Physicians look for side hustles (or as we call them, side gigs) for many reasons, some of which we list below. Regardless of the why, side hustles have become very popular for physicians and are only growing in popularity annually. Each year, we help contribute to the Medscape Physician Side Gigs Report. The Medscape Physician Side Gigs Report 2023 showed that 39% of all physicians have a side gig and earned on average $34,000 a year from their side gig.
Whether you’re looking to start your first physician side hustle or to explore additional options, we’ve got you covered. Below, we break down the 10 of the most popular side hustles for physicians –both medical and non-medical. Make sure you check out the dedicated section of our website for physician side gigs as well as the side gigs section of our blog for many more.
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Benefits of Having a Physician Side Hustle
While there are so many reasons our members have decided to pursue a side gig, there are several reasons that are amongst the most popular cited on our physician communities. Some of them are:
Extra money to pay off student loans or mortgage
The desire to cut back on clinical work because of alternative income streams
The allure of passive income
Saving up for the birth of a child and an extended parental leave
Saving up for your first rental property or syndication investment
The desire to achieve financial freedom (FIRE)
Wanting to monetize an existing passion project
Diversification of career options
The ability to walk away from a bad situation
Enhanced work-life balance
Let’s move on to some popular examples of physician side hustles! We’ll cover some medically related ones and some non-medically related ones.
Medically Related Side Hustles for Physicians
There are several advantages to having a medically related side gig. The biggest is that you likely already have much of the expertise required to do the side gig, so it’s easy to get up and running without needing a lot of new skill sets, equipment, or certifications. Additionally, in most cases, medical side gigs pay better than side gigs that non-physicians could do, as they're hiring you for your expertise as a physician, which (hopefully) they'll respect has value. As you explore these gigs, remember to #KnowYourWorth. On the flip side, a potential disadvantage of having your side hustle be medically related is that it may not provide the mental break from clinical work that so many of us enjoy about side gigs. There's also a lot of competition for medically related side gigs these days. We put out side gig opportunities regularly to our physician side gigs databases on the communities, and they almost all fill within in a few hours, and sometimes within less than half an hour.
We cover five of the most popular medically related side gigs below. Explore our side gigs and nonclinical careers (several are good side hustles too) pages for even more ideas to help you find a side hustle you’re passionate about that you’ll enjoy.
Medical Consulting
Medical consulting generally entails being hired by a company to consult on a specific project utilizing your experience. There are lots of possibilities, including:
Advising an EHR company on software improvements or new features
Giving feedback about a product to a medical device company
Giving feedback about a drug in development by a pharmaceutical company
Providing input to a medical drama or to the media
Giving advise to start up or venture capital companies about new ideas in the medical space
Advising on policy issues nationally
With your medical background, you already have the specialized training required to become a medical consultant. Different companies may have additional requirements for their ideal consultant, so it’s important to explore different opportunities to find a niche that fits your particular skill set, training, and credentials.
Pros
Allows you to utilize your professional experience and credentials as a physician
Often allows great flexibility. Some opportunities only require an hour or two at a time
Can pay pretty well, especially for highly specialized individuals
Provides insight and can allow you to help steer the direction and future of the healthcare industry
Could turn into a more permanent role such as being on the advisory board of a startup or even a new nonclinical job
Cons
May be difficult, at least at first, to find opportunities that match your particular background and expertise (join our Physician Side Gigs consulting opportunity database for alerts of relevant consulting project side hustles)
If you prefer 1-on-1 interactions, consulting offers less direct interactions
These opportunities can be highly competitive, depending on your skill set
Maybe require travel that is uncompensated or under-compensated, lowering the overall incentive
Read more about medical consulting as a physician.
Expert Witness
Expert witness work is a side gig that many physicians accidentally fall into when contacted by an attorney seeking their expertise. It's another popular side gig because it's an obvious extension of your formal training and background, and very little is needed in terms of an extra skillset. You'll want to learn the business of the expert witness world so that you understand how to structure a contract and set a fee schedule, but otherwise, you can hit the ground running immediately.
The job of a physician expert witness is essentially to carefully examine the facts of a legal case, using medical records and whatever other information is available to them, to help assist courts and juries in understanding the complex issues surrounding the case on trial.
Attorneys are always looking for new expert witnesses as having been an expert witness in a previous case is public record and precedence may work against the attorney’s case, depending on the situations in the current case and the previous work.
Pros
This is a popular physician side hustle for several reasons, including:
You don’t need a separate skill set
It’s flexible with commitment (only take cases when you want to)
Can be very lucrative (most physicians on our expert witness database list their fees between 350-850 an hour, with some with niche expertise charging multiples of that)
Can help you keep up to date with medical knowledge and further develop your expertise as you review and consult
Cons
Finding opportunities can be difficult, though we offer an expert witness database, where we notify interested physician members of our Physician Side Gigs Facebook community when interested legal parties are looking for help
Consistent work isn’t a guarantee
If you do this a lot, you do have to be objective, which means you may find yourself testifying on both sides, the physicians and the plaintiffs
It can be difficult to plan for trial dates and there are often delays and changes, some of which are last minute. Along these lines, make sure you protect yourself from losses from the time you've blocked off by including a cancellation policy in your retainer.
Learn more about expert witness work.
Medical Surveys
Medical surveys have historically been one of the easiest ways to have a side gig and make some 1099 income as a physician. They are completely flexible without any required commitments. You will receive and invitation to offer your opinions, and if you happen to be available and interested, you jump onto the survey and answer it. There are no skillsets outside of being a physician required and no need to learn about a new industry.
Essentially, market research firms are looking for clinician opinions related to patient care, medications, and medical products. They will pay you for your input for their research and development process or feedback regarding existing products or services.
While typically on the lower end of the pay scale per occurrence, there are several sites that offer medical survey opportunities to physicians for side hustle money. Many members of our Facebook communities make five figures in a year doing medical surveys as their side hustle (and one even reported 6 figures, though this is by far an outlier).
Pros
You can impact the way companies make decisions and contribute to improvements or innovation in patient care
Easy to get started (literally just have to sign up for medical survey companies and wait to hear from them)
Maximum flexibility to only complete surveys when convenient and of interest
A quick, easy way to earn a little extra cash during your downtime
Cons
Per minute compensation varies widely. Also, surveys tend to be between 5-30 min long (though there are some longer ones), so even if the per minute compensation is decent, you probably won't make the same money as with other side gigs unless you happen to be in a select few specialties.
Surveys can take longer than the stated time, lowering the effective per minute compensation
You don’t tend to get paid for time put in if you’re screened out in the selection process
Depending on your specialty, you may not get very many surveys
Learn more about medical surveys for physicians.
Medical Writing
Medical writing allows you to use the creative side of your brain while providing extra income as a side hustle. The length of each writing assignment or piece depends on the opportunity. It could range from a quick 500 word website article you knock out in a day or a research grant that takes months to complete. There are plenty of opportunities, including:
Content creation for consumer health websites or healthcare related companies
Running a health blog
Regulatory writing for pharmaceutical companies
Writing CME and board review questions
Medical journalism
Editing journal manuscripts or other medically related content
Writing a novel with a medical spin
A lot of these opportunities predominantly involve brand-building, networking, and the tried and true - searching Google. If you’re interested in medical writing, it helps to have a portfolio of writing samples and a website that showcases them, along with your expertise.
Writing, like medical surveys, allows you the flexibility of taking gigs only when you want them, but it can be difficult to find opportunities depending on your previous experience. Often times, you will start out by contributing your writing for free to build a portfolio and brand, in hopes that paid writing opportunities will follow.
Pros
Lets you express your creativity while still using your medical background
Helps you become an authority figure and leading expert in what you’re writing about, building your credibility and brand
Can help you become an influencer and lead to further side hustle opportunities, such as speaking and advisory board positions
Opportunities for advancements in pay as you build your portfolio of work
Cons
Can require s a larger upfront time commitment than some other medical side hustles, as you have to build up your side gig and brand, along with a portfolio of pieces to showcase before you steadily get writing assignments
Rates depend highly on the type of writing, but likely don’t pay as well as other industry-specific side hustles, at least to start
As anyone with a MFA can probably tell you, it’s hard to find consistent work and to break into some of the more popular writing opportunities
Learn more about medical writing.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is mentioned often within our Facebook groups as it’s an easy extension on the work clinical physicians already do. These jobs can vary widely in terms of time commitment, scope of practice, and reimbursement.
There are three primary avenues to start a telemedicine side hustle:
Through your private practice
On your own
As a contractor for a large telemedicine company
Telemedicine Through Your Private Practice
If you run a private practice, you could get a telemedicine side hustle set up almost instantly. You may be able to do this through existing HIPAA software you already own, or free HIPAA compliant mediums such as Zoom (please make sure this is this case currently).
Telemedicine On Your Own
If you want to provide your own telemedicine services, there are several platforms that you can white-label to reflect your brand, many of which either have or integrate with EHR, scheduling, and payments software.
Telemedicine As a Contractor
Telemedicine companies are also always looking for physicians to provide services through their platforms. Many offer malpractice insurance, though you’ll want to confirm the coverage–including whether they offer tail insurance. They often have requirements for minimum hours a week or month they want you to commit for, although some do allow you to hop on when you’d like. Just be wary that the less commitment you have, typically the less volume you get. There can also be a large range in what they offer for pay, so review and compare the different companies before onboarding with one.
Pros
Additional income that can add up to a substantial amount depending on how much you do it
Don’t have to learn a lot of new skills
Can be quick and easy to set up, depending on your situation
Can be flexible or quite regular depending on your preference
May offer the opportunity to work from home some days
Cons
Pay per encounter or reimbursement can be very low
May not provide any diversity or break from your full-time job to help with a work-life balance
Dealing with a third-party software provider can cause headaches with the technology
Licensing must be done in each state, with varying state-by-state licensing requirements, so it can be expensive and complicated if you want to expand past your currently licensed location
Distribution of cases will depend on the platform
Don’t always have the opportunity for follow-ups after telemedicine consults
Some of these positions request supervision of non-clinical physicians, which can expose you to liability related to somebody practicing under your license.
Learn more about Telemedicine.
Non-Medical Side Hustles for Physicians
Some physicians prefer that their side hustle provides a break from medicine, as this can be a great way to alleviate burnout. There are an endless number of non-medical side hustles for physicians, given that you could really do anything you want. While we cover some of the five most commonly seen ones on the communities below, you can explore more options on our main side gigs page and check out our side gigs blog for more unique ideas, such as franchising or starting a tea business.
Real Estate
Real estate is by far one of our most popular non-medical side gigs, as it is a great way for physicians to diversify their income and wealth and can use their existing assets to generate passive income. While there is an initial learning curve, after you've learned about it and put systems in place to vet good real estate investments that cashflow well, the earnings relative to effort ratio can be quite significant. As such, as a side gig, real estate has expedited many members' pathway to financial independence. It also comes along with so many other benefits such as tax advantaged income and estate planning benefits, and therefore it's understandable why so many physicians invest in real estate.
There are many different options within real estate investing, both passive and active. You can choose what works best for you depending on how much income you hope to generate, how much capital you have to start, and how hands-on you want to be.
Pros
A side gig that leverages your income streams and savings as a physician to create more money, which can be passive if you want it to be
Tax benefits, including for W-2 physicians, who don’t have the same options for tax advantages as 1099 physicians
Potential for appreciation and the ability to pass on the asset to future generations with a step up in basis
Cashflowing assets can not only help you reach financial independence faster, but have more income in any given year, which can help you cut back hours or say no to things that don't bring you joy
Cons
Unlike most side hustles featured, real estate is a “spend money to make money” model that requires a capital investment. Depending on what type of real estate you pick this can be quite significant.
Most real estate is leveraged with debt, which can add potential risk to your financial security if an investment goes wrong.
Some of the earning potential is in the form of appreciation, which you can't reliably plan on. There are several market forces beyond your control such as recessions and interest rates, so you really need to make sure investments are cash flowing even if you have to hold them for longer than anticipated.
Active real estate investing can open you up to more liability as a landlord (in addition to having to deal with tenants if you don't use a property management company)
Advisory Board Positions
Advisory boards offer a great opportunity to use your expertise to impact future innovation or the strategy of a company. Many of our physicians love crossing over into the business world and this is an exciting way to do it. As an advisor, you will be given insights into the plans companies are making and have a chance to provide feedback. While this may sound like consulting, being an advisor is a deeper relationship and often compensated with equity through restricted shares or stock options. It's also a great way to build your brand and further develop your reputation as a key opinion leader.
This side hustle is hard to stumble upon, as it usually requires that you are known as an expert in a space, are a key opinion leader, or an influencer. Make sure that you consider how an opportunity aligns with your brand and mission before taking one of these positions on.
Pros
Ability to have impact on a larger level
Offer a voice in the development and future of a company you believe in and value
These positions offer valuable networking opportunities inside not just healthcare, but as an entrepreneur
Allows you to take your clinical experience and use it to develop more business experience while allowing you to use a different part of your brain and learn new skillsets
Big potential for upside if the company does well
Cons
Your brand and reputation can become entwined with the company’s, which can lead to public scrutiny in certain circumstances
Can create conflicts of interest you need to be careful navigating
Can require a significant time commitment without guaranteed compensation - many startups fail
Influencer
A lot of us had many interests before medical school. One side gig we've seen a huge increase in interest in is content creation and being an influencer (as has the rest of the population). Think about how much influencer created content you encounter on a daily basis. This is now an enormous industry that is only getting bigger, and with it, the physician influencer side hustle has gained popularity. On our side gigs for pediatricians page, we went over some of the reasons why physicians are uniquely talented and in demand in this arena. TL;DR: as physicians, we spend years learning and training and have so much knowledge. With so much misinformation out there from everyone who owns a webcam and microphone, physicians are authority figures for topics people are constantly Googling when tackling medical issues in everyday life.
The influencer side hustle can look different for each physician, depending on your topic of interest and what medium(s) you prefer for your platform. We’ve seen several physicians become successful as:
YouTube personalities
TikTok physicians, for advice or humor
Health and wellness websites/blogs
Advocates
Product marketers
The power of the influencer side hustle is that, as your brand grows, so do your opportunities, expanding into speaking, coaching, and even advisory boards (just to name a few).
Pros
Lets you help patients in a different way and scale than 1-on-1 interactions
Can lead to offers for other side gigs
Opens the door for networking opportunities and collaborations
Expanding your audience can actually grown your clinical practice as welll
Helps develop several new useful skills for an entrepreneur (marketing, communications, networking, etc.)
Cons
Can be a highly competitive industry
One of the more time-consuming side hustles, as it will likely take time to build a following before you can monetize it
Requires caution with branding to ensure you maintain your professional image as a physician
Being in the spotlight may rise privacy concerns you’d rather avoid
Coaching
Coaching is an industry that has exploded amongst physicians in the last few years. As burnout has increased, we see more physicians seeking coaching as well as becoming coaches. Coaching can be fairly lucrative once you've built a brand, and we've seen several members of our community exit clinical medicine to grow their coaching businesses. Physicians are naturally great listeners and educators, so perhaps this is not surprising.
Coaching doesn't have to be limited to burnout coaching, although we hear about that often. Physicians can coach in many areas, including:
Health/wellness coaching
Nutrition
Career coaching
Leadership/entrepreneur coaching
Med school admissions coaching
Burnout coaching
Sleep training
While many people elect to get coaching certifications, technically there is no "official" pathway to becoming a coach. Coaching sessions can be done in person or virtually. We have a page to help you get started with your side gig that works well with a coaching side hustle and gives you tips on how to build your brand and find opportunities and clients.
Pros
Like clinical work, coaching offers a 1-on-1 interaction that can be highly rewarding as you see your clients grow and improve their lives thanks to your advice and mentoring
Allows you to take a more holistic approach to health and wellness, offering niches in several topics
Allows you to become a subject matter expert in a particular area of practice you’re passionate about
Allows you to become an entrepreneur without needing a significant capital investment (unless you choose to go through a more expensive certification program)
Cons
May take a considerable time upfront investment of both time and energy in order to build yourself as an authority figure and to start the word-of-mouth referral process with your first clients
Your primary objective is to make yourself obsolete by improving your client’s life to the point where they no longer need coaching, so you continually have to find new clients
Competition is high for coaching clients
As with working with patients, you may find this side hustle frustrating with unrealistic client goals and expectations of you being a “cure all” to their issues or with resistance to following your advice but expecting the same results
Learn more about coaching as a physician side hustle.
Investing
If you don’t need the extra cash today and are focusing on long-term goal, investing is a great low time and energy commitment that can pay off considerably in the long run.
Investing is a really broad catch all term, and you can invest in almost anything. While we tend to keep it simple and focus on investing in the stock market through a standard three-fund portfolio or real estate investing options such as REITs and syndications, there are so many other options. There are physicians on our communities who invest in gold, land, short term rentals, options trading, angel investing, franchises, venture capital, artwork, watches, handbags, and cryptocurrency, just to name a few more unique things.
While basic investing should be a part of every physician's financial plan, it can also be a fun side hustle for those who want to dig in deeper and take some risks for higher rewards. Financial independence is a goal for many of our community members, and this can get them there. It's just important to understand what you're investing in and not get sucked into FOMO.
Pros
One of the most 'passive' side hustles if you keep it simple
Can be exciting to learn about new asset classes and investment opportunities
Helps expedite your pathway to financial independence
Can offer tax advantages
Cons (we don't think there's many for standard investing, but for some of the more unique things...)
Requires discipline and education
Your assets may be tied up, limiting your ability to enjoy your wealth today
Since you should already be investing for retirement, it doesn’t offer the best income diversification
Can require large capital upfront, depending on the type of investment you want to make
There are no guaranteed returns, and there is always risk
Payoffs can come in spurts, so not an ideal side hustle for physicians who need reliable steady income
Learn more about investing throughout the site - start at our education page, full of things they didn't teach us in medical school.
Learn More About Each Physician Side Hustle
We know it’s a lot to take in and evaluate when considering which side hustle you want to start. If any in particular peak your interest, we have more information on each of the side gigs mentioned above. Explore them in detail and find available opportunities at:
Medical:
Non-Medical: