The Neurologist Entrepreneur

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Pneumothorax

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Neurology is, to me, the most fascinating field of medicine. There is nothing that gets me more excited than the workings of the human brain. That would lead me to think that I should pursue a neurology residency, but there is one problem: I also love business. Before med school I started and ran a couple of businesses, and I loved that. My ideal career as a physician involves direct patient care, research, and building a business related to it. I also have a problem with authority. I deal with it; I keep my mouth shut and act like a good little medical student, but so many things irk me about other people telling me what to do (at least when they're wrong). I remain professional, and I don't think most people who know me even know how much it bothers me to work for other people. Basically, I need to go to a residency program, graduate and start my own business in order to be happy.

What I want to know is: how possible/feasible is this as a neurologist? I know I could start a business quasi-related to neurology, like a hypnosis clinic or a learning center and things like that, which I would enjoy, but I really want to be involved in research and direct patient care. If I go with IM, I could easily start a practice and expand it into a large business with lots of complementary services and work on and build a model for excellent and efficient primary care (a business model that I could then share with other physicians and as a result possibly improve primary care throughout the country). Is there something like this that is possible in neurology? Do any of you know any neurologist-entrepreneurs who are involved in patient care, research AND have made a business of it?
 
What do you mean by "business"? What do you think a medical practice is? It's a business. Neurologists in private practice are running "businesses" every day. Some are more ambitious about expanding than others, but at any scale, it's still a business.

If you mean "business" on the scale of General Motors or Microsoft, no, I don't think you're going to pull that off. But a medium-to-large scale successful private practice is certainly feasible. Many large private practices have research affiliations for clinical trials as well as academic affiliations for teaching. It's just gonna take a long time and a lot of hard work to build it, just like any other business.

Not sure where you are geographically, but you need to get out of the classroom and into the community a little bit and see the array of practice options that are open to you. They never teach you this kind of thing in med school -- they only want to churn out good little academic scut-monkeys. You don't get much opportunity to see "real world" practice until late in residency.

PS: check your private messages.
 
Make friends with a Nephrologist and buy into his dialysis center.
 
I'm glad i'm not the only person on the SDN who is interested in the business side of medicine. I'm entering medical school in 09' and will have an MBA by then. My goal is to someday get involved in my own medical business outside of my practice. I've been wondering the same thing. Anyone got some good advice out there?

Also, What are the possible pathways for someone with an MBA/MD to get into hospital admin?
 
I'm sorry I wan not specific enough. I mean profit off of owning more than one office, I guess having other specialists work for them?
 
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