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It is difficult to come across a student on Vanderbilt’s campus who has not heard about the infamous Gen Chem class. With 700+ students enrolled in CHEM 1601 this semester, many of them with their sights set on a future career in medicine, and 1,723 members of Vanderbilt’s pre-med club, it is safe to say that a significant percentage of Vanderbilt’s population plans on going to medical school. However, in 2023, only 192 Vanderbilt students even applied to medical school. What happened to everyone enrolled in Gen Chem and all the members of the pre-med club?
Many students choose to drop out of the pre-med track due to the rigor of the courseload, stress of preparing for the MCAT, or a multitude of other factors. While leaving behind the difficult coursework that a medical school application requires may be easy, forgoing the desire to work in the healthcare industry may not be. When someone says they want to work in healthcare, a career as a doctor or nurse may quickly come to mind, but there are other options out there, including a position within the quickly growing healthcare consulting industry.
What is Healthcare Consulting?
Healthcare consultants are in charge of advising healthcare-related companies on their weaknesses and improvements they should make in their processes. However, unlike general consultants, who often work with clients in a variety of fields, healthcare consultants have the opportunity to specialize in their field. Healthcare consultants can become experts in detecting issues in health companies, and like a doctor, make decisions that are in the best interest of patients who are served by healthcare consultants’ clients.
Kinds of Healthcare Consultants
There are four main kinds of healthcare consultants: strategy, operations, IT and digital health, and compliance and regulatory consultants.
- Strategy consultants assist healthcare organizations in implementing change by bringing them into new markets, informed by studying and researching market trends, which helps them grow.
- Operations consultants help companies increase efficiency of patient flow and productivity of healthcare providers.
- IT and digital health consultants help healthcare companies implement AI and other technology into their systems in order to keep up with the competition of an increasingly digitized healthcare space.
- Compliance and regulatory consultants ensure that healthcare companies are following all legal requirements associated with their practices.
Why Healthcare Consulting?
According to Markets and Markets and Towards Healthcare reports, the healthcare consulting industry is set to grow to become a $52 billion USD market by 2030 and a $79.95 billion USD market by 2034. These numbers indicate there are likely plenty of opportunities in the industry now, and there will only be more as the industry continues to grow.
The Growing Need for Healthcare Consultants
According to Deloitte, 6% of company executives have identified consumer affordability as a priority in their operations, 65% of healthcare business leaders need help increasing their profit margins, and 25% of companies have not brought in as much money as they had anticipated over the past three years. While companies struggle to stay keep up with competition, they also face pressure to transition to digital systems rapidly because 64% of consumers prefer virtual appointments to in-person ones.
Now, more than ever, hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical, biotech, and insurance companies are seeking out consultants as they fight to keep their businesses afloat in a time where prices are rising and technology continues to progress.
Conclusion
While healthcare consulting is definitely a different profession from being a doctor or a nurse, it still provides people interested in working in the healthcare space with the opportunity to do so for a fraction of the time spent in school (it is possible to enter the industry directly after undergraduate education) and much more flexibility regarding class schedule (there is no specific major or class prerequisites to pursue this career). In addition, healthcare consultants get to use many of the same skills as doctors do such as working with people, oftentimes in teams, problem-solving, critical thinking, managing multiple tasks at once, and work with many of the systems healthcare providers use. However, like doctors, healthcare consultants also often must work very long hours and are in high-pressure environments with expectations to deliver.
By no means should freshmen, or any students at Vanderbilt, rethink being on the pre-med track if they are certain they want to become a doctor. However, for those at Vanderbilt who may be having second thoughts about the necessary workload for medical school and have a strong interest in business, healthcare consulting may be a great option to consider.
