Full Transcript Introduction to Startup Functions for Physicians 0:01 Welcome to the Startup Physicians Podcast, where we explore how doctors 0:06 lead healthcare innovation. Please like and follow our show to join our 0:10 community of physicians contributing to meaningful change. 0:17 Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Startup Physicians 0:21 Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Allison Curfman, and today we're going to 0:26 discuss the seven startup functions where physicians can add incredible 0:31 value even without leaving clinical practice. 0:35 One of the most common things that I hear from doctors is, "I know I have 0:40 value, but I have no idea what I would actually do at a startup." 0:44 And when I first started exploring this world, I felt the same way. 0:49 But here's what I've learned after years of working with startups, building 0:53 multiple companies, and now coaching other physicians. You don't lack value, 0:59 you lack a mental model for how your clinical experience can map into startup 1:06 functions. So today, I'm going to walk you through seven core functions where 1:10 physicians thrive inside startups as consultants, advisors, or in part-time 1:17 roles alongside clinical work. Before you get lost in the how would I ever get 1:22 a get a role like that, I want you to pause. That's not today's episode. I 1:28 want us to recognize that our minds often stop us from exploring new ideas 1:33 because we don't know how to do something. But today is all about the 1:38 what could really light you up and what could you imagine yourself doing. When I 1:44 teach doctors how to provide services to startups, the first thing I tell them is 1:50 you need a menu. You can't really walk into a meeting saying, "I'm a doctor and 1:56 I want to help you somehow. Startups need to know what services you offer, 2:01 what problems you solve, and how you solved them. 2:05 So, today's framework will help you start building that menu. We are all 2:10 unique individuals with different backgrounds and passions, and what 2:14 excites me may differ completely from what energizes you.
Product Design and Development 2:18 So, the most successful physician consultants aren't trying to be 2:22 everything to everyone. They leverage their unique combination of expertise 2:28 and interests to serve specific needs really well. 2:33 So, as we go through these seven functions, I want you to identify which 2:37 ones resonate with you. Which make you think, "Oh, that sounds 2:41 interesting." Or, "I could see myself being good at that." That's the 2:45 beginning of your menu. So, let's dive in. 2:48 The first function is product design and development. 2:54 So, product I've talked about product design in the past and clinical product, 2:58 but product design and development is where you give feedback or help design 3:04 care models, workflows, softwares, prototypes, helping teams design 3:10 solutions that work in the real world. So, this could look like working with 3:16 early stage founders on their initial concept or working with established 3:21 companies on new product lines that they're trying to build. Or, it could be 3:26 working with venture studios to decide who are trying to decide whether to fund 3:31 certain concepts. So, a venture studio is when a firm is actually incubating a 3:37 concept or an idea within their firm, and they haven't really decided if 3:41 they're going to launch it or fund it, and they're trying to do more discovery 3:44 on it. So, you might think, "I don't know anything about building products." 3:48 But, I would challenge that that you're actually constantly optimizing in your 3:54 clinical pro- practice. So, you may be adjusting protocols or flagging 3:59 inefficiencies, or you may see gaps in care delivery often in real-time. 4:06 And every time you've streamlined a discharge process or redesigned team 4:11 communication, you've done work that's similar to product development. 4:16 So, I built the core clinical product for my first company with a team. It was 4:22 a care delivery model for children with medical complexity, and working with a 4:27 cross-functional team, I was really able to bring my understanding of these 4:32 patients and their needs to design a new approach to improve their care. And I 4:37 felt really confident that I knew what they needed and what their issues were 4:42 because I've taken care of so many of them. 4:45 And you're really you're not expected to code or build technology. Maybe asked to 4:52 trial a product or a technology or give feedback on it, but you're expected to 4:58 know what works for patients and physicians and providers and what 5:02 doesn't. And so, for this role, you're really the bridge between either a 5:08 technical team or a more um financial firm and the real-world healthcare 5:14 delivery side of things. So, to reflect on this and see is this 5:19 something that you could do, I'd you to reflect and see have you ever redesigned
Marketing and Brand Credibility 5:25 a process to make it more efficient or safer? Have you noticed gaps in care 5:30 delivery and thought there has to be a better better way to do this. That's 5:35 really product thinking. Moving on, function number two is marketing and 5:41 brand credibility. So, this is one that sometimes makes people 5:46 cringe, but I'm hopefully going to help you think about it differently. 5:50 Marketing and brand credibility is where you lend credibility to products or 5:55 companies, help shape their messaging, and communicate in ways that builds 6:02 trust with end users, whether the end users are patients or physicians or 6:08 hospitals. You might think, "I'm not an 6:12 influencer." But a significant part of physician practice, day-to-day seeing 6:19 patients, is communicating to build trust. 6:24 I mean, think about that. Think about every time you go into a patient room, 6:28 we use active listening, we meet patients at their level, we 6:33 provide guidance and evidence, and we help influence health decisions. So, you 6:39 translate complex ideas with empathy and precision, helping people move from, "I 6:46 don't get it." to, "I believe in it." and really helping them take charge of 6:49 their health. And that's exactly what marketing can be like as well in 6:53 healthcare. So, it's building trust and communicating value that resonates with 6:58 audiences. And I want to emphasize that you would 7:02 only do this for companies that you really believe in. 7:06 I didn't feel like it was hard at all to market what we were trying to build at 7:09 Imagine cuz I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I thought everyone 7:12 needs to know about this. So, here's what this looks like in practice. So, 7:17 helping companies communicate their value proposition to patients, 7:23 physicians, or health systems, maybe you would be reviewing their website copy to 7:28 ensure it speaks to real clinical concerns or 7:32 actually meeting with their marketing teams to give feedback on their 7:35 approach. You may be a thought leader for them and um be able to help support 7:40 them in writing case studies or help them understand what messaging really 7:45 resonates with people in your specialty or your background. 7:49 I have worked with companies where my main contribution was helping them talk 7:54 to other physicians about their product. So, what if a company paid you to say, 7:59 "Hey, what really alienates or annoys doctors?" You probably would know right 8:03 off the bat. You'd be like, "Wow, that's obvious." But, you know the answer and 8:06 they need this insight in order to craft their messaging. And you can help 8:11 develop it or deliver it. So, I definitely have some folks in my network 8:17 that do take on more of a brand ambassador sort of role or key opinion 8:22 leader for companies that they believe in and they're willing to speak publicly 8:27 to promote that brand. Maybe as a pediatrician, it's a child safety 8:32 product. Or I have a friend who's an ophthalmologist who works with an eye 8:37 company that she believes in. And so, that is an actual role. It's really 8:42 important cuz as they're trying to build their brand credibility and get people 8:46 to believe in what they're doing, they need spokespeople. So, you may be 8:49 helping develop the message or deliver it. So, take a minute and ask yourself
Business Development and Strategic Growth 8:53 for this one, can you help someone gain trust and believe in a message? Do 8:59 you explain complex concepts in an accessible and trustworthy way? That's 9:06 marketing. So, number three is business development and strategic growth. And 9:13 this one is really important because business 9:17 development and sales is really the lifeblood of any business. And this 9:22 function really builds on the communication skills that we just talked 9:26 about. Business development and strategic growth is where you, as a 9:30 physician, could potentially support conversations like contract 9:35 conversations, payer negotiations, or even investor 9:40 pitches, not by selling, but by helping translate clinical models into what 9:47 matters for each stakeholder audience. You also provide invaluable credibility 9:53 because some conversations simply cannot happen without a physician partner. 9:59 So, you are already fluent in distilling complexity. 10:05 So, whether you're explaining a diagnosis to a patient or you're 10:09 reviewing care options with multi-disciplinary teams, you tailor the 10:14 story for your listeners. And in business development, that is really 10:19 your superpower. So, what does this actually look like? 10:22 When when I pitch with my previous company, I was working with health plans 10:28 on complex care models for medically fragile children, and I don't walk 10:33 through every clinical nuance. I'm highlighting what matters to them about 10:39 our model. So, reviewing the the model that outcomes, how we're going to reduce 10:45 cost, how we're going to improve safety and coordination gaps. And I strip it 10:50 down to the essentials that they need to understand why it works. And in all of 10:55 our pitches, I had a business development partner who would go through 11:00 most of the pitch, frankly, and handle the contracting details and all the 11:03 algorithm support and all these other things, but all clinical questions came 11:07 to me. It was a really important partnership, and this is the case with 11:11 pretty much any healthcare company. And so, when you think about this, you 11:16 have really had experience explaining things, distilling down complex clinical 11:22 concepts, whether it's in in family meetings or in meetings with hospital 11:28 leadership, you do know how to articulate value and build buy-in and 11:34 frame clinical outcomes for non-clinical audiences. It's a really important 11:39 communication skill. And then along with that, also in the 11:44 category of business development, your personal network is another valuable 11:48 asset. So, if you're well-connected, even if you think, "Oh, well, I my 11:53 network's not valuable." Let's say you're a cardiologist and you're in a 11:57 bunch of cardiology groups, you're well-connected with specialists 12:00 across the country and a company wants to reach practices 12:04 in that specialty, your introductions, a warm intro, 12:10 could be massively valuable. And as an example, I feel like as a pediatrician 12:15 who knows a ton of pediatricians, I could probably find a way to connect 12:19 with any children's hospital in the country through my network. So, if 12:22 somebody asked about XYZ hospital, I'd probably text friends, email some 12:26 contacts, find someone to speak with, and I could 12:29 make an introduction. Whereas, a 12:33 you know, tech company or a venture firm, they may not be able to like get 12:38 time on someone's calendar or a response to an email. 12:42 So, that is another aspect of business development. There's the actual 12:45 supporting of the messaging in a pitch or, you know, trying to distill a 12:50 clinical message to the right audience, or there's the networking and 12:53 introduction side of it. What I want you to consider for this 12:57 function is, can you make complex ideas sound understandable? And do you shape 13:04 stories that really land with listeners? Do you feel energized by being in a 13:10 decision-making room, or do you like connecting with people? So, for some 13:15 companies, getting a contract or closing their funding is the difference between 13:21 having a company and not having a company. So, this is 13:24 one function that it's actually like quite easy to really emphasize what the
Clinical Research and Validation 13:30 return on investment would be for someone to hire you because if it's the 13:34 difference between having a company and not having a 13:38 company, it's a really big deal. Function number four is clinical 13:42 research and validation. And so this is for all of my academics out there. 13:47 Clinical research and validation is where you would design studies or pilots 13:53 or metrics that can prove a product or services impact or really guide the 14:00 metrics that matter most. The obvious connection here is that if you've done 14:05 academic research and you understand study design, measurement metrics, this 14:10 is potentially an area for you. But even without formal research experience, you 14:15 really understand how to measure outcomes. So, 14:19 if you passed step one, two, and three, I guarantee you have a little bit of 14:24 experience understanding study assessment, understanding bias, and 14:28 scientific concepts that are underlying evidence-based medicine. 14:33 And you know what good clinical care looks like and how to track whether 14:37 you're achieving it. So, you've probably participated in quality improvement 14:42 initiatives and you understand correlation versus causation and you 14:47 probably know how to design meaningful measurements. 14:50 So, when I was previously at a nonprofit health system, which is where I got 14:55 started with complex kids, I was doing a population health pilot program for 15:00 children with medical complexity. And we had a pretty small population and 15:05 a limited budget, but I did create an IRB-approved study that measured our 15:10 impact. And when I look at back at that, it looks like such a small study, but it 15:15 was well-designed. So, the final study population actually only had 70 patients 15:21 in it, but we had a lot of data on them over two years. And the study was well 15:26 designed and showed strong evidence that our intervention led to statistically 15:32 significant clinical and financial outcomes. So, by designing a pilot study 15:38 really well, I had proof that this model could work. And that tiny study became 15:45 literally the entire basis for my recruitment into private equity to build 15:50 the concept at scale. And it really fueled our model development and all of 15:56 our contracting discussions. So, we were able to point to that evidence in our 16:01 pitches to be able to say, "And this is the evidence for why we believe this is 16:05 going to work." And so, this function really turns 16:08 clinical intuition into measurable proof. So, designing pilots that 16:14 generate evidence for business development or investment rounds and 16:18 helping startups understand outcomes matter and how to measure them feasibly. 16:24 I literally had a call yesterday with someone who reached out to me because 16:29 they're in their very early stages. They have some initial users on their 16:34 platform, they have some initial data, and they're looking ahead to what would 16:38 it take for us to move from like a direct-to-consumer sort of product to a, 16:45 you know, employer contract or a health plan contract, like a big contract with 16:50 a lot of people. And what they need is to prove that it actually works. So, 16:54 they have the perfect opportunity for a pilot study, which they probably don't 17:00 have 5 years to do a randomized controlled trial, and that wouldn't be 17:05 feasible. But, there are ways that you can think about designing a study that's 17:09 not just operational or marketing data, it's actually trying to determine with 17:15 strong scientific validation that a product is 17:20 working or not. And this company literally came to me because they wanted 17:23 help designing a way to measure that. So, you got to remember these people are 17:27 not physicians often times and they're often not scientists. They have a 17:31 background in something completely different like finance or tech. So, they 17:36 are looking for this skill set. So, the reflection prompt for this 17:40 function is, do you love turning clinical intuition into measurable
Customer and User Insight 17:45 proof? Do you like doing research? And would you like to prove that something 17:49 works and have it be tested rigorously and really design outcome track 17:55 tracking. So, that's research fluency. Function number five is customer and 18:01 user insight. So, customer and user insight is where 18:06 you help startups understand what patients, physicians, or hospitals 18:11 really need and where current solutions fall short. So, this is in some ways 18:17 parallel to product development, but it's more focused on the end user. You 18:23 live the pain points. You know what patients forget or what nurses have to 18:29 work around or what makes EHRs like really infuriating. So, you're both the 18:35 user and the expert understanding the gap between how things should work and 18:41 how they actually work. Um so, here are some real examples of 18:46 this work. So, I literally had a company reach out to me and pay me for an hour 18:52 of my time because they wanted me to tell them everything I hate about ER 18:56 scheduling. Like, okay. Like, that was very All I did was show up and it wasn't 19:02 hard to come up with those concepts cuz these are things that we all know. It's 19:06 like, how do they not know that? Well, they 19:08 don't know that. They They want to design a product. They want to design a 19:11 new ER scheduling platform, and they want to know 19:14 what to avoid. I also have been asked to um give an assessment of why physicians 19:21 don't trust locums agencies. I definitely know the answer to those 19:26 questions. I can give them that insight and help them develop something better. 19:31 And so this is really like consumer feedback. 19:35 I um can definitely help them understand um what some of the things are that they 19:41 need to avoid. So I want you to think about this for a 19:45 second. Like how many times have you used some sort of technology in your job 19:48 and thought, "Gosh, whoever designed this clearly never worked in a 19:52 hospital." And that's exactly the insight that com- companies really need. 19:58 So this function may be about like mapping patient journeys or identifying 20:02 pain points and understanding what would actually improve care experiences. You 20:07 could be the voice of end users in product development conversations. 20:12 And so maybe you help a startup understand why their platform isn't 20:17 being adopted or what would make clinical decision support tools useful 20:22 instead of just another like super annoying alert or what patients actually 20:27 want from health apps versus what they think they want. 20:31 So to reflect on this one, do you see care gaps and think "This could be so 20:34 much better." or "They have no idea what they're missing." 20:38 Understand the difference between what's supposed to happen and what actually 20:42 happens. That's that's user or end user insight, which is really really 20:47 important for building products that actually work. Function number six is 20:51 policy and advocacy. And this is a little bit of a specialized one, but 20:56 policy and advocacy is where you would track, shape, or explain 21:01 the regulatory landscape and help startups position their products within 21:06 it. So some of you may immediately be like, "Oh my gosh, I don't know anything 21:10 about regulatory landscapes." And I understand that, but you really do 21:15 understand quite a bit about health policy and regulation from 21:19 every compliance training you've ever been part of. So, you understand 21:23 documentation requirements, you understand HIPAA and Stark laws and
Policy and Advocacy 21:27 anti-kickback statutes. And you've probably advocated for things 21:32 like patient access to services or navigating billing codes. And you know 21:36 that healthcare exists within complex regulatory frameworks and determining 21:41 what's possible, what's reimbursable, and what's compliant. So, this may feel 21:45 kind of niche, but here's the thing. Every startup hits regulatory 21:49 challenges. And I think that they really need someone who understands how 21:54 healthcare operates within these rules. So, my early healthcare policy work was 22:00 actually focused on barriers to telehealth. Now, I was doing 22:05 this from an academic standpoint. I worked with the American Academy of 22:07 Pediatrics, and I wrote their policy statement on telehealth because without 22:12 payment reform and without payment for these services, this was pre-pandemic, 22:18 nobody was going to adopt them, and it wasn't going to bring the access to care 22:22 that we wanted. Now, again, I was doing this from an academic standpoint of, you 22:27 know, working through advocacy efforts, but I can imagine how my policy work 22:34 actually hugely benefited private companies that were doing telehealth to 22:38 kids. So, I was able to in that policy statement 22:42 explain pediatric stakeholder perspectives and advocate for payment 22:47 that was necessary to expand access and speaking to policy makers. The thing 22:52 about advocacy, which I don't know if you guys have ever gone to like DC with 22:57 one of your like professional societies to work on an advocacy day, but speaking 23:02 to policy makers, they it's kind of like being in a business development meeting. 23:06 You got to like distill the clinical concept down to truly like patient 23:12 stories and concepts that are translated into understandable terms. So, that's 23:18 very similar to the communication skills that we discussed earlier. And 23:21 physicians in this space can explain why policy shifts matter and what's at stake 23:29 for real patients. So, helping policy makers understand the clinical 23:33 implications of their regulatory decisions and helping startups navigate 23:38 challenges without losing sight of patient needs. 23:41 Now, granted, some of you do advocacy work not in the context of companies, 23:45 but because of your clinical passion for advocating for patients. And honestly, 23:50 as physicians, we all should be doing that. We should all be having a voice in 23:55 policy and in what's affecting our patients. But, you also just have a very 24:00 unique perspective about how policy might be affecting certain patient 24:06 cohorts or certain types of disease management. And that is information that 24:11 can be valuable to startups who are working in that area. 24:15 So, the reflection prompt for this one is, are you energized by changing the 24:20 system or do you feel pulled to influence the rules, not just follow 24:24 them? Do you understand how policy changes affect real patient care? 24:30 That's policy instinct. And honestly, some of this, like I said, all 24:34 of us as physicians should be advocating for our patients and should be involved 24:39 in policy if there's things that are important to our patients. So, this is 24:43 not even necessarily as a startup, but I mean, I wrote that policy statement on 24:48 telehealth and it really unlocked a whole lot of other opportunities for me.
Strategic Advisory and Innovation Leadership 24:53 And then, in the setting of launching a value-based pediatric company, I wrote 24:58 an article in Health Affairs, which was about alternative payment models in 25:03 pediatrics. And so, that was really beneficial for the company as we 25:07 launched for that to come out. So, the last and final function, number seven, 25:12 is strategic advisory and innovation leadership. So, strategic advisory roles 25:18 or innovation leadership is where you can act as a sounding board, helping 25:23 teams make smarter decisions, anticipate risk, and build clinical alignment. 25:31 So, you make decisions under pressure every day. You lead care teams and you 25:36 connect data with outcomes. You think systematically, not just around 25:41 individual symptoms, but how everything connects. And that's systems thinking, 25:46 which is incredibly valuable in strategic roles. 25:49 My most meaningful work has been as a strategic advisor, not giving specific 25:54 answers, but asking the right questions and helping founders think through 25:58 clinical implications of business decisions and understand what could go 26:03 wrong and how to prevent it and connecting product vision with clinical 26:06 reality. And now, I serve on multiple advisory 26:10 boards for companies and nonprofits who are solving complex problems and I've 26:15 built my own advisory boards and curated people with backgrounds and skill sets 26:21 that could help me see all of my blind spots. 26:24 So, what does this actually involve? An advisory board usually meets 26:29 quarterly for strategic guidance. And sometimes your role as an advisor could 26:34 be more ongoing as like a fractional chief medical officer, or could be 26:39 project-based for specific decisions or challenges. But, the key is that you're 26:44 not just providing clinical expertise, you're helping them with strategic 26:48 thinking. And helping teams understand how clinical decisions connect to their 26:53 business goals, anticipating risks and opportunities, and building better 26:57 products by thinking like both a clinician and a strategist. 27:02 So, the prompt here is, do you enjoy helping others connect the dots and make 27:06 better decisions? And are you energized by helping ideas become reality? And do 27:12 you naturally think about how individual decisions affect the bigger picture? 27:16 That's strategy leadership. So, there you have it, the seven startup functions 27:22 where physicians add incredible value, product design and development, 27:27 marketing and brand credibility, business development and strategic 27:30 growth, clinical research and validation, customer and user insight, 27:36 policy and advocacy, and strategic advisory roles. So, you don't have to be 27:41 all seven. You probably resonate with one or two. And that's the point. Your 27:46 skill set is already valuable, and the key is figuring out how to aim it. 27:52 So, notice something important. In every function, we talked about skills that 27:55 you already have from being a doctor. You're not starting from zero. You're 28:00 just learning to translate expertise into different contexts. 28:05 Your clinical training did not just teach medicine. It taught systematic 28:09 thinking, decision-making under pressure, empathetic communication, 28:13 complex information analysis, and solving problems that matter. And those 28:18 are the skills that startups need, and they're just applied to different 28:22 problems in different contexts. So, here's what I want you to do now. 28:26 Grab a piece of paper and write down your top two functions from today's 28:29 episode. Which ones made you think, I could see myself doing that? And which 28:33 made you curious to learn more? When you can name what lights you up, I 28:39 can help you move towards it, but I can't pick it for you. You have to 28:43 understand your own interests and strengths. So, if you're thinking, 28:47 sounds great, but I have no idea how to find these opportunities." That's okay. 28:52 Don't get caught in the how. That's not a failure of vision. That's just the 28:55 next step in the process. And that's what will be coming in the upcoming 28:59 episodes. So, remember, you don't need new credentials to add value in the 29:04 startup world. You need a new lens on the skills you already have. And you 29:08 need to understand how your clinical expertise translates into startup 29:12 functions, and articulate that value to the right people. 29:17 The startups need you. They need your clinical insight, your systems thinking, 29:22 and your ability to understand the complex reality of health care delivery. 29:26 So, let's change the future of health care together. 29:30 If you found this episode helpful, I'd love to connect with you. You can find 29:33 me on LinkedIn at Dr. Allison Kerfin, or visit my website at 29:38 startupphysicians.com to learn more. Thanks for listening to 29:41 the Startup Physicians Podcast. This community was built for doctors who want 29:46 to contribute to the future of health care. We offer support for physicians 29:50 who are ready to make the next step towards building the career they've 29:53 dreamed of. Visit startupphysicians.com 29:57 to learn more. And if this episode resonated with you, 30:01 share it with another friend who needs to hear it. Let's change the future of 30:05 health care together.
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