The business side of healthcare practice: retooling graduate medical students through medical school curriculum enhancements.

Practicing physicians often complain that medical schools failed to provide them with any substantive business training. And with the financial stress placed on today's medical practices, doctors feel unprepared for the rigors of managing a business and shortchanged when it comes to cashing-in on the fair value of their education. The University of South Florida piloted a three-credit course for nonbusiness-minded graduate students, aptly named "The Business Side of Medicine." The intent was to imprint aspiring, time-constrained graduate students, early in their biomedical education, with the need to develop a sound business acumen. Students, if made aware that the structure of healthcare practice is changing into a value-based and consumer-driven marketplace, will process in tandem with their graduate and medical schooling the notion that wellness and compensation are interdependent. The Business Side of Medicine addresses four core concepts that will logically germinate within the students' minds the desire to make practical, profitable career choices.