I had a fun-filled week outside of the library. On Friday, I attended the American Medical Association (AMA) Medical Students Section national conference to network with med students from other schools and learn about the AMA. I went to one workshop that focused on hospital-insurance company contract negotiations, which turned out to be really cool. We divided into small groups and role-played as hospitals and insurance companies and duked it out in order to achieve our case objectives. My team, the hospital, aimed to increase reimbursements for vaginal deliveries and C-sections and decrease the time interval for contract negotiations. The insurance company aimed to cut down reimbursements for surgical procedures and screw us over in other domains. Unfortunately, my team got squashed in the negotiations and ran out of time before we could secure any of our goals for contract negotiations. Nevertheless, I learned a few negotiation strategies and the importance of properly negotiating my own employment contracts in the future. Anyone on the other side of negotiation table from me better look out, because I'm going to be the next Mark Cuban.
I also attended a business pitch contest, called Pitch George, where undergraduate and graduate student-contestants competed for $50,000 in funding from venture capitalists. I definitely benefitted from listening to the contestants pitch their ideas. My med school buddies that I attended with sat in the back and brainstormed ideas for new medical devices during the event. (The only thing I came up with is a speculum that has XM radio built into it. Imagine how cool it would be to listen to Fox News Radio or BPM Radio through your vagina during a gynecological appointment!) The cool thing about this contest was the contestants gave their elevator pitches in an actual elevator. See a snapshot below.
This was a fun week in learning tidbits about some business aspects of medicine. Given how awful my first medical invention idea is, I'm bound to get better at this stuff. Time to be a med student again. Back to Pathoma!
I also attended a business pitch contest, called Pitch George, where undergraduate and graduate student-contestants competed for $50,000 in funding from venture capitalists. I definitely benefitted from listening to the contestants pitch their ideas. My med school buddies that I attended with sat in the back and brainstormed ideas for new medical devices during the event. (The only thing I came up with is a speculum that has XM radio built into it. Imagine how cool it would be to listen to Fox News Radio or BPM Radio through your vagina during a gynecological appointment!) The cool thing about this contest was the contestants gave their elevator pitches in an actual elevator. See a snapshot below.
This was a fun week in learning tidbits about some business aspects of medicine. Given how awful my first medical invention idea is, I'm bound to get better at this stuff. Time to be a med student again. Back to Pathoma!