In March of 2001 I did what was considered by many of my peers to be the unthinkable; I left my private plastic surgery practice of four years at the age of 36 to enter the medical communications field. If you are a physician reading this and are not familiar with this field, don’t worry; you are not alone. Up until a year before my career change, I hadn’t heard of my current industry.
By 1999 I knew that I had ended up in a highly specialized surgical field, that I wanted to do something different with my life, and that I had no idea where to start. I then spent most of my spare time during the last two years of my surgical career floundering inefficiently at exploring alternative career options. I wasn’t aware of the large number of industries that hired physicians and the resources available to research such opportunities. Most importantly, I didn’t know anyone in these industries. It was only through the mentoring of a relative who had made a successful clinical to non-clinical career change that I learned about the medical education, medical advertising, and publication planning opportunities available within the medical communications industry.
Now, as the co-owner of a medical communications company, I frequently interact with physicians in medical education and other non-clinical industries, as well as countless clinicians who are interested in changing careers. Although I once thought of myself as an anomaly, I now have a better sense of the growing number of physicians in non-clinical careers, and the even larger number of opportunities for individuals such as myself. I also realize the need for an organized approach to bring these groups of physicians together.
I started PRN in 2004 with two primary goals: (1) bringing together these individual pockets of non-clinical physicians for the purpose of enhancing industry education, intellectual interaction, and sharing of opportunities, and (2) creating the definitive information and guidance resource for clinicians exploring non-clinical activities or careers. Interest in this service has been overwhelming. PRN now strives to help transform a single endpoint clinical or non-clinical career into an expansive evolutionary process.
For nearly two years, I met with my relative at a restaurant midway between our homes to discuss my desired career transition. At first I recounted a litany of reasons why I wanted to leave my current career, without a goal in sight. Over time, however, we honed in on a target career and then walked through the steps necessary to get there. More than 50 stuffed flounder and veal marsala dinners later, I made an extremely rewarding career change. I realize how fortunate I was to have guidance through that process and understand that most people don’t have access to such a resource. What I hope to provide in this guidebook is an organized approach to alternative career exploration. You’ll have to provide the flounder and veal.
