The Value of Innovation and Venture Exposure during Clinical Training

Recent technological advances are reshaping the health care landscape and fueling innovation within and outside health systems. Physicians bring critical stewardship to this transformation by launching companies, advising start-ups, and shaping investment decisions; indeed, more than 25% of the 105 health care companies that achieved valuations of more than US$1 billion between 2015 and 2024 had at least one founder who is a clinician. Clinical training rarely fully prepares physicians to engage in these types of initiatives. While formal educational pathways, such as Doctor of Medicine/Master of Business Administration, continue to expand, hands-on experience in evaluating and building health care businesses during training remains unusual. The authors define innovation and venture education broadly as opportunities that equip physicians with the core skills required to move health care innovations from concept to real-world implementation. These skills - such as problem identification, user-centered design, innovation financing, and systems thinking - are widely applicable across settings and enable physicians to contribute either locally or at scale within this evolving health care landscape. This article makes the case for integrating innovation and venture exposure into clinical training, highlights existing programs, and outlines practical pathways for institutions to help physicians cultivate these core transferable skills. It is more important than ever to prepare physicians to step outside conventional clinical settings so that they can both better understand and influence the future of health care delivery, either within their practice environments or at scale.