Growing in confidence as a healthcare leader
In this special series, we’re talking with students and alumni who participated in Kellogg’s Healthcare Deep Dive, an MBA course that gives students an up-close-and-personal look at key players, trends and movements in this fast-changing industry. Held across three intense weekends in San Francisco, Miami and Evanston, this one-of-a-kind course enrolls students from across the across the Full-Time, Evening & Weekend and Executive MBA programs to learn and network together.
A hematologist-oncologist by training, physician Dhaval Shah, ’23 MBA, has spent his career as a doctor caring for patients with cancers and blood disorders. Before Kellogg, he worked in a moderate-sized private group practice within the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Delaware, a National Cancer Institute-designated community cancer center. In 2020, he began co-managing the practice with one of his colleagues. “I knew a little bit about the business part,” he said, “but I thought I needed more formal business training and management training to go into this role within my practice and possibly grow within the US Oncology network, or look at other senior leadership roles within the oncology space.”
An Executive MBA program made sense based on his work and family schedule. He ultimately chose Kellogg based on the Miami campus’ relative proximity to him, its healthcare focus, and that the average student age was 38, which appealed to him since he wanted to attend a program alongside other students with more experience.
He enrolled in the Miami, San Francisco and Evanston Deep Dives, which he found elucidating particularly on healthcare strategy, value creation in biopharma and drug pricing. “I always thought that drugs contribute a lot to the overall cost of healthcare, but actually, drugs probably are only 15 percent of healthcare expenditure. Most of the expenditure comes from other things that happen in healthcare.” He said that when it comes to his patients, he realized, “I’m ordering them ten extra tests; how is that affecting the healthcare cost versus giving them certain drugs?”
Taking classes on value-based care also applied directly to his work. “I had no idea what value-based care meant until I did the class and learned how it is really being tackled in the Medicare advantage space.” The courses directly applied to his work, since Shah needed to decide whether his practice should participate in a value-based oncology care model from Medicare. “The class helped me figure out whether it’s going to be better for us to participate in this program or not.” Ultimately, he said, “We decided not to participate because it was very high risk for a smaller practice like us.”
Shah continues to gain professional insight from the alumni network as a fresh graduate. Recently, he connected with a program alumnus in a senior leadership role at an international pharmaceutical company to discuss questions about a possible future pivot to pharma. In the meantime, regardless of whether he makes a career change or continues to deepen his experience in his current role, he said the lessons in healthcare leadership have made a lasting impact. He recalls in particular a presentation from professor Peter Butler, a nationally recognized healthcare executive and formerly the president of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
“Peter explained how it is important in the healthcare environment to have good leadership and work with everyone,” said Shah. “That was helpful because it has given me a lot of confidence as I navigate my career and apply all those principles.”
More in this series
Healthcare at Kellogg: Four MBA students share their journey through the Deep Dive immersion
Understanding the big picture in healthcare