Elements of the Owen and VUMC Partnership

Beyond the back-and-forth consulting and lecturing, there are multiple levels to the Owen-VUMC relationship.

• In 2008 Larry Van Horn, Ph.D., and C. Wright Pinson, MBA, M.D., launched the Master of Management in Health Care (MMHC), a one-year part-time program (one night per week, one weekend per month) enrolling some 30 students per year, including equal numbers of physicians, clinical managers and non-clinical managers/ staff. Employers sponsor most of the students. Two-thirds of the current class is employed at VUMC, and several VUMC leaders lecture in the program. Along with their course work — health care accounting, marketing, economics, etc. — students complete real-world consulting projects for sponsoring employers. It’s perennially Owen’s top program for student satisfaction.

• Owen’s first-year health care MBA students spend a week observing patient care at VUMC, in places such as the operating room, the emergency room and the neonatal ICU.

• VUMC has eight administrative internship slots per year for Owen students.

• Vanderbilt is seeking to grow its joint M.D.-MBA program, which has maintained an enrollment of two to four students.

• Owen offers the nation’s only courses in transplant administration for MBA students, led by VUMC Transplant Center administrator Ed Zavala, MBA.