What Makes Owen Great? Our Health Care MBA.

When I looked at business schools, there were a ton of data points and factors in my Pros/Cons spreadsheet. Yes, I was destined to be an MBA.

One of the biggest factors to me was an intangible that made my undergraduate experience great. There’s not a lot of schools out there that truly excel at cross-functional collaboration, and my biased opinion is that Carnegie Mellon is the best there is. Randy Pausch’s claim to fame was taking the great experience and strength of computer science and electrical/computer engineering and applying it to the theater and performing arts. They have a great program in integrated product development, so business students, engineers, and designers are all sharing time at the table.

So, you think, Carnegie Mellon was naturally at the top of my list, right? Surprise: Owen beat them out. And not by being better at product development or entertainment technology. Owen and Vanderbilt are a great place to talk about health care programs.

I’ve fallen in love with the Health Care MBA program here. Its not something I think I would have considered at other business schools, but Owen (and Vanderbilt) have given me the chance to pursue these opportunities. Now I’m involved in everything healthcare: It takes up about 50% of my class load, I’m involved in two separate student groups across the university that talk about healthcare, and a lot of my friends and I work on projects at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Its a truly cross-functional program, that Owen is building as a competitive advantage: how many other top 30 business schools are attached to a top 15 nursing school, a top 15 medical school, and one of the highest ranked academic medical centers in the country? Not many. And none that are on that list also happen to be located in the capital of for-profit healthcare, with HCA and CHS located just up the street.

We’re winning awards for this cross-functional leadership. At the 2010 Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s national conference, students from Owen, Vanderbilt Medical School, and the Vanderbilt School of Nursing were awarded high honors for the establishment of an interdisciplinary elective in quality improvement: teams of MBAs, Nursing students, and Medical students discussed and analyzed adverse events, PDSA cycles, and improvement opportunities in healthcare delivery. The group was also featured in the IHI’s 2010 annual report (see pages 18-19 here), the only student chapter to receive such an honor.

What do I like best about Owen? I like the fact that this school was able to innovate and build a cross-functional health care program. Its not the first innovative thing this school has done, and it certainly won’t be the last. I’m excited to see the next great idea.