Interested in Healthcare? Read This.

An MBA can take you down multiple career routes. One of those routes is healthcare.

At Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, located in the heart of the US healthcare capital, Tennessee, about 16% of graduates go into the healthcare industry, with an average salary of $110,190.

But what exactly should an MBA interested in healthcare know about the industry?

Rajit Kamal, Vice President & Global Franchise Leader for Knees at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), recently sat down with Harvard Business School’s MBA Voices and discussed the MBA’s role in the healthcare industry today.

INNOVATION

Kamal says the healthcare industry has a number of unmet needs that can be addressed through innovation.

“There are unmet needs in clinical outcomes, care delivery, patient engagement and cost optimization that makes health care an exciting field to be in,” he tells HBS. “In my day job, I lead the knee replacement business for J&J. I have seen firsthand (my mother has 2 J&J knees) the difference total knee replacement makes in the lives of patients. That is a great source of motivation.”

That’s where an MBA can come in and prove helpful.

Kamal says MBAs can tap into the resources available to them at their school. Specifically, Kamal notes how healthcare today is increasingly tied to technology.

“Technology is changing every aspect of health care from diagnosis, treatment, care delivery to patient engagement and communication,” he tells HBS. “This creates very exciting opportunities for those interested in a health care career.”

PURSUE TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES     

If an MBA truly wants to be successful and make an impact in healthcare, Kamal says, it’s important to focus on opportunities around tech.

“I would encourage students today to pursue opportunities in this space and prepare for these types of roles by studying the emerging technologies – e.g. AI/ML, Robotics etc and how they impact health care,” Kamal tells HBS. “They can do that through specific HBS electives, online courses at HBS Online or cross-registering at other schools while an MBA student. I think being educated in these technologies will become key to having a successful career in health care.”

More and more, Kamal says, technology is helping to solve challenging healthcare problems.

“Technology investment in health care has lagged other industries,” he tells HBS. “This was due to questions around privacy, security and regulations. Emerging guidelines from FDA on regulatory pathway for software-based products or GDPR framework for security etc. has opened the field for significant investment and adoption of technology in health care. I think today is a great time to be in health care.”

Sources: Harvard Business School, P&Q