A successful model of leadership development for community practice physicians.

The dynamic and rapidly changing health care environment has led to the convergence of business and medicine. As a result, clinicians and administrators can no longer operate separately, particularly when the role of many physicians has shifted from that of caregivers to leaders. To that end, the University of Cincinnati has provided the educational and developmental opportunity for physicians to undergo the professional and personal changes necessary to develop and perform as effective leaders. The program was funded by Humana, Inc., for a fiveyear period and was offered to community practice physicians in the Greater Cincinnati area and included Northern Kentucky and part of Indiana. More than 100 physicians, five cohorts of 20 or more physicians, completed the 20-week program. There was a fall series of 10 weeks from early October to mid-December and a winter series from early January to mid-March. The sessions were held on Wednesday evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at a hotel/conference center on the university campus. The physicians represented a diverse group in terms of medical specialty, size of practice, geographic practice location, gender, and cultural background. The program addressed a community and national need for physician leaders. As stated in Physicians as Leaders Who, How, and Why Now by McKenna and Pugno, “there is an increasingly urgent call for physician leaders . . . . clinically trained administrators who govern the human and financial resources within health care organizations . . . . physicians must be integrally involved in leading the way to improve the health care system.”1 Program characteristics