As a young ophthalmologist starting a new practice, I attended the YO Learning Lounge event, “Wise Ways to Spend Your Money and Time When Starting a Practice,” to pick up on critical choices to make and mistakes to avoid.
James Chelnis, MD, and Arvind Saini, MD, MBA, led the event. They helped highlight how important it was to identify helpful resources early on in your career.
This includes finding health care and real estate lawyers and accountants to lean on for expertise, as well as connecting with the local chamber of commerce about business resources and for networking.
Without the event, I would have never considered reaching out to local ophthalmic technician training programs to fun interns for my practice. The event also reinforced good habits, such as speaking to at least one referring doctor each day to foster personal contact.
From a technical business perspective, I also learned that I should ensure that my disability insurance is qualified as “own occupation” as opposed to requiring me to be unable to perform all possible work.
Of course, doing one’s own research is critical to opening a practice. But, I definitely learned many useful pearls attending the learning lounge event. Now I’m off to open the doors to my brand new practice!