Shortly after she graduated with the Physician MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Indy Lane, MD, MBA’23, was contacted by a recruiter about an executive role at a health system in another state. Dr. Lane isn’t sure if the opportunity would’ve come her way without the MBA.
“Having an MBA shows you have an elevated level of commitment to leadership. Especially among practicing physicians, it shows you’re willing to dedicate time to improving your skill set,” Dr. Lane said. “For many executive roles, health systems want you to have business knowledge as well as the clinical knowledge.”
In July 2024, Dr. Lane became the vice president of the women’s health service line at Allina Health in Minneapolis/St. Paul. She oversees both obstetrics and gynecology services for eight of the system’s hospitals in central Minnesota and surrounding areas. While Dr. Lane had been a physician executive leading the women’s service line at Community Health in Indianapolis for several years, at Allina she oversees obstetrics at the main, quaternary care hospital. The more robust perinatal and fetal surgery programs available at Allina position her to oversee the highest level of patient care for mothers and babies.
Allina’s Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis is a referral center for the four-state region that includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The unique partnership with Children’s Minnesota offers patients with complex obstetric and fetal conditions the highest level of expert maternal and neonatal care. Dr. Lane says she felt ready for this by using what she learned in the Physician MBA.
“In a new role, you always have some imposter’s syndrome, but I think the extra training at the Kelley School makes me stand out. It gives me credibility that my experience goes beyond just what I bring to my patients in the clinical arena,” Dr. Lane said. “I also bring the business, management, and leadership knowledge you get from an MBA.”
During the interview process, Dr. Lane says she felt prepared to lead both the clinical and administrative needs of a more complex system. The 21-month Physician MBA Program not only imparts healthcare-focused business knowledge to clinicians, but professional development, leadership coaching, and career strategy are also embedded within the curriculum.
For instance, physicians begin working with an executive coach on day one in the program to strategize steps toward their career goals. A Career Management course leads physicians through the tools to grow their careers, including executive résumé writing, creating a LinkedIn profile, networking, developing an executive presence, and working with healthcare executive recruiters.
Dr. Lane says this was valuable in developing her unique brand in the job market. She believes the updated LinkedIn profile she developed in the Kelley program is what got the attention of the Allina recruiter.
“Having an MBA, and particularly a Kelley MBA, was a differentiator that set me apart. It gave me a tremendous amount of confidence going into these conversations,” Dr. Lane said. “The MBA suggests you are bringing a unique skillset in addition to the clinical expertise and leadership experience. On my LinkedIn page, I say I’m a change maker and have led many initiatives. The Physician MBA helped substantiate that.”
Dr. Lane was able to approach this new career opportunity with the support of other physician leaders. An important component of the Kelley Physician MBA is peer learning and networking among students and alumni. Students come from more than 20 specialties, 40 organizations, a dozen different states, and a variety of unique backgrounds.
This becomes a powerful tool in networking for a new role.
“A benefit of Kelley’s physician-only program is learning from physicians who bring different experiences. Even if they weren’t OB-GYNs, it’s just interesting to hear other physicians share challenges and how they navigate them in their systems,” Dr. Lane said. “When I was considering this job, I reached out to classmates to weigh the pros and cons and to get some perspective. Having that network to offer feedback has been invaluable. It was a pleasant surprise about the program that I didn’t anticipate.”
By gaining an understanding of the business of medicine, physicians are empowered to use data to their advantage. Courses on leveraging accounting data help physicians make informed healthcare decisions. Process improvement courses share tools to enhance quality, lower costs, and increase revenue. These classes equip physicians to bridge the gap between what they know needs to happen in healthcare and the administrative strategy and communications to make it happen.
“The program helped me become a better communicator and be objective when making difficult decisions or having crucial conversations,” Dr. Lane said. “It also helped me learn how to use data to influence change, like requesting new equipment and making an argument for the things that are important for my service line. That data is critical. It all helps you be objective and make a stronger case for what you want.”
Though many physicians like Dr. Lane graduate from the program and begin new roles, the Physician MBA is a dynamic degree designed for immediate application in the workplace. You don’t have to wait to begin leading with sharpened negotiations, financial forecasting, and brand marketing skills. Physicians can apply what they’re learning every week and even use challenges from their own practices as class projects to develop innovative solutions.
The Physician MBA is applicable while the student is enrolled and for many years to come. There are ongoing opportunities for alumni to continue learning and earning CME, plus physicians say they use what they learned at the Kelley School every day.
“The program taught me how to be a better leader. Sure, you learn various aspects of business, like accounting and finance, but I’m not an accountant nor a finance expert,” Dr. Lane said. “The Physician MBA Program really helped me develop my overall leadership skills, and my new business acumen gave me confidence to look at the organization’s financial statements and interpret them. Perhaps not to the same degree as my finance colleagues at Allina, but I understand it in a way that I can see the trends and use the data to make good decisions.”
The program’s focus on physician leadership development also provides nuanced insight into how each person operates as a leader: their strengths, weaknesses, and how to address and leverage them. Dr. Lane says sometimes the most lasting lessons were as simple as how to communicate effectively.
“I embrace change, but change can be anxiety provoking for many people. The Physician MBA Program helped me understand how to influence change even amongst the most resistant,” Dr. Lane said. “It also taught me that sustainable changes take a great deal of time, planning, effective communication, and implementation to be successful. This leadership journey to manage change was really helpful for me.”
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