Physician entrepreneurship isn't one path, it's three, and most of the confusion physicians feel starting out comes from trying to plan for all three at once instead of picking one. The three most common starting points are building an independent practice, developing a clinical idea into a product, and building software around a clinical problem. Each has a different skill set underneath it, a different timeline, and a different definition of what success looks like in year one.
How to pick one: it's usually less about which is most exciting and more about which problem you already have the clearest, most specific view of. A physician who's spent years frustrated by one recurring clinical gap in their own patients is closer to a product idea than a practice idea. A physician who's ready to leave employment and wants control over how medicine gets practiced is closer to independent practice than either of the other two.
Written by John M. Abrahams, MD — board-certified neurosurgeon, founder of New York Brain & Spine Surgery.
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