Making Choices As A Physician In Management

Physicians in management and leadership roles can use a strategic choice framework to improve the quality of their decisions.    

Problem solving and decision-making are important skills for all physicians, in business and in life. Problem-solving often involves decision-making, and decision-making is especially important for management and leadership. There are processes and techniques to improve decision-making and the quality of decisions. Decision-making may be more natural for some personalities, so these physicians should focus more on improving the quality of their decisions. Physicians that are less natural decision-makers are often able to make quality assessments, but then need to be more decisive in acting upon the assessments made. 

Too often, the process of making a decision is cumbersome and unfocused.  

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Hey Doc! Inspire Action

On the door to my office, I had posted a little memento from a new business pitch we did for one of our clients several months back…and on this memento is a phrase that reads “Hey Doc…Inspire Action”.  Although I pass it each day, I’ve never paused to think about what it actually means.

Today, I pause.

And I question myself, “Do I inspire action? Is that my role and responsibility as a physician?. Is that part of my duty in treating and managing patients?”

I must confess, I have not seen a patient (at least as part of a formal practice) in a few years, but the statement still resonated with me since I always consider myself first and foremost a physician.

In today’s hustle and bustle practice, it’s easy to get caught up in managing the pure science of disease. Without placing blame, I’m convinced this has largely been the result of a health system that is utterly broken…one that is predominantly focused on measuring financial and scientific outcomes at the sacrifice of quality drivers of care. In essence, we have lost the art of medicine. After all, how do we measure it? How do we get paid for it? How do we know its working?

Quick answer, I don’t (yet) know. But I can confidently wager that every one of us would agree that it is important to address these critical issues to achieve optimal patient care.

My hunch?...Perhaps this dilemma is the result of system that designed to treat disease, rather than prevent disease. Do we have our priorities misaligned?

It is well known that - beyond the science - patients seek guidance, support and trust from their providers…and not just during the course of disease, but also before the disease ever occurs. This is not science, but rather art.

How are we helping patients stay motivated to get well and stay healthy? How are we inspiring them to take action and be proactive for their wellbeing? How do we create a structure that emphasizes and rewards prevention? How do we make this work within the construct of our existing cost-ridden health system?

In my many interesting people encounters over the past several months, I can happily say that I have met a number passionate individuals who are trying to solve these very issues through active participation and innovation... The only problem is that just a handful of these people are representing the voice of physicians.

Rather than watch a pending disaster unfold before our eyes, it is my hope to inspire all of you to take action and be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Hey Doc! Inspire Action.

(If you are doing something innovative in this area, please comment and let us know what you are up to! Inspire us!) www.gautamgulati.me

Medical Fusion Conference Lecture Videos Available

Freelance MD has become a great place for physicians to learn more about ways they can leverage their medical training in order to advance their careers.  This web hub is a great distance-learning tool to connect like-minded physicians and promote learning.

The live/physical version of Freelance MD is our Medical Fusion Conference which occurs every November in Las Vegas.  At the Medical Fusion Conference we bring together experts from a variety of niche areas-- many of whom write for Freelance MD-- in order to network and connect person to person.  It's an event that only happens once a year, so we eagerly promote it here on Freelance MD with the hope that our readers will pencil the event into their busy schedules.  We want to meet our Freelance MD members and we know you'll benefit from the speakers we've assembled.

Over the past few weeks we've reorganized our Medical Fusion Conference website to make it more interactive and give potential participants an idea of what happens at this innovative event.  We recently added a blog to the Medical Fusion Conference website and we've posted a few lecture clips from past Medical Fusion Conferences.

Check out the videos below to get an idea as to what goes on at the Medical Fusion Conference.  We'll be posting more lecture clips in the near future, so stay tuned to Freelance MD.  

Video clip #1:  In this video, we assembled a team of venture capitalists to discuss VC and how clinical physicians can become a part of this interesting career.  Dr. Bruce Robertson, Managing Director of H.I.G. Bioventures, Dr. Josh Resnick of Prism Ventures, and Dr. Joe Smith, VP of Emerging Technology at Johnson & Johnson are the members of this interesting panel discussion.

 Video Clip #2:  Dr. Michael VanRooyen in the director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and a well-known expert on humanitarian disasters.  However, Dr. VanRooyen is also an experienced entrepreneur and has helped start and develop four businesses, one of which, Ibex, was eventually bought by Picis for millions.  In this lecture, Dr. VanRooyen discusses the culture of start-up companies and how clinical physicians can develop their business skills in order to be more effective in enterprises like these.

Video Clip #3:  Dr. Mike Woo-Ming, a Family Physician who retired from medicine at the age of 35 years old in order to focus on his internet businesses, discusses internet marketing and internet entrepreneurship.  "Dr. Mike" as he is known in internet circles, offers advice to those who are interested in using the internet to leverage their clinical knowledge in a variety of ways.

Masterminding With Physicians: Forming A Strategic & Successful Alliance

Why do some entrepreneurs fail and other’s succeed?

I do not think I would have been able to successfully grow my business if I did not secure a few mentors early in my business career, and surrounding myself with an outstanding support team.   Of course, I wouldn’t have done this without the blessing and support of my loving wife and family.

But I also had another  support “family”  a network, a safety net – fellow entrepreneurs many of whom who were running and growing their own successful  businesses, that I could pick up a phone call or meet on a regular basis, giving me a blueprint that I could hone and follow.

For the last several years, I’ve belonged to and run mastermind groups, both in my office, or at quarterly and yearly meetings, as well as virtually on bi-weekly and monthly conference calls.  And I am starting yet another one for this summer for physicians and health care professionals.

And our businesses has grown exponentially because of it!

Why mastermind groups?

Mastermind groups allow you to challenge yourself, brainstorm ideas, and serve a common purpose with others. It also puts yourself accountable to other members, leveraging the experience and knowledge of the group.

 The concept of the Mastermind Group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in the early 1900's.  "Think And Grow Rich" was a book I read back in medical school.  Hill writes about the Mastermind principle as:

"The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony."

At our meeting there is a shared camaraderie and a spirit of helping each other, because, running an online business can get to be lonely. As I have pointed out in the past, doctors often have a “lone wolf” mentality, which may not translate well into the business world. It is vitally important also to have people in the group with vast knowledge and experience to help guide you, or that can bring different skill sets to the group.

Each format of a mastermind group runs differently but a fundamental component is where each person states "here is where I am in my business, here are my successes, and here are my needs or stumbling blocks"  Ideas are then shared rapidly in the group and solutions are then sought.  A key component is also having goals and milestones for the next time we meet.

If you feel your business is stuck in neutral, consider joining a high-level mastermind group.  Mastermind groups  can truly be a key pillar to your success.

Physicians & The Accidental Billionaires

Accidental Billionaires?

Last week with my time on the island I had the opportunity to catch up on some reading.

Nothing too earth-shattering or intellectual, but I did make it through a couple of good books.

One book I had considered reading for a while now actually turned out to be rather good.  The book was The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich.  

For those of you who have been living in a cave the past few years, The Accidental Billionaires is a sort of fictionalized account of the rise of Facebook, and was recently turned into a popular movie called The Social Network.

I was hesitant to read the book simply because it has been criticized as too fictional.  Mark Zuckerberg-- the person most associated with the founding of Facebook and the current CEO of the company-- did not make himself available for interviews with the author.  Additionally, many of the individuals used as primary sources for the text have openly stated their animosity towards Zuckerberg and/or the company, Facebook.  These foes include Edaurdo Saverin-- a college friend of Zuckerberg and co-founder of Facebook-- and the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who are still in ongoing litigation with the company.

Th book reads like fiction-- Mezrich openly admits he had to use literary technique to bridge gaps in the historical accounts-- but it ends up being an interesting and quick read.  Suffice it to say that if you like the movie, you'll find the book interesting.

Personally, I enjoyed the read simply because while it is obviously one-sided, it does give you one person's (ie- Saverin's) account of the founding of the company and the whirlwind development of Facebook from dorm room daydream to corporate force.  For those who have been involved with any sort of start-up company, the themes of the book ring true:  the initial excitement, the overwhelming work, the near misses and mistakes, the infighting and jealousy, and the eventual victory.

I also enjoyed the characters of the book, many of whom are well-known entities in the world of Silicon Valley.  The anecdotes about "bad boy" Sean Parker, the brilliance of Peter Thiel, the competitive drive of the Winklevoss twins, and the descriptions of life as an undergrad at Harvard were all very intriguing.  

Anyway, if you have any interest in entrepreneurship, venture capital, technology, or start-up companies, then I believe you will find The Accidental Billionaires a fun read.  I enjoyed it and while some parts are somewhat sinister, and others downright bizarre, I think this fictionalized account of one person's view of the Facebook founding is entertaining and worth the short time investment necessary to breeze through its pages.

Crafting Your Elevator Pitch As A Physician

What is an elevator pitch? 

There are many explanations, but essentially it’s about “selling” yourself by describing who you are and why someone else should care - in 30 seconds or less.  Interestingly, the term is taken from the early days of Internet explosion when web development needed venture capital.  The best companies were those that could explain a business proposition to the occupants of an elevator in the time it took them to ride to their floor. 

For you, an elevator pitch is probably as essential as a business card. You need to be able to say who you are, what you do, what you are interested in doing and how you can be a valuable resource in a short enough time period to avoid losing the interest of the other person.  Most people won’t want to listen for more than a minute and many busy people (and everyone is busy) will listen for a shorter time than that.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you build your elevator pitch.

Get quiet with yourself first:  Make sure you know what you really want to communicate.  Ask yourself some focusing questions.  Can your point be boiled down to one sentence?  If not, it probably needs clarifying.

Have a provocative opening:  Stories work well for this.  They tend to paint a picture in the listener’s mind and help build that emotional connection. 

Make sure you have one main point you want to get across to your listener.  Once you figure that out, figure out why your listener should care about that point (how it fills his or her needs).  If you can say it in a way that the listener cares about, he or she is much more likely to “hear” it. 

Keep it simple.  Remember, you want this to be a 30-45 SECOND (not minute) monologue. 

As you build and practice your elevator pitch, here is a good acronym to keep in mind: S.U.C.C.E.S.

S:  Simplicity.  Start with one sentence that gets attention yet is simple. This is the most important part because it grabs the listener’s attention.  That’s what you want.

U: Unexpected.  Keep the listener’s attention with something he or she might not expect.

C: Concrete.  Use relevant analogies or metaphors to bring things to life or to paint a picture in the listener’s mind

C: Credible.  Use recent statistics or highlight your past outcomes and accomplishments to demonstrate you know what you are talking about.

E: Emotional connection.  Try to use stories and or methods that speak to your listener because they involve things important to the listener (for example, if the listener has kids or likes to run, keep this in mind and relate it to what you are trying to say)

S: Stories.  Stories are a good way to keep that emotional connection and to keep the pitch interesting. 

The hardest part for most of the doctors I work with is getting started.  It’s hard to make the time and feel the energy it takes to feel your creative juices flowing and it’s hard to know what to say.  We all have lots of stories – things that have happened to us, times when we felt like a failure, times when what we did resulted in success despite all odds.  But then that little seed of doubt creeps in and we wonder, “Is this story even going to be interesting to someone else  - or does it just make me look like a jerk?” 

Get past that. Laugh about it.  Shake your head and realize, “It might,” and then write it down anyway.  You just need to get started.  You can revise it later or change it all together when you do remember that brilliant story with the right blend of humor, humility and substance.  Or maybe you’ll just shrug and remember that you’ll never have the “perfect” antidote; we are all human and that is reason we connect to stories in the first place. 

Then, set yourself up for S.U.C.C.E.S.

Physician: What Are Your Assets?

With all the concern over the economy and the changes in health care, I thought it would be a good idea to write just a quick post about financial assets.

Most physicians do not understand the concept of financial assets and wonder why they feel like they are working harder and faster for less and less reward.  

Now, I want to be clear, I am not a financial expert or a wealth manager.  However, I have found a few principles that have really helped me personally, so I though I would pass them along to the readers of Freelance MD.

First, it needs to be said loudly and clearly that when a physician first graduates from his or her residency program, they have not "made it" in the financial sense.  Yes, graduating from residency is a great achievement and does signify the completion of a long, difficult training period.  It also usually is accompanied by a significant increase in salary and the ability to live better and spend more.

However, in the financial sense, a newly minted physician is in a horrible financial place.

Most physicians finish residency with significant debt, debt that is made worse due to the young physician's new salary, a salary that places the physician in a tax bracket that precludes the interest on student loans from being tax deductible.  

Next, most physicians have little financial training so they immediately "reward" themselves for all the years of focus and discipline with a "few" nice things.  I clearly remember many resident friends of mine who bought expensive luxury cars and nice homes immediately after graduation.  Since few residents have significant savings, these new physicians simply added to their significant student loans even more debt in the form of car loans and large mortgages.

The problem with all this is that the new physician is suddenly saddled with enormous overhead.  His or her lifestyle looks nice, but at the end of each month very little money goes to savings or retirement or investing in other financial assets that could help increase their overall net worth.  Even those physicians who are aggressive about paying down debt and funding retirement often do not rise as high as they could financially because they make the mistake of pouring their disposable income into items that they believe are assets but actually are liabilities.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, has produced a couple of very short informational videos (around 2 minutes each) that summarize the issue of assets.  The true definition of an asset is something that makes you money.  While this seems obvious, it is often misunderstood.  For instance, many physicians consider their homes and their cars "assets."  Strictly speaking, these items are not assets since for the most part they take money out of your pocket.  

Here's a short video of Robert defining a true asset:

Make sense?

For an item to be a true asset it needs to produce cash for you.  

Physicians work very hard and make a good salary, but most take their disposable income and instead of using it to buy assets, they pour it into items that actually increase the outflow of money from their pockets.  If the physician hits a snag in his/her career-- illness, salary decrease, burnout-- they suddenly realize how fragile their financial world really is.  Without true assets putting money each month back into their pockets, these physicians realize they are simply highly-paid hourly workers who are forced to exchange time for money indefinitely if they are to survive.  This realization is a very depressing concept, and one that I believe significantly contributes to the frustration of many physicians today.

To break out of this cycle, a physician absolutely must understand the principle of investing in true assets with their disposable income so that they begin to slowly wean themselves off of the dependence of their physician salaries.  In the end, a wise physician will have lived frugally, paid down debt, placed money in retirement, and instead of buying "toys" with their disposable income, instead slowly built up a collection of assets that put money back into their pocket and made their physician salary superfluous.  Ideally, a physician will eventually reach a point where their living expenses are covered by the income from their assets and their salary as a physician becomes simply the "icing on the cake" so to speak.  Perfectly executed, this freedom from the time-money continuum allows a physician to see their careers as something they choose to do for whatever reason-- desire, interest, altruism, curiosity, etc...-- not something they are forced to do to continue surviving.  It truly is a life-empowering shift in perspective.

So what are some examples of assets?

Again, Robert Kiyosaki succinctly describes the three broad categories of assets in the following video:

I hope this all makes sense and you're beginning to get a vision about how you can begin breaking free from the time-money grind through the purchasing and development of true financial assets.  In future posts we'll go deeper into this subject, and  at our Medical Fusion Conference we'll also be explaining these concepts in more detail.