A career in medicine doesn’t always need to be doctors and nurses diagnosing illnesses and prescribing drugs. There are, in fact, several types of careers in the medical realm that are classified as non-clinical jobs for physicians.
If you are tired of medicines, going through physician burnout, and, therefore, thinking of a career change, instead of changing specialties, you can find jobs for doctors outside of medicine. That way, you can stick to your line of education and continue practicing medicine as well.
And if you aren’t sure where to begin and how to get hired, you have landed on the right page as we are going to discuss the best alternate careers for physicians that you can pursue in non-clinical settings.
The outlook of Non-Clinical Jobs for Medical Practitioners
Most non-clinical careers for doctors can be found in quite a few industries, including healthcare, insurance, public health, pharmaceuticals, education, and regulatory agencies.
In fact, a professional career coach from Austin, Heather Fork, tells us that there’s a good demand for doctors in non-clinical areas in 2019, such as benefits management, insurance, health advising and counseling, pharmaceuticals, FDA, medical tourism guide, and social welfare services, such as worker’s compensation and disability.
Due to the shift in the healthcare process, including AI-based treatment plans and EMR, new types of non-clinical careers for physicians and nurses are surfacing. We have also seen a significant increase in the demand for data mining and analytics professionals in clinical application.
Salaries of doctors in a non-clinical career
Although you wouldn’t be earning as high as you had been as a doctor, wages in non-clinical settings aren’t inadequate either. In fact, with inclusive of bonus and incentive, a primary care physician can stay at his current salary level during his non-clinical job changeover.
Depending upon the profession you choose and the level of experience you have, your salary will fall between $17000 and $40000 per annum.
Top Non-Clinical Jobs for Physicians that Pays Well
There are many alternative careers for physicians that can work for you both inside and outside the medical world. Most of them pay exceptionally well.
Physician Career Coach
You can serve as a career counselor for students and colleagues and work with clients one-on-one. You can simultaneously upgrade your current statute, improve your communication and management skills, and develop new ways to earn more, like public speaking and having your training studio. You can also advance your career by getting certified in medical career coaching.
Medical Tourism Guide
As a medical tourism guide, you will cover a particular geographical location and share detailed information about the healthcare quality there, infrastructure, doctors, specialists, hospitals, clinics, hotels, and other information a patient generally requires.
While any tourist guide can secure and share this kind of information, only a medical guide can differentiate between an endodontist and a periodontist, and help patients make an informed decision. If you know the local language, it will add brownie points in your resume. You can also work as a medical translator between the tourist-patient and medical practitioner.
Digital Technologist in Medical Application
At present, you have an option to choose from a variety of careers in IT, if you have experience in computer technology. Job options include Electronic Health Record (EHR) advising, working in hospitals’ IT department, working as a medical interpreter or translator, and in software development and strategizing.
You will work as an intermediator or liaison of the medical professionals and apply a doctor’s insights to develop effective software-based systems for doctor/hospital management and patient care.
You can play a significant role in developing a variety of software applications powered by AI and VR/AR, apart from EMR.
However, to pursue this career, you may have to go through additional IT-based courses and gain experience.
Healthcare Practice Management Consultant
You can start your healthcare practice management consultancy firm that trains doctors who are looking for alternative careers. Based on your qualifications and current practice, you can train candidates in jobs like insurance management, claim settlement, coding, strategy, and efficient practice. A simple example would be helping physicians and hospitals deal with interventional radiology coding.
Utilization Review in Health Insurance Industry
Your primary job duty as a utilization review physician would be helping patients or payers by ensuring the provision of quality care for value, reviewing claim settlements, and preventing the misuse of healthcare services within the realm. For instance, you will deal with preauthorization requests for cancer radiology for doctors.
You can use your doctor’s skills to pursue this career. You can choose to work from home or full-time.
Hospital Administrator
Hospital administration is one of the famous and high-paying non-clinical physician jobs. As an administrator, you will be required to have knowledge in business administration in clinical settings and work on managing the hospital operations, including accounts, staff, doctors, etc., ethically and efficiently.
You must also exuberate leadership, problem-solving, and financial management qualities to stand-out as a professional.
Work in a Pharmacy
You can quickly get into a pharmaceutical company with your experience and qualifications. Although you may not get a job at the forefront without experience in pharma (drug trial and testing), you can easily manage to secure a position in marketing, research, and development.
Prior experience in the Food and Drug Administration would further broaden your opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry.
The demand is higher for physicians in prescription-centric specialties, like oncology, psychiatry, neurology, etc. So, if you have one, well then, this should be a cakewalk.
Medical Professor
The medical teaching is another booming and always in-demand job for doctors outside of medicine. The irony is you will be in the profession in theory but not in practice. With the right intention, you can create a strong foundation for future doctors by providing excellent quality education and guidance.
Currently, 13% to 15% of physicians, mostly between the ages of 50 and 55 years, are planning to switch their profession. The reasons are many but most center around burnouts, financial debts, low income, and family stress. So, don’t be hard on yourself if you are one of them. We hope these options help you in creating your future. Comment below if you wish to know anything specific.
