MM&M 2012 Career & Salary Survey

Every year, Medical Marketing & Media conducts a salary survey among executives working in the pharmaceutical industry. The 26th MM&M Career & Salary Survey reports average salaries are slightly outpacing inflation, up 2.8% to 132.6K and just below 2007's high of 133.7K.

According to their survey, Medical Directors have an average salary of $176,700 which is up 7.1%. With an n=17 medical directors, this is a relatively small sample.

The online survey was emailed to more than 40,000 executives employed in pharmaceuticals, healthcare marketing and related fields, encompassing manufacturers, agencies, media companies and service suppliers/vendors, during August and September.

Of the 994 qualified respondents: 403 are employed by manufacturers (pharma, biotech, devices, diagnostics), 345 by agencies, 77 work in healthcare media and 88 for suppliers/vendors; 524 are male and 470 are female; and the average age is 43 years.

You can read about the survey here and access the complete report here (PDF).

Get an inside look at jobs and companies

There is a website called Glassdoor.com where you can get an "inside look" at various companies and jobs. Here's some information from their website:

Glassdoor is a free career community where anyone can find and anonymously share an inside look at jobs and companies. What sets us apart is that all our information comes from current and former employees, interview candidates, and even the companies themselves. Now with more than a million salaries, company reviews, interview questions, office photos, and more, you have all the information you'll need to manage your career and make more informed career decisions.

Get insights on:

• Jobs. See all the latest jobs listings updated daily by employers and several of the leading job boards, while getting instant in-depth details about thousands of companies, including employee reviews, salary information, recent news, and more. With Glassdoor's JobScope™, job seekers no longer need to go back and forth between a job listing, a company's website, or any other resources to see if an open job is the best fit for them.
• Salaries. Research the latest salary and compensation information by company or job title. See salaries for specific job titles that you would recognize at any company, then see details by location and years of experience.
• Company Reviews. See what employees on the inside really think with reviews which describe the positives, areas of improvement, and advice for senior management. Plus, see real-time CEO-approval ratings as well as detailed employee satisfaction ratings across eight workplace factors like work/life balance, employee morale, and compensation & benefits.
• Interview Questions & Reviews. Read what other interview candidates have to say about the hiring process (including their rating of interview experience and difficulty) as well as see actual questions asked in the interview.
• Office Photos. Get a behind-the-scenes look into a company's culture through photos of their workspaces, common areas, and events.

Learn more by visiting GlassDoor.com

Healthcare Informatics Salaries

Did you know that earning a Master's in Health Informatics can increase your earning potential? If you're a physician, having a degree in informatics can help you find jobs as a medical director of informatics or as a chief medical information officer (CMIO). For non-physicians who earn a Master's in Health Informatics, they may find themselves pursuing careers like the ones listed below:

• Clinical Informatics Coordinator $73,144
• Laboratory Information Systems Coordinator $66,863
• Health Information Services Director $97,750

Healthcare Informatics was named one of the top careers in U.S.News & World Report. Informatics Career Options National Median Salary figures by Salary.com

Hospitals employ almost 20 percent of all physicians

As more physicians choose an employment model, what will happen to independent physicians? What will happen to those physicians who are still in private practice?

These days, hospitals and health systems are seeing more requests from independent physicians about employment options. Hospitals are acquiring independent physician practices and offering compensation packages that include financial incentives (bonus payments) that are linked to patient satisfaction ratings and clinical performance and health care quality. These types of financial incentives may currently only be 3-5% of total physician compensation, but it is expected to increase to about 7-10% of physician total compensation.

If you are still in private practice, do you see yourself staying in that model until you retire? Or, will you be one of those independent physicians switching to an employment model?

If you are interested in learning more, read the Sullivan Cotter's 2011 Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey Report by Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, Inc.

Medical School Faculty Salaries 2010-2011

How much does the average medical school faculty make? The Association of American Medical Colleges recently released a publication titled, "Report on Medical School Faculty Salaries 2010-2011." This report is $409.00. I didn't purchase the report, so here's a summary from Modern Physician:

The average physician working as a clinical faculty member at a U.S. medical school made a total of $262,400 in the 2010-11 academic year—an increase of 2.9% over the previous year, according to a new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Almost 59,000 U.S. physicians serve as clinical faculty members, according to the AAMC's Report on Medical School Faculty Salaries, 2010-11.

In comparison, the 1,145 physicians working as basic science faculty saw their compensation rise 2.7% to $150,600. The 12,928 nonphysicians who have a doctorate and work as clinical faculty saw their average compensation grow 2.2% to $123,400.

How does your salary affect your overall job happiness?

These days, doctor salaries are under scrutiny because of the public perception that highly-compensated physicians are driving up health care costs. The reality is that there are some physicians who work full-time and don't even generate a six-figure salary. Of course, there are also medical specialists and subspecialists who generate well over $300,000 to 400,000 each year. I also know some physicians who essentially work 2 jobs (a standard job + moonlighting so much that they're over 80 hrs/week). They make a lot of money, but they're always working.

How does your salary affect your overall job happiness?  If you feel underpaid, that's one thing. If you feel that your salary is a "fair" salary for the type of work you do, then how much happier would you be if your salary went up? How much higher would it need to go up in order for you to feel a sense of greater happiness?

Discussing physician executive compensation at #ACPEfall2011

I've spent the past few days attending the 2011 ACPE Fall Institute. Yesterday, I attended a session titled, "Cejka Search/ACPE 2011 Physician Executive Compensation Survey Panel Presentation."

The eighth biennial survey of ACPE members identifies key trends and factors driving today's physician executive compensation and serves as an essential reference resource for physician executives and healthcare organizations developing leadership roles for physicians.

Overall median compensation for physician executives in 2011 = $305,000

The two-year rate of increase in total compensation – at 5.9% – is well below the 11.6% increase reported in 2009 and the lowest since the 2001 survey reported 5.0% increase. Higher-ranking physician executives experienced a greater reduction in the rate of growth in total compensation than those in other roles.

ACPE Leadership Roundtable: Physician Executive Compensation Survey Panel Presentation

This afternoon, here at the ACPE 2011 Fall Institute, there will be a special session titled, the "Cejka Search/ACPE 2011 Physician Executive Compensation Survey Panel Presentation."

Paul Esselman, Executive Vice President and Managing Principal of Cejka Executive Search, will lead an interactive roundtable discussion with four respected and experienced physician executives.

Gain the insights and learn from the experience of these leading physician executives as they share their expertise on today's most important issues in compensation and physician leadership as reported from your responses to the 2011 Physician Executive Compensation Survey by Cejka Executive Search and the American College of Physician Executives.

Findings from 2011 Physician Executive Compensation Survey

Cejka Executive Search and the American College of Physician Executives Release Findings from 2011 Physician Executive Compensation Survey

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Physician executive compensation experienced the lowest growth rate for the first time in ten years, according to the Cejka Executive Search and American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) 2011 Physician Executive Compensation Survey. In this eighth biennial survey of ACPE members, key trends and factors that drive change in physician executive compensation are identified. The results of the survey will be presented at the ACPE 2011 Fall Institute on November 8, 2011 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Quality of life, debt, and burnout among doctors-in-training (residency)

A recent JAMA article titled, "Quality of Life, Burnout, Educational Debt, and Medical Knowledge Among Internal Medicine Residents," concludes:

In this national study of internal medicine residents, suboptimal QOL and symptoms of burnout were common. Symptoms of burnout were associated with higher debt and were less frequent among international medical graduates. Low QOL, emotional exhaustion, and educational debt were associated with lower IM-ITE scores (Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) scores).

Here's what the researchers found:

• Quality of life was rated “as bad as it can be” or “somewhat bad” by 2402 of 16 187 responding residents (14.8%). 
• Overall burnout and high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were reported by 8343 of 16 192 (51.5%), 7394 of 16 154 (45.8%), and 4541 of 15 737 (28.9%) responding residents, respectively.
• In multivariable models, burnout was less common among international medical graduates than among US medical graduates (45.1% vs 58.7%; odds ratio, 0.70 [99% CI, 0.63-0.77]; P < .001). Greater educational debt was associated with the presence of at least 1 symptom of burnout (61.5% vs 43.7%; odds ratio, 1.72 [99% CI, 1.49-1.99]; P < .001 for debt >$200 000 relative to no debt).
• Residents reporting QOL “as bad as it can be” and emotional exhaustion symptoms daily had mean IM-ITE scores 2.7 points (99% CI, 1.2-4.3; P < .001) and 4.2 points (99% CI, 2.5-5.9; P < .001) lower than those with QOL “as good as it can be” and no emotional exhaustion symptoms, respectively.
• Residents reporting debt greater than $200 000 had mean IM-ITE scores 5.0 points (99% CI, 4.4-5.6; P < .001) lower than those with no debt. These differences were similar in magnitude to the 4.1-point (99% CI, 3.9-4.3) and 2.6-point (99% CI, 2.4-2.8) mean differences associated with progressing from first to second and second to third years of training, respectively.

So, what does this suggest? For one thing, residency is grueling and many people burn out or feel that life is terrible. Does this change once physicians complete their residency and enter the busy working world of high-volume patients and stressful working conditions? For some, their outlook improves because their salary has significantly gone up. For others, they battle with greater stress and anxiety because they now have more responsibilities to shoulder as an attending. They no longer have that backup or safety net they used to have during residency training. 

Job Post: Managed Care Medical Director (includes salary info)

Medical Director
Aetna - Phoenix, AZ

POSITION SUMMARY
The Medical Director (MD) is responsible for providing clinical expertise and business direction in support of medical management programs to promote the delivery of high quality, constituent responsive medical care. The MD is a critical medical and business leader and contact for external providers, plan sponsors, and regulatory agencies and participates in the strategic medical management of local markets.

@DrJosephKim quoted in this @CNN @Money article about health care #jobs

I'm quoted in this CNN Money article titled, "Health care jobs a bright spot for hiring." Many people choose to pursue careers in health care because of the job stability associated with the health care market. These days, even in a depressed economy, there are many new health care jobs that are being added on a regular basis. Why is this happening? Here's the bottom line: the aging population coupled with changes driven by health care reform will add a number of new jobs in the health care industry.

There are also changing trends in the ways hospitals are hiring physicians or practice groups. Many independent private practice physicians are choosing to be employed by hospital systems and they are choosing salaried models of reimbursement. When a hospital hires a private practice physician to work as a salaried physician employee, that's considered a new job for the hospital. Technically, the physician switched from working as an independent contractor to a salaried employee for the hospital. The hospital records that they added and filled a new job position.

In reality, these health care job statistics published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics may be a bit misleading right since so many physicians are switching from the private practice model to a salaried model.

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

Salaries for health IT positions based on the 2010 HIMSS compensation survey

There are a growing number of physicians and nurses pursuing careers in health information technology. What types of salaries can clinicians expect if they make the move into health IT? The answer largely depends on whether you're working for a hospital, a non-profit organization, an EHR vendor, a computer hardware company, a consulting firm, a startup company, etc.

Right now, there are a growing number of startup companies looking to leverage health IT resources in the health care industry. Much of that movement is occurring in the mobile health or mHealth industry.

So, what are some salary figures in health IT? We can look to the 2010 HIMSS Compensation Survey Results and we'll see the following salary figures:

• Application Systems Analyst - $72,544 average
• Clinical/Nurse Informatics Director – $103,504 average
• Clinical/Medical Informatics Director – $176,588 average
• IS/IT Manager – $96,909 average
• Clinical Systems Analyst –Nurse – $84,007 average
• Project Manager – $93,877 average
• Director of Information Systems – $116,569 average
• Chief Security Officer – $122,975 average
• Chief Technology Officer – $142,311 average
• Implementation Manager – $94,157 average

The average salary in this sample of 2,218 healthcare IT professionals is $114,176. The median salary (that which falls in the middle of distribution) is $98,000. Let's now look at some of the specifics:

Average Salary by Region:

Find jobs that pay over $100k at TheLadders

Are you looking for a job that pays six figures?

TheLadders.com  provides you with the ability to find high-paying non-clinical jobs in medical affairs, consulting, biopharma, investment banking, venture capital, and many other industries. Their targeted sites list more than 35,000 new $100k+ jobs each month across every industry, in companies of all types and sizes. They only list jobs that pay more than $100,000/year, including many C-level, VP, Director and Manager jobs. So, if you're in the market for a $100k+ job, you won't find a better resource anywhere.  

Find $100K+ Jobs at TheLadders.com. 

TheLadders.com also provides nice career advice articles and other career services.

Salary Negotiation Tactics: Know Your Value

You'll find some great career articles at TheLadders.com.

One recent article is simply titled, "2011 Salary Negotiation Tactics." (registration required)

The author of that article outlines a six-step process to get the most out of a 2011 salary negotiation. I'd like to highlight the importance of this point: "Know and document your value." This is where many physicians struggle when they're applying for a non-clinical job position. They know how much they could be making in the clinical world, but how about the non-clinical world? Should they get an equal salary? If they think they deserve a higher salary, why? Can they prove and document their value to the company that may hire them?

Physicians generally don't like to discuss the topic of salary, but we all have to recognize that this is a critical topic. Your current salary will influence your salary figure for your next job. Make sure you know how to document your value.

TheLadders.com  provides you with the ability to find high-paying non-clinical jobs in medical affairs, consulting, biopharma, investment banking, venture capital, and many other industries. Their targeted sites list more than 35,000 new $100k+ jobs each month across every industry, in companies of all types and sizes. They only list jobs that pay more than $100,000/year, including many C-level, VP, Director and Manager jobs. So, if you're in the market for a $100k+ job, you won't find a better resource anywhere.  Find $100K+ Jobs at TheLadders.com.

Impact of a dual PharmD/MBA degree on career opportunities and earning potential

What can medical students and physicians learn from our pharmacy colleagues? Let's take a look at this study titled, "Impact of a dual PharmD/MBA degree on career opportunities and earning potential."

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the academic experience and satisfaction of students who completed a dual PharmD/MBA degree program and the program's long-term impact on the students' career choice and earning potential.

METHODS: GPAs, job placement, and starting job salaries were compared between graduates who completed the dual PharmD/MBA program and those who completed only the PharmD program. A satisfaction survey instrument was administered to 17 students who completed the dual PharmD/MBA degree program in May 2007. Data from a standardized job placement and starting salary survey instrument completed by all PharmD graduates were also obtained, as well as all students' final grade point averages (GPAs). GPAs, job placement, and starting job salaries were compared between graduates who had completed the dual PharmD/MBA program and those who had completed only the PharmD program.

RESULTS: The graduating GPAs of dual-degree students were higher than those of both pharmacy (3.52 vs 3.41, p > 0.10) and business (3.82 vs. 3.68, p = 0.018) students not enrolled in the dual-degree program. Dual-degree students were slightly less likely to enter a residency (17% vs. 27%, p = 0.44) than other pharmacy graduates. Among those who elected not to pursue a residency, both mean starting salaries ($111,090 vs. $101,965) and mean total first-year compensation ($127,290 vs. $110,388) were significantly higher for dual-degree graduates compared to the PharmD graduates.

CareerBliss: Company Salaries and Reviews

Do you love your job? Are you thinking about finding a new job? CareerBliss.com is a website that has salary data for millions of companies and job titles nationwide. Plus, CareerBliss provides company reviews so that you can research what others are saying about their own companies (anonymously, I'm sure).

So, what are the Best Bliss Companies? The Top 3 companies are:

1. Google
2. USAF
3. Johnson & Johnson

Salary Information for Clinical Trials Professionals

Applied Clinical Trials partnered with CenterWatch on the bi-annual review of compensation and fulfillment. The 2010 Salary and Career Development Survey for the clinical trials professional featured new directions and challenges over the previous survey in 2008. First and foremost were the economy and the mergers and acquisitions within the pharmaceutical industry. Salaries by industry again are subject to the number of respondents and breakdown of job title. By industry, the average salary for the biotech was the highest at $130K-plus. This was followed by the independent CRA ($112K-plus) and pharmaceutical sponsors ($109K-plus). The average reported salary for the CRO industry was $87,724.

 

Table 2. Vice Presidents are the top earners according to the respondents.

Read the 2010 Salary & Satisfaction Survey here.

Career & Salary Survey: Rain Check

This article on MMM (Medical Marketing and Media) talks about salaries 24th annual MM&M Career & Salary Survey. In a nutshell, salaries went down in the medical marketing industry in 2009. Not a surprise, given that we're in a recession and many pharmaceutical companies are feeling the effects of the recession trickle down to patients and their medications. Then, in 2010 those average salaries went up by 5.4% to $129,200.

As for job satisfaction, 29.6 % report they are “thoroughly satisfied” with their job vs. 25.9% in 2009. Only 7.4% report that they are “not satisfied” with their position.

You can read the article here on MMM.