Texas McCombs’ new Houston campus in the CityCentre district will host its Working Professional MBA program, where M.D./MBA students will take classes as part of the new dual-degree pathway launching in fall 2026.
The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business is expanding its reach into health care education with a new dual MD/MBA pathway for medical students in Houston and Galveston.
Starting this fall, the university will offer doctor of medicine students at two UT medical schools the option to step out of their MD training for a year to earn an MBA through its Houston-based weekend Hildebrand MBA. The structure allows students to complete both degrees in about five years instead of six.
Students enrolled at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and the John Sealy School of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston are eligible.
The program marks the first collaboration of its kind across the three University of Texas System institutions. It also extends a model McCombs has already tested with its dual MD/MBA offering with Dell Medical School in Austin.
“The demands of health care now, I think, requires MDs to comprehend the business side of it. That industry has shifted so much, and business is such a big part of it,” says Joe Stephens, McCombs’ senior assistant dean and director for Working Professional and Executive MBA Programs
A ONE-YEAR, PART-TIME MBA BUILT AROUND MEDICAL SCHOOL
Joe Stephens: “We’ve doubled down on the relationships that matter in business”
McCombs already offers an MD/MBA with Dell Medical School in Austin, enrolling about 10 to 12 students each year. That program runs through the full-time MBA, with medical students attending daytime classes alongside traditional business students.
The challenge was taking what they learned from the full-time MBA model and adopting it to McCombs’ weekend MBA in Houston. Med students will join working professionals for in-person classes every other weekend, leaving time between sessions to study for board exams, conduct research, or gain additional clinical experience.
“The MDs actually want to be with regular MBAs,” Stephens says. “(The Austin MD/MBAs) told us that they want to be with non-medicine people, from all industries, because that diversity of perspective leads to better solutions over time.”
Neither did McCombs want to convert its MBA curriculum to a virtual or hybrid format to squeeze in between the medical curriculum.
“We’ve doubled down on the relationships that matter in business. Our Houston MBA students call it ‘recess’ after classes on Saturday night. They go have a happy hour at a nearby pub. A lot of conversations happen there, and there are a lot of opportunities for informal mentorship,” Stephens says.
“I would say about 90% of the content delivered in those programs is in-person. There are some hybrid, asynchronous, and sometimes synchronous elements delivered online, but most of the time they’re locked and loaded during their class time.”
The curriculum will stay close to the core MBA experience. Students will take standard courses alongside working professionals from other industries, with only a small portion of the program tailored specifically to health care. This includes two new courses – one focusing on the business of health care and another examining health care AI strategy.
DEMAND DRIVEN BY A SHIFTING HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY
The Houston-based program hopes to answer pent up regional and national demand.
As private equity ownership rises in health care, more physicians work as employees of health systems rather than independent practice owners. They increasingly need to understand contracts, compensation structures, and how large systems operate. Good doctors don’t automatically make good leaders, even as more are asked to step into management.
“Many physicians have little formal training in finance, accounting, or organizational leadership,” Stephens says. “The MBA fills these gaps, enabling them to make informed business decisions whether as employees, managers, or entrepreneurs.”
Houston is also home to the Texas Medical Center, one of the largest health care hubs in the world. It offers direct access to hospitals, research institutions, and industry partners for potential MD/MBAs.
McCombs will soon move its Houston MBA program to a new campus in the CityCentre district, closer to major business activity and easier to access than the current medical center location. It is part of a $13 million commitment over the next decade to better serve Houston constituents.
EARLY INTEREST EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS
Program leaders hope to enroll between five and 10 medical students the first couple of years, with a goal of around 20 as the degree matures.
Interest is already exceeding expectations, with several enrolled medical students reaching out days after the first announcement.
“Within a week, we had a number of inquiries that were ready to go for it this fall,” Stephens says.
“One of the things we consistently hear from graduates (of the Austin program) is that as they go through residency interviews, the interviewers are really keying in on the MBA portion of their curriculum.”
Stephens points to paths in health tech, pharmaceuticals, and venture capital, capitalizing on McCombs’ deep entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. Even for those who stay in clinical roles, the payoff may come later. The ability to translate across functions, from finance to operations to patient care, becomes an advantage in large, complex systems.
“I think they rise quickly,” Stephens says of MD/MBA graduates. “It gives them the tools to have meaningful, powerful conversations across an organization. That outcome is no different whether you’re in oil and gas, medicine, or consumer products. If you can translate across an organization, you can lead.”
Learn more about the McCombs Houston-based MD/MBA here.
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