Monday, February 22, 2010

Physician salaries in the CME industry

This month is CME month here on NonClinicalJobs.com and as the month wraps up, I'll be publishing the results from an informal salary survey that I conducted. The purpose of this survey was to collect data on "medical director" physician salaries in the CME industry. I realize that some physicians work as medical writers, but I'm not including medical writer salaries since AMWA already has a nice salary survey.

I'm also focusing my survey on positions within medical education and communication companies, also known as MECCs. How much do you think physicians can make in various "medical director" positions? By that, I mean that some companies have the "medical director" position broken down into different levels such as:
  1. Associate Director of Medical Affairs (or, simply: Associate Medical Director)
  2. Medical Director (or, Director of Medical Affairs)
  3. Senior Medical Director
  4. VP of Medical Affairs (in some cases, the title is: VP and Medical Director)
  5. Senior VP or SVP of Medical Affairs
  6. Executive VP or EVP of Medical Affairs
  7. CMO or Chief Medical Officer (in some cases, the title is combined: EVP and CMO)
  8. President or CEO (yes, some physicians own and run CME companies) 
    The most common title I've ever seen within a CME company is simply "Medical Director."  Within large corporations, you're likely to find that physician positions are broken down into the 7 positions listed above. In the world of CME and medical education, I don't think you'll see many physicians who hold titles such as #6 or #7 in many education companies. For that matter, some small companies only have a single medical director who reports directly to the CEO and that individual is called the "Medical Director." Other companies may have over 10 medical directors who are all called "Medical Directors" and they may have a managing VP above them or they may report to a CMO or an EVP.

    To further confuse matters, in many CME companies, the term "Medical Director" is often used for non-physicians (such as pharmacists, nurses, NPs, PAs, or people who have a PhD). This doesn't necessarily change salary ranges, but it's an interesting point because in the clinical world, non-physicians generally don't make the same type of salary compared to physicians. However, in the world of CME, many non-physicians make more than physicians working in CME based on their levels of experience and management responsibilities.

    Stay tuned to see the results of the survey. To ensure that you don't miss any new posts or articles, subscribe to updates by e-mail or by RSS. If you're an executive recruiter or an experienced CME professional and you'd like to offer your input on this survey, contact me.

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