Weighing a general management degree
A Master of Business Administration can develop the business knowledge and interpersonal skills used in medical communication. Whether its benefits justify the tuition and time depends on the writer's career goals, working situation and choice of programme.
Benefits and career aims
The return on an MBA is likely to depend on an individual's professional situation and career goals, across settings such as large firms, academia, public organisations, charities and independent practice. An MBA can provide tools and contacts for promotion into medical writing management, a change of industry, or a move into corporate communications or investor relations, as well as a broader career change. Advanced academic credentials can help demonstrate business acumen or knowledge of an employer's or client's field.
Group work can develop communication, project management, motivation, interpersonal and presentation skills, including running meetings, facilitating discussion, eliciting input and making group decisions, with tools for persuasion and influence. Bringing workplace problems into classes as case studies can yield insights from experts and fellow students, provided confidentiality requirements are observed.
A doctor who completed a three-year, part-time executive MBA before entering medical communications described meeting ambitious people outside medicine and learning useful approaches to marketing, accounting and service management. He reported that the degree changed his outlook and improved how he thought about communication. Another doctor studying online valued contact with people running businesses in other countries and found that studying economics and income streams taught her about managing stress.
Costs and suitability
An MBA requires substantial tuition and time, including when taken part-time alongside full-time work. Family life can suffer, and opportunities involving travel, relocation or additional responsibility may need to be declined temporarily. The degree may offer less value to a writer who wants to remain focused on front-line writing and editing, or whose tightly regulated role leaves little scope to apply business learning. A postgraduate certificate in a specialised business subject can be an alternative to committing to a full degree.
Programme format and specialisation
MBA formats include part-time study, weekend courses, residential intensives and online delivery. A part-time executive MBA can allow continued employment, while online study can offer flexibility for someone unable to attend scheduled programmes because of childcare.
Healthcare specialisations can add health law, healthcare finance, risk and insurance, pharmaceutical marketing, drug development, biotechnology, and drug and device approval processes to the standard MBA curriculum. The choice between a general and a healthcare programme should follow the purpose of the degree, with modules examined for how well they serve that aim. One doctor deliberately chose a global MBA because she wanted to learn outside healthcare.
Course subjects and their uses
Strategy courses analyse competitors, external conditions and internal capabilities to establish an organisation's direction, often through case studies. Understanding strategy helps a corporate writer contribute to organisational goals and propose aligned initiatives, while helping a small practice position itself and plan ahead.
Organisational behaviour covers motivation, power relationships, organisational culture and organisational design, with practical uses in leadership, management and coaching. Change-management teaching can provide approaches to communicating difficult news about layoffs or restructuring.
Marketing courses develop data-driven decision-making and can help writers understand vendors, develop business plans, demonstrate findings' commercial potential to funding bodies, or support fundraising through direct mail, advertising and donor research. Medical communicators in pharmaceutical companies are likely to have marketing departments available, whereas those in start-ups, nonprofits or independent practice may need to work directly with vendors.
Management courses can cover negotiation, ethics, project management, business law and career management, including self-assessment, presentation, interviews and CV review.
International business courses introduce different cultures and perspectives, even for students who do not plan to work abroad. One MBA holder found that a course on marketing in Asia, built around nearly two dozen case studies, helped her understand cultural differences in international expansion and decision-making in multinational organisations.
Finance, accounting and economics become relevant as responsibility for budgets and financial statements grows, whether in managing a department or consultancy, editing an annual report, researching investments or understanding financial news.