Physician Lifestyles and Burnout

Experiencing burnout? You're not alone. You may be able to relate with the 2013 Medscape slideshow titled, "Physician Lifestyles -- Linking to Burnout: A Medscape Survey"

How Happy Are Physicians?

How Happy Are Physicians? According to the 2012 Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report, physicians tend to be fairly happy.

Another Medscape article mentions NonClinicalJobs.com

A few weeks ago, you may have seen this Medscape article titled, "Tired of Being a Doctor? Choices for Opting Out of Medicine: Leaving the Profession Altogether." I was interviewed by the author of that article and she mentions NonClinicalJobs.com in the opening lines of the story. Thank you Shelly.

If you haven't read the article, I'd recommend it. Shelly does a very nice job outlining some options if you choose to leave the world of clinical medicine.

2011 Medscape physician compensation report

Are you curious about physician salary results? 

Medscape's 2011 Physician Compensation Report provides physicians insights on current trends regarding pay and hours worked. This comprehensive report represents responses from over 15,000 US physicians and offers details on who is earning how much by specialty, geographic location, practice type, sex and more.

• How much do physicians earn?
• Which practice settings earn the most?
• How much time is spent with patients?

Methodology

• Survey fielded to 455,000 US physicians
• Total respondents*: 15,794 US physicians across 22 specialty areas
• Fieldwork conducted by Medscape from February 2-March 30, 2011
• Data collected via third-party online survey collection site

Medscape medical students are exploring non-clinical career options

I found this to be quite fascinating. The "Top 10" articles for medical students in 2009 published on Medscape were titled:

1. Residency Interview Success and Debacle
2. USMLE prep quizzes
3. Ask the Experts (advice columns on med school and residency)
4. Residency Match: Avoid Getting Burned
5. What Is PM&R?
6. Not Sure That Medicine Is Right for You? Get Career Tips Here
7. Personal Life, Professional Life: Drawing the Line
8. Twelve Steps for Choosing a Specialty
9. Young Doctors: Saddled With Debt and a Deflated 401(k)? Here's Help
10. A Dying Patient's Wish

You probably noticed that #6 is titled, "Not Sure That Medicine Is Right for You? Get Career Tips Here."

This article was written by Colin T. Son and he says, "That may explain why Dr. Joseph Kim has such an interest in non-clinical opportunities for clinicians ... He uses his blog to explore careers in consulting, entrepreneurship, medical education, the pharmaceutical industry, and more. He encourages clinicians who are no longer interested in the traditional practice of medicine to consider other careers..."

You can view that Medscape article by clicking here. 

Medscape is looking for a CME Scientific Director

If you have experience working in medical communications or medical education, then you may be interested in this job post. Medscape (one of the professional arms of WebMD) is looking for a Scientific Director to work on educational grant development. The world of certified continuing medical education (CME) is going through some significant changes these days and it's difficult to predict how CME will evolve over the next few years.

One of the most challenging aspects of generating a grant for CME is the needs assessment. If you're going to propose an educational activity on a specific topic, you have to prove that there's an educational gap that needs to be met with continuing education. Depending on the therapeutic area, it may be very challenging to identify such gaps. Then again, if you're an experienced CME grant writer, you already know that.

Careers in CME

Many people have been asking me about the CME (continuing medical education) industry. Most CME companies (also referred to as medical education and communication companies or MECCs) rely on funds from pharmaceutical companies to develop educational programs. To learn more about MECCs, I'd encourage you to take a look at the North American Association of Medical Education and Communication Companies, Inc., (NAAMECC) website.

There's an old, but interesting article on Medscape titled, "Medical Education and Communication Companies: How Ideal a Fit for Pharmacists?" It was published in 2003 and the world of CME has evolved dramatically over the last few years. Why? Because guidelines have changed and many pharma companies have reduced their funding for CME. Several MECCs (that only focus on CME) have closed recently. In the past, many MECCs used to work on a combination of CME and non-CME activities. These types of MECCs (that develop both CME and non-CME activities) are starting to disappear because of the stricter guidelines imposed by the ACCME (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education). So if you're thinking about a non-clinical career, would you jump into the CME industry and join a MECC?

Medscape Physician Connect

I've been reading some very interesting discussions on Medscape Physician Connect. Unlike Sermo, this discussion board allows users to post topics and comments anonymously. I'm sure that Sermo will implement this type of feature shortly.

There are obviously pros and cons to posting comments anonymously. I'm actually quite surprised when I see people posting very personal comments and then leave their name, phone #, e-mail address, and other contact information. There are some very angry and bitter people on these discussion boards and I'm not entirely sure that I'd want to hand that type of information out to them. I've seen professionalism fly out the window on some of these discussion boards.

Back to the original subject: Medscape Physician Connect. Have you given it a try? Or would you rather stick with Sermo?

Medscape is now FINALLY copying Sermo

Medscape, perhaps the largest online resource for healthcare professionals, is finally copying Sermo with their "Physician Connect" physician-only online community. Medscape has had forums and other features to foster an online community, but uptake and usage has been very low. WebMD has really dominated the online healthcare space, so I'm surprised it's taken Medscape so long to come up with something like this. WebMD has been gobbling up other online professional resources like Medsite, eMedicine, and theHeart.org. These are all being placed under the "Medscape" umbrella of services.

I remember when Medscape was born. Most users at the time was using Netscape, so the name medscape really made sense. Now, hardly anyone uses Netscape to browse the web. Safari, Firefox, and Opera have taken over. Can we come up with some creative names based on these browsers? Medfari? Medfox? Medopera?

By the way, just like Sermo, Physician Connect requires physician validation.