Jeff Charis-Carlson , jcharisc@press-citizen.com Published 5:20 p.m. CT Feb. 14, 2017 | Updated 15 hours ago

University of Iowa professor John Murry leads a seminar for medical school students at the Beisner Auditorium in the Bowen Science Building on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner / Iowa City Press-Citizen)Buy Photo

What do the business histories of greeting cards and filtered water have to do with the practice of medicine?

Both help explain to future physicians how, when thinking about the future of medicine, they need to look beyond the limited field of their own expertise.

In the 1990s, for example, Hallmark and American Greetings discovered they had a lot less to worry about from each others market share than they did from their customers deciding to call each other, rather than send cards, becauseof the dropping costs of long distance.

The business planners for Britaand PUR water filters, likewise, have less to gain from poaching each others customers than they do from drawing clients the vast majority of people who get their water right from the tap.

Those are just two of many examples offered Saturday by John Murry, a marketing professor from the University of Iowas Tippie College of Business, to about 50 students from UIs Carver College of Medicine.

You are going to find yourself competing with people who look different than you, Murry told the students, shortly before the mornings first break.

Murrys marketing presentation was part of a half-day seminar designed to get the future internists, ophthalmologists, urologists and undecided specialists thinking about the various business conundrums they will face throughout their careers.

We need people who not only understand medicine and how to take care of patients but who also have a population health skill set and a business skill set, said Alan Reed, a professor of surgery and director of the Organ Transplant Center at UI Hospitals and Clinics. People who know how to get data from a financial statement and put that information to good use.

When Reed graduated medical school in the 1980s, he said physicians had really punted on being leaders in health care.

University of Iowa professor John Murry leads a seminar for medical school students at the Beisner Auditorium in the Bowen Science Building on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner / Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Slowly but surely, physician leadership is becoming a more important part of the health care landscape, he said, pointing to the expansion of UIHC under the physician leadership of Jean Robillard, a professor of pediatrics and UI's outgoing vice president for medical affairs.

Reed went back to school himself and earned an MBA from UI in 2012.

It opened up a whole new avenue for me, he said.

So when a handful of medical students came to Reed asking for more exposure to business case studies, he worked with them to develop a new, three-year distinction track program to offer to medical students on a continual basis.

We thought these concepts were important and werent as represented as much as we would like them to be, said Charlie Paul, a fourth-year medical student who majored in finance as an undergraduate.

Paul said and his colleagues had kicked around various ideas, but they eventually settled on the quarterly, half-day seminar as a way to fit the sessions into medical students' busy schedules. The Carver College of Medicine already offers a few distinction track options for students, so the format would be sustainable year after year.

This isnt an MBA; it's not an advanced degree, Paul said. But as Dr. Reed says, it whets everyones appetite. It exposes students to these concepts and provides resources for reading more about them and for getting involved with larger projects.

Paul also stresses that the focus of the class isnt on treating individual patients as some sort of business commodity; its about preparing doctors for the business decisions they will have to make.

Those are separate and both very different and challenging problems of the health care industry, Paul said. You cant sacrifice patient care for the bottom line, but you also do yourself a disservice if youre not thinking about how to keep the lights on and how to keep patients happy. Its not in the patients best interest to not having the operating room running efficiently and on time.

In addition to Saturdays discussion of marketing, previous half-day seminars have focused on e-health and managerial accounting.

Instead of just learning how to practice medicine from a purely science- and patient-based point of view, Im also learning about how to consider the other external factors that are going to shape and influence and really dictate the way that I practice medicine, said Kelsey Adler, a first-year medical student from the Chicago area.

Medical school students follow along as University of Iowa professor John Murry holds a seminar at the Beisner Auditorium in the Bowen Science Building on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017.(Photo: David Scrivner / Iowa City Press-Citizen)

The lesson Adler learned Saturday, she said, was to keep her eyes on those external forces.

You cannot just make decisions on your own experience, with only the perspective you have from your professional background, Alder said.

Lizzy Gerdis, a third-year medical student from Waukee, said she learned much from the previous seminars, but she arrived Saturday morning questioning whether a four-hour discussion of marketing would be helpful for her.

Her opinion changed as soon as Murry began his presentation.

I guess sometimes I dont really know what Ill be interested in until Im here, Gerdis said.

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffCharis.

Read or Share this story: http://icp-c.com/2lN8ZEW

Read more:

UI teaching future doctors the business of medicine - Iowa City Press Citizen