Overview of Physician Roles in Health Tech/AI

A short list of possibilities for physicians in the field

Overview of Health Tech for Physicians

I often get questions along the lines of “how can I get involved in health tech” and wanted to provide an outline of possible roles for physicians in health technology. Physicians have a lot to add to the health tech field and I would love to see more physician involvement. I don’t claim to be an expert and I’m sure this list is not completely exhaustive. I welcome others adding roles that they’ve seen or done in the space. Notably, I’m not including biotech/medical devices/pharma roles since those are huge fields and there’s a lot of information available about physician roles in those fields. 

A few notes about expectations: 

• “I want to be a consultant” is often a pretty vague concept. As with any business interaction, you need to be offering something of specific value to a company. This may require some real introspection about your interests and capabilities in order to both have marketable skills and recognize what they are. I can’t emphasize this point enough. If you don’t know what you’re interested in and what you offer, other people and businesses definitely won’t know. In business there’s the concept of product/market fit. If you’re the product, you need to know what the fit is between you and the market.

• Many of these roles won’t match a physician income, especially at the beginning.

• Physicians often default to “going back to school” when they want to change roles. If you have a goal that is not possible without additional schooling or training, then go for it. Just be aware that many businesses will consider an MD sufficient if you have commensurate experience

• Work with people you like and admire. You’ll have a much more pleasant experience and will do better work.

Common Physician Roles

Common roles for physicians in healthtech:

1. Physician consultant: This role encompasses a wide variety of expertise including but not limited to:

   1. Medical knowledge

      1. Some companies just need a subject matter expert to make sure they’re on the right track and tackling the right clinical problems. 

      2. It helps to have some kind of niche or speaking/social media presence if you’re especially knowledgeable about specific topics

   2. Clinical workflow and operational efficiency

      1. Often companies will want someone who has been in a leadership role for these positions

   3. Time commitment: Sometimes project-based, sometimes more of a “retainer” model. Could be a part- or full-time job with a bigger/more mature company with multiple products or service lines

   4. Compensation: Often in the $150-500/hr range, or equity-based (this generally works best for retainer-type arrangements of X hours/month).

2. Sales: This role can be anything from “stand next to this powerpoint when we meet with important people” to “advocate for us on social media and use your contacts to get us meetings with possible buyers” to “source possible buyers for our products and make the sale”. Physicians often have a natural inclination to avoid sales but it’s a great skill to master. Most jobs eventually involve selling something, whether it’s an idea, a company, or a service (see: how much time the President of the United States generally spends selling his ideas to the public, the time VC companies spend selling themselves to “hot” healthtech founders, etc)

   1. Depending on the sales role, companies may prefer physicians with an active social media presence and/or a reputation as an expert in the field via extensive publications and speaking engagements

   2. Time commitment: Sometimes project-based, sometimes more of a “retainer” model. Could be a part- or full-time job with a bigger/more mature company with multiple products or service lines

   3. Compensation: Often similar to consulting: in the $150-500/hr range, or equity-based or commission-based.

3. Chief Medical Officer: Can be anything from deep involvement in product development and business strategy and sales to a fractional role that involves showing up for sales demonstrations for major potential clients. If the company provides clinical services, the role will likely have an element of clinical protocol/workflow development and managing clinicians/clinical quality.

   1. Time commitment: Extremely variable. Full-time to a few hours a month

   2. Compensation: Often $400-500/hr or more if travel if required. At least $300K if full-time

4. Chief Medical Informatics Officer: Someone that works in the health system actually has to implement the technology. These unsung heroes do the legwork to make the magic possible. 

   1. Time commitment: Part- or Full-time depending on the health system.

   2. Compensation: Usually low to mid $200k range but variable depending on clinical commitment

5. Clinical lead: Often a company needs a physician license to operate in a state. Often they want you to “supervise” advanced practice providers (NPs/PAs) but the amount of oversight you’re actually able to provide is really variable. If you’re not seeing patients (“collaborating physician”), you may just be reviewing NP charts. If you do this, you need to ask very pointed and specific questions about protocols, guidelines, and what happens if you disagree with how a patient was cared for and refuse to sign a chart.

   1. Time commitment: Often pretty low, a few hours a week

   2. Compensation: Often $2000/month for low volume, more if there are a lot of patients

6. Product manager: Product managers are liaisons between the technical teams and the (usually clinical) users or user experience teams. Product managers are usually great problem solvers and are responsible for figuring out what the product should look like and do, troubleshooting,  and iterating. In many ways physicians are ideally suited to product manager roles, and I’ve seen an increasing number of physicians fill these roles.

   1. Time commitment: This are almost always full-time roles unless the startup is really in its infancy

   2. Compensation: Can vary widely and may include an equity component, but usually in the low $100K/year range (I’ve seen some as low as $75k/year, some up to $300K)

7. Physician health tech investor: Most physicians are “qualified investors” and there are many startups looking for physician investors. You can do this on your own or join an investing group. If you do this, my strong advice would be to invest some time learning business basics or finding a good mentor. A great clinical idea is often not equal to a great business idea.

   1. Time commitment: A few hours a week to evaluate deals

   2. Compensation: Widely variable

8. Physician Venture Capitalist (VC): This is the far end of the spectrum of physician-investor and can be full or part-time. If you want to work for an established firm (versus creating your own firm), then you’ll likely need some kind of business background, preferably investment banking or consulting. As an intern, you would source deals, do due diligence, and make recommendations. As a partner, you would evaluate deals and actively help the businesses in your portfolio succeed. If you’re very well-connected, there are sometimes scouting arrangements that are generally unpaid but may provide a percentage of profits.

   1. Time commitment: Usually full-time, occasionally part-time

   2. Compensation: Usually very high but dependent on your ability to find and evaluate good deals

9. Founder: If you’re ready to quit your job and focus on building a company from the ground up, this is for you. Many doctors want to do this while continuing to practice full-time; this is extremely difficult unless you have a very active co-founder. If you have an idea and want a cofounder, you can check out the Y Combinator Founder Match tool.

   1. Time commitment: Full-time

   2. Compensation: Widely variable

10. Government offices: The government has a surprisingly large number of really cool positions for physicians. Places like the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Innovation, ARPA Health, the ONC, the Center for Digital Health, the FDA and others could be good places for health tech-minded docs. The White House Presidential Innovation Fellows also has a program that helps place people into roles in government agencies. 

    1. Time commitment: almost always full-time

    2. Compensation: Low ($150-250ish), with good benefits

11. Bio design fellowships: Some amazing innovators teach at and have completed biodesign fellowships. I am most familiar with Stanford’s, but they’re increasingly popular and can be a great entree into the health tech world.

    1. Time commitment: full time

    2. Compensation: Low

12. Summer internships with investment banks and consulting firms: usually these companies have very high-yield boot camps to get non-business people up to speed. They teach you how to do due diligence, basic accounting, how to read a financial statement, etc. Understanding the business side of health tech will only be a benefit no matter what you end up doing. They usually have 2 year associate programs for physicians specifically also

    1. Time commitment: more than full-time

    2. Compensation: High

Notes on compensation:

• Some compensation will likely be in equity, especially at earlier stage (higher risk/higher possible reward). Valuing the equity can be really difficult, especially for earlier-stage companies.

• Make sure none of your existing work contracts for universities or hospitals preclude you from doing consulting work

Tips for getting involved in health tech

• Network - this is how the (business) world operates. You’ll meet some really awesome, engaged people. Physicians often think networking is distasteful or below them, or feel like they shouldn’t have to put the time in. If this describes you, I would challenge you to change your mindset. Physicians like helping people; can you reframe networking as meeting some new people you might be able to help?

  • Join networking groups

  • Search your university’s alumni database for people doing things you’re interested in

  • Go to conferences and set up meetings beforehand

  • Join Slack or Discord groups related to your interests 

    • Health Tech Nerds is a popular choice

  • Actively reach out to people who are doing things you’re interested in

• Update your LinkedIn profile and follow leaders in the field 

  • Post things people are actually interested in. This is different from just posting random thoughts. It generally takes some time and effort.

• Go to conferences and meet up with people in real life

Are you a physician interested in health tech careers? Join ML for MDs for a special event on January 24, 2024. Sign up here!