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Himani Akula knew she would have a gap year between graduating from Upstate Medical University in 2022 and beginning her medical school education. She was in the market for something that gave her more experience when she reached out to Dr. Krystal Ripa, an admissions coordinator at Upstate Medical University.

Ripa recommended the new five-year M.D./MBA program created in conjunction by Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

“Ultimately, medicine is a business,” Akula said. “I’m hoping to get more experience with the business side so that I can possibly set up my own clinic or practice in the future someday.”

SU and SUNY Upstate Medical University have reached a partnership to start a joint M.D./MBA program that will allow students the opportunity to earn two degrees within a five-year program, according to an SU press release.

Students must apply through the American Medical Common Application System portal to initially be accepted into SUNY Upstate’s Alan and Marlene Norton College of Medicine. If accepted, the applicants will then be reviewed by the MBA program in SU’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

During the first year of the program — the fall, spring and summer sessions — students will study for their MBA. In the fall semester of the second year in the program, students will start medical training.

The summer between the first and second year of medical school will be spent completing an MBA practicum which was created specifically as a mixture of business and health care, according to the press release. During the remaining semesters of the program, students will complete their M.D. at Upstate Medical.

Akula said she wants to learn more about personal finance in addition to her existing interests in investing and real estate. She said the joint degree and more formal training will help further her endeavors in those “side projects.”

“The program was created based on an increased student and industry demand for students with multidisciplinary programs who understand both the technical and the people skills needed for success,” Whitman Dean Eugene Anderson said in the release.

Tuition for the MBA portion of the program will be determined by SU, and the remaining four years of tuition will be at the SUNY rate for medical education. The joint program has already accepted students to its pilot program for the fall 2022 semester. There are three students expected to join the program, the press release wrote. Akula said the students are she, Swathi Jacob and Eric Kim.

“The opportunity to earn a business degree while earning an M.D. can help them maximize their impact in the field, whether they choose to pursue leadership in the medical field or apply their medical knowledge elsewhere,” said Lawrence Chin, the dean of the Norton College of Medicine at Upstate, in the release.

Published on April 20, 2022 at 12:55 am

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt