The VITAL Physician Executive
Helping Hospital and Medical Group Executives Lead and Manage With Confidence
The VITAL Physician Executive

How to Become a Medical Writer with Dr. Mandy Armitage – 022

Teaching and Writing Come Naturally to Many Physicians

In this podcast episode, I speak with Dr. Mandy Armitage about her career as a medical writer. She was trained and board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and sports medicine.

After working clinically, she transitioned to working full-time in medical writing. She has experience as a freelancer and a full-time employed writer. She currently serves as a Medical Director for HealthLoop and continues freelance medical writing at Armitage Medical.

I’ve been interested in writing myself. It’s one of  the reasons I started this blog. But Mandy is very serious about writing and describes what she did to make this her full-time career.

Mandy is also passionate about helping others to pursue a career in medical writing. During our conversation, she describes her transition from practicing physician to full-time writer, including resources that she used to develop her writing skills. She also defines the various categories of medical writing.

Here is some of her advice for transitioning to a writing career:

My Biggest Money Mistakes – Bonus Episode – 021

Fire Your Financial Advisor and Take This Course Instead

In this episode, I’ll be describing four big money mistakes I’ve made over the years. Following that, I’m pleased to be able to tell you about a course for high income professionals that will help you avoid them, and other financial blunders.

This is a BONUS EPISODE, that I really didn’t want to delay publishing. I’m excited about an opportunity that dropped in my lap, so I wanted to tell you about it . I’ll just say right now that there’ll be some promotion at the end, so if you really hate that kind of thing, you can just skip this post.

Photo by Vladimir Solomyani on Unsplash

I’ve been doing the blog almost two years, and I started the podcast a few months ago. To this point, I haven’t really monetized it in any way, and there are some expenses that come with producing a blog and a podcast. So I’m looking for ways to pull in some income that is not intrusive to the podcast.

10 Reasons Why You Should Pursue a Hospital Management Career

It's Challenging, Rewarding and Pays Well

In this episode, I’ll be explaining why I think you should pursue a hospital management career.

But first, allow me to remind you about the free webinar being presented on Tuesday evening, January 30, by my previous guest, Dr. Mike Woo-Ming.

Called Making the Leap: Secrets to a Non-Clinical Career, this free webinar will ease your concerns and explore what questions to ask before transitioning out of clinical practice. Mike will describe the next steps to take while reviewing different realistic job opportunities for physicians. Time is short, so sign up for the webinar at vitalpe.net/businesswebinar.

If you’re reading this after January 30, 2018, you can still go to the new Courses Page, where I’ll place a link to Mike’s course on Nonclinical Career Secrets, if it is still available.

Now for today’s content…

It’s just me today. A new interview will return next week. So, I’m going to take this opportunity talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart.

As stated in the opening my podcast each week, the goal of this podcast is to inspire, inform and support you as you pivot to a nonclinical career.

Since I have not personally experienced most of the nonclinical careers out there, I bring guests on so we can learn together how to pursue them.

Entrepreneur and Business Owner – Interview with Dr. Mike Woo-Ming – 019

Find More Freedom by Creating Your Own Business

In this podcast episode, Mike Woo-Ming, MD, MPH, describes how and why he started his current business. He then takes us back to his successful side hustle while still in residency, and highlights many of the other clinical and non-clinical businesses he developed during his career.

Mike is a family physician, entrepreneur, speaker, author, medical marketing strategist and consultant. He completed his master’s degree in public health at the University of Michigan, received his medical education at Wayne State University, and completed the family medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic.

He started a software company and led the email marketing strategies of several multimillion-dollar online health companies. Mike also produces education for physicians seeking to create their own clinical or nonclinical business.

I’ve come to know Mike through interactions on Facebook and LinkedIn. He provides insights for group members related to non-clinical “side gigs,” internet marketing and entrepreneurship.

Photo by Daniel Hjalmarsson on Unsplash

As you’ll hear during today’s interview, he began his entrepreneurial ways even before he finished his family medicine residency. He’s always been drawn to owning his own business, and supporting physicians who want to do the same.

Mike’s Story

Most of his insights come as he describes his multiple business ventures. He describes so many interesting twists and turns in his career, that it’s pretty remarkable. And I think we only scratched the surface.

Achieve the Life You Want with Career Coach Dr. Heather Fork – 018

Slow Down and Avoid 5 Common Mistakes

In this podcast episode, I speak with physician career coach Heather Fork, MD, CPCC. She describes her own personal journey and her experiences helping physicians achieve the life they want.

I found this interview to be very inspiring. She distills years of coaching into a clear outline for career transition. In addition, her own transition, from clinical medicine to a career she loves, serves as a beacon of hope to those physicians in the throes of burnout.

I’ve been following Dr. Fork since I started my blog in 2016. I had a chance to meet her briefly at the 2017 SEAK Nonclinical Careers Conference. I’ve been anxious to speak with her about her experiences as a physician coach since starting this podcast.

Heather is a Non-Clinical Career Coach and founder of The Doctor’s Crossing. As a certified coach, she works with physicians who are seeking to renew and reinvigorate their careers and avoid burnout.

After practicing for 9 years in her own dermatology practice, she made the difficult decision to leave her practice and pursue a calling to serve others in a different way. Having gone through a career transition, she is able to integrate her experience, training, and abiding interest in her work to help other physicians find happiness, success, and fulfillment in their own lives and careers.

Create the Ideal Resume – Interview with Charlotte Weeks – 017

How to Get Employers to Demand an Interview

In this podcast episode, I talk with career coach and certified resume-writing expert, Charlotte Weeks, about creating that ideal resume.

For most career pivots, we’re going to need to send out a resume. So, I’ve had this topic on my “to do” list for quite a while. And I’m very pleased to present my conversation with Charlotte Weeks.

Charlotte is an Executive Career Coach, Executive Resume Writer and Outplacement Consultant. She provides career marketing documents and career coaching to senior-level professionals and executives. She is a Certified Career Management Coach (CCMC), a Certified Job Search Strategist (CJSS), a Nationally Certified Resume Writer (NCRW) and a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW).

Charlotte was a mentor at the SEAK conference that I attended last October in Chicago. She has also been a speaker at previous SEAK conferences.

First, we get into her experience and background.

Background

She previously worked in the Human Resources Department at the American Medical Association. But now she provides services through her own company, Weeks Career Services, Inc.

How to Quietly Build Leadership Skills As You Serve a Nonprofit – 016

5 Major Benefits for Physicians Seeking a New Career

In this episode, we discuss how volunteering to serve a nonprofit board provides leadership experience and expedites career transition.

A Book Review

As I’ve studied the issue of career transition, I’ve often encountered burnout as a reason to shift careers.

But there is an ignored cousin to burnout: physician suicide. The physician suicide rate is double that of the general population. And it appears, at least anecdotally, that the training of medical students contributes to the likelihood of suicide in both medical students themselves, and then later in practicing physicians.

Suicide is a tragedy, whenever it occurs. And in this age of physician shortages, the physicians lost each year to suicide affect thousands of spouses, children, parents and friends, and an estimated one million patients.

Rather than try to address this issue myself, I want to raise your awareness of this problem and of the work of Dr. Pamela Wible. Dr. Wible is a family physician who addressed her own frustration with modern medical practice by creating and promoting Ideal Medical Care.

Physician Suicide Expert

Along the way, she also became interested in physician and medical student suicide. She has now become an expert on the subject, and a resource for suicidal physicians and the families of suicide victims.

Answer These Questions Before You Quit Medicine – Interview with Dr. Robert Gleeson – 015

Coaching Questions to Answer for Yourself

In this podcast episode, I speak with Dr. Robert Gleeson about the questions we might ask ourselves before we quit medicine. As an author, physician executive, and leadership coach, he has explored burnout and possible career transition with over 100 physicians. He recommends we do some serious soul-searching before throwing in the towel on our clinical careers.

Before getting into the interview, I present another podcast by one of our physician colleagues.

First – A Podcast Review

This one is called The Happy Doc. Here is how the Happy Doc describes his mission: “The Happy Doc is about bringing joy to the work that you do. It’s about understanding how to work on personal and systemic levels to make lasting change in the lives of healing professionals. While the focus has been mainly on physicians, the principles we learn in our podcast, blog posts, reading materials, and group sessions, apply to nearly all professionals.” He goes on to say: “Our website brings inspirational, creative, and happy health professionals to you, get ready to learn how you can be a happy doctor too!”

Taylor Brana, D.O., produces the podcast. He is an intern, just starting his postgraduate education in Philadelphia.

He mostly publishes interviews. But sometimes he presents a shorter episode about his experiences as an intern, or snippets of information gathered from other sources.  I really enjoyed his conversation with Pamela Wible, the founder of Ideal Medical Care, and author of Physician Suicide Letters Answered(this is an affiliate link*).

His other guests are equally unique and inspirational. You can find his podcast by searching for The Happy Doc on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher, or by going to his website at thehappydoc.com.

Before You Quit Medicine

I first met Bob Gleeson at an American Association for Physician Leadership meeting. He is an internist, author, physician executive and leadership coach. He has a unique experience in the corporate world, having worked for 27 years for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance.

Personality Types and Physician Burnout with Heather Fork

Guest Post: Burning Out? Recommendations For Your Personality Type

This week’s blog post is a Guest Post by Heather Fork, MD, CPCC, who blogs at Doctor’s Crossing. She provides advice on how to manage our burnout based on our personality types.

Heather is a certified coach and owner and founder of Doctor’s Crossing. It’s there that she works with physicians who are seeking to renew and reinvigorate their careers and avoid burnout.

After practicing for 9 years in her own successful dermatology practice, she made the difficult decision to leave her practice and pursue a calling to serve others in a different way.

Reasons to Pursue a Career in Medical Informatics – Interview with Dr. Brian Young – 014

An Evolving Career in High Demand

In this podcast episode, I speak with Dr. Brian Young about medical informatics.

He is an Enterprise Physician Informaticist with Dignity Health, a 38-hospital system with sites in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Brian received his medical training at Wake Forest, a master’s degree in predictive analytics at Northwestern University, and his MBA from the University of Cincinnati.

He is a credentialed Epic trainer and has been involved with multiple implementations in both inpatient and outpatient environments.

I heard Brian speak at the annual SEAK conference on Nonclinical Careers for Physicians in October. I found his presentation to be very interesting. The field of informatics is growing quickly and there should be heavy demand for medical informaticists far into the future. But, it’s also a field which is rapidly changing.