Blue Marble University School of Medicine offers the only online MD degree that can be completed in three years, totally online. It is an exciting, unique program that trains the student in the medical arts and medical sciences for application in non-clinical careers.
Alternative Career Options for MD’s
Many people don’t know that there are many MD’s who completed their coursework, obtained their degrees, but did not complete their clinical training, yet work in a myriad of nonclinical careers.
Careers for unlicensed MD’s are vast, and amazing, but need your research to locate activities that appeal to you. Every one is different. For example, one could use our M.D. degree in the following careers:
Actual Sample of Non-Clinical Job Openings
1. Medical Science Liaison-Pharmaceutical Company (May 2023)
M.D. Degree Preferred: $165,000- $190,000 USD per year
Review HERE: Medical Liaison Representative
Principal Medical Writer: An overlooked career for people with M.D. degrees is Principal Medical Writer. The field has an average salary of $125,000 USD and many job postings state “M.D. degree preferred”. So this field is a great field for unlicensed MD’s who can write effectively. Best of all, many of such positions are “remote”. If you search Google for “Principal Medical Writer” you will see all the many jobs available for people that like to write about medical matters. Here are a couple of samples:
2. Medical Writer- Pharmaceutical Company (May 2023)
M.D. Degree Required: $100,000-$150,000 USD per yearReview HERE: Medical Writer
3. Medical Writer 2- Pharmaceutical Company (May 2023)
M.D. Degree Required: From $130,000 USD per year
Review HERE: Medical Writer Job 2
Regulatory Affairs: Another very big area with many many job offerings, here is a sample:
4. Regulatory Affairs-Scientific Products Company
M.D. Degree Highly Preferred: $113,000-$143,000 USD per year
Review HERE: Regulatory Affairs
5. Clinical Development Director-Medical Products Company
M.D. Degree Preferred: $202,000-$256,000 USD per year
Review HERE: Clinical Development Director
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A study of the website of McKinsey & Company and especially the Careers page [https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/home] may give you additional ideas for how to use your Blue Marble MD degree. This company hires many many MDs for a variety of positions internationally. They mention what the future of health care is going to look like soon, and 95% of the major roles for M.D.s are not going to require any medical license. Because all of the new jobs are going to be in pharmaceuticals and management, as shown by these developments that are already underway:
(A) Virtual Hospitals are coming! You thought tele-health was so-so, wait until you get a load of this: A report entitled “Virtual hospitals could offer respite to overwhelmed health systems” noting that “A shift to more-accessible, cost-effective virtual-care models could mitigate increases in healthcare service demand, expenditures, and patient dissatisfaction.” Virtual Hospitals
(B) Virtual Home Health Care. Another trend for which people educated in medicine will find homes. “The shift to virtual and home care: An interview with Annie Lamont” about home health care notes that hospitals will become limited to providing only emergency care and surgeries. Everything else will move to the home: “One of the transformative events of the past several months is that doctors and consumers realized that so much of what they’re doing can be done virtually and that home care can be far safer than institutional care, such as nursing homes.” And all of this is going to require management. And that’s where the Blue Marble University executive style MD will shine. Virtual Home Health Care
(C) Management of Health Care Systems, the last very big piece of the future of medicine. As an example, see this write up on the Christiana Care System: “The journey to a new tomorrow: A conversation with Janice E. Nevin, MD, MPH, President and CEO, Christiana Care Health System”. The article notes “At Christiana Care, we have talked about our journey from hospital system to health system. Success as a hospital was how many people could we get in the front door. Success as a health system has been how many lives can we manage using data, using care coordination.”
Managing Health Care Systems
(D) Regulatory Medicine. This may sound boring but this is where the money is. Almost every company and governmental agency has some need to medical professionals to monitor, interpret, write, and enforce health care regulations at every level. And as you get experience, you will move up fast.
(E) Principal Medical Writer. As we noted above, close to regulatory medicine, except a lot broader is the field of Principal Medical Writer: An overlooked career for people with M.D. degrees, the field has an average salary of $125,000 USD and many job postings state “M.D. degree preferred”. So this field is a great field for unlicensed MD’s who can write effectively. Best of all, many of such positions are “remote”. If you search Google for “Principal Medical Writer” you will see all the many jobs available for people that like to write about medical matters.
These are just a few of the careers for those with MD degrees. Some additional ideas may be found in the List of Careers for MD’s that are not licensed physicians, from Joseph Kim MD, who operates the websites www.medicineandtechnology.com and www.nonclinicaljobs.com where you can find valuable information on non-clinical careers for MD’s and ideas to help with your future goals. Some of the careers he mentions are:
1. Clinical Research
2. Clinical Trials: Design and maintain records for clinical trials of new drugs, many of which trials are conducted by overseas contractors
3. Medical Officers: Serve as medical officers for corporations, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies.
4. Laboratory manager or research associate.
5. Grants writer: Prepare proposals to the federal government for obtaining research funds.
6. Surgical and medical device representative: a highly rewarding career explaining the benefits of new technology to physicians
7. ObamaCare administrator
8. Healthcare administration – Health Care is a big big business, and there are many positions in Health Care Management and Development.
9. Wall Street Analyst – Analyst for financial firms.
10. Technology and Informatics – Want to develop or improve an electronic health record (EHR) system? Do you love informatics? Then join the CCHIT (Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology), the AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association), and the AHIMA (American
Health Information Management Association). Clinicians use EHRs and patients (or consumers) use PHRs (Personal Health Records). There are many companies attempting to integrate the data between PHRs and EHRs. No clinical experience necessary, but you should be familiar with ICD, CPT, and other
billing codes used in this industry.
11. Disease management – Managed care organizations (MCOs) are always looking for better disease management (DM) programs for their plans. Some MCOs develop their own DM plans and others outsource them to external companies. These companies create and deliver various services to managed care organizations, including DM, wellness programs, personal
health record (PHR) services, etc.
12. Pharma/Biotech/Device – If you’re a medical specialist, there are many opportunities to do research for these companies. If you don’t enjoy research, then you can develop marketing strategies. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements have become very popular these days.
13. Public health – Join the CDC and travel the world. Develop strategies to improve population health. Some pharmaceutical companies also have public health sections and are very devoted to public health and international health.
So don’t think of an MD degree from Blue Marble as leading to being an “unlicensed physician”, but rather as someone who is an Executive MD, Medical Scientist, or Medical Administrator. We teach you the “language of medicine”, and in order to understand and effectively use the language, you have to be trained in the medical arts. That is what our online M.D. Degree is all about.
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