What if Private Equity Ran Medical Schools?

Dear Ms. Robertson,

Thank you for responding to our solicitation for a new dean of our medical school. We are intrigued by your past experience and background in private equity. As you are well aware, things are changing quickly in sick care and the medical education establishment has been slow to adapt. We intend to shake things up and are seriously considering alternative, non-tradition candidates like yourself.

It is clear that the model of recruiting academic triple threats that excel in research, teaching, and clinical care is a dying model. Instead, we are looking for a person with a combination of leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation skills — the new triple threat.

Private equity is fixing and flipping sick care and medical services at an astounding rate and we can see why your skills should be applied to medical education. Some of the possibilities we envision include:

1. Divesting our medical school from state control since they provide miniscule financial support.

2. Cutting costs to the bone.

3. Re-examining our tuition model.

4. Exploring ways to securitize the future incomes of graduates to attract investment capital.

5. Recruiting a new team with skill sets compatible with our financial objectives.

6. Creating IT systems and innovation management systems that add value instead of costs

7. Looking to consolidate and roll up other medical schools that share our perspective and vision.

8. Focusing on supporting those who are successful instead of wasting resources on trying to rehabilitate those who clearly do not have what it takes to succeed.

9. Using private equity networks to find the executive talent we need to scale our ventures.

10. Using innovative financial products, like crowdfunding and other securities instruments to assure an adequate return on investment at exit.

Thank you again for your interest and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.