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Connecting Disciplines: Business Meets Medicine
Duane Davis and David Zaas (both Weekend Executive '08) help organize Solid Organ Transplant Center for Duke University Hospital.
February 12, 2009
David Zaas (left) and Duane Davis (right)
Drawing on their medical backgrounds and their recently acquired business skills, two Fuqua graduates are teaming up to form a new organ transplant center.
Duke medical doctors Duane Davis and David Zaas, both Weekend Executive MBA '08, are helping to organize the Solid Organ Transplant Center for Duke University Hospital, which will put to use the skills they gained through Fuqua's MBA and Health Sector Management (HSM) program.
The center will continue Duke's pioneering history in transplant services. In 1965, Duke performed the first transplant procedure in North Carolina. In 1985, Duke was the first to perform a heart transplant.
The new center will set the stage for a more comprehensive transplant program at Duke. The center will be fully integrated — clinically, scientifically, financially and administratively. Its goal is to be a national leader in the provision of solid organ transplant services and to be the preferred destination for those in need of such medical care.
Davis, Professor of Surgery and Director of Transplantation, and Zaas, Assistant Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, are taking a collaborative approach to achieving and sustaining quality and innovative care. And they are not alone — at least 60 Fuqua alumni currently work within the Duke University Health System.
"Strategic planning, focused decision making, leadership and managerial skills are often a matter of life and death in our business," said Davis. "The Duke MBA and HSM programs have given us new tools and decision frameworks that have helped us craft a viable business model for the transplant center."