In today's climate, medical knowledge is only one piece of a successful healthcare practice: in order to thrive, more students are combining traditional medicine with cutting-edge business acumen. Today's top students are choosing to marry their medical background with a master's in business administration (MBA), enabling them to educate and lead teams towards business success.
Patrick Young is one of the first three students to graduate from UAB's Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD)/MBA dual degree program, an interdisciplinary partnership between UAB's Dental School opens a new website and the Collat School of Business. As part of the inaugural graduating cohort, Patrick will combine his passion for dentistry with business tools necessary to navigate the healthcare system efficiently and effectively.
In his final semester as a dental student, Patrick works with patients in UAB's student dental clinic, offering comprehensive care for cleanings, denture, crowns and more. As part of the dental curriculum, he evaluates all aspects of patient health with supervision from trained faculty and staff.
Patrick says he realized he should pursue an MBA when he found himself lost talking with classmates and friends. "I had a lot of friends with business backgrounds and I realized I didn't know a lot of what they were talking about," says Patrick.
He began researching DMD/MBA programs and found a home at UAB.
A native of Georgia, Patrick chose UAB for its online flexibility, proximity to extended family in Alabama, and cost-effectiveness compared to other nationwide programs.
Patrick finds structure in the rigorous blended curriculum of the DMD/MBA dual degree. At only 26, he's no stranger to hard work: Patrick serves as founder and president of the UAB Dental Business Club -- while maintaining a didactic GPA of 4.00 in his classes.
As president, he's responsible for the second-largest club at the UAB School of Dentistry (with 60 active, dues-paying members). In his near two years as president, Patrick formed a partnership with the Collat School of Business, providing dental students key access to mentoring from business professors.
Additionally, he also serves as class representative for the UAB School of Dentistry Curriculum Committee and peer mentor for the UAB School of Dentistry Academic Affairs.
Outside of school, Patrick plays on the School of Dentistry's intramural sports team. "We're the defending softball champions," he says. He plays basketball, flag football, volleyball and dodgeball, too.
He also loves to ski and spend time at Lake Hartwell, a man-made reservoir bordering Georgia and South Carolina on the Savannah, Seneca and Tugaloo rivers.
He wants to own his own private practice one day, he says. "My goal is to buy out my family dentist when he retires," he says. "But before I do that, I'll work as an associate for two to five years at the practice, building a client base and retaining current clients."
In order to do that, he'll need to know how to negotiate business plans and create a roadmap for continued financial success – crucial information he's learning in his blended MBA classes.
"I learned early in the MBA program that running a successful healthcare practice is a team effort. I can't do this by myself," he says. In his classes, he's learned how to understand – and speak – the language of business. "You're taught how to look for the good people and how to recruit them."
He's set to graduate this May. He'll start his orthodontics residency in July.
Sure, he says, it's been difficult juggling business classes with a rigorous dental curriculum (with classes sometimes overlapping or beginning only weeks after each other), the high-achiever says it's completely worth it.
Unlike others in his cohort, however, he'll bring with him the business knowledge he wished he knew at the beginning of his graduate studies.
"Overall, you get out what you put in," he says. "A lot of people don't know about this [degree]. The dual-degree is worth it."