About

Yuval Dan Bar-Or is an award-winning professor of practice at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, with a focus on finance, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He has served as the academic director of the Flex MBA, dual degree programs, the Executive MBA, and Executive Education programs. As a former business executive with global managerial experience, he is also the founder of the Pillars of Wealth personal finance literacy initiative for doctors, aimed at providing unbiased financial education to medical professionals. Bar-Or is the author of several books and has extensive lecturing experience in academic, government, and corporate settings. He is a recognized expert in physician financial literacy, frequently quoted in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Reuters, USA Today, and others. His work emphasizes empowering physicians and healthcare professionals to make better financial decisions through unbiased education, reducing reliance on financial advisors, and improving financial literacy across the medical community.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Medical education
• Finance
• Pedagogy
• Business
• Radiology
• Family medicine

Selected publications

• Radiology trainee retirement programs: Options and participation

  Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology · 2024 · 2 citations

  • Medicine
  • Finance
  • Medical education
  PublisherDOI

• Systematic review of personal finance training for physicians and a proposed curriculum

  BMJ Open · 2022 · 16 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Medical education
  • Finance

  BACKGROUND: Many physicians complete medical school and graduate medical education (GME) burdened by high debt and financial illiteracy. This places them at increased risk for ill-informed financial decisions, which can result in increased stress and anxiety and a lower quality of life. Furthermore, financial concerns impact physicians' specialty selections and may partly explain the scarcity of primary care practitioners. In response, medical wellness programmes have increasingly sought to offer personal finance education, but there is little guidance on optimal curricula. Our objective is to systematically review the existing literature examining physician financial literacy curricula and to recommend a standardised personal finance curriculum. METHODS: This review used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 checklist to report the results of literature searches in PubMed, ERIC, MedEdPortal, EBSCO, JSTOR and Google Scholar. Three researchers used predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria to select articles, including a focus on financial concepts applicable in the USA. Selected articles published between 2000 and 2022 were assessed using the BEME strength of findings tool, and further assessed using modified Côté-Turgeon and Kirkpatrick model qualitative analyses tools. FINDINGS: 49 articles met all inclusion criteria. Ten specifically described personal finance literacy curricula for medical students or GME trainees, with varied criteria for selecting instructors, topics and outcomes. All studies reported that audiences were ill prepared for making financial decisions but strongly desired financial literacy education. Qualitative analysis revealed Strength of Findings summary scores ranging from 2 to 4, while applicable Kirkpatrick Model scores were all 3 or greater. Based on these findings, a 14-module personal finance curriculum is proposed by the researchers, along with learning objectives. INTERPRETATION: Although medical students and GME trainees value financial literacy, few publications report the impact of actual curricula. These efforts vary in depth, breadth and measured impact. Future research should focus on development of valid testing instruments specifically for physicians, content standardisation, selection of credible instructors and delivery formats.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Evidence-Based Personal Finance Education Curriculum for Physicians and Medical Students

  Research Square (Research Square) · 2021

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medical education
  • Psychology
  • Medicine

  Abstract Background Many physicians complete medical school and graduate medical education (GME) burdened by high debt and financial illiteracy. This places them at higher risk for ill-informed financial decisions, which can result in increased stress and anxiety and a lower quality of life. In response, medical wellness programs have increasingly sought to offer personal finance education, but there is little guidance on optimal curricula. Our objective is to systematically review the existing literature examining physician financial literacy curricula and to recommend a standardized curriculum. Methods This review utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2009 checklist to conduct literature searches in PubMed, ERIC, MedEdPortal, EBSCO, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. Three researchers used predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria to select articles, including a focus on financial concepts applicable in the United States. Articles were assessed using modified Côté-Turgeon and Kirkpatrick qualitative analyses tools. Results 38 articles met all inclusion criteria. Six specifically described personal finance literacy curricula for medical students or GME trainees, with varied criteria for selecting instructors, topics, and outcomes. All studies reported that audiences were ill-prepared for making financial decisions but strongly desired financial literacy education. Qualitative analysis revealed Strength of Findings summary scores ranging from 2-4, while applicable Kirkpatrick Model scores were all 3 or greater. Conclusions Although medical students and GME trainees value financial literacy, few publications report the impact of actual curricula. These efforts vary in depth, breadth, and measured impact. Future research should focus on development of valid testing instruments, content standardization, selection of credible instructors, and country-specific financial concepts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Implementation of a Comprehensive Curriculum in Personal Finance for Medical Fellows

  Cureus · 2018-01-01 · 29 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  INTRODUCTION: Many residents and fellows complete graduate medical education having received minimal unbiased financial planning guidance. This places them at risk of making ill-informed financial decisions, which may lead to significant harm to them and their families. Therefore, we sought to provide fellows with comprehensive unbiased financial education and empower them to make timely, constructive financial decisions. METHODS: A self-selected cohort of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary and critical care, and infectious disease fellows (n = 18) at a single institution attended a live, eight-hour interactive course on personal finance. The course consisted of four two-hour sessions delivered over four weeks, facilitated by an unbiased business school faculty member with expertise in personal finance. Prior to the course, all participants completed a demographic survey. After course completion, participants were offered an exit survey evaluating the course, which also asked respondents for any tangible financial decisions made as a result of the course learning. Results: Participants included 12 women and six men, with a mean age of 33 and varying amounts of debt and financial assets. Twelve respondents completed the exit survey, and all "Strongly Agreed" that courses on financial literacy are important for trainees. In addition, 11 reported that the course helped them make important financial decisions, providing 21 examples. CONCLUSIONS: Fellows derive a significant benefit from objective financial literacy education. Graduate medical education programs should offer comprehensive financial literacy education to all graduating trainees, and that education should be provided by an unbiased expert who has no incentive to sell financial products and services.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Human Considerations in Turnaround Management

  2017-03-27

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  As a turnaround manager, the greatest human challenges are to rebuild trust, re-establish communication, and initiate collaboration. The emotional roller coasters for stakeholders in turnaround situations are varied and complex. But there are often commonalities that are useful for a manager to keep in mind. Kanter describes a company's cycle of decline, as follows: After an initial blow to the company's fortunes, people begin pointing fingers and deriding colleagues in other parts of the business. To understand the turnaround manager's challenge fully, one can review the emotional dynamics a typical employee may undergo during a corporate decline and subsequent turnaround effort. Sometimes the destroyer is an owner, creating a challenging dynamic, which requires a deft touch from the turnaround manager. Improving the human capital in the organization is a crucial imperative. Firms that have been in decline for an extended period usually lose at least some of their most capable employees.

  PublisherDOI

• Empowering Physicians with Financial Literacy.

  PubMed · 2015-10-21 · 18 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Most doctors complete their medical training without sufficient knowledge of business and finance. This leads to inefficient financial decisions, avoidable losses, and unnecessary anxiety. A big part of the problem is that the existing options for gaining financial knowledge are flawed. The ideal solution is to provide a simple framework of financial literacy to all students: one that can be adapted to their specific circumstances. That framework must be delivered by an objective expert to young physicians before they complete medical training.

  Publisher

• An investigation of expected financial distress costs

  Health Physics · 2000-01-01 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This paper finds evidence supporting the existence of significant expected financial distress costs. Expected financial distress costs are estimated for a large sample of going-concern firms using a discounted cash flow valuation technique, with an emphasis on characterizing their sensitivity to leverage. I find that under CAPM the sum of direct and indirect expected financial distress costs for a typical mid-cap firm amounts to approximately 8% of operating value. Under the Fama-French three-factor model framework, it is approximately 5%. Very large firms exhibit minimal expected financial distress costs. Analysis may also have some implications for an industry-specific upper bound on optimal capital structure.

  PublisherDOI

• The Wage Premium to a University Education in Canada, 1971-1991

  Journal of Labor Economics · 1995-10-01 · 65 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Using micro data from the Canadian Survey of Consumer Finances, 1971-91, we investigate the return to a university education. Our conclusions are that while there appears to have been some decline in the return to a university degree during the 1970s in Canada (similar to the United States), the return did not rebound much during the 1980s except among the youngest experience (age) group. There is, however, considerable noise in the ratios from year to year so that one is likely to draw misleading inferences if only a few years of data are used.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Sammy Zakaria

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  10 shared

• Joel Akachukwu Igu

  Johns Hopkins University

  5 shared

• H Fessler

  Johns Hopkins University

  4 shared

• Dipan A Desai

  University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health

  4 shared

• Mina Hesami

  Yale University

  1 shared

• Zeinab Davoudmanesh

  Tehran University of Medical Sciences

  1 shared

• John Burbidge

  1 shared

• David M. Yousem

  Johns Hopkins University

  1 shared

Education

• PhD, Wharton School of Business

  University of Pennsylvania

  2000

Awards & honors

• Certificate of Appreciation, Weill-Cornell Medicine—Qatar (2…
• Certificate of Appreciation, Weill-Cornell Medicine—Qatar (2…
• Certificate of Appreciation, Weill-Cornell Medicine—Qatar (2…
• Faculty Excellence Award 2021, Johns Hopkins University Care…
• Faculty Excellence Award 2020, Johns Hopkins University Care…