Physician business ideas flood my brain today

If I were starting a new physician business today, I'd:

create an online video program teaching the public all about low back pain; what aggravates a bad back, what activities to avoid, and a full-on low-back stretching and exercising program. I'd also build the accompanying iPhone and Android apps that would keep my end-users engaged and tracking their progress.

The program would have an accompanying subscriber's forum with recorded interviews with back experts - chiropractors, personal trainers, back specialists, shoe specialists, physical therapists, ergonomics experts etc.

My lower back has been hurting for a while!

• create a service that advises parents on how to create and set up imaginative play areas in their back yards offering children adventure, exercise and, of course, enough safety to meet the insatiable needs of a risk-averse population!
  Ideas like how to build an underground fort, construct a tree house, set up a trampoline safely, hang a tire swing from a branch, build a pirate ship, build a Wendy house, using natural or building materials instead of garish plastic!
  
  I'm researching trampolines at present for my daughter and the play yard advice out there is scanty.
  
  
• create a Victory Garden website that provides detailed plant layout plans and step-by-step projects for growing vegetables and herbs in an array of climates and zones, plot sizes, and for adults and kids of differing ages.
  Teach people the growth needs of each crop, what is best planted where and the nutritional benefits of each plant/herb type.
  Provide links to recipes using the herbs and vegetables.
  Educate about companion planting.
  Create an accompanying app iPhone and Android app that reminds one of watering times, times to add fertilizer and optimum times to harvest.
  
  I am planning my herb and veggie garden in my freshly landscaped back yard.
  
  
• develop a "learn all you need to know in 4 weeks" camera/photography basics course for digital camera users who are graduating from strictly point and shoot to something with manual options.
  Use video and simple graphics to explain what the following are:
  - F-stops and what to do with them!
  - aspect ratios (?)
  - "noise" with the camera (??)
  - RAW (it's not meat!)
  - SD and SDHC cards
  - aperture priority versus shutter priority and when to use which
  - to mention just a few obscure terms!
  
  I've been trying to buy a camera for the game-viewing part of my upcoming trip home to South Africa and I am baffled!!

What I am really trying to say is -- in order to develop a successful non-clinical physician business, it's  may come down to looking around you and observing where you and others are wasting enormous amounts of time trying to get information or help. Figure out how you can step in and provide it efficiently and cost-effectively!

Comments

[Susan Giurleo]

Philippa, I love these ideas! I always say, find a problem that needs to be solved or explained, then solve it, or give people tools to do it themselves. That's how great businesses are born!

[Mark Conway]

Philippa,
I like the ideas above. I'm actually in a position to help create the iphone and Android apps for low back pain (I'm a software entrepreneur) and I'd actually be a user of the app since I experience low back pain. Please contact me if you'd like to discuss this further.

I actually found your site through browsing the Medical Fusion conference website. I'm an entrepreneur married to a family practice physician. My wife is currently participating in a fellowship in integrative medicine run by the University of Arizona (Dr. Andrew Weil's program) and we've been discussing some ideas for startups based around her interest in integrative medicine. I think this new government healthcare "reform" is going to create a fair bit of chaos and attendant opportunity for creating some interesting entrepreneurial ventures to address health and wellness.
I think your blog and your focus are timely and expect that a lot pf physicians are going to want to re-examine their situations in light of all the changes coming imminently.
Best of luck with your blog and maybe we'll meet at the Medical Fusion conference (I'll have to see if schedule and budget will accomodate it).
Cheers,
Mark Conway

[Philippa Kennealy]

Thanks Susan and Mark for your comments.

It does astonish me how often I find myself grappling for a solution and having to do all the work myself to find answers. I bet there are a dozen ideas for business a month available to the aspiring entrepreneur who is paying attention!