I had seen many doctors quitting the profession since they are poor practitioners. This is more common in field like ayurveda, homeopathy and veterinary medicine. In these disciplines, most of them pursue post graduation so that they can work as teachers.
But since vacancies are less in teaching fields, they may end up quitting the profession as such. It leads to wastage of hard-earned degree. This was the situation a few years back.
But nowadays lots of non-clinical arena has opened up for this sort of people where their subject expertise can be put into use. This includes,
medical writer,
medical editor,
medical coder,
health content creator,
clinical data manager,
pharmacovigilance associate.
Another added advantage of these careers are they have remote options, especially for ladies who are bound with children and family responsibilities. They can easily pursue these careers with the aid of tech literacy and build up a prolific career which aligns with their subject expertise.
Not just limited to poor practitioners but anyone looking for a career switch. If your interests are different but you have a background in healthcare, non clinical roles are the ones you should explore.
Earlier, many doctors from fields like ayurveda, homeopathy and veterinary science had no choice but to leave their profession when teaching jobs were scarce, but now with growing non-clinical roles like medical writing, coding or pharmacovigilance, they finally have meaningful ways to use their knowledge, support their families and build a career they can actually feel proud of.
It’s wonderful to see that doctors now have diverse non-clinical opportunities where they can apply their expertise meaningfully. These careers not only provide stability and growth but also offer excellent flexibility, especially for women balancing family and work.
Until now, medical professionals didn’t have a proper exit option but these options do not seem to divert them opposite to this field and also help apply their previous knowledge and experience so that it doesn’t feel like their education was in vain.
It’s encouraging to see how the non-clinical healthcare sector has expanded, giving professionals from diverse medical backgrounds a chance to leverage their subject expertise while enjoying better work-life balance.
With roles in education, administration, informatics, medical writing, and consulting now widely available, more people can pursue meaningful careers outside of direct patient care, reducing burnout and making use of their valuable experience in new, impactful ways.
All the alternate courses you suggested are really good idea to think about career switch.
But they have spent a lot of their time and money on the course . All their efforts simply gone.
The alternate courses jus need a strong foundation in Anatomy and physiology and nothing to do with their degree.
All the medical coding, medical writing courses are way more costly and there is heavy competition in healthcare industry. There is also age limit to enter healthcare industry. Also the initial salary is too low.
So the condition of alternate medical practitioners in India is really disheartening.
A very thoughtful post. This shows that there are various non clinical opportunites like medical writing and pharmacovigilence created by AYUSH and Veterinary field. Such awareness helps young professionals utilize their medical knowledge effectively and thereby contributing to healthcare
Non clinical roles are boon to the people looking for career switch instead just becoming a professor they can work remotely as well. It brings a lot of learning as well. I feel these non-clinical adds on to healthcare knowledge as well because we have to have technical knowledge as well for becoming better in these professions. In this way we have more exposure to softwares, advanced technologies used in medical coding, medical writing and also pharmacovigilance.
This is a very valid observation. For a long time, limited clinical opportunities and scarce teaching posts pushed many qualified professionals to leave their field altogether. It’s encouraging to see that the rise of non-clinical career paths now allows medical graduates to use their expertise in meaningful ways. Roles like medical writing, coding, pharmacovigilance, and clinical research have truly opened new doors, especially for those seeking flexibility and remote work options.
Insightful post! It’s great to see non-clinical fields like pharmacovigilance, medical writing, and clinical data management offering new paths for science graduates to apply their expertise and build impactful healthcare careers.