Dr. Matthew Resnick works at the forefront of change in health care. An academic surgeon, he heads a research program at Vanderbilt to evaluate the effect of health system reform on the appropriateness and intensity of cancer care. In particular,  Matthew is studying how incentives can become levers to drive high-quality care at lower costs.

Given his research interests and background, the MMHC program seemed tailor-made for Matthew. “It is exactly what has been missing in health care,” he says. “Effective leadership in health care today requires fluency not only in the practice of medicine but also with the ever-changing health care business model. It was obvious to me that the MMHC program offered both the skill set and the network to be a change agent in today’s dynamic environment.”

During his group’s capstone project, Matthew was able to put what he was learning to work in his own clinical department. He and the other students in the group, who represented a variety of areas within health care, took on the task of developing a telehealth strategy for VUMC. “It is our hope that our strategy will serve as a model to improve access to surgical specialty care for other service lines at Vanderbilt,” Matthew says. “I suspect this project will lead to significant return on investment for both the clinical department and the institution.”

Even more, he says, he values the classroom experience with “engaging and dedicated” that “forces each student to step outside his or her comfort zone” to broaden their perspective and improve their business acumen. “The ability to speak both the language of medicine and business will unquestionably shape my career from this point forward,” he says.

Fun Fact: Matthew’s work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“[The MMHC] is what has been missing in health care.”