Entrepreneurial Specialties

[number22]

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Always been excited by building something, creative spark, yada yada.

Which specialties in medicine draw more entrepreneurial types into them?

 

[jd989898]

EM. Few total hospital hours, and you’ll have off the “entrepreneurial“ oddball productivity hours for your outside interests.

 

[Oso]

For some reason, a decent number of optho people at my school do business related things like start ups, MBA’s, consulting work, etc.

Idk if it’s the field itself or the personality type or what.

Hope this is helpful but it’s probably not lol

 

[siliso]

If you want to acquire some capital (lasers and such) and then work on a cash basis then derm or the parts of plastics or ophtho etc that are cosmetic in nature. Or there are several outpatient-surgical or radiologic enterprises where you can open your own shop with own equipment. If that’s what you mean by entrepreneurial, acquiring capital and profiting from it.

If you mean invention and innovation with potential for patents and profit then your procedure driven device heavy specialties would be the biggest targets I think.

 

[number22]

Thanks! Really interesting to think about.

 

[Got Em]

If you mean you want to open up your own practice, right now you can do this in primary care fields, dermatology, pain, GI, ophtho etc. There are also other medical/surgical specialties to do this, but it may require a group or more start up capital.

As the above poster stated, if you want to get into medical device, you're looking than surgical/procedural heavy specialties.

However, if you may want to do something outside of medicine, or in medicine but need to have blocks of time off, then EM is the best. EM is top 5 in salary per hour. It's almost impossible to find a job paying you $200-300/hr and only work a few shifts each month with built in flexibility other than EM (maybe anesthesia?). One 10 hour shift per week gets you $100-150k per year.

 

[Osteoth]

EM to have time & $ to invest in businesses.

Psychiatry to make money as an entrepreneur in medicine. All you need is a couch and an office and you can generate substantial amounts, especially if you employ psychologists and other mid-levels.

 

[zanzizic]

EM. Few total hospital hours, and you’ll have off the “entrepreneurial“ oddball productivity hours for your outside interests.

Well, the way that thousands of free-standing Urgent Care clinics are being thrown up by enterprising EM docs I’d say you were on to something.

I have a feeling their reimbursements from Medicare and private insurers are about to get slashed though.

 

[noMoreMDPhDapplicant]

Anything surgical for sure. Surgical devices? And there's no regulation for a novel surgical approach, as opposed to drug development, for example.

Any specialty can have an entrepreneurial spin imo.

 

[Got Em]

Well, the way that thousands of free-standing Urgent Care clinics are being thrown up by enterprising EM docs I’d say you were on to something.

I have a feeling their reimbursements from Medicare and private insurers are about to get slashed though.

Freestandings are already closing. Seeing 6-10 patients per day while getting the facility fee and being profitable doesn't make sense long-term. Insurers are already suing and trying to put a stop to this.

By the nature of shift-work dealing with acute patients (more RVUs than primary care), your flexibility/pay is almost certain to be better than most specialties.

 

[DoctwoB]

As others have stated, it depends on your definition of entrepreneurial. surgical specialties often have the option of working with industry to “design” some new device. There are a million diffferent ortho implants and spine systems, partly due to that reason. This is partly under fire as hospitals and payers are moving towards bulk buying to control costs.

Any field that uses a major ancillary medical service can be entrepreneurial in investing or ownership stakes in these services. For example, rad oncs (or urologists) owning linear accelerators, offices buying imaging equipment, owning surgery centers, employing in house services like pathology, etc. that is one major driver of consolidation, for example a two man urology group couldn’t keep an IMRT machine busy. A 40 man group, however, could, and take the technical fees from its use. These set ups are complicated both legally due to stark laws and ethically, as there is pretty good data that owning an ancillary service means you’ll use more of it, In the above example the urologist would be more likely to recommend IMRT over surgery, or steer cases to their surgery center which could be done in the office or may be better served at a full service hospital.

 

[Redpancreas]

Any field really.

Family Medicine/IM Outpatient (plus specialties): You work a the most 9-5 schedule and once you get in a groove after a year or two, you can slowly start transitioning your efforts into a business.

Emergency Medicine: Offers a great deal of time at quiet hours others are sleeping. Also, a great salary/hr (acute patient management RVU is high) to hedge the risks of investing in your entrepreneurial efforts and being relatively unsuccessful. Think Mattu, the master of the EKG.

Internal Medicine/CCM: Offers a week on, week off so you can spend a good deal of uninterrupted time coming up with a product. Think Dustyn Williams of OME.

Medicine-Procedural: Cardiology/GI can have some equipment/procedural developments, but that's rarer. I'd anticipate that most entrepreneurs in these areas find a way to make time given that after a while their schedules stabilize and they make partner in their practice. Boards/Beyond's lecturer is a Cardiologist I believe and Sandeep Jauhar is the director of Heart Failure program while being a prominent NYT author.

Surgical: Also can be a challenge, but depending on how you tailor your practice you can find some time off.

Surgical Subspecialty: Others have alluded to device/procedure innovation, but you also gain more control over your schedule with seniority and can invest time down the road. Atul Gawande was a surgeon and still managed to become a prolific author. Opthalmologists/Dermatologists who do procedures and see patients and maybe work part time and earn a good amount of money could also do a good job running a legit business unrelated to medicine. I saw a Shark Tank episode with a woman who was an Opthalmologist who made some hair curling device and only worked a few days a week (her husband helped with the business and was a Cardiologist).

Radiology: Lots of time too to do things with time off and the ability to do some of their work remotely.

 

[number22]

Any field really.

Family Medicine/IM Outpatient (plus specialties): You work a the most 9-5 schedule and once you get in a groove after a year or two, you can slowly start transitioning your efforts into a business.

Emergency Medicine: Offers a great deal of time at quiet hours others are sleeping. Also, a great salary to hedge the risks of investing in your entrepreneurial efforts and being relatively unsuccessful. Think Mattu, the master of the EKG.

Internal Medicine/CCM: Offers a week on, week off so you can spend a good deal of uninterrupted time coming up with a product. Think Dustyn Williams of OME.

Medicine-Procedural: Cardiology/GI can have some equipment/procedural developments, but that's rarer. I'd anticipate that most entrepreneurs in these areas find a way to make time given that after a while their schedules stabilize and they make partner in their practice. Boards/Beyond's lecturer is a Cardiologist I believe.

Surgical: Also can be a challenge, but depending on how you tailor your practice you can find some time off.

Surgical Subspecialty: Others have alluded to device/procedure innovation, but also gain more control over your schedule with seniority and can invest time down the road. Atul Gawande was a surgeon and still managed to become a prolific author. Opthalmologists/Dermatologists who do procedures and see patients and maybe work part time and earn a good amount of money could also do a good job running a legit business unrelated to medicine. I saw a Shark Tank episode with a woman who was an Opthalmologist who made some hair curling device and only worked a few days a week (her husband helped with the business and was a Cardiologist).

Awesome post, thank you.