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Doctor, Your "Future" is waiting to see you now

published on May 10, 2016 by Jim McGough

Your "Present" is not feeling well

You will not find your "Future" while rapidly inputting patient information into an electronic health record system portal every Friday night while sitting in close proximity to your spouse who is also a physician and doing the same thing while you both enjoy a bottle of wine, a pizza, and intermittent conversation (now known as Physician couple date night and unfortunately a true story). It is no wonder that the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, recently proclaimed that improving the “emotional well-being” of physicians has become one of the top priorities for the entire healthcare ecosystem.

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Physicians are seeking alternative treatments

As a non-physician who works with many physicians, I find the situation for the collective physician community to be unfortunate. Physicians, in my opinion, are the people who demonstrate the best human qualities of being of service, hard work, and cultivating intelligence, wisdom, and craft over an entire lifetime. In most cases Physicians are the people who were “most likely to succeed” and also the people you wanted “to see have success” because of these qualities.  Unfortunately, Physicians today (especially those in their forties and fifties) feel achieving professional success (and significance) in a traditional Physician role is much more challenging than it was when they were just getting started and are not optimistic about the future getting any better. Thus, many Physicians are seeking extracurricular pursuits to address their professional “unmet need” and most are having a challenging time doing it.

The "Blessing and Curse" of being a Physician

For Physician’s it is a “Blessing and Curse” to cultivate their Intelligence, Wisdom, and Craft.   The Curse is that the Physician over the course of their career becomes increasingly acculturated to “not making mistakes” in their professional domain. The Blessing is that the Physician over the course of their career becomes increasingly aware of how to improve health outcomes based on years of experience providing healthcare to patients in clinical environment and seeing the results.

Only 10% of Physicians have what it takes?

I have been told by many experienced and successful physician entrepreneurs that only about 10% of the entire Physician population “has what it takes” to be a successful entrepreneur in healthcare. I disagree and think that number could and will be larger. I believe the Physician’s “Blessing and Curse” is a big factor why relatively few capable Physicians pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Physicians are very accustomed to being “right” almost all of the time --- and entrepreneurship is anathema for those who can’t stand being mistaken quite frequently and often publicly. However, necessity is the mother of all invention and increasingly Physicians due to their collectively challenging circumstances are looking to entrepreneurial outlets to improve their situation. Overcome the “Curse” no matter how uncomfortable it makes the Physician feel and put the “Blessing” to good use is the new mantra—Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Healthcare Providers, and Insurance firms as well as Healthcare startups fully understand and appreciate that all Healthcare innovation absolutely requires the insight and support of Physicians.

There is a global village wanting to support Physicians

Fortunately, today an increasing number of institutions are now making a concerted effort to facilitate Physician-led entrepreneurship. The American Medical Association has provided an interesting opportunity for Physicians to develop entrepreneurial ideas that can help shape the future of medicine through the AMA Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge .

In addition, AdvaMed, the U.S. Trade Association for Medical Technologies has developed the MedTech Innovator Program which is a global competition and virtual accelerator well-suited to supporting Physician Entrepreneurs. As co-founder of EdgeOne Medical, I am proud to be a supporting partner of the AMA Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge as well as the MedTech Innovator Program. Note: Potential participants in both programs need to apply by May 15, 2016. For more information visit innovatewithama.com and medtechinnovator.org


As co-founder of EdgeOne Medical, Jim McGough and EdgeOne Medical help promising early-stage medical technology and connected health ventures progress from the product viability and feasibility stages through regulatory clearance and ultimately to an exit or commercialization in a time and capital-efficient manner. EdgeOne Medical supports the Regulatory, Quality and Product Development needs of many of the most efficient medical technology ventures in the US and Europe. In support of some of the people they admire the most, EdgeOne Medical has developed a special program for Physicians to develop a Medical Technology concept on a part-time basis: EdgeOne Launch for Physicians.

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