The Physician Entrepreneur's Guide to Non-Clinical Careers

Over half of U.S. workers are either actively looking to switch industries or considering it, according to LinkedIn’s latest?Workforce Confidence report. But the reasons for making a switch vary widely. More than half (54%) of U.S. workers cite better compensation as the leading factor. That’s followed by better alignment with personal values (48%) and more opportunities for advancement (44%). Ranked lowest on the list is a reduced chance of exposure to COVID-19 — a driving factor for just 14% of workers.?

The COVID pandemic has caused healthcare professionals to re-evaluate many things too. One is whether it is time to migrate from a clinical career to a non-clinical one.

Are you burned out, fed up, or just plain unhappy taking care of patients? Are you unwilling to expose yourself and your family to the health risks? Or, as an employed physician in the middle management ranks, have you been fired or furloughed? Is your practice on the brink of colllapse like so many others?

Burnout is having a devastating impact on clinicians, with more than half of U.S. doctors saying they know a colleague who has left clinical care. In addition, nearly one-third have said they have considered leaving their clinical care profession as well.?

The data, which comes from US Physician Feelings on Burnout 2022 Report published by InCrowd, underscores the rising impact of burnout on healthcare staff. In late 2022, 30% of U.S. physicians said they feel burned out, compared to 23% the year before. Another 30% said they have thought about leaving clinical care in 2022, compared to 20% in 2021. The increases also coincide with a worsening view of public health, and only 6% of U.S. doctors said they feel optimistic about the state of public health in 2022, compared to 17% in 2021.

America’s physician practices face devastating financial losses because of the COVID-19 pandemic. What will happen in the long run is unclear, but doctors and observers say the actions taken by the government so far to support practices are inadequate and that more needs to be done.

Currently, physician practices are seeing declines in patient volume of 30 percent to 75 percent, says Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). The business of primary care practices is down 40 percent to 50 percent, she says.

About one in five physicians (21 percent) have been furloughed or experienced a pay cut as a result of COVID-19, revealed survey data from 842 physicians across the country. About a third (32 percent) of physicians also indicated that they would change their employment status because of the novel coronavirus.

One solution might be to launch your encore career or side gig by being a 1099 doc in the sickcare gig economy using the 10/20/30 plan. Here are 10 signs it might be the time

Here is an example:

"?I'm a recent medical school graduate, currently at a "career crossroad" that I am trying to navigate.

Although I am on track to begin training in a specialty, my ideal career is one that would allow me to identify and solve medical problems by creating innovative medical devices. This career goal is largely motivated by my personal story and personality type (rational inventor). A few years back, after I suffered a pretty moderately severe?TBI?in a racially-motivated gang assault, I lost my only brother to unchecked internal bleeding. This easily preventable incident occurred on the day I was to return to my studies (from my leave of absence). I, initially, planned on quitting medicine for good but deiced to come back and finish to do something to change the way that we monitor and treat internal bleeding. I've identified some innovative ideas to tackle the issue at hand, but I feel that the current path I'm on will set me back a good 15?+/- years before I can convert those ideas into reality.?????

I find the science of medicine fascinating but do not enjoy the repetitive nature of the job (at least what I've been exposed to). I feel that my creativity is definitively more constrained in medicine than I would like for it to be. I have some (minimal) entrepreneurial experience in flipping fine art (I've done this to support my family and I throughout medical school and it continues to be my primary source of income) and creating a high-end women's shoe line. I am planning on finishing my preliminary medicine year but I am very unsure as to where to go from there. I would love to dive into bio-design and begin working on my career goal but I don't have much of a blueprint."

Do you have what it takes?

If you are thinking about alternative non-clinical career planning, or have reached a career crossroads, no matter whether you are a premedical student, a medical student, a resident or a practitioner at every stage, here's a few things to think about and guide you:

1. How to divorce yourself

2. The push and pull of career change.

3. 10 Signs it might be time to quit medical practice

4. The Four Phases of Physician Entrepreneurship

5. Screen time or face time?

6. 10 Reasons Why You Should Do Things for Free...for a while

7. Letter from the Birmingham Clinic

8. The Sick Care Gig Economy

9. 10 Reasons Why People Fear Physician Entrepreneurs

10. Plan B Doctors

11. How to find your place in a biocluster

12. How to find a non-clinical job

13. How to find a job from a thousand miles away

14. How to find a sick care job these days

15. How to pick a residency if you are interested in entrepreneurship

16. Sick care jobs of the future

17. The sick care gig economy

18. Lessons from selling SoPE

19. Four careers for people who are easily distracted

20. What's in your physician advisor black bag?

21. Have you had your PPD yet?

22. Side gig and consulting pricing models

23. How to tell your boss you are quitting

24. Do you need a career coach?

25.Find the fit: The 6Rs of career transitioning planning

26. Do a sicktech sidegig SWOT analysis

27. An introductory course in sickcare technology advising and consulting

28. Why you should not be a physician entrepreneur

29.Welcome to SOPE sicktech school

30. Clinician Career Planning group

31. The non-clinical career hype cycle

32. Aesthetic medicine and ophthalmology medtech confererences

33. AMA Physician Innovation Network

34. Digital Therapeutics Alliance information and webinars

35. Side gig and consulting pricing models

36. What to ask at the advisor interview

36. How prepared are you for a nonclinical job interview?

37. How to Answer “Why Should We Hire You?” in an Interview

And here's a few for extra credit

The Compensated Connector

Can You Deliver As an Advisor?

10 Things to Do When Your White Coat Gets the Pink Slip

10 Ways to get started as a physician entrepreneur

Most MD-MBA Programs Should Be Terminated

It's called physician entrepreneur for a reason

Don't throw away your white coat

Thinking of dropping out of med school?

Advice to a premed

Advice to a medical student entrepreneur

How to create a personal value proposition and business model canvas

Advising is not doctoring

Personal advisory board tips

What to do when students ask for career advice

Podcast on non-clinical careers

Monthly webinar series on Career Strategies for Clinicians

Conference on Healthcare Artificial Intelligence and finding a side gig

Slide shows

?Making a successful career transition involves seven steps in 4 phases:

Phase 1: Self assessment and entrepreneurship competency gap analysis (Where are you now?)

Phase 2: Goal setting (Where do you want to go?)

Phase 3: Personal and professional development planning and execution (How will you get there ?)

Phase 4: Tracking your progress and course adjustments (Measuring results and next steps)

Moving through these phases means taking it in steps:

The Precontemplative phase where you don't know what you don't know

The Awareness phase where you start to acquire knowledge about possible career alternatives

The Intention phase where you are motivated to make a change. This typically means changing your mindset

The Decision phase, where you have taken steps to move or transition and prepare yourself for the next step

The Action phase, where you execute your plan and start marketing and selling yourself

At the top of your journey, though, you should be aware that:

1. What got you here won't get you there. You will need new knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies
2. It will take a while. Count on 3-5 years and build a transition plan
3. The opportunity costs of stepping away from clinical practice are high. Accept delayed gratification and have a financial plan that will enable you to bridge the gap.
4. You should have a personal and professional development plan that measures your competencies to succeed in the new world of work.
5. After identifying your gaps, you should take steps to make new behaviors a habit
6. Those habits will include education, obtaining resources, building robust internal and external networks, finding mentors or building a personal advisory board, getting peer to peer support and changing your mindset
7. Physician entrepreneurship is not an either/or proposition. It is an "and" proposition in that every doctor has the potential to pursue opportunity under conditions of uncertainty with the goal of creating user-defined value through the deployment of innovation using a VAST business model. Here is a list of sick care trends and opportunities you can pursue. Here are some opportunities in primary care entrepreneurship. Physician entrepreneurship is not just about creating a company.
8. Your career development usually depends on the 70-20-10 rule
9. Here's what you will need to do win the 4th industrial revolution
10. You should ladder your career portfolio and encore career
11. Generational attitudes and student debt are having a significant impact on career choices and switching
12. Opportunities to help patients other than by seeing them directly are expanding.

To help physicians navigate the challenges and unique options presented by COVID-19, the AMA has developed a guide of strategic, legal, and contractual considerations for employed physicians.?

Here is a list of non-clinical career options. Many doctors are interested in working in the drug/device/digital health industry in various roles. Unfortunately, most don't know what they don't know about the various roles and expectations, how those industries are changing, the kinds of people they are hiring to adapt and nor have they had an adequate job preview. Do your research to fill the gaps, do 20-minute informational interviews to test your assumptions and follow through.

If you have decided it is time for a change, then ask and answer these 4 questions with help from others:

WHY DO I FEEL THIS WAY?

WHERE AM I NOW?

WHAT DO I WANT TO TRY NEXT?

HOW DO I GET THERE?

Here are some reasons why and how you should have at least two careers.

Subsidize Your Skill Development

Make Friends in Different Circles

Discover Real Innovations

Participate in the gig economy

Come down from the mountain

Benjamin Franklin worked on these 13 virtues each week.

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Here is the list for entrepreneurs.

Please allow me to share some mistakes I've made.

BOTTOM LINE: Finding a non-clinical job is about building your personal brand, education, resources, trial and error experience, networks, networks, networks, mentors, peer support and non-clinical career guidance. Did I mention you will need to build robust networks to find the person who wants to hire you?

The Non-Clinical Career Decision Tree

Still want to see patients? Yes, No

If no, then work on something to do with admin or process support? Yes, No

If no, interested in new product development value chain? Yes, No

If no, then write a novel, invest in real estate, or buy several McDonald's restaurants

Good luck and see you on the other side.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack