DO/MBA Joint Degree

With a DO/MBA the business of medicine can be led by physicians, improving patient care. You can earn an MBA in healthcare management at Touro's Graduate School of Business, while pursing your DO degree at TouroCOM. The DO/MBA is a powerful combination that prepares you for the healthcare industry and business opportunities in the medical field.

The DO/MBA degree adds business acumen to your clinical expertise so you can navigate the complex healthcare environment effectively. This dual qualification opens the door to diverse career opportunities for you and enhances the quality of healthcare delivery for your patients. It puts you in the position to drive and lead the innovation and change in the healthcare industry, rather than react.

With increasingly complex regulations, technologies and patient care models, an MBA can help you as a physician. It can help you make informed decisions that balance patient care with financial sustainability, improve healthcare delivery, adapt to changing market dynamics, and influence healthcare policy. An MBA gives you tools to collaborate with administrators, IT specialists, and financial analysts, to achieve common goals and improve organizational performance.

Career Opportunities for a Physician with an MBA in Healthcare Management

Leadership and management roles within healthcare organizations often require a blend of medical expertise and business skills to oversee departments, manage budgets, and implement strategic initiatives. The MBA gives you those skills to fill these roles.

If you’re looking to open your own practice, clinic, or healthcare startups, the entrepreneurial skills gained through Touro’s MBA program will enable you to identify market needs, secure funding, and manage business operations successfully.

Your MBA courses will equip you to launch and manage healthcare businesses by identifying market needs, securing efficient funding, and streamlining operations. As a student in the DO/MBA program, you’ll build a foundation in financial management. You’ll learn to understand budgets, investments, and financial risks — all critical skills for maintaining the financial health of practices and healthcare organizations.

DO/MBA students build leadership, financial, and management expertise to succeed in roles such as:

Hospital Administrator
Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
Healthcare Consultant
Practice Owner

Primary Care Physicians typically earn about $250,000 annually, and specialists can earn double that, depending on specialty and location. DO/MBA graduates in leadership roles, such as hospital administrators or executives, can earn even more than specialists. High-level roles, such as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a healthcare organization, can command salaries well into the $400,000 to $600,000 range or higher, as can healthcare consultants, or business owners.

How the DO/MBA Degree Program Works

Online: As the MBA courses are delivered entirely online, you’ll have the flexibility to pursue your MBA studies alongside your DO coursework.

30 additional credits: The MBA degree requires 42 credits and 12 credits from your DO program count towards the MBA. This leaves 30 MBA credits (10 courses) you will need to complete the degree. You must maintain a grade of “B” or better in the four transferable courses (12 credits) for them to count toward the MBA degree.

There are also 3 potential pre-requisite courses that students who did not take economics, finance and statistics and earned a grade of “B” or above during their undergraduate studies will need to take during their first semester at GSB. However, GSB’s prep-courses are only one-credit and are offered asynchronously online: Introduction to Economics, Introduction Healthcare Finance, and Introduction to Statistics. These prep-courses, taken as needed, would be in addition to the 30 MBA course credits.

Curriculum: As a student enrolled in the DO/MBA program, you will take core business courses such as Accounting for Strategic Management, Quantitative Analysis, and Managerial Finance. Additional courses include:

Marketing: Branding & Differentiation
Human Capital Management
Managing for Change
IT for Effective Management
International Management

The curriculum also includes a healthcare elective, where you can tailor your studies by selecting one of the following:

Healthcare Management: Trends and Challenges
Navigating Managed Care
Healthcare Informatics
Six Sigma: The DMAIC System

DO/MBA Program Schedule: After you’ve enrolled in TouroCOM’s DO program, you may start taking MBA courses the summer before starting medical school. You can take one or two MBA courses per term while completing the DO program, in the fall, spring, or summer semester, and during rotations. If you haven’t finished your MBA coursework by the time you’ve completed your DO degree, you have up to five years from your graduation date to complete your MBA degree. TouroCOM graduates who have completed their studies within the last 5 years are also eligible to come back to Touro GSB to take advantage of this program by taking the necessary credits towards their MBA degree.

DO/MBA Tuition and Financial Aid

12 MBA credits are paid for as part of your TouroCOM tuition (TouroCOM classes that count towards your MBA). You will need to pay GSB tuition for the remaining 30 credits and any prerequisite courses, if needed. If you’re using financial aid to pay for your DO degree, you are not eligible for financial aid to pay for your MBA degree.

There is no additional IT or facilities cost for this program.

How Do I Apply?

You’ll apply through the DO/MBA Pathway application.

To apply in the DO/MBA Pathway Program, you need

A baccalaureate degree with a minimum 3.0 GPA.
A cumulative 3.0 GPA in the DO program.

In your application, you’ll submit a

Current resume.
Unofficial undergraduate transcript.
Unofficial DO transcript.

Contacts

Dr. Beth Loftus
Assistant Professor
Healthcare Management Advisor
Business Programs Administrator
Touro University Graduate School of Business
elizabeth.loftus@touro.edu