What Should Be on the Physician Entrepreneurship Research Agenda?

Research into entrepreneurship and what makes entrepreneurs tick has exploded, and, like every other major discipline, the information is difficult to map and digest. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has created a resource map, State of the Field, which helps to organize the information.

Biomedical entrepreneurship is a separate and distinct sub-discipline, given the unique characteristics of life science technology development and deployment and funding mechanisms. Consequently, there are many questions that still need to be answered by researchers interested in physician entrepreneurship. Here is a partial list of questions that should be the focus:

1. What is the present status of global medical entrepreneurship education programs?

2. What are the major determinants of physician entrepreneurship success?

3. How should we define physician entrepreneur competencies and measure outcomes?

4. How do regional dynamics and innovation ecosystems affect the creation of physician entrepreneurs?

5. What are the unique elements of digital health entrepreneurship?

6. Are there personality or environmental determinants of physician entrepreneurial success?

7. Which university technology transfer models are the most successful and why?

8. How do health service organizations innovate?

9. What are the most appropriate funding mechanisms and how can they be improved?

10. Where do physician entrepreneurs fit into future care delivery models?

Answers to these and other questions will help us better understand the dynamics and contributions of physician entrepreneurs and guide health policy. At this stage, there are many opportunities for physician entrepreneurship researchers to make a difference and show us the way.

I'm looking forward to receiving my first copy of the Journal of Physician Entrepreneurship to read the results.