Key Physician Entrepreneur Competency

Physician entrepreneurs need knowledge and multiple skills and abilities to be successful. Knowledge is learning about things, skills are learning how to do things, and abilities are about executing and applying your knowledge and skills. Competencies are measures of your abilities.

One of the competencies of physician entrepreneurs is the ability to practice medicine creating, deploying, and harvesting value i.e. using a viable business model.

Creating and executing a viable business model starts with validating the elements of a business model canvas which derives from an understanding of the customer/patient profiles, creating value propositions for each and matching them. The rest of the canvas flows from the product-market mix and match and determines whether you will make a profit and be able to scale the enterprise.

Consequently, physician entrepreneurs, particularly those who are just beginning, should seek knowledge and practice their skills before attempting to apply them. It is much like medical training where we learn basic and clinical sciences, learn bedside skills and techniques and practice them at the bedside under the supervision of an attending until we have demonstrated enough competency to practice them independently.

Unfortunately, you will not learn these KSAs in medical school or residency nor will you be held accountable for demonstrating them. You will need to get them from Internet sources, mentors, networks, and other elements of your local ecosystem that, hopefully, will have experiential learning opportunities to apply your learning and skills to the commercial bedside.

If you are interested in unleashing your ‘innerpreneur,’ start with education, building your skills and finding your innovation attending who can oversee your progress. You can only live in the basement for so long. All residencies end some day and you will need to practice on your own.