Students interested in hospital administration can earn both an MD and an MBA in five years—rather than the usual six—under a new Harvard program formally launched at a reception in the Business School’s Spangler Center yesterday.

The program begins with three years of study at Harvard Medical School (HMS), including seminars in health care policy and management. Students then spend their fourth year at the Business School and enroll in electives at both schools during their final year.

“It’s a real home run,” said Sachin H. Jain ’02, now a non-residential tutor in Mather House, who has already completed three years at HMS and began his first semester at the Business School this fall. Jain began his graduate studies too early to enroll in the joint program—and will as a result have to spend an extra year getting his two degrees.

Seven students have already entered the joint MD/MBA track, according to David H. Gellis ’04, a former Crimson executive who is now enrolled in the program.

Students interested in applying for the MD/MBA program must complete separate applications for the medical and business components.

The program encourages students to practice medicine first-hand upon graduation before moving into the higher echelons of management.

“One of the keys of this program is to make sure that people do retain the clinical portion of their education,” said David K. Lee ’04, a one-time Leverett biochemistry concentrator who is now in his second year at the Medical School and has enrolled in the joint track.

Lee said he hopes to become a practicing oncologist before beginning a career as a hospital administrator.

About 75 people gathered at the Spangler Center for the program’s public kickoff, which was headlined by keynote speaker Daniel Vasella, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Novartis International and a past participant in several executive education programs at HBS.

Vasella said that increases in life expectancy—along with a decline in birth rates—indicate that the U.S. population will grow older, putting an added burden on the nation’s health care system.

“Business knowledge can improve the efficiency and productivity of the health care system,” Vasella said. “One day, you will be asked to act as leaders and make a real difference, allowing people and organizations to achieve more than they ever thought they could,” he told the MD/MBA students.

The acting dean of the Business School, Jay O. Light, said yesterday that the program “is starting small, and is going to stay fairly small.”

“If you ask me to describe in a nutshell what we’re trying to do with the joint program,” Light continued, “it’s to produce an ongoing flow of people that hopefully look a little like Dan Vasella. That’s a tall order.”

Harvard is not the first school to allow students to pursue an accelerated MD/MBA track. The website of the Association of American Medical Colleges lists 47 other universities that provide the joint option, including Tufts, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

The MD/MBA track comes as Harvard expands its joint degree options. The Law School announced last year that it had established a joint JD-Ph.D track in economics, government, and health policy—building upon its already-existing joint-degree programs with the Business School, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard School of Public Health.