Kelley offers new MBA to students

The Kelley School of Business is now offering a master’s of business administration in business of medicine.

To accommodate the growth of the health care industry, the school will implement a new program to prepare students for the business portion of their futures in the medical field.

Courses for the new degree are set to begin fall 2013, and students can apply for the program now through the business school website.

Interim Kelley Dean Idalene Kesner said the difference with this degree is it is aimed at physicians and individuals who have already earned a doctorate of medicine degree. The program will deliver MBA-type courses to those students.
 
“The industry is in a state of evolution and change, and by better training students for business concepts within the industry, I think we will be capitalizing on the need for additional information in health care,” Kesner said.

This will be a two-year program, split evenly with half of the time requirements as part of a classroom component and half through a specialized online structure. Kesner said the combination of interactive and online studies will hopefully help to ensure the program will be accessible for interested students outside the Bloomington area.

“It combines them by the way that the content is used, so that the faculty members have some expertise in the industry, and they will bring that expertise into the classroom,” Kesner said.

Kesner said despite the economic recession, the health care industry has continued to grow in the United States. She said because of this growth, the roles of physicians are growing to include more business responsibilities.

“Here at the Kelley School, both at the Indianapolis campus and at the Bloomington campus, we are training the next generation of business leaders,” said Joshua Perry, assistant professor of business law and ethics. “Business leaders have always been and always will be leaders of society.”

Perry serves as a volunteer on the ethics committee at the IU Health Bloomington Hospital. Before coming to Kelley in 2009, he spent almost five years at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He said Kelley is taking a step forward by standing up and taking a leadership role in equipping business people for what they will require in the health care sector. Already practicing physicians or people with some health care experience can add a completely new dimension to their leadership abilities through the new program.

“I think the future at Kelley is very exciting,” he said.