For more information contact: Boonshoft School of Medicine, Judi Engle, Office of Public Relations, (937) 775-2951

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25, 2003

Wright State Receives $2 Million to Train Physician Leaders

DAYTON, OHIO—Advancing the continuing quest for quality health care for all Americans is the goal of a $2 million gift to Wright State University School of Medicine from Dayton philanthropist, Oscar Boonshoft. The gift will establish a physician leadership development program, culminating in a combined MD/MBA or similar master’s level degree, for select medical students.

“It is my expectation,” says Oscar Boonshoft, “that this leadership program will create many of our future health care CEOs, leaders who can improve patient care and health care systems.”

The Division of Health Systems Management in the Department of Community Health will coordinate the integrated dual degree program, to be completed in five years, which will give select students management and leadership skills as well as knowledge of health economics and population-based medicine.

“Students in the program will receive an M.D. from the School of Medicine and an M.B.A. with Health Care Concentration from the Wright State University Raj Soin College of Business,” says Richard Schuster, M.D., M.M.M., the program’s creator and Boonshoft Chair of the Division of Health Systems Management. “In addition to receiving the M.D. and M.B.A. degrees, the future doctors in the Boonshoft Physician Leadership Development Program will be specifically trained as leaders for the future health care system. They will need these skills to meet the challenges of an ever more complex health care system.” Half of the gift will develop the leadership program and the other half will provide scholarships for students accepted into the program.

Oscar Boonshoft obtained his mechanical engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. After a 30 year career at Wright Patterson Air Force Base as a project engineer, then USAF contracting officer and finally supervisory production engineer, he retired in January 1970. Mr. Boonshoft and his wife Marjorie have supported science and medicine in a number of capacities. They helped to establish and continue to actively support the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, focusing on science education for children. Additionally, Mr. Boonshoft is a supporter of the Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute at Kettering Memorial Hospital and is an active member of its Governance Board. In addition to his current commitment to the development of physicians as leaders, his generosity led to the creation of the Division of Health Systems Management in 1999 with a gift of $2.5 million to endow the Oscar Boonshoft Chair of Health Systems Management, occupied by Dr. Schuster. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wright State University Foundation.

The Division of Health Systems Management’s mission is to promote the development of management, health economics, leadership, and population-based skills for physicians, hospitals, health systems, and other health care providers and to facilitate dialogue in health care public policy.

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