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A research group requested me to score inflammation on slides from animal studies. I am a resident and I have no idea how much to charge per slide. Any suggestions?
How much to charge?
- Thread starter bioguy
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You charge for this? I thought residents were supposed to do this sort of thing to get publications.
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You either get authorship, or you get paid.
If you want authorship, make sure to get your place on the author list in writing, so that the PI can't renege.
If the PI does not agree to include you on the paper, either ask for remuneration or decline. Do not work for free.
If I were a path staff I'd charge $100 per slide. As a resident I do not know.
If you want authorship, make sure to get your place on the author list in writing, so that the PI can't renege.
If the PI does not agree to include you on the paper, either ask for remuneration or decline. Do not work for free.
If I were a path staff I'd charge $100 per slide. As a resident I do not know.
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I did request authorship, but for whatever reason they are offering me bucks and not authorship. I think 88305 is a lot. Any realistic figures?
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How long does each slide take to score? How much would you like to make per hour? I think $50-100/hour for your experience should be a minimum. If in doubt, shoot high and have them come back with something low. Personally, I think the 88305 is a great idea. Start there and you have a rational explanation for why you are requesting that amount. Plus, you are doing more than normally would be done for an 88305, I would imagine.
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This sounds pretty shady. They can give you authorship for free; that would be the standard approach in science; why would they want to pay you instead? Plus it will be hard for them to later make a case to the reviewers that this was done on the up and up ("we hired this guy... OK, he's not exactly a pathologist... no he is not part of a core facility or anything... oh no we didn't make him an author...") They may be expecting to pay you peanuts, not the triple figures that everyone is suggesting. I smell a rat, but if you are OK taking a risk, this could turn out to be easy money for you. Make sure you don't get into hot water with the ACGME moonlighting rules.
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How much is an 88305 compensated, and what exactly does it entail?
D
deleted314957
agree with bioguy and zao. you/me/we are paid for our EXPERTISE, not our time. It may take me 10 sec to interpret and dictate a tubular adenoma but it is still an 88305.
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I agree with Ombret. From an academic/research/peer review perspective, this does sound shady.
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Thank you all for the relevant comments. I found that their study is not for a publication, but for industry. They are developing a new product and are testing on animals. And this, I guess, doesn't come under moonlighting since it is not patient care. Each slide will take not more than 5 minutes to score. I can ask a veterinary pathologist how much he would charge but then how do I scale it down my level. I know there is no formula. But a rough percentage, lets say 60% or 75% of what he would charge, does that sound right? Is there anything else I need to worry about if this project is for industry?
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You are ruthless
D
deleted314957
TMZ2000 has a good idea. What is wrong with being "ruthless" with Pfizer/Merck/Etc? Negotiate with them by all means. Believe me, they would take advantage of you in any way they could.
I assume it's a big company (pharma); if its a small start-up you could always go for a small equity share if they have limited money. You might also be able to parlay this into a part-time (or more) paid position, which would be nice too.
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You also need to consider potential liability, since veterinary pathology has subtle differences from human pathology. You may be screening for toxic effects of a compound or device which becomes a product. If this product goes to market and is found to be toxic in humans, all portions of the product development pipeline will be reviewed, including your work. You would need to follow the federal guidelines on good laboratory practices in order to protect yourself, and future patients. These are not theoretical risks, remember previous drug failures such as the weight loss drug phen-phen. There are reasons why big pharma employs veterinary pathologists and tracks every aspect of their work.
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Excellent insight. Thank you.
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True, but also don't fall into the trap of incapacitating paranoia, either. It's kinda an interesting point though, since when similar situations (for publication authorship, not a monetary transaction) come up there is usually a better established structure around the resident, from departmental to institutional support/advice.
I really don't know what a fair price would be, especially for a resident. You could bulk them or charge by the slide, lot of ways to go with it. Talk about 88305 is all well and good, but probably isn't a fair or direct comparison. If you're just getting a bunch of slides and are only being asked to drop a number for inflammatory score for each one, it's a pretty limited histologic evaluation. I did something eerily like this as preliminary work for a publication -- come to think of it, no idea whatever happened with that beyond some local presentation by a surg resident -- but since it was for publication, money was never an issue.
The problem with ballsy negotiations is that if you ask for $400/slide and they have 1000 slides ready to ship to you for what amounts to <1 minute work per slide once you get a system going, then you'll probably never hear from them again as they go find someone willing to do them for $0.40/slide. Or vice versa if you say you'll do it for $0.40/slide and they're willing to pay $10+. It really, really helps to have some idea of the market before you say something silly to one extreme or the other. My unfounded suspicion is that you'll be looking at a few hundred to a few thousand bucks total -- otherwise if they're going to spend that much they might as well use someone board certified (and who carries appropriate insurance).
If you have someone local you can trust (i.e., won't raise a big fuss for no good reason or try to jump your claim for the job, but has been around and knows what they're doing and what you might be getting into) to ask the question, I'd do that.
I really don't know what a fair price would be, especially for a resident. You could bulk them or charge by the slide, lot of ways to go with it. Talk about 88305 is all well and good, but probably isn't a fair or direct comparison. If you're just getting a bunch of slides and are only being asked to drop a number for inflammatory score for each one, it's a pretty limited histologic evaluation. I did something eerily like this as preliminary work for a publication -- come to think of it, no idea whatever happened with that beyond some local presentation by a surg resident -- but since it was for publication, money was never an issue.
The problem with ballsy negotiations is that if you ask for $400/slide and they have 1000 slides ready to ship to you for what amounts to <1 minute work per slide once you get a system going, then you'll probably never hear from them again as they go find someone willing to do them for $0.40/slide. Or vice versa if you say you'll do it for $0.40/slide and they're willing to pay $10+. It really, really helps to have some idea of the market before you say something silly to one extreme or the other. My unfounded suspicion is that you'll be looking at a few hundred to a few thousand bucks total -- otherwise if they're going to spend that much they might as well use someone board certified (and who carries appropriate insurance).
If you have someone local you can trust (i.e., won't raise a big fuss for no good reason or try to jump your claim for the job, but has been around and knows what they're doing and what you might be getting into) to ask the question, I'd do that.
