Industrial careers. New insight for surgeons

Numerous physicians are interested in a career in industry; however, most have no concrete images of which activities are performed. The fact that companies in the area of medical technology prefer to employ experienced physicians is due to pragmatic reasons: sound medical knowledge is often not only an advantage during product development, but it is often essential for the success of the product. Physicians who would like to make a career in management must also accept primary managerial responsibilities. Therefore, every person planning a career change should understand that they are again a beginner and must be ready to learn to view things from a completely new viewpoint: complex tasks must be analyzed, divided and organized into smaller tasks, planned, carried out, and the results checked. Business and personnel responsibilities are often associated with this. Nevertheless, the largest advantage of the combination of expertise and management may be that a physician recognizes trends in the area faster, which allows the company to react quickly and flexibly to such changes. Important for a good start in industry is to have the right continuing education and advanced training. Finally, the personal influence on a field is often larger at such an interface between the clinic and industry than in clinical everyday life.