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Explore
new fields by attending specialty conferences
One of the best ways
to start exploring new fields, in or outside of healthcare, is to attend
specialty conferences. These
are not the clinically-oriented conferences sponsored by your specific
specialty society, but meetings and seminars in health policy, clinical
process improvement, healthcare informatics, healthcare media and
journalism, medical management, healthcare change management, ethics,
healthcare marketing, technology and education, mind-body medicine . . .
just to name a few. Once
there, your mission is to become versed in the field, learn what
challenges the field is tackling, create awareness about yourself as
someone interested in “breaking in”, network with others to
understand what they enjoy about the field and how they entered, and to
get an overall sense of “fit” with your passion, values and purpose.
Francine
R. Gaillour, MD, Business Consultant and Executive Coach
for Healthcare Leaders francine@physicianleadership.com, (206) 686-4205
Expand
Your Universe by Using News Services
Let’s suppose you have been
contemplating entering the biotechnology industry, or perhaps you’ve
been reviewing legal cases on the side and wonder what other avenues
exist along that line. One
of the most important steps to take in exploring career possibilities is
to understand “what’s happening” in the industry space you are
leaning toward. In addition to networking with people who are already
doing what you’d like to do (not just physicians), and getting on the
Internet to learn more about the companies in that industry, start
using email News Services to deepen your understanding.
Free news services abound, and they can be customized to email
you a personalized summary of press releases, articles, audiocasts etc.
It’s like having someone clip all the articles and press
releases you would like to read from hundreds of newspapers and trade
journals.
Three of my favorites are www.fastcompany.com,
www.wsjonline.com
and www.healthleaders.com.
Just go to each website and create your personal profile to
receive news about businesses, leaders or ideas in the sectors your
interested in. For
example, my Health Leaders profile is customized to send me news on
twelve topics, ranging from Biotech, to Pharmaceuticals, to Healthcare
Information Technology, to Managed Care.
The news I receive each day via email will contain current press
releases, newspaper articles and an occasional trade journal article.
For each news service, I take about ten minutes to read the articles
that catch my eye. With
five news services feeding me information daily on the healthcare industry,
it’s a very efficient way to keep abreast of “what’s happening.”
Note: these news services carry information about the healthcare
business and industry, not the results of the latest double-blinded
controlled clinical trial. There
are other sources for that type of information.
Francine R. Gaillour,
MD,
Business Consultant and Executive Coach for Healthcare
Leaders francine@physicianleadership.com,
(206) 686-4205
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