What is physician entrepreneurship?
A physician entrepreneur is a physician who establishes and runs businesses in the health care industry. Entrepreneurs create opportunities for profit and help others with scare resources through a business model. Since physicians are an integral part of the healthcare industry, they can establish viable business models and scale them easily. Medical entrepreneurship emphasizes a business-oriented mindset for health care professionals to create new business opportunities in the health care industry in response to the needs, demands, and innovations in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and healthcare services. Medical entrepreneurship is a field that provides a viable alternative to traditional medical practice by focusing on the most effective way of translating public health knowledge into sustainable and scalable healthcare solutions to improve the wellness of society. The scope of medical entrepreneurship covers medical tourism, health care entrepreneurship, medical courier services, medical writing services, medical waste disposal services, surgical innovation, surgical cosmetics, health and fitness centers, medical escort services, public health entrepreneurship, and digital health entrepreneurship.
Physicians can also be entrepreneurs outside of the health care industry as well. Health care professionals can establish businesses in other industries such as real estate, capital venture or investments, and other businesses they are passionate about.
Why is physician entrepreneurship important?
Physician entrepreneurship is important for several reasons. First, it can help physicians to create innovative solutions to problems in the healthcare industry. Second, it can help physicians to improve patient outcomes by developing new treatments and technologies. It can help physicians to become more financially independent and secure by creating new revenue streams. Furthermore, it can help physicians to gain more control over their work environment and the care they provide to patients. Finally, physician entrepreneurship can help to drive innovation and growth in the healthcare industry overall.
What are the advantages of entrepreneurship?
The biggest advantage of physician entrepreneurship is that it helps physicians become better business owners and clinicians. Physicians utilize and can develop the following skill sets as an entrepreneur. These skill sets include:
- Professionalism.
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills.
- Practice-Based Learning Ability.
- Systems-Based Thinking.
- Management Skills.
While most physicians do not have an entrepreneurial mindset, physicians are well suited to be entrepreneurs due to their training. However, most medical education does not include the business of medicine. Physician entrepreneurs become better clinicians for the following reasons:
- It forces them to expand their skills in problem seeking, not just problem solving.
- It makes them more patient-customer centric.
- It requires that they consider more than just the quality of care they deliver but, also, other non-quality of care value factors like experience, service, convenience, price and accessibility.
- It makes them think about business models that are more effective, efficient, market responsive and value added and further engages them in life-long learning. It also helps increase profitability.
- It reinforces taking personal responsibility for and learning from their mistakes.
- It builds their clinical judgement by factoring in other patient experience variables and lessons and examples of success from entrepreneurs and industries outside of medicine, thus broadening their creative horizons.
- It helps them reconnect to the mission of medicine.
- It makes them better stewards of scarce resources.
- It challenges them to be more empathic with patient needs, requirements and social circumstances.
- It makes them more humble and respectful of their profession.
- It provides them with alternative sources of income and helps them to get paid for creating value.
- It helps inform those doing new product development and innovation.
- It can be part of an encore or portfolio career.
- It is a way of passing it forward or participating in social enterprise.
- It helps you become part of health care solution.
What are the benefits of entrepreneurship?
The benefits of entrepreneurship include:
- Financial freedom and security.
- Independence.
- Autonomy.
- Self-satisfaction.
- Economic development.
- Provide a solution for a problem.
- Innovation.
- Self-actualization.
- Flexibility.
- Networking.
What are the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur?
The characteristics of a successful entrepreneur include:
- Risk Tolerant
- Leadership
- Open-mindedness
- Innovative
- Resourceful
- Ambitious
- Good managerial skills
- Resilient
- Perceptive
How To Become A Physician Entrepreneur
To become a physician entrepreneur, you need to leverage your medical knowledge to identify a business need, gain complementary business skills through education or networking, build a strong network of contacts and mentors, and create a solid business plan to navigate the challenges and bring your idea to fruition.
You can start a new venture, acquire an existing one, or even launch a new franchise. This often starts as a part-time endeavor before potentially transitioning into a full-time business.
To become a physician entrepreneur, you need to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. You need to identify opportunities or unmet needs in the health care field where your expertise as a physician can provide a valuable solution.
Entrepreneurship is about risk taking, and you need to be prepared to step outside of your comfort of traditional medical practice and accept that entrepreneurship involves inherent risks and challenges and learn how to navigate and succeed.
You need to be innovative as a physician entrepreneur. It is crucial to be creative in your approach seeking new technologies or methods to solve healthcare problems and improve patient outcomes.
Next, you need to acquire essential business skills. You can seek formal education by pursuing a Master of Business Administration or other business-focused training to build foundational knowledge. You need to learn through experience by gaining exposure to departmental operation to provide insight on workflow, communication, and efficiency improvements. Finally, you need to develop a keen understanding of business fundamentals including marketing, sales, financial models, revenue streams, and investment strategies.
A 2018 LinkedIn survey showed that 47% of physicians and pharmacists are interested in working in the technology sector due to the substance of the work and compensation. The pandemic, burnout, and dissatisfaction with health care system have increased interest in physician entrepreneurship. These roles can be advisory, administrative, or management roles or investing or founding startups. Obtaining experience while working for a company can provide you with valuable experience between launching your own business.
