management, population health, operations, medicine, patient care, strategy, research, technology, finance and more. In class, we have speakers who lecture on imagination as a key, employable skill. We need doctors, but they just aren’t enough to tackle the complexities of the industry. There is so much more to providing accessible and affordable healthcare in the United States.
Don’t get me wrong- if your heart is set on practicing medicine, go for it! We need you. Healthcare practitioners on all levels are at the heart of patient care, and are some of the most noble career people that I know. In fact, many physicians that choose to pursue health management later in life are greatly informed by their medical expertise.
Just realize that a career in medicine is not the only way to create change in the world of healthcare.
The problems our health systems are facing today are immensely complex and require some grit, ingenuity, and a little imagination. Stay open-minded and inquisitive to the possibilities that don’t even exist yet, and you will find your own unique way to make your difference.
A version of this post previously appeared on Medium.
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