Your Clinical Years Were the Training
The experience is real. It just needs a new vocabulary.
Handpicked from across the women's health ecosystem this week
Browse all roles →Your Clinical Years Were the Training
The experience is real. It just needs a new vocabulary.
I often get notes from clinicians who want to move into the business side of women's health. I love these notes, because the best women's health businesses are designed and run with clinicians from Day 1.
But often in these notes, clinicians tell me how they are struggling to break into the business side. Clinicians get very limited education about the business side of medicine, or how to run a practice, in medical school. For most, it is baptism by fire when they get into their own practice and have to learn the reimbursement codes, the billing process, and how to keep the lights on financially.
There are a few things I have learned watching some amazing women like Karla F. Loken, DO, OBGYN, FACOOG and Kerry Krauss, MD, FACOG make the jump.
The clinicians who struggle are almost never short on experience. They just need help finding the right role, translating their experience, and going deep on business knowledge. The best news: there are a lot of resources out there for those looking to make a change (see them at the end).
First, make the jump into the right role
The hardest part of making the jump from clinical practice to the business side is understanding what roles are available, and what is best for you. Here are some places where a clinical background is the advantage, not a nice-to-have:
- Medical affairs and medical science liaison work, where the job is translating science for providers and the field.
- Clinical strategy and clinical operations, where someone has to design the care model and make sure it is safe and real.
- Product, specifically the clinical-input seat, where a team is building for a patient they have never actually sat across from.
- Market access and clinical evidence, where the entire job is proving an outcome to a payer.
- Provider-facing go-to-market, sales enablement, and medical content, where credibility with clinicians is the whole point.
Every one of these roles exists because a company needs someone who has been in the room. You have been in the room, and in these conversations, that is your competitive advantage.
Then, translate your clinical experience into business-speak
The next thing we do is translate the impact-driving clinical work each clinician does into the language of the problem it solves, using numbers, data, and the language of business: top-line growth, efficiency, data, and outcomes. Here are a few examples:
- "Saw 25 patients a day" becomes "Managed a high-volume caseload of 25+ patients/day under strict time and documentation constraints, making triage and prioritization calls in real time." That is operations.
- "Explained diagnoses and treatment plans to patients" becomes "Translated complex clinical information for non-expert audiences." That is the core skill behind patient education, product, and medical content.
- "Pelvic health physical therapist" becomes "Clinical subject-matter expert who can speak credibly to patients, providers, and payers," the three audiences most go-to-market teams are guessing at.
- "Ran the clinic schedule and supervised staff" becomes "Operational and team leadership across staffing, compliance, and margin-adjacent decisions (including number of team members, locations, and so on)."
Remember that ultimately the business side is about driving either top-line growth or bottom-line savings. Your clinical expertise helps deliver better outcomes in a more efficient way, or it helps increase the number of patients who walk through the door (or both).
If interested, take a listen to our 10 Rules for Writing a Resume that Gets You Hired, for free.
Finally, find your community
You do not have to figure this out alone, and you really shouldn't. Some of the best leads, introductions, and honest advice come from other clinicians who have already walked through the door you are standing in front of. Online communities are where a lot of that happens: people share roles before they are posted, compare notes on interviews and pay, and talk each other through the hard days. The two I hear about the most are:
Physician Side Gigs (Facebook) — Founded by radiologist Nisha Mehta, MD, this is one of the largest physician-only communities out there, with hundreds of thousands of verified doctors. It started around side gigs and supplemental income and has grown into a daily conversation about business and financial literacy, career flexibility, and building a life in medicine on your own terms. If you are a physician, it is worth the (vetted) request to join.
OBGYN Non-clinical Careers (Facebook) — A smaller, more focused space for OB/GYNs specifically exploring the business and non-clinical side of the field. Because it is so specialized, the roles, questions, and advice tend to hit closer to home for our community. It is a great place to see which paths your peers are actually taking, and to ask the "how did you do it" questions out loud.
In Women's Health resources: We have multiple resources for updating your resume, your cover letter, and learning about the business of women's health. Keep an eye out for our monthly networking sessions as well.
In Women's Health Mini-MBA (Clinician Version): Early next year, we will host the industry's first Mini-MBA for clinicians looking to transition out of clinical practice and into the business side of women's health. Click here to get on the waitlist.
Final thought
If you are a clinician reading this and quietly deciding you are not qualified for the business side, please notice that the thing you are discounting is the thing the industry cannot manufacture. Anyone can learn a customer-acquisition calculation. Almost no one on these teams has felt a patient's relief, or watched the system fail her in slow motion. That is not a soft skill. That is the entire reason this industry exists.
So spend one hour this week rewriting three lines of your resume the way I showed you. Then go read the roles in this week's listings with those new words in your head, and notice how many of them are suddenly describing you.
And when you are ready to say those new words out loud to a real person, come to our next IWH Career Networking session on Friday, October 23 at 2pm ET. The roles in this essay, clinical strategy, medical affairs, the product seat that needs someone who has actually sat with the patient, are rarely won through an application. They are won in conversations with people who have already made the leap and can tell you which door they walked through. A lot of the people in that room started exactly where you are. Come translate out loud with us.
Register for the networking session →
Cheers,
Most people in women's health know reimbursement matters. Almost none of them understand how it actually works. This three-day program changes that.
This week's essay is about translating clinical credibility into the language the business actually pays for. Reimbursement is that language. It decides what care scales and what quietly disappears, and most people in this industry were never taught how it works. This three-day virtual program covers the mechanics: CPT codes, coverage decisions, payer negotiations, and the structural gaps specific to women's health. Across three live sessions with multiple guest speakers, you will walk away with a working strategy for your own payer situations. New dates and speakers are being finalized now, and payment plans will be available when registration opens.
3 live sessions |
100% virtual |
💳 payment plans |
Three live virtual sessions, 12:00 to 2:00pm ET each day · Presented by In Women's Health with Tribunus Health · New dates and speakers coming soon
Group and employer rates are available. Last time around, plenty of attendees had their employer cover the cost, and teams that came together got a group rate. IWH community members get a community discount as well. Reach out to Genny-Marie Spencer for group, employer, and community pricing. [email protected]
Early bird pricing to be announced · Payment plans available once registration opens · Group, employer, and IWH community rates available. Be the first to know when dates and pricing are announced.
Three we'd apply to this week
Seven Starling is a virtual maternal mental health company offering in-network therapy and psychiatry across pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond.
Why we flagged it: A remote, accessible way into a fast-growing maternal mental health company. Care advocacy is where clinical empathy meets operations, a natural first step toward the business side.
Apply now ›Flo is the world's most-used women's health app, tracking cycles and health for hundreds of millions worldwide.
Why we flagged it: Product marketing at the world's most-used women's health app, the translation seat this week's essay is about: turning clinical and user insight into how a product reaches millions.
Apply now ›Gabbi is an early-detection company focused on breast cancer risk, pairing a risk-assessment platform with clinical care. IN $60–$66/hr · MN & WI $63–$68/hr · NJ $65–$72/hr, depending on experience.
Why we flagged it: A flexible, remote clinical role at an early-detection startup, a way to work inside a women's health company while keeping your license active and learning how the business runs.
Apply now ›Rewrite one clinical line today
Pick the line on your resume you are proudest of clinically, and rewrite it as the business problem it solved, not the task you performed. "Counseled patients on treatment options" becomes "Drove informed decision-making for a high-volume patient population." Do one today, and the pattern for the rest will click.
45% |
of physicians say they are likely to leave clinical practice within the next two years. The teams that can read a resume like this are about to have their pick. |
The Health Care Club's Women's Health Summit returns to Harvard Business School on Saturday, November 14, bringing together founders, investors, clinicians, and thought leaders who are shaping the future of women's health. This year's speakers include Dr. Sharon Malone, Tamsen Fadal, and Dr. Neel Shah, as well as leaders from IVI RMA, Alloy Health, Allara, WHOOP, Nourish, and more. The day includes panels on founder stories, patient advocacy, AI and data, and policy and funding, plus new small-group breakout sessions and networking throughout the day. Every attendee takes home a goodie bag worth over $200. Last year's Summit sold out, so register early here for the best choice of breakout sessions.
Is your OB/GYN practice ready for maternity unbundling?
On January 1, 2027, maternity care billing starts moving away from the global obstetric package and into separately billed services. This will change how practices code, bill, and get paid for prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. Many practices are still working out what this means for their revenue and their payer contracts.
Tribunus Health, a managed care contracting and healthcare consulting firm, is running a short survey to understand how prepared OB/GYN practices are for the change. If you work in or with an OB/GYN practice, please take 3 minutes to share your perspective. The results will inform upcoming industry research on the shift, and anyone who takes part can request a copy of the findings.
Tribunus Health is also a sponsor of our IWH Virtual Reimbursement Summit.
Get in the room
Confidential, members-only office hours with founder Jodi. Bring interview debriefs, resume questions, or career-progression questions to a small peer group.
RSVP ›No agenda, no panels. Just a chance to connect in person during Women's Health Innovation Summit week, whether you're speaking, attending, or just in town. Grab a drink and meet the people building in women's health right alongside you.
RSVP ›Spend time getting to know others in our industry, hear the latest industry insights, and uncover what we are seeing and hearing from the ground level.
RSVP ›across 23 companies hiring in women's health this week
Browse the full job listings →117 Clinical & In-Clinic |
31 Business, Ops & Legal |
14 Product, Eng & Data |
8 International |
5 Marketing, Growth & Sales |
1 Freelance & Contract |
1 Senior / C-Level |
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You definitely know a clinician who swears she has "no business experience" while quietly running a clinic that would make most startups cry. Do her a favor and forward this. Worst case, she ignores you. Best case, you are the reason she lands the job and name-drops you in the acceptance speech.
