Non-Clinical Opportunities for Physicians in India

By Dr. Naval Asija

India’s healthcare has witnessed several transitions in last two decades with a trend towards Privatization, Commercialization and Globalization. This has opened newer avenues for physicians in several industries. Non-clinical positions for physicians now come in different shapes and sizes, with most of them being linked to specific career paths.
The traditional types of non-clinical opportunities were more organized and secure; whereas the newer ones offer the promise of faster growth and higher financial rewards, sometimes at the costs of job insecurity and competition from non-physician candidates.
 
Traditional Non-Clinical Opportunities
 
Chief Medical Officer: The CMO is a public servant and is sometimes known as the Civil-Surgeon/Health-Officer. These officers are not directly recruited, but instead, get promoted from the medical officers employed with the government, who are primarily involved in clinical duties in initial few years of their service.

Medical Scientist: The medical scientist works with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and its affiliated institutes. Since its inception, with a network over 25 research institutes, ICMR has employed scores of medical scientists in bio-medical research.

Medical Teacher: Medical teachers are the faculty members in medical colleges that produce fresh medical graduates of modern medicine. They teach basic sciences subjects to medical students, before they get ready for clinical medicine. Besides the medical colleges, medical teachers are also employed by the dental colleges, nursing colleges, and paramedical colleges.  

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Newer Non-Clinical Opportunities
 
Hospitals: In recent past, India has seen a rapid expansion of private hospitals. Over 200 new general hospitals attached to private medical colleges, 100 corporate owned super-specialty hospitals in metropolitan areas, and 100 privately owned general hospitals in tier II and tier III cities have sprung up in the last two decades. These require physician executives for administration.

Medical Diagnostics: Medical diagnostics has perhaps seen a bigger expansion than the hospitals due to lower investment requirements and faster returns, with the highest growth occurring in the medical imaging segment followed by the pathology services. The radiologist, pathologist and biochemists employed by the industry produce the desired output in the form of lab reports or imaging reports.  

Pharmaceuticals: India is known as the pharmacy of the developing world due to its successful pharma companies. The marketing/sales departments of domestic arms of these companies require services of a medical affairs physician. Similarly, their compliance departments require the services of a regulatory affairs physician.

Information Technology: India has witnessed an IT/BPO services boom over last two decades. The exponential growth of India’s healthcare IT-BPO market and its globalized nature has led to emergence of the role of a med-tech physician who aids in new product development, training of executives and project management.

Insurance: India has also seen rapid expansion of private health insurance, and more recently with advent of government provided health coverage schemes the number of insurance beneficiaries and claims have multiplied manifold in last two decades. The physicians employed by the industry take care of the underwriting, authorization and claims processes.

Consulting (NGOs/Business): With the sole focus on improving efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare systems, management consulting companies as well as domain specific NGOs compete for providing “solutions” to their clients that may be from any corner of the healthcare industry. They hire physicians as healthcare consultants, with a select few working independently.

With the continuous push of market forces, these newer non-clinical opportunities and their takers seem to only grow in numbers in the near future.

About the author: Dr. Naval Asija is from India and has a postgraduate qualification in health administration. He has worked for a decade in diverse non-clinical roles in healthcare, namely, Medical Affairs Physician, Med-Tech Physician and Epidemiologist. He currently writes about various health issues. He also publishes the blog Journey of a Non-Clinical Doctor that intends to mainstream and empower non-clinical doctors.