Physician Side Gigs

[The Mist]

Can anyone offer any insight or information into any non-clinical part-time remote/freelance work you or your colleagues may be doing (still using your physician skill set). I am currently doing a combo of family medicine/occupational medicine through a governmental department.

I've read about insurance work, medical education (creating question, vignettes, content etc.), medical writing amongst other options.  I have a few small things I do on the side, but would be interested in expanding my options and seeing what else is out there. 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[MDinCanada]

Medical Expert Witness? Heard about this through the vines. Apparently it pays pretty well and has no overhead, but it's not for the faint heart.

Also, maybe consulting for med tech startups/companies - I don't know if this is lucrative since startups usually don't have much funding.

There are also telemed services like Dialogue and Maple that could be hiring physicians - I don't know about the pay for this either.

 

I'm interested in learning more about side gigs as well!

[polarbear89]

Definitely would be interested in hearing more about side gigs and also how people get involved in the med education stuff if they don't otherwise work at an academic site?

[Wachaa]

4 hours ago, polarbear89 said:

Definitely would be interested in hearing more about side gigs and also how people get involved in the med education stuff if they don't otherwise work at an academic site?

 

Fortunately, you don't typically have to work at an academic site to be involved in med education. And you don't have to be an "Academic" staff

You can get a "Clinical" faculty appointment. Usually it's "Clinical Instructor" or "Clinical Lecturer" (name varies by province/ institute). There's no annual salary and you're paid for the work you do. You can apply for promotion to Clinical Assistant Professor, etc, with more time and experience. The hourly/ pay for services remains the same, however. This is different from Academic staff, who might get an annual bonus, salary, benefits, etc, depending on their rank.

 

For example (just to name a few) you can:

-Be a preceptor for med students/ residents who come work in your clinic

-Teach at the med school for a session/ lecture/ Problem Based Learning

-Be an examiner/ invigilator/ interviewer

-Be a site leader for residency programs in family medicine

-Attend conferences as a representative of your school/ faculty

[Bluberblubo]

On 5/11/2020 at 10:52 AM, MDinCanada said:

Medical Expert Witness? Heard about this through the vines. Apparently it pays pretty well and has no overhead, but it's not for the faint heart.

 

Any idea how one could get involved with this? Sounds super interesting!

[medisforme]

1) PBL/CBL preceptor (with UBC at least) pays decent  given how relaxing the work is, though if you don't live near campus, there would be a lot of travel involved which can affect other potential work duties that same day.  From my experience, it was mostly docs close or at retirement doing these gigs.

2) Botox/skin cosmetics 

3) pharmaceutical company (i met a few docs doing this, though I personally don't see how this would be in any way rewarding aside from the financial aspect).

4) From a family med perspective, there really isn't any money to be made from being an interviewer, examiner etc... You sometimes get a small "honorarium" but your main reward will be CME credits.  Most of it is essentially volunteer work.  There is more money to be made (can't remember how much) creating questions and marking written licensing exams.

5) One of my colleagues runs obesity education groups out of his practice (all MSP billable) and makes quite a bit of money doing this.

[MDinCanada]

8 hours ago, medisforme said:

 

5) One of my colleagues runs obesity education groups out of his practice (all MSP billable) and makes quite a bit of money doing this.

what does this involve? It's not part of the typical FM training

[Belle_MD]

On 5/16/2020 at 9:50 PM, MDinCanada said:

what does this involve? It's not part of the typical FM training

I'd like to hear more as well!