Non-clinical supplemental income opportunities for neurologist

[tKnight20]

I am currently employed as a neurohospitalist working 7-on-7-off. I am hoping for ideas regarding non-clinical opportunities to supplement my income during my weeks off. Ideally, I would want something that I would not need to devote (much) time to during the weeks that I am on service, as this has been a limiting factor. Thanks!

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[Telamir]

Stripper pole.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Don’t have an answer

But 10+ year member and only one post. That right there is self control.

 

[tKnight20]

Stripper pole.

good one!

sadly, I lack the mettle to work as a stripper pole.

 

[Thama]

1) Survey sites (e.g. m-panels) - you can make a quick $25-150 in either cash or Amazon cards for minimal work other than keeping up with your email inbox.
2) Consultation services (e.g. Guidepoint) - calls from investors and the like within your subspecialty expertise, can make a few hundred for an easy hour on the phone.
3) Legal work - takes a little more time and impetus to get going, but if you contact local injury attorneys they'll often have a need for neurologists to do case reviews and depositions for disability, workers comp, and personal injury.

 

[Aldertonghen]

SermoMD- can get $50-75 per hour of clicking on surveys in between seeing patients on your on hours (if you’re stuck in hospital until a certain time).

 

[Telamir]

good one!

sadly, I lack the mettle to work as a stripper pole.

Damnit I love a good pun.

 

[DerpyNeuroMD]

SermoMD- can get $50-75 per hour of clicking on surveys in between seeing patients on your on hours (if you’re stuck in hospital until a certain time).

Can this be done as a resident?

 

[Aldertonghen]

Can this be done as a resident?

Yup

Good money on chill nights or inpatient days

 

[DrSatan]

Can this be done as a resident?

IMO you get screened out of >95% of surveys. It's more of a nuissance and not worth the pay. I say this as a recent fellowship graduate who is screened out of almost every survey, even in my subspecialty.

 

[Aldertonghen]

IMO you get screened out of >95% of surveys. It's more of a nuissance and not worth the pay. I say this as a recent fellowship graduate who is screened out of almost every survey, even in my subspecialty.

Nope my coresidents fill out GP surveys as a resident which is possible after getting a state license (after step 3 etc)

 

[neurolddoc]

If you are board-certified and have at least a couple of years of experience, make yourself known to the local medical malpractice defense attorney community if you are willing to review medical legal matters. They are generally looking for standard of care, causation or damages opinions on matters that frequently involve inpatient care.

The remuneration can be quite good per hour depending upon your qualifications.

 

[DrSatan]

Nope my coresidents fill out GP surveys as a resident which is possible after getting a state license (after step 3 etc)

Which survey sites? I'm using All Global Circle, M3 Global Research, Curizon, MD for Lives, and InCrowd answers and even between all 5 survey sites I rarely meet qualifications for these studies (after spending 1-3 minutes answer these pre-qualifying surveys) and a few of those sites almost never have new surveys for me.

 

[JumpingLumberjacksofMaine]

I had a colleague who earned 60k/year from surveys while fully employed. Having seen him work, I 100% believe it.

Dude is my friend, but it's a bit of a dirtbag strategy. The key is to put in whatever numbers needed in the screening questions--e.g., SMA? Sure, I've got 20 cases in my non-academic neurology practice; hATTR amyloidosis? Ditto. That led to the phone interviews. which were the best paying. I can only imagine what numbers he had to put in to get the chronic migraine interviews.

So yeah, the screening process selects for dishonesty which, since the survey companies just want to get X number of surveys done, doesn't bother them in the slightest.

 

[JumpingLumberjacksofMaine]

On a slightly more constructive note, IME Is fair paying, especially if you're efficient at flipping through mammoth stacks of patient records (make sure your contract specifies you get paid per pages reviewed). The nice parts are the ease of scheduling--you can shoehorn a day or two in on the week off; most of the work (record review) is done beforehand. In no way have I felt pressured to put anything but my 100% honest opinion in the reports, and I legitimately feel like I'm doing some societal good by calling out malingerers and supporting claims for the legitmately injured. Finally, it is a way to get into doing medicolegal stuff as typically it'll lead to depositions.

The downside is a small part of my soul dies every time I have to see some of these folks.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

I had a colleague who earned 60k/year from surveys while fully employed. Having seen him work, I 100% believe it.

Dude is my friend, but it's a bit of a dirtbag strategy. The key is to put in whatever numbers needed in the screening questions--e.g., SMA? Sure, I've got 20 cases in my non-academic neurology practice; hATTR amyloidosis? Ditto. That led to the phone interviews. which were the best paying. I can only imagine what numbers he had to put in to get the chronic migraine interviews.

So yeah, the screening process selects for dishonesty which, since the survey companies just want to get X number of surveys done, doesn't bother them in the slightest.

There was someone in my residency class that was doing this. Apparently the big money in online surveys back then was in oncology, so as an IM resident he was billing himself as an “academic oncologist” who had all sorts of exotic patient cases. Apparently it was making money for him, but it really was fraud.

 

[Phantom Spike]

How about utilization management/chart review/peer-to-peer for insurance companies? Has anyone done this? There are even full-time positions available.

 

[JumpingLumberjacksofMaine]

@dozitgetchahi Yes, personally I wouldn't do it, tempting as it is. The unfortunate part is that the survey companies then seem to actively screen for folks who are less honest. On the occasions I shaded my patient numbers up a bit, I'd get the interview, though I tried to stay within reason and only for conditions that I saw a lot of--but still, really not something I'm proud of.

Ultimately though I gave it up. Once you give strictly realistic numbers you end up spending a lot of time getting screened out, so the time/pay shifts dramatically against you.

The exceptions (people who can be honest and still qualify) are probably the subspecialists--dementia, MS, epileptologists, neuromuscular--who actually do have a ton of patients with X condition. Most relatively honest generalists are going to get screened out a fair bit of the time IMO (no idea how it works with the migraine therapeutic surveys though since everyone has a ton of those).

 

[Thama]

@dozitgetchahi Yes, personally I wouldn't do it, tempting as it is. The unfortunate part is that the survey companies then seem to actively screen for folks who are less honest. On the occasions I shaded my patient numbers up a bit, I'd get the interview, though I tried to stay within reason and only for conditions that I saw a lot of--but still, really not something I'm proud of.

Ultimately though I gave it up. Once you give strictly realistic numbers you end up spending a lot of time getting screened out, so the time/pay shifts dramatically against you.

The exceptions (people who can be honest and still qualify) are probably the subspecialists--dementia, MS, epileptologists, neuromuscular--who actually do have a ton of patients with X condition. Most relatively honest generalists are going to get screened out a fair bit of the time IMO (no idea how it works with the migraine therapeutic surveys though since everyone has a ton of those).

Yeah - I've taken to only bothering with the ones within my own narrow subspecialty that I see a lot of. Otherwise I don't bother with screening as it's a waste of time.

 

[Neurogeneral]

I don’t bother with surveys. Too many strict screening questions and they ask for way too specific numbers/data. I once did two of these specific surveys but admittedly gave some off the top my head answers. Got two amazon gift cards but didn’t claim them as it just didn’t feel right.

 

[sloh]

How about utilization management/chart review/peer-to-peer for insurance companies? Has anyone done this? There are even full-time positions available.

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