Former GOP Sen. Bill Frist to Teach Healthcare Finance

(MoneyWatch)  Recruiting "celebrity" professors has become de rigueur at top business schools, and Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management continues the trend with the addition of former United States Senate Majority Leader and transplant surgeon Bill Frist, M.D.

Slated to begin next semester, Frist's class will combine business students with fourth-year medical students to scrutinize the financing, delivery and quality of health care. He hopes the class will inspire students to work with each other to create innovative ways to improve the public and private sectors of the health care system.

"Current and future challenges in cost, access and quality of health care demand a synergy between the business and medical sides of the industry," says Frist. "I am excited to use my medical, business and policy expertise to ignite and challenge this unique group of future health care leaders."

Prior to his election to the Senate in 1994, Frist spent almost a decade as a transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and also founded and directed the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. He also leads yearly medical mission trips to Africa.

"By sharing the knowledge and expertise Senator Frist has gathered through 20 years as a practicing physician coupled with 12 years of public policy experience at the highest legislative levels, he will be able to challenge these young people to think beyond their comfort zones and hopefully make a real difference in the quality and delivery of health care," says Owen dean Jim Bradford.

Connecting participants from these two disciplines may make Frist's students among the few who will actually understand the complexities of health care reform.

(Image courtesy Bill Frist)
This post first appeared on BNET's Back to B-School blog.