Generating supplemental income by performing cosmetic procedures

What do you know about dermatology? Aesthetic cosmetic services is a multibillion dollar market. The most common procedures include: botulinum toxin injections, microdermabrasion, collagen injection, laser hair removal, and chemical peels. There are many family physicians, general internists, and other non-dermatologists who are performing elective cosmetic surgical procedures in the office. These physicians are earning a tremendous amount of supplemental income. In fact, some family physicians have even stopped practicing primary care and have devoted their careers towards cosmetic procedures.

On the AAFP (American Academy of Family Physicians) website, you'll find several articles related to aesthetic cosmetic procedures. One of them, written in 2007, is titled, "Aesthetic Cosmetic Procedures Can Be Boon to FPs." Here's a snippet from that article:

According to a recently released survey from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 11.5 million cosmetic procedures, surgical and nonsurgical, were performed in 2006 in the United States, an overall increase of 446 percent since the collection of statistics began in 1997. The survey reports that Americans spent a whopping $4.5 billion for nonsurgical procedures, with botulinum toxin injections and laser hair removal -- procedures easily performed in FPs' offices -- topping the list.

Dual Family Medicine / MBA Program

Dual Family Medicine/MBA Program Integrated with the Baylor College of Medicine/Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Family Medicine Residency Program and the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business

The Baylor College of Medicine/Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Family Medicine Residency Program seeks to graduate excellent family physicians with the skills to practice in the 21st century.  Health care in the 21st century, with its growing complexity of regulatory and compliance issues, business law and ethics, is increasingly the business of medicine as well as the science and art of medicine.  Tomorrow’s leaders in America’s health care organizations and medical practices will need complementary medical and business skills.

Since our inception in 1998, the Baylor College of Medicine/Kelsey-Seybold Clinic residency program has recognized the need for learners to understand the business as well as the clinical principles of medicine.

The goal of the dual family medicine residency /MBA program is to develop leaders in the health care arena by combining traditional medical education with effective business, managerial, and leadership skills.  The dual program will add one extra year to residency training (for a total of four years) with the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business MBA curriculum being introduced in the third year.

Health Policy Fellowship

Are you interested in a career in health policy? Have you considered formal training through an academic fellowship? You may be interested to know that some medical schools offer a health policy fellowship for primary care physicians. Here's an example from the UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School:

his program is a unique, practical opportunity for family physicians, as well as other primary care physicians, to learn how state health policy is developed, and how laws and regulations governing health care are crafted, negotiated and implemented. Applicants are typically interested in health policy-making and in influencing the political process as it relates to health care.

The health policy fellow serves as both aide and advisor to the Chairperson of a New Jersey State Legislative Health Committee. The fellow has a unique opportunity to obtain hands-on experience informing the policymaking process. An emphasis is placed on the rigorous, day-to-day aspects of the legislative process in the dynamic environment of the State House. The health policy fellow is called upon to: critically evaluate legislation; prepare briefs and reports; advise members of the State Legislature; research complex health care problems; devise legislative solutions; interact with and assist constituents with health care concerns and problems; and represent the legislator's views at meetings and functions. Upon conclusion of the fellowship, the participants have developed a practical and comprehensive understanding of the legislative process and health care policy in New Jersey.

This fellowship is offered jointly by the Department of Family Medicine at UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Faculty preceptors include the health policy faculty in the Department of Family Medicine and the executive staff of the University Hospital. The current Chairpersons of the Senate and Assembly Health Committees serve as the direct supervisors of the fellows.

You can learn more here: http://www2.umdnj.edu/fmedweb/fellowships/health_policy.htm

Why "average salary" is frequently misleading in medicine

When you hear the phrase "average salary," do you think of mean, median, or mode?

Let's suppose that the average salary for a primary care physician is $150,000 (I'm just making up numbers here). Now, is that because the majority of people fall between $140,000 to $160,000 (a very narrow range)? Or, is it because the range of pay is from $90,000 all the way up to $210,000 (a very wide range)?

I know many primary care physicians who are making around $90,000 (academic medicine or salaried) each year, and others who are making well over $200,000 (they do a ton of procedures and see a very high volume of patients). So, although the average salary of $150,000 may provide one perspective, we know that salary ranges are very wide in the field of medicine. Is this also true in the non-clinical world?

The short answer is "yes."

The phrase "average salary" tells you nothing about the range of salaries. Hence, it's a very misleading term unless you know the range of salaries. When you're thinking about a career transition and you're researching salary ranges, avoid the question of "average salary." Instead, explore the potential range of salaries and then you'll have a realistic idea for compensation. When you have some outliers, the average can become very unreliable (unless you're not using mean as your average). For instance, some physicians end up becoming CEOs of hospitals and major corporations. Some CEOs may have a base salary of $300,000 per year, while others make several million dollars annually. Now how do you calculate an "average" in this type of situation? It's hard for me to imagine making several million dollars each year.

Speaking of salary, I find it refreshing that physicians on Sermo are willing to disclose their salary (since it's anonymous) and that's where you can get a more accurate representation of salary ranges and distribution trends.