In today's podcast, we review 4 unique nonclinical careers. Each is open to just about any physician with some clinical experience.

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.

4 Unique Nonclinical Careers

1. Episode 127 with Dr. Nicole Rochester

The job title is Independent Health Advocate. It is similar to a health navigator. You will provide a variety of customized health advocacy services. You will help patients and their caregivers navigate the complicated healthcare system.

In this role, you will use your understanding of the healthcare system and clinical medicine to assist patients and their families in several ways.

• Provide administrative support, helping patients understand what they need to do to access their insurance benefits and overcome insurance denials.
• Translating medical jargon into understandable information about their options for care, and the indication and side effects of their medications.
• Speak directly to physicians to help patients better understand their prognosis and treatment options.

If you’re interested, go to Dr. Rochester's website at yourgpsdoc.com and navigate to her contact page.

2. Episode 134 with Dr. Shirag Shemmassian

Shemmassian Academic Consulting reviews and edits essays, and advises clients on curricula to pursue. The goal is to optimize the chances of admission to a top-ranked university, medical school, or residency program.

To best qualify for this unique job you must demonstrate:

• Intimate knowledge of the admissions process (admissions committee experience is a plus);
• Excellent written and communication skills;
• Exceptional patience, empathy, and warmth;
• A degree from a top-25 university;
• Current or past enrollment in a prestigious residency or fellowship program;
• Completion of Shemmassian’s evaluative interview process and training.

To find out more, go to www.shemmassianconsulting.com/join-our-team, or send an email to jobs@shemmassianconsulting.com.

3. Episode 227 with Dr. Armin Feldman

Dr. Feldman offers training as a Medical Legal Consultant. The consulting is pre-litigation and pre-trial in nature. The consultant helps attorneys manage the medical aspects of cases, increase case value and save attorneys' time. This helps attorneys to negotiate and settle cases and get the appropriate medical care for their clients. This job does not require participation in medical malpractice cases.

The work mostly involves personal injury and worker's compensation cases. 

Dr. Feldman has created a comprehensive coaching program for physicians interested in learning how to do this work. You can watch a short video by Armin and learn more at mdbizcon.com.

Episode 238 with Dr. Paul Hercock

Mantra Systems employs physician consultants with European Union MDR expertise to do a variety of duties for its client medical device companies. The entry-level position is called Medical Affairs Associate.

Those services include things like:
•  Clinical Evaluation Report-writing services.
•  Regulatory Medical Writing services designed for EU MDR compliance.

The easiest way to find out about the EU MDR and the Medical Affairs Associates Program is to use this link: nonclinicalphysicians.com/mantra

Summary of 4 Unique Nonclinical Careers

In this episode, John presents four unique nonclinical careers that most medical school graduates can consider. Some also require at least a few years of clinical experience. They can be started part-time, and grown to full-time. And most can be done remotely on your own schedule.

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:

• Dr. Nicole Rochester's Website
• Shemmassian Academic Consulting
• Dr. Armin Feldman's Website
• Mantra Systems Medical Affairs Associates Program
• How to Start an Innovative Career as a Healthcare Navigator – 127
• Young Doctors: How to Be a Part-time Academic Consultant – 134
• How to Do a New Kind of Medical Legal Consulting as a Part Time Gig – 227
• How to Prepare For a Great Job at a Medical Device Company – 238
• NewScr!pt

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Today's PNC Podcast Transcript

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Transcription PNC Podcast Episode 245

Doctors Should Explore One of These 4 Unique Nonclinical Careers

John: You're listening to Physician Nonclinical Careers with John Jurica, the podcast that inspires, encourages and teaches physicians how to pivot to a new career. I'm here to help you pursue a career that brings you joy and harnesses your zone of genius.

Episode number 245 - Doctors should explore one of these four unique nonclinical careers. If this is your first time listening, well, then welcome aboard. Every week I bring you an interview or a solo presentation to help you find a part-time side gig or land an alternate full-time job. If you like what you hear, share this podcast with a frustrated friend or colleague. For those who've been with us before, let me ask you this. Have you written a review of the podcast? No? Then please do me a favor. Scroll down on your smartphone when you're in the podcast app and leave a rating and a review. I'll really appreciate that. And it helps to keep us going.

For today's presentation, it's just me reviewing the specifics of four unique nonclinical jobs that I have encountered during the past few years. Some of you I know aren't looking for a traditional nonclinical career in a sense in hospital management, pharma, medical writing, consulting, or utilization management. Those are the big industries that typically employ physicians nonclinically. But if that's you and you don't want to do one of those, I think you'll find all of these very intriguing jobs, something to consider. The other reason that I single these out is because there are specific training programs available for each that will teach you how to prepare for and land your first job in the field.

Now, before we get to the interview, if you want to connect with me and hundreds of other colleagues, developing alternative careers, the best thing you can do is join us in Newscript where you can write a new script for your career and your life. It's an online forum and repository of interviews, written resources, courses, and livestream events, all in one place, right there in your smartphone. It's private, uncensored and free with a growing panel of expert mentors.

You get it at a monthly subscription cost. That's less than a single cup of coffee and a donut for an entire month, still under $5 per month as of me recording this today. Now, if you listen to this down the road in a few months or a year, it probably will be at a higher price because as the community grows, the cost of becoming a member will increase. In the meantime, just go to newscript.app to join hundreds of clinicians writing a new script for their lives.

Now it's time to thank our wonderful sponsor. An MBA can be very helpful for certain nonclinical careers, and for those already in practice, an executive MBA is probably the best option. Our show sponsor, the University of Tennessee, offers the longest running and most highly respected physician only executive MBA in the country. In fact, it has produced more than 700 graduates and for some career pivots, you really need that MBA. The ASM college of business at UT was recently ranked number one in the world by Economist magazine as the most relevant executive MBA program.

And it's efficient, unlike most other programs, which run about two years in length, the UT PEMBA only takes one year to complete. And while you're there, you'll complete a company project while working on the MBA, which will help you to demonstrate the value of the degree while you're still in the program.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations and have become entrepreneurs and business owners. If you want to acquire new business and management skills and advance your nonclinical career, then contact Dr. Kate Atchley's office at (865) 974-6526 or use our link at nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba.

Nonclinical nation, as I mentioned, I want to review today four unique nonclinical careers that all share the following features. That can be started part-time while still performing your current job, that can all be done remotely for the most part. And there are professionals who are doing the job who will teach you how to do the job as well.

The first job was discussed way back in episode 127 with my guest Dr. Nicole Rochester. Dr. Rochester is the founder and CEO of Your GPS Doc, LLC. A health advocacy company whose mission is to educate and empower patients and family caregivers so they can navigate the healthcare system.

Nicole was inspired to launch her company after caring for her late father. She uses her inside knowledge of the healthcare system to advocate for her clients, thereby overcoming the barriers that interfere with timely effective patient-centered medical care.

Nicole is a nationally recognized speaker, best-selling author and media expert. When I first spoke with Nicole and I heard what she was doing, I really became intrigued and thought that this could be a very fulfilling career for other physicians because we like to help patients and we're to trying to get away from the clinical mess that we're in sometimes with the electronic medical records and other aspects of modern medical practice. And by being a healthcare navigator or advocate, you definitely can be helping patients.

She calls this position that of an independent health advocate. It's similar to a health navigator that some hospitals employ, kind of similar to a case manager in a way, except that case managers are either working for a system or working for an insurance company. But as an independent health advocate, you are working for the patient and the patient's family generally. In doing so, you will provide a variety of customized health advocacy services to help the patients and their families and help them navigate the complicated healthcare system, of course, that they find themselves in, in the United States.

In this role, you will use your understanding of the healthcare system and of clinical medicine to assist patients in several ways. Let me list a few of them. You might provide administrative support, helping patients understand that they need to access their insurance benefits and overcome insurance denials in certain ways. Those are the things we come into contact with constantly while taking care of patients. You'll be translating medical jargon into understandable information about their options for care and indications and side effects or their medications.

For families and patients who are faced with a really serious illness or an uncommon illness, patients can use you to speak directly to their physicians and review their medical records and help them better understand their prognosis and treatment options. These are things that really a physician would be best at, even other professionals in the medical field can't really understand the nuances of the discussions to the extent that a physician would.

In this role, you're paid to integrate the information for patients with serious illnesses, so they can make more informed decisions about their care and have a clearer understanding of the consequences of their illness and its treatment. To do this job, you may need to attend medical appointments in person, but often it can be done virtually. You can do things like compare assisted living, rehabilitation, long term care, nursing home facilities, and home care agencies, and then provide your advice to the clients about which would be the best for you.

Basically, you'd be using your medical background in education to research treatment options and alternatives, especially in those various serious illnesses. The work can be very rewarding. And as I noted a minute ago, it's mostly done remotely. Generally, in this kind of business like the others discuss today, you're going to be serving as an independent contractor and small business owner. The overhead is negligible. You're paid as a consultant, usually at an hourly rate.

Now, when I last spoke with Nicole, she was mentoring and teaching other physicians to become independent health advocates. If you're interested in learning more about how to do this, the quickest way is to contact her directly. You can go to her website at yourgpsdoc.com and then navigate to her contact page and send her a note. You could probably also reach out to her on LinkedIn.

Now, the second unique job I want to present today was described to me by my guest, Dr. Shirag Shemmassian. Now in episode 134, I learned that there's a growing need for young physicians to serve as part-time consultants and advisors to high school and college students and med students really, as they prepare to compete rather for positions in universities and medical schools and residencies.

Shirag is not a medical doctor. He's actually a psychologist who completed his undergraduate work at Cornell and masters in PhD at UCLA. And he wasn't sure what he was going to get into. But about 20 years ago, he began doing some part-time coaching and advising students to help them with admissions to universities and professional schools. And he kept having more, more people ask him to help with those kinds of activities. So that in 2013, he formally opened the Shemmassian Academic Consulting company, which now employs dozens of academic consultants and assists hundreds of students each year.

What do these consultants do? Well, just like he was doing, they provide remote coaching and mentoring of students who are preparing to apply to universities, medical schools and residencies. And in that role, they review and edit essays. They advise clients on courses and curricula to pursue, to optimize their chances for admission. And usually, they're focusing on admission to the top tier schools.

To best qualify for this unique job, you must have an intimate knowledge of the admissions process. If you have experience on an admissions committee, that'd be a great plus. You have to have excellent writing and communication skills. You have to have exceptional patience, empathy, and warmth. You should hold degrees from a top 25 university or a top medical school. You should be currently enrolled or completed a highly ranked residency or fellowship program. And then to get going, you have to complete the Shemmassian's evaluative interview process and the training they provide.

This is the first time I've ever talked to an academic consulting type position, someone doing that and also teaching it. I found it very interesting and this probably is not open to those who are more than just a few years out of their residency or fellowship. But if you've been involved in academic institutions and teaching, if you've been on an academic review committee, then it's really something worth thinking about and Shemmassian's company will help prep you for this and teach you how to do it.

And then of course has jobs right there for you to pursue. You can learn more about this at the website www.shemmassianconsulting.com. If you add the suffix join-our-team, that's the tab that'll take you actually to the contact form to get in touch with them. Shemmassian is spelled with two M's and two S's. It's www.shemmassianconsulting.com and you will find out how to learn more about that job.

The third of our unique positions is that of medical legal consultant. I was introduced to this work by Dr. Armin Feldman in episode 227 of this podcast. Armin completed his training in psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. And he practiced psychiatry and psychoanalysis for over 20 years.

But he began doing a unique kind of medical old legal consulting about 20 years ago. And for about 14 years, he devoted himself professionally entirely to this type of service full time. And then 12 years ago, he began training other physicians how to do the same thing that he was doing through his medical legal consulting coaching program. And it is different from medical expert witness consulting.

To be a medical expert witness, you should really still be in practice and you will provide three primary services. You'll be doing chart reviews, depositions, and courtroom testimony if you're an expert witness. But Dr. Feldman's consulting is pre-lit litigation and pre-trial in nature. So, he's helping attorneys manage the medical aspect of cases, increasing case value and saving attorney time. In other words, he's using his medical expertise to kind of show the attorneys the pros and cons in this case, should it be pursued, should it not be pursued? He's helping attorneys negotiate and settle cases and get the appropriate medical care for their clients, but he doesn't participate in medical malpractice cases.

He's not really doing expert witness work. He does not do depositions and he doesn't do any sort of testimony at trials. Part of the reason is the work mostly involves personal injury and workers' compensation cases. And really what you're doing is you're reviewing available information, medical records and the history of the cases and so forth. And you're doing research on the actual injury or illness that has occurred and using that information to educate the attorneys who then have to decide how they're going to approach that case. And so, unlike expert witness consulting, you don't have to be an active practice or even have an active license.

And the other thing is that Dr. Feldman is a psychiatrist. He really doesn't have extensive knowledge in orthopedics or occupational medicine or that kind of thing. But everything that he has learned in order to provide the expertise for the attorneys that he needs to provide them just comes from research and his medical background, 90% of which just came through medical school from what he tells me.

Similar to these other jobs, he works as an independent consultant, probably forming an LLC to do that. Set your own hours and you work remotely. And it's really not limited to any specialty. It can be started part-time and grown and like medical expert witness consulting, it pays better than the other positions I'm describing in today's episode.

Now, as I said, Dr. Feldman created a comprehensive coaching program several years back, and he's actually had over a thousand physicians go through it. Using his course, you can learn how to do this work and grow your consulting business. And so, it sounds pretty intriguing to me. You can learn more by watching a short video by Armin and learn more about it at mdbizcon.com.

Well, this brings me to the fourth and final unique job I want to present today. It was described by Dr. Paul Hercock in episode 238 of the podcast. Actually, he was on my podcast twice, and number 238 was his most recent visit. He's an author, entrepreneur and an educator. Actually, the first time we talked to him, we talked about his book.

But he started personally serving medical device companies several years ago. And this kind of grew out of the recent adoption of the MDR regulations in the European Union. And since they've adapted these new sets of rules and regulations, the need for more physicians to serve in a variety of roles to help medical device companies comply with them has grown tremendously. Paul runs a company called Mantra Systems that employs physicians like this, who are consultants with EU MDR expertise to do a variety of duties for its client medical device companies. And the entry level position that we mostly spoke about was called the medical affairs associate.

Now these medical affairs associates do things like the following for their clients. They do the actual clinical evaluation and clinical evaluation report writing, in which they do extensive data analysis and they use their medical writing expertise. They also do regulatory medical writing services, again, that are designed to meet the MDR regulations. Again, with this new adoption, the demand for these experts has been so high that he ended up developing his own program to train physicians to provide those services. At first it was limited, but he has created an extensive set of courses or lessons within his program to train physicians how to help companies such as medical device companies and contract research organizations meet the MDR requirements.

And like the other three jobs described today, it's a remote part-time position that can ultimately become full-time if desired. It pays well, and really is actually open to physicians in the US as well as the UK. And there are several other international locations where these same regulations apply or where the medical device companies have headquarters or locations where you could do this.

So, you can complete your training and apply for a position with Mantra Systems itself or with other medical device companies or contract research organizations that support the medical device companies. The easiest way to find out about the EU MDR and the medical affairs associates' program is to use this link that I created nonclinicalphysicians.com/mantra. I made that back when I was talking with Paul.

Let me wrap up now. These are four pretty unique and interesting nonclinical careers and jobs that I wanted to present. They can all be started part-time and performed remotely. They're all open to physicians from almost any specialty. The other thing I wanted to mention is I'm not an affiliate for any of these training programs, so I don't have any financial relationship. I will say that Mantra was a sponsor for two episodes of my podcast. But other than that, we have no ongoing relationship. I just think these are unique, interesting, and potentially well-paying part-time jobs that can be done remotely that physicians should take a look at. Now, all the links that I mentioned today and a transcript of this episode can be found at nonclinicalphysicians.com/uniquenonclinicalcareers.

Let's see, before we close, let me remind you about Newscript. It's a community of clinicians writing a new script for their careers. We're still accepting new members, of course, and the membership is very low cost. There's really a lot of free content in there once you're a member. There are live streams I'm doing weekly and they're recorded. So, there's probably at least 20 of those. They're all about nonclinical and non-traditional careers and some business topics, management and leadership.

Tom posts all the time. We have now about eight mentors covering things like locum tenens, an expert in SEO who's a dentist, I believe. Mark Leads is his name. We have pharma experts. We have book authors. There's a lot in there already, and it's going to continue to grow. So, it's really foolish not to check it out at newscript.app and consider joining now before the cost jumps up. Once you've locked in your payment level, you can keep that forever.

Remember that the podcast is made possible by support of my nice, wonderful, ongoing long-term sponsor, the University of Tennessee Physician Executive MBA program. If you're seriously thinking about going for an executive MBA, you definitely should check out the UT at nonclinicalphysicians.com/physicianmba. I'll remind you that I do use affiliate links from time to time, which I receive a payment from the seller, but there shouldn't be any in today's episode, or on the blog or website.

The opinions expressed today are just mine while the information provided in the podcast is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge. There's no guarantee that using the methods discussed will lead to success in your career, life or business. Always consult an attorney, accountant or career counselor or strategist before making any major decision about your career.

Now, usually at this point, at least recently, I've been trying to give you a teaser about what the upcoming episode will be. I'm in a weird situation now because I'm moving from where I've lived with my wife for the last 20 plus years into a new home. So, we are in the middle of packing everything up, and I'm falling behind a little bit on my episodes here, but I have some very interesting guests coming up in the next few weeks.

I just don't know who's going to be up next week because I haven't recorded it yet, but I hope to be interviewing Dr. Lynn Marie Morski who's been on here before. But since we spoke with her, she has become the founder and president of the Psychedelic Medical Association. And I want to learn about how different kinds of what used to be totally avoided medication and controlled and so forth, which they still are, but how some of these psychedelics and cannabinoids and ketamine and other things are being used in new ways for PTSD and depression and other things. So, she'll be coming on the podcast soon.

I'm talking to a physician and she'll be on the podcast who is running basically a nonclinical career website with all kinds of free resources, but she's in the UK. So, doing a lot in the nonclinical career area and I just discovered her in the past month or so. So, she'll be coming on the podcast. And then there's another, again, international physician who teaches health wellness in yoga instruction. I think she was a family physician and she'll be coming on. I've got some interesting episodes coming up and I don't want to belabor that anymore. I really thank you for listening here to the very end and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.

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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 Doctors Should Explore One of These 4 Unique Nonclinical Careers – 245 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.

On this week’s episode of the PNC podcast, Dr. Nicole Rochester explains how she found fulfillment and freedom as an independent healthcare navigator.

Nicole is a board-certified pediatrician who spent her first four years after residency in primary-care before transitioning to hospital medicine. For about 13 years, she had what she thought was a perfect job: working in a community hospital while teaching medical students and pediatric residents.

Then, in October 2010, her father became quite ill. And she suddenly took on the responsibility of being a family caregiver and healthcare navigator.

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, with over 650 graduates. And, unlike other programs, which typically run 1 – 1/2 to 2 years, this program only takes a year to complete. Recently, Economist Magazine ranked the business school #1 in the world for the Most Relevant Executive MBA.

While in the program, you'll participate in a company project, thereby contributing to your organization. As a result, University of Tennessee PEMBA students bring exceptional value to their organizations.

Graduates have taken leadership positions at major healthcare organizations. And they've become entrepreneurs and business owners.

By joining the University of Tennessee physician executive MBA, you will develop the business and management skills needed to advance your career. To find out more, contact Dr. Kate Atchley’s office by calling (865) 974-6526 or go to vitalpe.net/physicianmba.

The Information Gap

When her father’s chronic conditions began deteriorating, Nicole thought being a physician would prepare her to serve as an advocate for his medical care. However, the task was much more difficult than she anticipated. It left her wondering how the other 44 million family caregivers, most of whom do not have a medical background, navigate this intimidating area.

Inspired to address the issue, Nicole started a website and a Facebook page, writing about her experiences caring for her father. She was attempting to bridge the healthcare information gap between patients and medical professionals. So, she began writing about:

• health insurance and how to appeal denials,
• finding a good primary care doctor, and
• communicating effectively with healthcare providers.

Shortly thereafter, Nicole launched her business and began offering consulting services as an independent patient advocate and healthcare navigator. In her role, her allegiance is entirely to her client, so her recommendations are unbiased.

The post How to Start an Innovative Career as a Healthcare Navigator – 127 appeared first on NonClinical Physicians.