{"id":128699,"date":"2022-05-18T16:56:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T20:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=128699"},"modified":"2025-06-26T09:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:25:02","slug":"2022-ucf-medical-grad-putting-service-at-forefront-in-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/2022-ucf-medical-grad-putting-service-at-forefront-in-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 UCF Medical Grad Putting Service at Forefront in Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

For future emergency physician Michael Chiang ’20MS<\/strong>, medicine and hospitality go hand-in-hand in ensuring a patient-centered experience. On Friday, he will become the first UCF student to graduate with his M.D. as well as a master\u2019s in hospitality as part of the College of Medicine\u2019s 10th<\/sup> graduating class.<\/p>\n

The newest physician Knights mean UCF\u2019s young medical school has now trained 956 doctors. This summer, the 2022 graduates will move on to residencies at top U.S. hospitals, including Boston Children\u2019s, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Orlando Health and Stanford.<\/p>\n

This week, the College of Medicine\u2019s founding dean, Deborah German, reflected on the class and its role in helping create a medical school that is the academic center of an emerging Medical City at Lake Nona.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you create something, you wonder, what will it look like in 10 years?\u201d she says. \u201cI dreamed of a 10th<\/sup> class that would be extraordinary and our Class of 2022 has exceeded my expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical school began its unique M.D.\/M.S. in hospitality and tourism management degree<\/a> with UCF\u2019s internationally recognized Rosen College of Hospitality Management. The program educates future physicians on how to use service-oriented business models in the medical practice.  Students complete the first two years of the medical school curriculum, take required hospitality courses during the third and then spend the next two years completing their clinical rotations.<\/p>\n

Chiang says he witnessed the importance of hospitality in medicine as a child. A first-generation student, he is the son of East-Asian immigrants who moved to the U.S. to create a better life for their family. His mother worked three jobs to help support the family \u2014 one as the operator of an assisted living home, where Chiang, his parents and younger sister also lived in a single bedroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up seeing my mother interacting with patients with varying health needs at the nursing home,\u201d he says. \u201cSo it was easy for me in terms of recognizing the importance of service in healthcare. I was also a bartender as an undergraduate and I\u2019d also been a server before, so hospitality was not something that was foreign to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After completing a bachelor\u2019s in biochemistry at the University of Florida, Chiang learned about the dual-degree program when he enrolled at UCF\u2019s medical school and thought it was a perfect fit for his background and interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program was a really interesting experience,\u201d Chiang says. \u201cFor me, it was kind of a reprieve from medical school. As a med student, sometimes medical school pretty much becomes your life and it\u2019s easy to get burned out, so the hospitality program added some variety for me.”<\/p>\n

The program, he says, helped teach him the \u201cbusiness side\u201d of medicine, an area not generally covered in the M.D. curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one of my hospitality classes,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to do a feasibility study and I did it from a medical perspective, where I planned out a private practice as a family practitioner using a Direct Private Provider Care model.  It really helped to bring the nature of business to the medical side, which was really interesting to me. It helps you to focus on how to provide the best possible service and really build rapport and positive relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n