More Physicians Are Starting Healthcare Companies — Here's the List

Welcome back to On/Offcall!

For as long as I’ve practiced medicine, there’s been this prevailing wisdom that we as physicians are not skilled at business. Leave business to the business people. If you look at healthcare today, I think you’re seeing where that’s gotten us as physicians — administrator bosses, private equity intrusion, and unsustainable workloads that are driving us away from our profession. But over the past several months, I’ve seen a new trend emerge: More and more physicians are becoming entrepreneurs.

On our How I Doctor podcast and blog, we’ve seen many examples of physicians who took the plunge: Kenneth Qiu started his own direct primary care practice, Glenn Loomis founded an AI company, Jared Dashevsky runs a thriving healthcare newsletter, Rami Hosein runs a 7-figure aesthetics business, Laurie Boge started her own scrubs company, and Muthu Alagappan started a virtual medical advice platform. I love these examples, and there are also many other physician innovators who inspire me! Shiv Rao built AI-scribe company Abridge, my co-founder Joe Habboushe runs MDCalc, Alexandra Greenhill is running Careteam Technologies, Gerardo Bonilla is building Chartnote, Min jung Kathy Chae leads CyrenCare, Uché Blackstock runs Advancing Health Equity, Paulius Mui is working on X = Primary Care, Justin Norden founded Qualified Health, Natalie Davis is building PreventScripts and Scrub Capital, Robert Herman is innovating in cardiovascular care with Powerful Medical, Justin Schranger is building better patient communication tools with Vital.io, Dana Corriel is leading SoMeDocs, and Mario Amaro is building better wearables for seniors with Cline.

So what’s going on here? I suspect that since practicing clinical medicine has become so onerous, physicians increasingly feel like betting on ourselves is a way to regain our creativity and also fight back. We also need role models, and seeing more of these individuals in the public eye surely helps pave the way forward. Not everyone is in a position to take on the risk of starting a company (student debt, starting or supporting a family, clinical workload), and that’s perfectly ok. But I do want to share a personal lesson I’ve taken away from founding MDCalc and now Offcall: We are way more suited for the tech and business world than anyone thinks:

1. If you can handle the stress and long hours of residency or shifts in the ED, you can handle the pressure of the startup world.

2. Your experience on the frontlines makes you uniquely qualified to understand and fix the actual pain points in healthcare.

3. Your ability to recruit other physicians as users, evangelists, and investors can be an invaluable (and defensible) asset.

So I say it’s time we recruit more physicians to start companies! Tell me: Do you know anyone else who’s working on a company I should know about? I want to expand my list and feature their story in an upcoming podcast or newsletter. Reply directly, tag them and their company in the comments, and/or forward this newsletter to them.

Graham Walker, MD, Emergency Physician
Co-founder, Offcall

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Why I Quit Full-Time Medicine to Start a Company – to Fight PBMs!

This week on How I Doctor, Graham talked to Dr. Simon Chang, a hospitalist and the CEO and co-founder of eNavvi, an online pharmacy platform. eNavvi is taking out the middle men and helping physicians find the best and most cost-effective medications for their patients. Simon shares why he quit full-time medicine to start his company, how PBMs have far more control over physicians than we realize, and his advice for doctors who are interested in starting a startup of their own.

👀 This is a company to watch and a great episode!

Listen to the episode →

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Highlights From Our Community

Each week, we celebrate career milestones, launches, & other goings-on in the physician community. Have something to promote? Reply and we’ll feature you.

📝 New publication, Marisha Burden
Dr. Marisha Burden publishes a new NEJM article explaining why a more evidence-based approach to work design may help reduce “administrative harm.” Read it here.

🎙️Great listen, Ruchika Talwar
Dr. Ruchika Talwar explains on the BackTable podcast why current payment models lead to high costs and poor outcomes. Listen here.

🎵 Another hot listen, Adam Carewe
Dr. Adam Carewe sits down with Isaac Kohane about how AI is impacting medicine for the NerdMDs podcast. Listen here.

⚕️Attend this webinar, with Jennifer Love
Dr. Jennifer Love is moderating an upcoming Society for Academic Emergency Medicine webinar with a powerhouse panel. Check it out here.

🎙️Another great podcast, Ethan Abbott
Dr. Ethan Abbott and Dr. Donald Apakama chat with Dr. Tom Fadial about improving the efficiency of medical workflows for the STAT AI podcast. Check it out here.

🎉 Upcoming launch, Amna Shabbir
Dr. Amna Shabbir is starting a new “Success Reimagined” podcast about her experience navigating burnout and health challenges. Follow it here.

🗣️ Great insights, Brian Kim
Dermatologist Dr. Brian Kim shares insights on breakthrough therapies in atopic dermatitis and itch management. Read the full interview here.

🎙️ Keep it up, Gita Pensa
Dr. Gita Pensa talks about her journey into malpractice education after her own case experience on the Moving Ahead in Medicine podcast with Dr. Michelle Lee. Listen here.

📝 Solid take, Shawn Martin
American Academy of Family Physicians CEO Shawn Martin reflects on the state of primary care, why we are failing and how we got here. Read it here.

🎙️ Add it to your listening list, Emily Alsentzer
Dr. Emily Alsentzer discusses how early rule-based approaches still offer valuable lessons for today’s AI-powered clinical decision support on the NEJM AI Grand Rounds podcast. Listen here.

🏫 New fellowship, Taylor Burkholder
The USC Department of Population and Public Health Sciences and the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health are launching two new global health fellowships. Learn more from Dr. Taylor Burkholder and apply here.

🩺 Physician for Hire, Arian Hatefi
San Francisco-based physician Dr. Arian Hatefi is looking for a new role in healthcare. Learn more and hire him!

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