Non-Traditional Career in Biomedicine Pre-Med Club November 17, 2012

What Most People Think of for Biomedical Career Physician Registered Nurse (RN) Certified Nursing Assistant Radiation Technician Pharmacist Or similar jobs …

Why Consider Other Jobs? Physicians (MDs) have certain advantages and disadvantages BenefitsChallenges Excellent Salary after residency Prestige Patient Interaction MD + 4 year residency ~300K in debt Long hours 4 year residency Malpractice lawsuits

Other Biomedical Jobs Biologist MD/PhD – researcher Research Scientist Medical Physicist Industrial Job – GE, Siemens, Phillips, Pfizer, etc.

Example: Medical Physicist Works in a hospital to plan radiation treatments for cancer BenefitsChallenges Excellent starting salary ~125K/year Good working conditions – inside hospital Helping ill people Interesting projects Tuition waivers PhD + 3 year residency Potentially long hours Limited time for research Testing and certification

Example: Biomedical Industry Researcher Works on to develop products as part of a company for the biomedical industry BenefitsChallenges Excellent salary >100K per year Extensive research opportunities Good working conditions Excellent benefits Tuition waivers Masters or PhD Limited choice on projects Potentially long hours Corporate politics

Example: Research Scientist at R1 University Typical job description for professors at University of Utah, many other state schools BenefitsChallenges Good salary ~80-200K Extensive research opportunities Good working conditions Excellent benefits Tuition waivers PhD External funding through NIH, NSF, DoD, DoE, etc. “Soft” Money Tenure process Might require postdoc work

Summary Several paths exist to jobs in Biomedicine All have advantages/disadvantages