By Carly Milne
When Brandon Scott (MBA/M.D. ’18) began medical school, his goal wasn’t simply to become a doctor. Scott had already cultivated an awareness of how impactful physicians could be in influencing larger health care issues, and he began his education with the idea that he — and other physicians — could influence and improve patient care delivery.
“My number one career interest is compassion in treating patients,” Scott says. “I went to UCLA to become a doctor, and I believe in treating patients with the idea that they can become familiar with the idea of normalcy — not just healing.”
Scott’s focus is reflected in Connecting Californians to Care, the student-run organization he co-founded with two fellow M.D./MBAs. While their mission is to help create access to care, they’re also dedicated to educating clinicians and administrators in professional development beyond the med school curriculum. It’s passion like this, and a unique way of thinking in the next, that made Scott a great candidate for a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship.
Scott was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved to Los Angeles when his father began working for the LAPD. (His father, William “Bill” Scott, became San Francisco Police Chief early this year.) His mother owns a franchise for State Farm Insurance. It was in high school that Scott met a doctor who took an approach to patient care that focused not just on curing an ailment or solving a particular medical problem, but on achieving a balance in health that would become the norm in a person’s life. Inspired, Scott decided to pursue a career in medicine.
Scott employed this approach as he immersed himself in his studies and began to work in medicine. He consulted with the management consulting firm Oliver Wyman on health care and learned about the intersection of the business of medicine and the practice of medicine. By looking intently at both aspects, Scott was able to delve more deeply into policy, regulation and how the patient care experience could be improved within the current health care system.
He further developed his health care awareness and skill set by working in homeless clinics in his pre-clinical days, and is now focusing his work as a clinician on improving the system by improving health science, the method by which care is delivered. Through this work and more, Scott is constantly reminded of — and empowered by — the impact a physician can have on health issues, and how that awareness can support a better patient care experience.
It was this mindset that inspired him to help launch Connecting Californians to Care in 2013. Says Scott, “For me, the motivation to start the organization coming into medical school was to address system issues, and access to care is a big one. When we started in 2013, the first year of Obamacare, it was a prime opportunity to support underserved individuals, many of them homeless, just letting them know they have access. They are at the most risk, they might have language or cultural barriers and many of the med school students had interest in taking on these issues.”
Scott likened the experience to being an entrepreneur, as he and his founding partners had several meetings with UCLA’s medical school and the School of Public Health. Their next step was to create a program infrastructure, develop a training curriculum and launch a lecture series that discussed HMO and PPO plans and the differences between the two and explained Covered California.
Next, they moved on to “event planning with clinics, such as the UCLA Free Health Clinic, involving an enrollment counselor who could actually enroll people who may not have the facility to do it,” Scott explains.
Since then, Scott has stepped into an advisor role and turned over leadership of the organization to new students. Now, Connecting Californians to Care also trains fellow medical students to better navigate the health care system, and assists them in empowering patients who are either uninsured or underinsured.
Scott counts FEMBA graduate Dr. Nasim Afsar-Manesh (’17) and Dr. Ashley Busuttil among his professional mentors, highlighting their leadership style and how it empowers others to pursue their passions. Their strategic direction and commitment to providing Scott with opportunities has helped him deepen the mission of Connecting Californians to Care, linking the organization with clinic managers and giving more responsibilities and autonomy to its eight-person board. Scott also diversified the board by adding non-med school students who could help manage the leg work associated with running the organization.
Scott considers himself a longtime fan and follower of Coach Wooden. “I became more knowledgeable about his principles once I got into Anderson,” he says. “Competitive greatness is about performing at the best of your ability. Improving system-wide issues in health care is where I can give my all, because I’m knowledgeable from both the practicing physician side and the business side.”
Scott also says he’s inspired by Wooden’s mission-oriented approach and applies that mindset in his drive to improve patient care.
For now, Scott is focused on becoming a practicing physician, and he’s about to begin his residency in internal medicine. He sees himself taking on administrative roles while practicing medicine so he can continue to make system-wide improvements; but he knows that the industry is moving fast, which will make it a challenge to stay at the forefront .
If anyone can do it, Scott can. As he says, “Now I’ve learned that the right questions can lead to the right outcomes.
“Learning who patients live with, how they get from place to place, how they go live their lives when they leave the clinic, and when and how they come back for follow-up” is all part of that picture, he says.
The John Wooden Fellowships are among the most prestigious honors UCLA Anderson students can receive. Named for John Wooden, UCLA’s legendary coach, leadership philosopher and exemplar, the fellowships are awarded annually to MBA students who embody Coach Wooden’s values-based leadership. Essential components of this style include a focus on ethics, team spirit, skill, hard work and loyalty, along with a commitment to constant learning, continual improvement and innovation. Each fellowship is worth $25,000 and is funded by the annual John Wooden Global Leadership Awards Dinner.
The 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Awards ceremony takes place on November 13, honoring Kevin Plank, founder, CEO and chairman of Under Armour, and John Wooden Global Leadership fellows Evan Barnes (EMBA ’18), Anna Goldberg (MBA ’18), Sana Rahim (FEMBA ’19) and Brandon Scott (MBA/M.D. ’18).
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