Improving medical leadership education through the Feagin leadership program

With little or no formal training in medical school or residency, physicians today are often unprepared for their leadership roles within large interdisciplinary healthcare teams.1,2 These leadership roles range from leading individual patients to larger interdisciplinary organizations. Physicians are expected to lead effectively based on the assumption that the skills that made them successful as a physician will naturally transfer into success as a leader.3 Although this may be true for some physicians, it may not always be the case. Recognizing that many physicians lack the necessary leadership skills, healthcare organizations continue to fill many core leadership positions with skilled non-physician leaders.4 The American College of Graduate Medical Education5 (ACGME) and the Institute of Medicine6 (IOM) have acknowledged the need to develop physician leaders. The IOM has mandated academic medical centers to “develop leaders at all levels”6 who can not only “manage the organizational and systems changes necessary to improve health through innovation in health professions education, patient care, and research,”6 but can also “improve integration and foster cooperation within and across the academic health center enterprise.”5,6 However, few medical training centers have such a curriculum in place to make this happen. To help address this deficiency the Feagin Leadership Program was developed at Duke University in 2010 in honor of John A. Feagin, Jr., MD. The purpose of this paper is to describe this program and its positive effect on alumni. Medical leadership program