Post: #1

I’m relatively new to the forums and have appreciated reading about everyone’s experiences.

I’m 30 and a physician who recently completed residency (sub speciality training) in radiology (medical imaging). I’m currently not working as I’m waiting for my medical licence to be approved, which may take a few months. So I’ve had a lot of time on my hands while I’m waiting. I have always wanted to generate a passive income stream to give me more flexibility.

I’ve tried setting up a drop shipping website without much success. I’ve read about all sorts of other income streams: email-marketing, amazon products, kindle publishing, but these would generally not make use of my skill set.

Outside of medicine, I like the usual stuff: travel, technology, sports, reading, lifehacking/ self-improvement etc.

Does anyone have any ideas that could make use of my medical background to generate location independent passive income?

Thanks!

Post: #2

Can you enable your private messaging function so I can PM you?

Post: #3

(12-15-2016 04:40 PM)seanthan1 Wrote:  I’m relatively new to the forums and have appreciated reading about everyone’s experiences.

I’m 30 and a physician who recently completed residency (sub speciality training) in radiology (medical imaging). I’m currently not working as I’m waiting for my medical licence to be approved, which may take a few months. So I’ve had a lot of time on my hands while I’m waiting. I have always wanted to generate a passive income stream to give me more flexibility.

I’ve tried setting up a drop shipping website without much success. I’ve read about all sorts of other income streams: email-marketing, amazon products, kindle publishing, but these would generally not make use of my skill set.

Outside of medicine, I like the usual stuff: travel, technology, sports, reading, lifehacking/ self-improvement etc.

Does anyone have any ideas that could make use of my medical background to generate location independent passive income?

Thanks!

I'm not sure what the situation is in Canada but in the USA a radiologist can easily clear >$400k per year, compared to which any type of online business income stream will be a pittance for years even if you do manage to reach actual positive cash flow.

Why would you not focus on setting up and growing a private practice to the point where it becomes a "passive" income stream? It's easier to make money by playing up your strengths than shoring up your weaknesses let alone starting from scratch, and it seems your experience with online businesses is basically zero.

On the other hand you have a medical degree and specialty training, which represents an investment of 7+ years and hundreds of thousands of dollars and is a huge barrier to entry that you have already managed to cross. Why try to compete in a saturated market with zero barriers to entry ("online business") when you have a hard earned "in" into a field with huge barriers to entry?

I don't know what your job plans are but if I were you I'd simply take the job with the highest salary offer and supplement it with locums for even more $$$ for the first year while you get the lay of the land about opportunities in Canadian radiology. You'd then be in a good position to leave the practice and set up your own, which after a few years would ideally grow enough to let you be an absentee "managing partner" collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars while chilling in Thailand.

TLDR: if you're a medical doctor in North America do not waste your time with dropshipping and other such schemes.

Post: #4

For the long term starting some business in your field will be the way to go. Like Fast Eddie said, there is a huge barrier to entry to being a radiologist which gives you many, many advantages within the healthcare and imaging fields. So I think your time and energy would be best served learning about starting a business in general, and then thinking about what opportunities exist in your field, which you should know better than anyone on this board who isn't a radiologist.

If you're looking to just get some location independence right now, look into teleradiology jobs. I am not familiar with the radiology job market so much, but I know in other fields "telemedicine" type jobs are readily available and pay at or above the going rate (in the US at least).

You could be living in SE Asia (or anywhere with good internet), working 2 shifts a week, and making enough to live like a king. And still have plenty of money left over to invest in your side business.

Post: #5

I don't know about passive, but location independent couldn't you do work for insurance companies? Like medical claims? They could and you files to review, and you approve or disapprove the treatment.

Post: #6

Pretty much everything Fast Eddie said. I feel you are trying to get ahead of yourself. You don't have any experience as a doc and want to jump straight into entrepreneurship. Get some work experience, figure out problems or things that could be improve whether with software that you use or hardware. That's the best kind of income, because you know the problems or kinks in the industry and have a plan to fix them. I wouldn't buy from some salesman but I would from a doctor who has the same problem.

Post: #7

MDs do not get paid as much as they say on TV and in canada the situation among medical doctors is quite bad because of socialized medicine. My understanding is that they get paid $2/patron in the public hospitals and often even in private practices and will have their visas revoked if there is concern of expatriation. seanthan1, can you chime in on how true that is?

While waiting for a job you may want to work on ideas you have for inventions in radiology. Simple things are not hard in the USA to get approved for use in medical disciplines. I would assume the same is similar in canada: those would be a good place to start.

Post: #8

(12-15-2016 11:20 PM)storm Wrote:  MDs do not get paid as much as they say on TV and in canada the situation among medical doctors is quite bad because of socialized medicine. My understanding is that they get paid $2/patron in the public hospitals and often even in private practices and will have their visas revoked if there is concern of expatriation. seanthan1, can you chime in on how true that is?

Don't know about Canada but in USA they can make a good coin, as a cursory search through online job adds shows.
https://www.merritthawkins.com/job-searc...egionId=-1

Keep in mind that the best jobs are never posted but go through connections, yet you see plenty posted here that rake in well north of $600k.

Salaries in Canada may be lower but they're not going to be that much lower since it is (relatively) easy for Canadian trained physicians to practice in the United States, particularly for radiologists.

Post: #9

Not passive income but easy money if you're a radiologist https://www.vrad.com/careers/

Post: #10

I agree with the other people in this thread, that you should focus on radiology.

I don't know how it is in Canada, but in South Africa, a lot of radiologists in the private sector are now working from home anyway. As long as they live near enough to the hospital, they install fibre cable links between the hospital and the home (a custom fibre cable is apparently a must, it retains speed and image quality far better than the internet). These people are not working hard for a living. So I don't know why you are so enthusiastic about online passive income.

Otherwise, you can get into freelance medical writing, if you really want to take yours skills online and you need something to keep you busy.

If I were you, I'd rather go visit different radiology practices and ask questions on how to run the practices; learn different business and managerial techniques; interview people at successful and not-so-successful practices; find mentors who can teach you the business side of medicine; and investigate opportunities in private healthcare.

That would be a more productive way of spending your time. I'm sure you know a lot about radiology but now it would be a good idea to learn about medicine as a business.

Post: #11

I can't speak much on Canada, but why don't you move to the US and set up a radiology clinic where you just do radiology. Undercut all of the major hospitals in the area and work on building out a professional network to local docs in town where you save them and all of their clients money. You might be able to do a patient "referral" scheme where they get some small cash kickback to them (might be illegal, check with a lawyer).

I remember hearing a long time ago on NPR about this doctor who opened up a radiology practice where he did nothing but scans for patients and did it way cheaper than what the local hospital charged. Build enough of these in a specific state where there isn't much of a presence of businesses like these (except for the hospitals) and you could make bank. Enough to bump out in a few years.

Post: #12

Don't we have have private Xray and ultrasound clinics in Canada? Why not focus on opening a chain of those and then sit back and stack cash. Also, I once read an article about how Indian reserves should stop focusing on opening casinos and instead go into private healthcare (which is illegal in Canada) because the Natives don't have to pay by Whitey's rules. There would be huge cash to be made there, I know people who have gone to Mexico for back and gastric bypass surgeries, if Natives opened up hospitals it would keep the cash in Canada and be a win-win-win-win for the investors, the reserve, the patients (quick access) and the public system (less people using it, shorter wait times).

Post: #13

(12-16-2016 05:30 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  I remember hearing a long time ago on NPR about this doctor who opened up a radiology practice where he did nothing but scans for patients and did it way cheaper than what the local hospital charged. Build enough of these in a specific state where there isn't much of a presence of businesses like these (except for the hospitals) and you could make bank. Enough to bump out in a few years.

This is actually a good idea. The USA is going to continue to move towards HSA type systems (with or without Obamacare). With the cost control incentive moving from insurance companies back to the individual, people will be looking at costs before having a procedure done.

As an example... The Surgery Center of Oklahoma actually has fixed prices, listed on their website, for a number of common procedures. This is unheard of with our current insurance company run system:

http://surgerycenterok.com/

Another example (I have been there - really well run place) is Bumrungrad Medical Center in Bangkok. It was setup by Westerners to cater to people who were on long waiting lists for government care or didn't have insurance. You can even use frequent flyer miles (Star Alliance) to help pay for whatever procedure you need done.