Doctors start businesses for many reasons. What business can a doctor start?
What are the best doctor business ideas given our skillset? We were taught that medicine is both science and art in medical school. Medicine is blind without creativity, humanity, and evidence-based processes.
Despite this, some doctors feel they need to be more fulfilled in their paint-by-numbers jobs. Some doctors want to start businesses, so you’re reading this. However, many doctors find starting a new business daunting due to clinical obligations.
Nearly 700,000 UK companies are founded annually, which explains this. 20% of these closed within a year, with 500,000 companies closing annually. From 1994, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracked 25 years of data. Their findings match UK findings. Health and social businesses had a 5-year survival rate of almost 60%.
Drug Rehab
Drug recovery facilities are another way doctors can make money while helping people.
You and other professionals can provide a loving, comforting, and supportive environment for addiction rehabilitation.
Create a Course
As a medical professional with a degree, you’ve probably treated patients using different methods.You could write a process-related course based on the successful treatment program. Your experience and procedures could be taught in medical classrooms, hospital workshops, or medical associations.
Insurance Claims
Many insurance companies outsource medical organization and patient claim reviews to save money.
Headhunter
Headhunters are companies or processes that find qualified candidates for specific job openings. This process is crucial for filling medical positions due to nationwide staffing shortages.
Medical peers help these organizations find qualified candidates. You could join this business or start locating medical professionals with specific specialties for hospitals needing them. The National Association Of Physician Recruiters has information about this process.
Home Healthcare
After hospitalization, patients often return home but still need medical or personal care.
A doctor investing in a home healthcare business would be a natural extension of the continuum of care for a discharged patient who needs medical supervision at home but not hospitalization.
Healthcare Finance Planner
No matter their training or salary, healthcare workers need financial assistance for their future. Thus, healthcare financial planning is a great business to help medical professionals with their finances. A financial planning service run by a doctor should inspire confidence.
Pharmacy
A doctor could start a pharmacy business. The medical doctor would need capital and state permission to start providing prescription medication to customers. Customers seeking prescriptions may prefer a doctor-owned pharmacy.
Fitness Center
Medical doctors can also start fitness centers. The fitness center would have all the usual equipment and possibly on-site or appointment-based physical therapists, sports trainers, etc.
Medical waste
Medical waste from procedures, exams, and equipment must be properly disposed of. Toxins and pollutants make these items biohazardous. Thus, a doctor could start a medical waste business. Some states require public needle collection sites in addition to medical waste collection.
Medical Transcription
Charts, medical records, lab tests, and other medical procedure reports are crucial to patient care. Thus, transcription is crucial to documenting everything.
Radiologists, pathologists, oncologists, and others dictate their reports to a transcriptionist, who writes them up. Transcription is a medical-related business that doctors can start.
Teaching
Your medical background makes you a good teacher. You could teach students and peers in hospitals and medical schools.
Book It
Writing a fictional book with your medical expertise could be a creative business venture. Many authors have written best-selling novels combining their professional expertise and writing talent. Doctors can write murder mysteries about hospital deaths.
The plot could be that patients on certain wards are being systematically killed in a way that baffles law enforcement and medical staff.
Real estate
Real estate investment is a passive business model. You could invest alone or with other medical investors. Investing in an apartment complex, rental home, medical office, etc.
Blog
Your experience is likely vast. As a doctor, you can start a blog to interact with peers and others who may find your writings fascinating and insightful.
Doctors take an oath not to discuss patient care. However, you can discuss medical advances in the New England Journal of Medicine or other medical journals.
Your blog can also educate patients and demystify medicine.
Medical App
Remote communication will continue. This applies to all services, including medicine. During the pandemic, patients were isolated and had trouble communicating with their primary care physicians, so they used medical apps to ask their doctors about their health.
One of the business ideas for physician assistants is making an app. Physicians can develop medical apps as a side business because this interaction will continue. The doctor or a programmer can develop the app and add features based on your medical experience and input. Consider adding a feature that distinguishes your app from others or helps patients interact with it.
Podcast
Medical podcasts are a powerful business opportunity for doctors. The podcast could cover heart health, mental health, current medical events, etc. As a doctor and business owner, you can discuss various topics alone or with the medical specialists you work with.
The platform could also answer text and email questions. This podcast could be subscription-based but would appeal to many medically curious people.
Medical Product
If certain things were available, would they benefit medical professionals and patients?Your experience may lead to a better stethoscope, surgical instrument, etc. You could easily create and test a prototype, patent it, and profit from it.
House Calls
Doctors made house calls again. Physician house calls may be a profitable business that appeals to patients.
Pharmaceutical
Partnering with big pharmaceutical companies could generate revenue. This would be more about helping the company during clinical trials than violating your medical oath. You may also help create new drug marketing campaigns.
Stop Smoking
As a doctor, you know smoking harms health. You could start a smoking cessation clinic as a doctor to make money.
Your business could offer many resources to help someone quit this habit.An accountability component, where a mentor or accountability partner helps the smoker stay on track, group settings in person or online, a reward system, etc.
Medical Equipment
Medical equipment is a business opportunity for doctors. As a medical professional, you could sell medical equipment to major suppliers. Another option is to broker contracts for small local hospitals.
Tutor
You completed several residential residency programs to become a licensed medical practitioner. You can mentor medical students. Your tutoring can help medical students struggling with certain subjects.
Help the med student prepare for the MCAT. You can also use www.medschooltutors.com or your website and social media to start a tutoring business.
Legal Witness
Expert witnesses argue for or against defendants in many court cases. You can register as an expert witness and be used by both prosecuting and defense attorneys to testify about medical procedures, conditions, etc. Start a medical expert service to be a legal witness.
Losing Weight
Doctors could also start a weight loss clinic. The weight loss clinic could be a standalone clinic where people seek medical advice to lose weight.
The technology could also combine a clinic. Individualized assessments, complete physicals, weight and BMI evaluations, and health-based weight loss programs are possible.Eating healthy foods and exercising may help them lose weight.
