I went to college for exercise science. I am now in med school. I loved exercise science, but didn’t like the idea of being a personal trainer for financial reasons. So I went to med school. Now I find myself missing exercise science and using my own ingenuity and talents to enhance the performance of healthy athletes in creative ways.
Are there any careers like this available for a physician? Is there any niche I could create for myself? I am afraid there aren’t…I think my best option would be in a teaching role at a college with consulting gigs on the side, and maybe moonlighting at emergency rooms as a physician for the money. I would like to hear people’s ideas about how I can make the best use of my MD while also doing what I love.
Categorized | Affiliate Marketing 101
Athletic Performance Enhancement- Any Career Options For An Md?
Posted on August 9, 2010.
1) There is physiotherapy which is some what related to your interests and is probably best choice number of positions wise of my suggestions, however you’d be working with injured people mostly.
2) Professional athletes/sports teams usually have a preferred doctor/clinic you could specialize in sports medicine/orthopedics and hope to hook up with an athlete/team but there aren’t many positions so you’d have to get lucky and build a reputation to beable to do nothing but that, you’d probably end up having a general practice and having a few athletes as clients. You could also try to get a job at a college health clinic that takes care of college athletes but again not very many positions available.
3) You could also aspire to be an orthopedic surgeon, money wise probably the best of my suggestions, but fewer jobs, and you’d mostly be doing old people joint replacements. This also takes tons of education to be qualified.
There are a few docs facing prison terms or in jail for “enhancing athletes”. Come up with a good, legal way, without harmful drugs, and you have a career. Most Sports Medicine docs are Orthopedists, but the fellow who came up with Gatorade was a Kidney disease specialist at the University of Florida. He was aware of the decreased performance of both teams in the second half of a game- so he weighed the players. They were losing a lot more liquid than anyone thought. He dreamed up Gatorade as a replacement, the team became a “second-half team”, and everyone made a bunch of money. Our Chief of Pathology has a PhD in Exercise Physiology– but does not use it except to keep himself in shape. Lots of people have tried. Hope you can pull it off.
There are many orthopedic surgeons in large and medium sized cities who have a large portion of their practice in sports medicine. I knew one who specialized in treating professional dancers. Many volunteer for high school teams. It’s a good way of getting referrals. Working with trainers, you can enhance the exercise regimen for athletes in various sports.
Hopefully you will resist the temptation to use banned substances.