The Second Annual Summit is Here – 348

In today's episode, John provides an overview of this year's Summit designed to make your clinical practice great or move on to a better alternative.

With a lineup of expert speakers and a comprehensive agenda, the Summit aims to equip attendees with actionable strategies for improving job satisfaction and exploring nonclinical opportunities.

The second annual Nonclinical Career Summit runs this week. It’s not entirely nonclinical in its scope, however. We have several presentations about starting and running a cash-based private practice. It features twelve experts who share inspirational messages and valuable know-how live over three nights.

It's called Clinical Practice: Make It Great or Move On

And beyond building your cash-based practice, our speakers will show you how to create an asset that can be sold later. Other experts will discuss MedSpas, Infusion Lounges, and other cash-only businesses, using Real Estate to diversify your income and assets, and several nonclinical side gigs including Expert Witness and Medical-Legal Prelitigation Consulting, Medical Affairs Regulatory Consulting, and remote SSDI Application Reviewer.

To learn more check it out at nonclinicalcareersummit.com. Remember that there is NO cost to attend the live event. And if you can’t participate in the Summit, you can purchase the All Access Pass videos (only $39 until April 16, 2024, when the price increases to $79).

Our Episode Sponsor

Dr. Debra Blaine is a physician like many of you, and her greatest challenge was fear. The whole concept of leaving clinical medicine was terrifying. But she is so much happier now as a professional writer and a coach. According to Debra, “It’s like someone turned the oxygen back on.”

If fear is part of your struggle, too, she would like to help you push through those emotional barriers to go after the life you really want. Click this link to schedule a free chat.

Or check out her website at allthingswriting.com/resilience-coaching.

Trends in Addressing Physician Burnout

Physicians have faced increasing stress and burnout in recent years due to corporate employment structures in the healthcare industry. There are several basic approaches to preventing these common consequences of clinical practice.

1. Aggressive Contract Negotiation: Physicians are placing a greater emphasis on negotiating employment contracts to safeguard against burnout inherent in corporate settings. While not discussed extensively in the summit, this strategy is crucial for those considering employment.
2. Identifying Root Causes of Dissatisfaction: Physicians are focusing on identifying and addressing the underlying causes of dissatisfaction, whether it's related to the nature of their vocation, organizational policies, or interpersonal dynamics. Analyzing these factors allows for targeted solutions to alleviate stress and improve job satisfaction.

Highlights of the NonClinical Career Summit

The Nonclinical Career Summit starting on April 16th features a lineup of expert speakers covering various aspects of nonclinical career options for physicians. Here's a sneak peek at what attendees can expect:

1. Speaker Sessions Overview: The Summit will host twelve live presentations, spanning topics from evaluating the need to leave clinical medicine to exploring diverse career paths outside traditional practice settings. Each session offers actionable insights and practical advice tailored to physicians and other clinicians seeking alternative career paths.
2. Logistics and Registration Details: The Summit will run over three consecutive evenings, starting on April 16th, with sessions starting at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Live attendance is free, but registration is required to access the sessions. Attendees can opt for the All Access Pass for $39, providing access to session recordings and bonuses.

Summary

This week's podcast previews the 2nd Annual Nonclinical Summit featuring 12 expert speakers addressing ways to create a clinical practice outside of the corporate style of healthcare and nonclinical career options. Attendees are encouraged to register early to secure their spot and gain access to valuable resources aimed at supporting career transitions and enhancing job satisfaction.

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode. 

EXCLUSIVE: Get a daily dose of inspiration, information, news, training opportunities, and amusing stories by CLICKING HERE.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Reserve Your Free Spot at the 2024 Nonclinical Career Summit
• Purchase Your All Action Pass Videos and Bonuses from the 2024 Summit
• Information about the Nonclinical Career Summit
• Dr. Debra Blaine's Coaching Services

Download This Episode:

Right Click Here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Episode 348 Transcript

Over the past few years, I've noticed that there is a backlash to the increasing stress and burnout in physicians resulting from employment by large corporations. It seems like the burnout's getting worse and it's related to being employed, losing their autonomy, and really working in that sort of healthcare industrial complex, seeing as many patients as you can in every hour. So in response to that, I think physicians have begun to implement various strategies to prevent or address the burnout, the stress, and the dissatisfaction that's coming.

So these are some of the four trends that I have seen. It's not everything, but I see these as something that's getting more and more common. So first is a bigger emphasis on aggressively negotiating employment contracts.

After all, if you understand that employment leads to dissatisfaction and burnout, and maybe if you've been through it once already, to some extent, you should be able to address the cause of that burnout by building safeguards into your contract. We won't be addressing that in this summit, but it is something I've noticed, and you can take a listen to my interview with Ethan Encana, who's an MBA slash JD, which was posted in February 13th of this year. So if you listen to that, we'll be talking a lot about trying to protect yourself from the things that cause your burnout in your contracts, if you decide to go with the employment route.

Now let's move on to the next one, which is more in keeping with what I want to talk about today. And that is a big thing that physicians are focusing on now, and people are teaching about is finding, identifying, and somehow preventing the root causes of your dissatisfaction and addressing it in new ways. So is it your vocation itself? Is it the practice of medicine? Or is it the organization you're working for and their policies and procedures? Maybe they don't staff properly.

Is it the boss that you report to that's causing your stress and anxiety? Sometimes a fierce conversation can solve the problem. Sometimes moving to a different clinic or hospital will work, but you need to spend the time really analyzing what's, what, what it is about the work that's making things worse. And is it something that you can resolve either in the current situation or at a future one? So that's something we don't talk a lot about on the podcast, although I have had one of our summit speakers, Dyke Drummond, on the podcast to talk about that, but that was several years ago.

Number three is the physicians are implementing new or updated practice models that put more control in the physician's hands. Things such as direct primary care, concierge medicine, and other forms of cash only medical businesses. And this can solve the problem in two ways.

Number one, a lot of times doing that requires you to be in your own practice. So you're starting your own business. So you're not working for someone.

Doesn't mean it's not busy. Doesn't mean it's not challenging, but now you have that autonomy and you're in control. And the other reason is that it's oftentimes the insurance companies, which are driving this whole approach to medicine, where you've got to see as many patients as possible, because they have certain schedules, payment schedules that are difficult to, you know, earn a living on.

And a lot of the drive to see a lot of patients is because of either Medicare and counting it worked RVUs or trying to see so many patients an hour. And that can be overcome by starting your own business and taking cash. And you figure it out in that setting.

Since you don't have to hire two or three people per physician to do the billing, you can cut costs in that way and you can generate income. So it's another thing that I see growing in the past two or three to five years, even. And then the other one is just finding a part-time job.

It's something you can do on the side because you can then either cut your clinical back to part-time also. And then you get to do two different types of jobs. One, a clinical, one, a non-clinical.

You can find, you know, you feel like you're seeing a little more variety of things. You have better hourly compensation sometimes with the non-clinical side, especially those we're going to be teaching at the summit. And again, if it involves starting something like either a practice that just doesn't bill insurance or a med spa or an infusion lounge or a weight loss clinic, you're still at the end of that able to sell it.

And that's a big asset that can really be a big chunk of your retirement and really builds to what I would call it through that process, some career diversity. The other thing that's nice about doing something like one of these side gigs or side jobs is that they can grow to be a little more part of your week as you retire from clinical, let's say, as you get older. The other is it's protecting you so that if your clinical job, which may depend on employment by a hospital or part of a group, that would be protected.

That gives you that leverage, that independence that you otherwise wouldn't have if someone decides to fire you. Okay. So that's why, because of those last three issues that I've been noticing, Tom and I both, that's why we're calling this year's summit clinical practice, make it great or move on.

So there are ways to improve your practice as it is, where it is, or ways to improve it by moving and doing other things. And there are ways to make it better by splitting it with another non-clinical career. And so that's what we're talking about at the summit this year.

And I think it's very apropos. And the tagline is recognize dysfunction, fix it and protect yourself or seek better opportunities. So you can see, as I go through what we're covering during the summit, it kind of brings all of those in and those kinds of terms will probably make better sense to you.

So let's get into the specifics of this year's summit. Last year, we were, just like last year's summit, we're holding it on three consecutive evenings, starting the day after this episode, day or two after this episode is released. I might be releasing it a little early to give people a chance to go through this before the summit actually starts.

And we're doing it that way in the evenings live to enable as many clinicians to attend the free event. So as many people can come for free, making it because we know that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings are the best time. If we do it during the day or on a weekend, people usually cannot even come for one or two of the hours of presentations.

But by doing it in evenings and doing it live at night, people can carve out some time and maybe at least watch one or two or three of the sessions each night. Now it starts on April 16th at 7 p.m. Eastern time with four live presentations at the top of each hour. They'll end 50 minutes later, followed by a 10-minute break.

And each presentation includes a live Q&A during the last 10 or 15 minutes. It continues on Wednesday, April 17th and Thursday, April 18th, obviously each night starting again at 7 p.m. Eastern. We're holding it on a typical Zoom meeting platform that most of you are very familiar with.

Questions will be submitted using the chat. It could get a little bit confusing if you got a we're going to use the chat and either myself or Tom Davis will curate the questions. You know, sometimes we get two or three that are very much similar and we'll kind of bunch those together.

But that way we can spend 10 minutes at least getting, you know, answers to really the burning questions that come up during the presentation. I think I mentioned earlier, live attendance is absolutely free, but you have to register in advance to attend. That's the only way we can get you the link to attend.

So you just sign up on the link that I'll give you in a minute. And once you're registered, you can come and attend as many or as few sessions as you like. To save your spot, you're encouraged to register using the link that one of our speakers may have sent you.

You know, you might be watching this, but maybe you're already a student of Dr. Drummond's or Dr. Unachukwu or anybody that's helping us here, which I'll be going through in a minute. And you definitely can use their link and then they get credit. If it's easier or if you don't have any link from anybody else, then you should just go to nonclinicalcareersummit.com and you'll be given an option to sign up for the live free event.

And that's also the same link for purchasing the All Access Pass, because we understand that not everybody can attend all the live sessions. So we're making the recordings available for a very low price. That's just $39.

And given all the work that goes into putting this together, that's pretty darn reasonable. Now it does increase on the day that the summit starts. On Thursday morning, the price goes up to $79.

I'm sorry, not Thursday morning, on Tuesday morning, when the summit is starting later that day. But in the morning, it jumps to $79. That's on April 16th.

So if you want to get that really best price, you should sign up for the All Access Pass by Monday, April 15th. And again, it's $39. So you have to get that registration in by midnight on that date.

And again, it's also available at nonclinicalcareersummit.com or by using any speakers affiliate link if they're sending those out to you. All right, well, let's get into the details about the speakers and the lectures. Basically, like I said, we have four presentations per evening.

They're all live except one is being recorded ahead of time because the speaker is actually not available during the summit. But we didn't want to not include him in this thing. So let's just start with the first one.

And I'm going to say that these are not in the order in which they're being presented, but kind of in the order that they flow in my mind in terms of addressing the main thing we're trying to do for the summit. So for example, Dyke Drummond, Dr. Dyke Drummond, very well known. HappyMD is what he's known for.

He's got a podcast. He's been doing this a long time. He's coached thousands of physicians.

And he's going to be speaking on Tuesday night, the first night. And he's going to be answering this question. Do you really need to leave clinical medicine or is it just the job? And the official title, is it just a shit job or boss you want to escape? So really, it's not necessarily clinical medicine or clinical nursing or other clinical specialties that you're working in.

It's oftentimes other things that lead to the dissatisfaction and the burnout, the anxiety, things like that. So he's going to take that question head on. And how do you determine if this is really you should leave medicine or whether you should stick with it, but resolve the problem in a variety of ways.

And some of the ways he's going to talk about is just how you take control of what you're doing, listing the alternative practice models that might solve the problem. And if it is time to leave, let's put out that ideal job description process. So you can assess when you're going somewhere else, is it likely to be a better situation? So the next speaker I want to talk about is Mike Wu Ming, a very good friend of my podcast and myself, and he's written a book.

And he's going to build on what Dyke is telling us from the standpoint of what his experience has been with owning cash-based medical clinics. Okay, so it's still a practice. It's a medical clinic.

And he just describes sort of the mindset changes you have to go through to make this happen. He'll list the four or five financial levels of a physician, what that means, what it means to be a CEO, not only of your business, but of your life. He'll talk about ways to provide medical services outside the insurance industrial complex, if you want to call it that.

Let's see, he'll compare different types of cash-based medical clinics and where he sees future growth. All right, the third one, again, an expert on business in general, Dr. Una, Dr. Nneka Unachukwu. She goes by Dr. Una.

She has one or two podcasts. She's coaching a lot of physicians, and she's got many courses. And she's an expert and does a lot of speaking about creating a successful business.

In her case, I think is a good mix of people she's worked with who have created healthcare businesses, not necessarily a medical practice. Some have created different medical practices. And so she's going to talk about the business practices you must adopt to be successful, to get into a little bit about the importance of branding and marketing.

And again, she likes to focus, and I think she'll touch on this as well, how to build a practice or a business or both that has value and then eventually sell that business for cash out at the end, which again, I've mentioned earlier, is a great way to help segue into your retirement. And I've got just a hint of this because I'm currently in the process of helping my wife sell her own business, which she's been running for 15 years. And so we're going to just find out what it's worth at this point.

And it wasn't really something that we dwelled on up until the last couple of years. And I guess I'd mentioned now that if you do build a business of any sort, you should really always try to think of the eventual selling of that business because we all eventually go away. And even if it means turning it over to a partner in a medical practice, how does it happen? What's the value? Thinking about those things.

So those are the kinds of things that Dr. Una are going to be talking about. Then to kind of round that out and from another perspective, Joe McMenamin, who just was on my podcast, I think last week, but yeah, and he's going to be talking about corporate entities, meaning, you know, LLCs, corporations, things, how to create a legal situation for your business that makes it safe, protects you financially, keeps the tax concerns in mind. He's also going to touch a little bit on contract negotiations or starting a new business, other things to consider besides just the corporate structure.

And he'll be comparing those different legal entities that can help make your business successful. So the next is we're going to get even right into the nitty gritty of some of these cash-based businesses. See now a med spa, many physicians are familiar with, I wouldn't call that a medical practice.

And I don't think you need a license to run a med spa, although it helps if you're a medical director, if you're doing procedures that obviously are licensed and you have insurance for that. Now practice insurance, but she's going to talk about this. I believe she owned her med spa for 15 years.

She started it from the ground up. She grew it, she marketed it, she branded it and she sold it. And they happened not too long ago.

And she actually was able to segue into staying on as a part-time medical director. And so it really worked out well. She's very happy with how things went.

And again, I don't think she was thinking about the sale of it when she started it, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, but it worked out well for her. So she's going to share some of her experiences with that. Next two guests, our speakers are Jennifer Allen and Kimberly Lowe.

Now they're actually each doing an individual presentation because Jennifer is a physician and Kim is a nurse. They're going to discuss their particular experiences and reasons for going into starting an infusion lounge or an infusion center. And both of them will spend a little bit of time talking about what the heck is an infusion lounge.

And it turns out it can be a lot of different things. And let's see for Jennifer, she's going to be focusing too on the basic services they usually provide and how hers is different and who's sort of best qualified, or let's say has the best background and personality to do something like this. And a little bit about the first three steps, prepare to open your own infusion lounge if you decide to do that.

Now during Kim's session, and Jennifer's I think is on the first day, Kim's is on the third day. Again, she's going to tell you why she thinks it's a great investment and describe how the partnership model, you know, is working for them, for her in particular. She's going to hopefully mention some of the other businesses that nurses might be able to get into in healthcare that, you know, not everything is open to a nurse, you know, medical practice per se isn't.

But even in some places as an NP or an APN, you can do something like that. But she's going to talk about, you know, nurses and kind of side businesses that they might be doing that are similar to what she's doing. And she might end there with three mistakes that you should avoid when starting an infusion lounge.

Well, that brings us up to Paul Hercock. He's been on the podcast twice. He's from the UK.

And he created, well, he has a business that uses medical regulatory consultants or medical affairs, regulatory consultants to help meet the needs of the MDR regulations, medical device regulations in the UK and in the EU. Paul is a physician and he's been working in this field for a long time. And so he started hiring people to do this for him, for his business, which is called Mantra Systems, I believe, Mantra Systems.

And then because he was having difficulty finding people, he created a program to teach people how to become medical regulatory affairs consultants. So that's what he's talking about. And I think it's going to be very interesting.

You'll be working remotely for companies that are mostly in the UK and the EU, but you can work from the United States. In fact, we have a lot of people that contact me that are from the EU. You know, they maybe have traveled, they've immigrated to Europe and then they decided to come to the US and they may have a degree from somewhere in Europe, UK, France, you name it.

And there's no reason why they can't continue to do work back there remotely because things are just so easy to do in that way these days. And in fact, Paul told me that they often look to hire American physicians to do this because they have a lot more experience in dealing with the FDA. The MDR regulations are actually relatively new in Europe and the UK.

So that's going to be an interesting one. Very useful, very practical. Then Dr. Armin Feldman is going to come on.

He's been on the podcast a couple of times and he's going to tell us all about medical legal pre-litigation, pre-trial consulting. And I've discussed this before, but it's an awesome side hustle. Don't have to be licensed to do it, but you definitely have to have a medical background.

And he's going to explain exactly how that works, why there's a growing need for the service and how to get the necessary skills to do it. That brings us to Gretchen Green, who's pretty well known for teaching hundreds of physicians, how to become expert witness consultants. She's run her course nine or 10 times.

And so she's going to give us a quick overview of how to become an expert witness, how to build the business side of that, what to do, what not to do, what it entails. And so this is going to be really interesting and an overview for what she does. And then the last one is Tom Davis, known to many of you, I hope, as my past business partner in Newscript, which we've closed down back a few months ago.

But he's here helping with the summit. And he's been involved with companies that provide social security disability reviewers. And it's something that I didn't quite understand or wasn't well aware of.

I'm definitely aware of an independent medical examiner, but there are also other layers of the process of becoming, let's say, qualified for disability payments from social security. And it's a very niche area, but you can definitely get a remote position as a social security disability application reviewer. And it really piqued my interest.

I want to learn more about that. And so this is something that almost any physician can do. I believe they need to be licensed to start out, but I'm not sure you have to remain licensed.

And there are full-time jobs available as well as some part-time jobs, from what I hear. So I'm really interested in hearing Tom describe exactly what that entails and who's qualified and how we would apply for that. And then finally, did I say finally with Tom? There is one more, and it's kind of the icing on the cake.

And it's a little different, but we thought it would be nice to have Dr. Pranay Parikh talk about real estate and how it can make physicians' lives better. So we're not talking about becoming a full-time real estate investor or manager, but as I spoke about earlier, when you can build different sources of income, different sources of assets over time, then why not do that and add that to your portfolio of income streams? And so we thought, well, it's not a clinical type of thing. It's something many physicians are interested in.

So he is going to be talking about real estate. He spent, I don't know, the last five or 10 years in real estate. He actually has a real estate company that he's partnered with.

He's worked with others that you have heard of on the physician side of things. And there's so many different ways of investing in real estate. We thought, okay, Pranay, come on this summit and talk about how a side hustle in real estate can bring emotional and financial rewards, list the benefits and challenges of investing in real estate and describe, we're going to have him describe the three most popular approaches to investing in real estate.

That wraps it up. That covers the 12 lectures that we're bringing during the summit. I'm really looking forward to learning from all of our speakers.

They'll be sharing their wisdom. You'll be able to follow up with them later if you want to. Some of them are going to probably be promoting the summit with us.

Some of them are going to be providing their own bonuses. So if you are already following some of them or on their email list, watch out for their emails because they will be helping to promote it. So even if you're using the free version, if you register through them, you can get any bonus they might be providing as being part of this.

Our team is really excited to bring you this year's summit. We're doing our very best to bring you actionable advice that will help you to improve your current situation, establish your own practice or healthcare business, or create a lucrative side gig so that you can maintain your autonomy, improve your income and satisfaction and support your transition when you withdraw from clinical practice. So there's a lot of benefits to this year's summit.

Sign up for free right now or purchase your all access pass by going to nonclinicalcareersummit.com. The day that this is being released, the all action pass still only costs $39. And I think it'll be that way for another day or two. But if you're listening to this later, you'll have missed that $39.

So on Tuesday, April 16, the price will jump up to $79. Still a very reasonable price if you need to get the recordings. And then after that, when the summit's done, they'll actually jump up in price again.

But for right now, if you want to get in early, go to nonclinicalcareersummit.com. And to make things easier for you, instead of remembering that link, you can find the show notes and some other links by going to nonclinicalphysicians.com/make-your-clinical-practice-great.

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The post Make Your Clinical Practice Great or Move On appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

This episode is a replay from early 2022 that explains how to prepare for a great job at a medical device company. This is by far the most listened-to PNC Podcast episode released to date.

Dr. Paul Hercock is an expert at landing a medical device company job, particularly in the European Union. He even wrote a book about it called “Beyond The Ward: A Doctor's Guide to Careers Outside the NHS.”

Our Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

How to Prepare for a Great Job at a Medical Device Company

Paul's training enables physicians to adapt their existing skills to apply to this area. The Medical Device Regulation (MDR) is new European legislation. To sell a medical device, the manufacturer has to provide evidence that it's safe and effective. Therefore, it requires scrutiny of clinical evidence and reports based on that evidence. 

The training program provides broad education on this topic. And it will boost confidence in your skills to be able to work in the industry.

Students can access live and recorded training webinars. The training is inexpensive. And income generated by working on one or two projects in the industry will more than cover those costs.

Also, the program is flexible. Students can participate between existing clinical commitments.

A Fantastic Nonclinical Career

The MDR has created a need for more physician advisors. The cost to start is minimal. And physicians can begin part-time, thereby NOT jeopardizing their current work. And Mantra Systems will direct you to the work opportunities, so there will be no delay in finding work.

These medical device company jobs are open to physicians in the U.S., U.K., and select other E.U. countries. Over time, you can increase your hours and ultimately do this work full-time. And Mantra Systems' Medical Affairs Associates Program will be there to get you started.

Summary

The combination of training and immediate access to medical device company jobs make this a great opportunity if you're looking to pivot to the medical device industry with minimal risk. You can learn more about the training at nonclinicalphysicians.com/mantra. If you're looking to learn how to prepare for a great job, this is an excellent option for many physicians. [Note that there is no financial relationship with Mantra Systems.]

NOTE: Look below for a transcript of today's episode.

Links for Today's Episode:

• Mantra Systems
• Mantra Systems Medical Affairs Associates Program
• MDR Regulations
• How to Prepare for a Job in the Medical Device Industry – 169
• Paul Hercock's Book, Beyond the Ward
• NewScr!pt

Download This Episode:

Right Click Here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 238

How to Prepare For a Great Job at a Medical Device Company

John: We have a fantastic interview today. I get a lot of questions from my listeners about, "Well, how do I get started in industry?" They usually mean the pharma or medical device industry when they say that. They say "I have no experience. I don't know where to apply for a job." So, this is going to be a great interview because today's guest solves both of those problems. Hello, Dr. Paul Hercock. Welcome back.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Hi, John. Thanks very much for having me back on.

John: Yeah. Because things are changing and when I heard about what's going on with you and Mantra Systems, I thought we got to get you back on. So I really appreciate you. By the way, he's in the UK. This is one of those long-distance interviews, which is working fine. So I love it.

All right. You were here last in about November of 2020, a little over a year and a few months ago. And we did talk about your book then. It's called "Beyond the Ward". It's got a longer title, but it's an awesome book. I've referred many people to it and they've really enjoyed it. And he's an entrepreneur because he started his own company and he is a CEO. But I think you've been expanding and you've got some new programs. Just fill us in since our last visit.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Absolutely. Yeah. It has been a busy year and a half. Things move quite quickly in the medical device space. And I've said to other people, one of the great things about being a comparatively small business is that you can change direction and you can move, perhaps faster than some of the big boys.

When I spoke to you last, we'd identified that there's a real need for connecting medical device companies with clinicians. Because clinicians have really vital skills in abundance that are in fact a real shortage in the medical device industry. And what we're really talking about here is the ability to work with clinical evidence at a high level.

Since I spoke to you last, that's the side of the business that we've been able to expand because our clients in the medical device industry are really, really finding value in having access to doctors, through our program, and thereby to the skills that doctors have. We've really tried to expand that side of the business and hopefully, that's creating more opportunities for doctors as well.

John: Well, it sounds like it to me. I love to hear that because my audience is just looking for those opportunities. They want to get out of clinical medicine for whatever reason. We won't go into the laundry list of why. I always use a disclaimer. I do want people to practice medicine. It's not like we want to siphon everybody off, but there's a need for physicians doing some of these nonclinical jobs. And there's a whole bunch of you out there looking not knowing what's available. So that's why this is just a perfect situation. Last time we spoke, you were doing some training, but the thing that kind of prompted this is that you have a really formalized training, expanded the training. Tell us about that. Why did you create the training, and what's going on with your industry?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. We can back up slightly and just put a bit of flesh on the bone around that. The initial requirement for this came out of a new piece of European legislation called the MDR, the Medical Device Regulation. And that's modeled quite closely on the FDA model. Which is if you're going to produce a medical device, you need to produce evidence that it's safe and that it works as it should do. And that, therefore, requires scrutiny of clinical evidence, and so on.

That's where the opportunities come from. As I mentioned before, doctors have the core skills, but they don't necessarily have the ability to translate that to a new sector. So the way you look at clinical evidence in practice is slightly different from the way you might use it in the context of medical devices.

The training is there to allow doctors to adapt their existing skills so that it can be applied to this area. Yeah, you need an understanding of, "Well, what is the medical device regulation? What does it say that medical device manufacturers have to do? What role does clinical evidence have in this context and how does it fit into everything else?" It's not possible to operate in a vacuum.

We want everyone on our program who's doing work for us, to have that broad education about how what I'm doing will fit into things. And so they understand why different bits are important. But also, to give them the confidence really, to use the skills they already have in the right way.

What we've done is, previously people who were interested in being part of the program, had access to, I would say, fairly ad hoc online training webinars hosted live, and that had several disadvantages. You and I are in different time zones. So that's one automatic problem with doing it that way. The other disadvantage is that clinicians are busy people and this program is designed to work around existing clinical commitments.

And we thought, actually, if we have this training hosted, on a server so that it's on-demand, people can access training, resources, videos, documents, everything else at a time that suits them. It means it's more flexible. And so we can encourage more people to participate in the program without a barrier, based on time or access.

John: Very nice. Let me ask you this, there might be a question about this. You're hiring people part-time and full-time to help you with this process, with doing this service. What would be the official title? Is it an advisor, or is it a medical director?

Dr. Paul Hercock: This is something that I'm keen to convey. What we're doing is we're offering a range of opportunities really, but it starts with just ad hoc contractor opportunities that people can do as and when they like. That end of the spectrum is for people who are still in clinical practice. And so it's the start point, it's to try before you buy life in the industry. We just call people on that part of the program, associates, medical affairs associates.

And so, what it means is if you thought to yourself, okay, I either want to get some experience or, hey, I've got a week, two weeks off work, or I've got some time at my disposal this weekend and next. The idea is that you can look up the program and the live opportunities that are available and register for a block of work so that you can use that time to earn a second income, but also to gain direct exposure to industry-type work.

And ultimately, what we want is to offer multiple levels to the program that do form a continuum all the way through to full-time employment, for people that are interested, for people whose skills are aligned with this kind of work. The level one foundation training, as we call it, is so that people can access entry-level work, which is mostly literature reviews and medical writing. So working with some of the technical documents that we need to put in place, and that is available to people immediately after doing the level one foundation training. But they don't need to leave their clinical careers, which means they don't need to take any risk to get experience in the industry.

John: Well, that's very helpful, obviously, because that is often a barrier to people to how do they make that transition? But it sounds to me like you put a lot of work into this. There must be some demand that's not being met. With the MDR and the changes, is there just this kind of unmet demand for these reviews and the writing and so forth?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Absolutely. This is a huge thing. What's happened is that the MDR came in and actually, it was supposed to be fully implemented in 2020, but they put it back to 2021 because of the pandemic. But the big change was this requirement to reduce a lot more clinical evidence and to interpret clinical evidence broadly. For example, it's not just the evidence related to the subject device, but the whole of the clinical background as well.

And this is something that some medical device manufacturers really struggle with. Why do we need to look at evidence related to the clinical background in so much context? And the analogy I use is to say, imagine you had a car and the car had been involved in 15 road traffic accidents in the previous three months. That's the evidence related to the car. Is that good or bad? Well, we don't know unless we get safety and performance benchmarks. And when you get into clinical background, well, that could be a huge amount of clinical evidence.

There just aren't enough people in the industry to meet this work demand. What we're able to provide, because we have this program whereby people are mostly in clinical practice, and they can be a flexible resource for us. It works the way around for them as well. We can help meet that demand as it arises without having vacant capacity. It also means, as I said before, for the doctors, who are involved in the program, it's direct exposure to something with no risk.

John: Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, now, as we mentioned earlier, you're in the UK, I'm here in the US. So I'm assuming that my listeners are assuming that I'm not interviewing someone who can't help them if they're in the US. I mean, I do have listeners in the UK and elsewhere. So from what I understand, there are definitely opportunities in both places.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Oh, absolutely. Currently on the program, we have doctors based in the UK, Europe, the US, in several parts of the US, including Hawaii, and also South Africa, and now India as well. We've had some interest from Australia as well.

But the people we have on the program from the US, honestly, and I'm not saying this just because your audience is predominantly in the US, they've been fantastic. I don't know whether that's the function of the type of training in the US or some knowledge of the way the FDA operates, which as I said before, is what the MDR was really aiming for.

But the other great advantage is that all good size medical device companies that sell in Europe either have the headquarters in the US or certainly have a presence in the US. And so there's a real draw there as well. From a client's perspective, what we would say to the client is, "Look, we can link you with a medical reviewer, a medical associate who's based in the US." That's very attractive to them. So, there are definitely, definitely opportunities for people based in the US.

John: Okay, good. Well, obviously that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on here today. So, we could share that with my listeners and give them one more opportunity to consider when they're thinking of a nonclinical career, particularly something they can do as a pilot. That's just fantastic. Tell us more about the program and anything else we need to know in terms of considering this.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. Another reason it exists actually, and this ties to that question is that I remember my own journey from clinical practice into the industry. And there were really two things that were missing. One was knowledge of what the opportunities were, and how to get them. But the other was exposure. There's always that dreaded interview question. "Well, what experience have you got?" And it's so easy to be in a catch 22. You think, "Well, I haven't got any experience because nobody will give me the opportunity because I don't have the experience that would unlock that door." And that is a common barrier that's faced by doctors looking to move from clinical practice into the industry.

Well, this program, we think at least, can help overcome that to an extent because the work that people do on the program can be used as direct experience, and can be cited as experience. So if you are asked by a future interviewer or recruiter, "Well, what experience do you have in the medical device industry? Or how do you know you'll like this type of work?" To be able to say, "Well, actually, I've been part of teams that write clinical evaluation reports for the European MDR. I've been involved in writing reports for digital medical devices for implantable orthopedic devices," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's quite strong, but also it's not just about ticking the box on a CV, people on the program themselves start to understand whether or not this type of work is for them, which is really important to know.

We have had people that have done the training, found it useful, found it interesting, but that have said, "You know what? It's not for me, but that is really useful information because I didn't know whether it was for me or not before, and now I have an outcome." Even in an outcome like that, that could not be perceived as a negative, it was actually perceived as a positive. But we do certainly have people on the program that have gone on to full-time positions using this as experience. That was really a big part of the motivation about giving access to experience to people, as well as the second income and everything else.

John: It sounds really useful and interesting. If I was only younger, I might look into that. Because of what happens sometimes, I wait till the end to share the information. I think I want to stop here for a minute and do a couple of things. First, I want to recommend everybody pick up the book "Beyond The Ward: A Doctor's Guide to Careers Outside the NHS". Just got to plug the book because there aren't that many books like it out there.

That's number one, but number two, on the medical affairs associates' program, I've got the link here and I'm going to do a shortcut, but it's at mantrasystems.co.uk/medical-affairs-associates. It is kind of hard to remember. So, I'm going to do nonclinicalphysicians.com/mantra and it'll take you right to that link. The page that's got the information has pretty much everything you need to know about it so that you can make a decision. I'm sure there's a question arising about what it costs. And because this might be listened to now or in a few weeks or a year from now, can you just give us a ballpark, of what the training might cost someone if they're looking to pursue it?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. In the end, we had to put a charge on it because as with anything you end up with a lot of people just from completely outside the scope. The other thing is, there is a slightly proprietary aspect to this as well. At the moment we charge 200 pounds sterling, for the training, which is quickly recouped when people do their very first work block. The hope is that we attract people who are really motivated and interested to take part, and we hope to maintain that cost into the future.

John: Yeah, that is so reasonable. I mean, I know courses right now in certain consulting fields and so forth, they're $1,500, $2,000, $3,000. So that's a low barrier right there if you have any interest at all.

Dr. Paul Hercock: We don't really make revenue from that. The revenue is from the work we do with clients, it's just about finding really good people to be part of the program.

John: One of the most common companies that employ people, or that use your services, what kind of devices? I'm thinking back to when we first spoke and you started doing some kind of infection control devices or something like that, but I assume that everything has evolved and there are some new products out there. So what are we looking at?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. We've been really surprised with the variety of devices that we've worked with and also the variety of companies that have come to us for this service. Our initial assumption would be that perhaps we'd be working with companies on the smaller side of the spectrum, and perhaps with less complex devices. And the reason we thought that was that the really big boys, the really big companies would surely have enough resources in-house to be able to meet this demand. And actually, those assumptions have been completely wrong. As I speak to you today, we have five active clients that are stock exchange-listed. We're working with devices of all risk classes. So class one, and the really simple devices, class three might be high-risk implantable devices and everything in between.

We've worked with digital devices. Under the MDR, a piece of software can be a medical device. So we've worked with several of those and that's actually an area that's really starting to grow for reasons we can come to. We've got a real variety. What we try to do now that we're getting bigger and the scope of work is broader, where possible we like to link a project to an associate's area of subject matter expertise. So if we have a gynecological implant, let's say, then if we can link to somebody in the associate's program who's in that clinical field and that's great value for the client, but of course, it means that it's an area of natural understanding for the person doing the work. That's starting to work extremely well, and there's no substitute for that subject matter expertise. It's yet another area where doctors on the program add huge value to our clients. And they love it, they just love it. So that's been really good.

The other thing we have access to because we're so international is different languages as well. And so some of the people on our program speak multiple languages and that can be amazing in really helping to meet client expectations. But yeah, we've had a real variety of all sorts of different companies, devices, clinical fields. And so, if somebody listening to the program is thinking, "Well, I'm in this sector, surely there won't be anything." Then that assumption is probably wrong. There is as much variety as you can imagine.

John: It hasn't matured to the point though, where you say, well, we really need to get someone with orthopedic background or some other background, pretty much anybody can do, although having that specific interest might help enhance it.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. The specific interest is the cherry on the cake. The core skills are possessed by every doctor. And it's just about understanding how to tweak and adapt those to this particular space. So, there's no need to. I worked in the emergency room, which is a clinical specialty, but I wouldn't say that would give me or someone in that specialty as much in-depth knowledge of orthopedics as an orthopedic surgeon. Of course, it doesn't. But a generalist as I would've considered myself is still well suited to this program. Definitely, we have general practitioners and people from all sorts of different specialties that are very active and happy on the program.

John: Now, here's another question about money. I hadn't thought about this before. And you, of course, can't make any promises, but let's say someone who'd been doing this for a year full-time, they're really into medical devices and this whole process, and they've mastered everything they need to know about MDR. What kind of salary range might they have working a full-time job like that?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Full-time opportunities in the industry, even at entry-level would be six figures sterling, certainly. But even through our program, the level one of the program, people working as members of teams, doing medical writing, literature review projects. We've got several people on the program that are well into five figures now. One person on the program actually takes more per year than I do. Because as a company founder, anything you earn goes straight back into the company. So people are doing pretty well.

But it's really a question of how many projects and complexity of projects and so on. Typically, people can expect four figures per project, with a project taking anywhere between four and six weeks, but that's not a course of continuous working. That might be a couple of hours at the weekend, in the evening, one day, two days a week. This is very much designed to work around somebody's existing career. And if it's getting to the stage where it's dominating life, that's not the intention.

Now, as I said before, we are putting in place a runway all the way through to full-time employment for people who want it. But that's really something for tomorrow through the lens of this particular program. But there's nothing about this program that means you only work for Mantra Systems. It can be used as a springboard to the industry in general. And all we'd ever do is show people by the hand and wish them well. This is not about us keeping hold of people and being possessive. It's just about saying, look, if you want to make a start, this is available to you. And if you enjoy it, we're happy to give you more and more opportunities. And then if it turns into something else, then that's fantastic.

John: Let me ask this question too because I think people just have to have the right expectations. When you're doing this kind of work, especially at the beginning, is it based on completing a particular project, or is it an hourly rate? How do we expect to be submitting our time?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Great question. The way we do this is that for each project, we invite people to a kick-off call, and projects are done as members of teams normally because it's way too much work for one person to do a loan. At the kick-off call, we always ask people to agree to a confidentiality agreement so that the client's interests are protected. We present headline information about the work, what's the device, what are we producing, whether it's a clinical evaluation report or literature review, or something else. We usually have divided the work into specific segments and we'd offer a segment to each person on the call. Once we do that, we agree to a contract, and in the contract will be a set fee for the work. So, people know exactly what they're going to be paid from the outset.

And we try and be really, really transparent. Sometimes we have an idea how many, let's say, literature sources will need to be appraised by each person. We divide them equally and pay people the same as each other. Sometimes we have a project that calls for a lead author. That would be extra responsibility. Normally these are people who've got a bit of experience in the program as well. They've got a few projects under their belt. The lead author might earn a little bit more, but it's not an hourly rate. It's a set fee in advance. And that reflects the way that we charge our clients because we charge them a set fee.

We have had occasions in the past where it becomes clear that initial assumptions about the amount of work were unfair, were perhaps not correct. And in that situation, what happens is that we, as the core team, take some of that excessive way. So we don't expect people to be working too excessively. The program works best if people are happy, feel like they're valued, but not so that they've been given excessive work for the pay. We think we pay very fairly for what people do.

John: I've noticed in the past at least in other forms of medical writing and in research and so forth. There is a learning curve, so you get more efficient over time. Does the same apply here?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. Massively. The first couple of projects will take longer. For the first couple of projects, we'd probably offer slightly lower remuneration as well because there's more requirement for either the lead author or for the core team, to spend more time reviewing the work. We also like to set up feedback calls as well. We take the time to say, "Look, these bits were great, but the only bit that you need to perhaps look at is these areas here. And these are the reasons why." That applies to post-course work that we require people to do after the training. And it applies to the live client work as well. And so, the idea is that it's educational and constructive, as much as anything else. And then as people gain experience and become essentially autonomous. We certainly have people in the program who produce work of such a high standard. I don't know who would be in a position to critique it really, they essentially are working on their own. To reflect that we can remunerate at a higher rate and that's what we seek to do.

John: Excellent. All right. Well, that is like a lot of different things. When you start out, you're not quite as familiar or it takes you longer to do things. You got to double-check your work. Just like a clinician. It used to be, oh, I can only see a patient an hour, now I'm seeing a patient every 20 minutes and just as efficient and accurate. That's to be expected.

Well, I appreciate you sharing all this information about the program and giving us an update. This has been fantastic. Any last thoughts you want to just say to physicians, either in general that are struggling with clinical or that are thinking about going into some aspect of the medical device industry?

Dr. Paul Hercock: Yeah. I suppose there are a few things that are always in my mind from my own experience. The first thing to say is, I'm going to use the word don't be embarrassed or ashamed even. I don't know if this applies as much in the US, it may do, but certainly, in the UK, there can be a stigma actually, to people that talk about leaving clinical practice. "How can you leave us? We're so busy. How can you even think about that?"

This is your career. And you are the only person that can have that career. It has to be right for you. Take positive steps, and that links to the second comment, which is "Act." Always make sure if you have a desire to do something, one of my favorite quotes ever is from Henry Ford, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." And I think it's brilliant. It applies in this sector so much. So you have to do something, whether it's buying a book, whether it's speaking to somebody in the industry, whatever it is. Hopefully, the program is one part of that.

And don't be afraid to fail or make false starts as well. I had so many false starts and got nowhere for so long, and that's in the "Beyond The Ward" book. But I remember it and feel as though am I ever going to find a way to use my training in another context? And so, just expect that it's not necessarily a smooth process and that's completely normal.

John: Now, those are very wise words, and I will just add my 2 cents as well. Number one, if you get into a nonclinical career, you're still a physician. And can you imagine if you're working in the medical device industry and you're helping to make a medical device safer and maybe more comfortable, whatever it might be, you're going to be helping a lot more patients than seeing them one at a time in your clinic. I'm just reiterating in a different way, what you said. And it's so true, and we've got to get over those myths and those self-limiting beliefs. We all deserve to be happy in our careers. That's for sure.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Definitely. And I think it's so important. That comment about the ability of a clinician in this context to really promote patient safety is massive. And the work that we're doing, looking at clinical evidence in a new way with the skillset of clinicians, this is things like the medical device regulation starting to work properly. This is what it was put there for. Too many people in the industry, too many companies view it as just a barrier to overcome. And it isn't because when clinicians get involved, they can say to manufacturers, "We found this. There might be a problem here or even better, this is an area where your product perhaps isn't working as well as it could do, but look what an enhanced version might look like." And that kind of value is massive to medical device companies. And so, the involvement of clinicians more and more in this sector can only be a positive. Definitely.

John: Absolutely. All right, good. We're doing great work here. It's excellent. Well, Paul, I want to thank you. We're about up with our time for today. I really thank you for taking the time and explaining all this to us and encouraging us as we move forward in whatever nonclinical careers we're doing. I guess with that, I'll just have to say goodbye.

Dr. Paul Hercock: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for having me back on, John. I look forward to seeing you soon.

John: It's my pleasure.

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Disclaimers:

Many of the links that I refer you to are affiliate links. That means that I receive a payment from the seller if you purchase the affiliate item using my link. Doing so has no effect on the price you are charged. And I only promote products and services that I believe are of high quality and will be useful to you.

The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life, or business.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. I do not provide medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

The post Revisiting How to Prepare For a Great Job at a Medical Device Company – 304 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

This week Dr. Mario Mendoza helps you find a job in pharma or the medical device industry.

Mario is an anesthesiologist, chemist, biotech medical affairs consultant, and biotech careers coach. He shares what he has learned from 13-plus years of experience in patient care, drug/device clinical development and medical affairs, and FDA regulation of medical devices. 

Mario also advises early-stage biotech companies as an Executive-in-Residence at the Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University. There, he provides his expertise in branding, clinical development, medical affairs, and regulatory requirements for drugs and devices. And he is the founder of a charitable organization called Lifeundocumented.org, his calling, and mission. 

Our Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, the program only takes one year to complete. 

By joining the UT Physician Executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills you need to find a career that you really love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Learning How To Find A Job in Pharma

Mario provided a fairly comprehensive look at pharma jobs. And he shared his advice for finding a job in the pharma and medical devices industry.

To bolster our understanding, he went into detail in how jobs in Medical Affairs Departments fit together. He also shared information about pharmacovigilance (sometimes called patient safety), sales, and clinical development.

He described how FDA, CDC, and NIH fellowships can be used to prepare you for a job in Industry. Mario personally completed an FDA fellowship, which help set him up for his first job in the pharma industry.

Coaching and Consulting

Now Mario has created a life and career that he really enjoys. He provides consulting advice to early-stage biotech companies through the Center for Biotechnology at Stoney Brook University. And he founded his own business called BorderBioMed. Through it, he offers drug and medical device clinical development and medical affairs strategy, and medical device regulatory pathway strategy. He also contributes key opinion leader, medical science liaison, marketing, investor, and payer medical content and messaging development. 

The most important thing is really to bring value to others. – Dr. Mario Mendoza

On the career coaching side, he advises physicians and other professionals to help them find and excel in the pharma, biotech, and medical device industries. 

Summary

There are plentiful jobs for physicians in “Industry.” And in today's episode, Dr. Mario Mendoza generously shares his expertise. So be sure to take notes, and listen through a second time if necessary. And use the links to learn more about what Mario is doing and consider his coaching services if you're serious about moving into this field.

Dr. Mendoza will be one of the panelists at the upcoming Physician Helping Physicians Conference starting on March 5, 2021. Go to the Virtual Conferences page and you’ll see his smiling face along with a couple of dozen other nontraditional career experts. It's a great way to learn about nonclinical jobs and obtain great expert coaching. If you register, be sure to say hello and tell Michelle Mudge-Riley that I sent you!

Links for Today's Episode:

• BorderBioMed
• LifeUndocumented.org
• How to Claim Your First Job in Industry
• How to Prepare for a Job in the Medical Device Industry
• Physicians Helping Physicians What To Consider NEXT Conference March 5 – 9, 2021

Download This Episode:

Right Click Here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

Disclaimers:

Many of the links that I refer you to are affiliate links. That means that I receive a payment from the seller if you purchase the affiliate item using my link. Doing so has no effect on the price you are charged. And I only promote products and services that I believe are of high quality and will be useful to you.

The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life, or business.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. I do not provide medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

The post How to Find a Job in Pharma That You Love – 184 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

In today’s interview, we build on the discussion in Episode 168 by speaking with Dr. Paul Hercock from the United Kingdom about the Medical Device Industry.

Dr. Hercock is an Emergency Medicine physician who started out working for the National Health Service.

He graduated from Nottingham Medical School in 2002. After initially training as a surgeon he pivoted to a career in Emergency Medicine. He is a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and also has a law degree from Nottingham Law School.

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Our Sponsor

We're proud to have the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA Program, offered by the Haslam College of Business, as the sponsor of this podcast.

The UT PEMBA is the longest-running, and most highly respected physician-only MBA in the country. It has over 700 graduates. And, unlike other programs, which typically run 1 – 1/2 to 2 years, this program only takes a year to complete. Economist Magazine recently ranked the UT Haslam Business School #1 in the world as the Most Relevant Executive MBA.

By joining the University of Tennessee physician executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills needed to find a career that you really love. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office at (865) 974-6526 or go to nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

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Entering the Medical Device Industry

While working as a Physician, Paul became increasingly interested in medical devices. He set up and established Mantra Medical, a medical device start-up focused on improving infection control. He later made a move into a full-time position in the medical device industry to work as a medical advisor.

 

Paul is now a self-employed medical entrepreneur, combining work on his medical device start-up with the building of Mantra Systems, a consultancy business that provides medical and regulatory support to other medical device companies.

Writing His Book

His journey from clinical practice to Industry prompted him to write a book for doctors titled Beyond The Ward: A Doctor's Guide to Careers Outside the NHS (this is an Amazon affiliate link).

If I've learned one thing, it's that if you step outside clinical practice, you trade stability for flexibility… you then realize there are so many things you can do. – Dr. Paul Hercock

His book can be found in major bookstores. It should be part of your library if you’re just getting started – alongside 50 Nonclinical Careers for Physicians by Sylvie Stacy and Heidi Moawad’s Careers Beyond Clinical Medicine (also Amazon affiliate links). If you don’t own those three books, then you’re not serious about pursuing a new career that builds on your medical background.

Summary

Paul Hercock gives a great overview of his experiences working in the medical device industry. He also describes his efforts to create two businesses in Industry, and he provides welcome inspiration in today's interview.

If you need more detailed education about finding a job in Industry, I recommend you purchase a copy of Beyond the Ward: A Doctor's Guide to Careers Outside the NHS (this is an Amazon affiliate link).

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Links for Today's Episode:

• Mantra Medical
• Mantra Systems
• Beyond The Ward: A Doctor's Guide to Careers Outside the NHS (Amazon affiliate link)
• Paul Hercock's Website Beyond the Ward
• Paul Hercock's LinkedIn Profile

Download This Episode:

Right Click Here and “Save As” to download this podcast episode to your computer.

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The Nonclinical Career Academy Membership Program recently added a new MasterClass!

I've created 17 courses and placed them all in an exclusive, low-cost membership program. The program provides an introduction to dozens of nontraditional careers, with in-depth lessons on several of them. It even includes my full MSL Course. There is a money-back guarantee, so there is no risk to signing up. And I'll add more courses each month.

And to make it even easier, listeners to this podcast can get a one-month Trial for only $1.00, using the Coupon Code TRIAL at nonclinicalphysicians.com/joinnca. The $1.00 introduction to the Academy ends on November 28, 2020.

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Thanks to our sponsor…

Thanks to the UT Physician Executive MBA program for sponsoring the show. It’s an outstanding, highly rated, MBA program designed for working physicians. It is just what you need to prepare for that fulfilling, well-paying career. You can find out more at nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, share it on Twitter and Facebook, and leave a review on iTunes.

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Podcast Editing & Production Services are provided by Oscar Hamilton

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Disclaimers:

Many of the links that I refer you to, and that you’ll find in the show notes, are affiliate links. That means that I receive a payment from the seller if you purchase the affiliate item using my link. Doing so has no effect on the price you are charged. And I only promote products and services that I believe are of high quality and will be useful to you, that I have personally used or am very familiar with.

The opinions expressed here are mine and my guest’s. While the information provided on the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, there is no express or implied guarantee that using the methods discussed here will lead to success in your career, life, or business.

The information presented on this blog and related podcast is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. It should not be construed as medical, legal, tax, or emotional advice. If you take action on the information provided on the blog or podcast, it is at your own risk. Always consult an attorney, accountant, career counselor, or other professional before making any major decisions about your career. 

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