Books for Physicians and Medical Students – Overview
Medical doctors often time do not have enough time for any other business venture other than medicine.
Physicians should be great business people but they are not as medical school is not exactly business school.
Medical school won’t teach you the knitty-gritty of investment, finance and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, there are great business books recommended for physicians, medical students and residents to make up for what medical schools do not teach about the real world and make smart business decisions.
The top 10 recommended business books for physicians and medical students are as follows:
Books for Physicians and Medical Students
This book is a recommended read for physicians, medical students and medical residents.
It is a comprehensive and easy-to-read primer on business skills including how to set up a practice, hiring another doctor, contracts with insurance companies.
Part One of the book provides a great overview of how to start your medical practice based on Hacker’s experience as an entrepreneur while Part Two discusses how to start and run your own business outside of medical practice.
A Florida dermatologist and Internet startup veteran, Hacker provides medical students and established physicians all the information they could need to find a private practice and branch out into business ventures.
2. The Business Side of Medicine: What Medical Schools Don’t Teach You by Tom Harbin, MD, MBA
You’re a doctor and you know a lot about medicine. But do you know anything about the real world? Doctors learn a lot in medical school, but not enough.
Only rarely will a course teach practical, useful, or pragmatic information to help with the myriad decisions that arise in day-to-day life.
Dr. Harbin wrote this book to fill the gap: to help doctors deal with the business aspects of medicine, help doctors in training learn how to evaluate opportunities for the future, and assist practicing doctors in dealing with the questions arising every day and when planning for the future.
This is not a detailed book for every financial legal issue you might face but it does provide you an idea of what to seek from your partners, lawyers, and accountant.
It is a great starter for physicians looking to venture into entrepreneurship.
3. The Physician’s Guide to the Business of Medicine: Dreams and Realities by Jeffrey Gorke
This new book helps you identify the right fit to satisfy your dreams of practicing medicine and having a personal life, too.
All young physicians (and practice administrators) dream of landing in a practice where they can use one hundred percent of their workday and skills to make a difference, and then go home on time.
The reality, however, is a heavy workload, stressed staff, and frustrating requirements. It’s easy to end up feeling stuck and dissatisfied.
But by understanding the business of medicine upfront, physicians and administrators can make the right job choices to find a practice that fits them and then enjoys rewarding careers and satisfying personal lives.
4. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
While your knowledge and technical skills got you to where you are presently in your career, it won’t take you to that peak of your career.
Behavior is equally important when climbing the career ladder. Great results can come from practicing basic behaviors like listening well, thinking before answering, saying thank you and apologizing for your mistakes.
Physicians can be over-confident about their careers but Marshall explains how delusional self-confidence causes you to resist change and progress.
Marshall Goldsmith outlines twenty habits commonly found in the corporate environment and provides a systematic approach to helping you achieve a positive behavior change.
5. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Use agile, quick experiments to test assumptions and improve business.
Eric Ries iterates the need to cut cost and waste by building a minimal but functional product to get customer feedback and for future development
A great look at how innovative technology startups are using the lean process to build, adapt and pivot to create great products. The book provides an excellent model for entrepreneurial healthcare organizations.
6. The White Coat Investor: A Doctor’s Guide To Personal Finance And Investing by James M Dahle MD
This is a must-read book for medical students and physicians who wants to know as much as possible about personal finance, investing, insurance, taxes, and estate planning.
This book fills in the gaps and will teach you to use your high income to escape from your student loans, provide for your family, build wealth, and stop getting ripped off by unscrupulous financial professionals and salesmen, whom physicians mistakenly assume to be seriously credentialed professionals like themselves.
7. Secrets of the Best-Run Practices by Judy Capko
This book covers economics, technology in practice and practice management for medical professionals. Judy, a renowned practice management expert shares tips on how management practice, improves revenue, patient satisfaction and workflow.
This book outlines expert tips on running your practice better but keeps the true end goal in mind.
You want to learn how to run your practice more efficiently, not just to have more fun and make more money, though obviously, those things are great. The ultimate goal, the reason you went into medicine, is to make your patients healthier.
Rebekah Bernard’s Rock Star rules are all about making sure that helping patients never come at the expense of your own financial and emotional well-being.
It’s all about exceptional performance without burning out, which means working smarter, not harder.
9. A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor
This book tells of the daily life of a country doctor, documented by the photographs of Jean Mohr and the personal text of John Berger.
The Making of a Surgeon is the memoir of an apprentice. It is William Nolen’s story of his transformation from student to practitioner, from a brash medical school graduate to a surgeon possessing skill and judgment.
And, as happens in the best memoirs, with his brilliant flash of self-discovery William Nolen illuminates the world outside himself.
For anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to be trained as a surgeon – this timeless book will enlighten.
Feel share to share your own recommended business books for medical students, medical residents and physicians in the comment box below.
