The Worthy Physician
"Reigniting your humanity and passion for medicine."
Welcome to The Worthy Physician, a podcast for physicians, other healthcare workers, and high-performing individuals seeking to reconnect with their humanity, rediscover their passion for medicine, and redefine fulfillment. This podcast offers reflection, healing, and authentic storytelling in a world where burnout, imposter syndrome, and overwhelming expectations are shared.
Medicine is more than a profession—it's a calling. Yet, modern healthcare often leaves physicians feeling disconnected, chasing milestones that fail to bring lasting satisfaction. The Worthy Physician challenges these narratives, prioritizing well-being, core values, and authenticity.
Why Listen?
1. Physician Burnout: Understand its causes and recovery strategies to rediscover joy in medicine.
2. Authentic Self: Explore your identity beyond the white coat and integrate it into all aspects of life.
3. Imposter Syndrome: Overcome doubts, embrace your worth, and value your contributions to medicine.
4. The Arrival Fallacy: Break free from achievement-driven dissatisfaction and find fulfillment in the present.
5. Core Values: Align decisions with what truly matters to live purpose-driven lives.
6. Financial Empowerment: Gain insights on managing debt, creating sustainability, and building financial literacy.
7. Real Stories: Hear physicians' struggles and triumphs, fostering connection and solidarity.
8. Healing Through Storytelling: Share and listen to stories that inspire resilience and growth.
What to Expect
Each episode blends:
- Engaging in Conversations with experts in medicine, psychology, and finance.
- Real-life stories from physicians who've navigated similar challenges.
- Practical Strategies for addressing burnout, improving balance, and enhancing well-being.
- A Supportive Community that celebrates your victories and offers encouragement.
Why It Matters
You are more than your profession—you're a human being with dreams and aspirations. The Worthy Physician reminds you to prioritize your values, honor your well-being, and reignite your passion for medicine.
Who Should Listen?
This podcast is for physicians seeking clarity, fulfillment, and alignment, whether struggling with burnout, imposter syndrome, or the pressures of the medical field.
Join the Movement
Redefine what it means to be a physician today. Subscribe to The Worthy Physician and take the first step toward a healthier, more compassionate approach to medicine.
The Worthy Physician
Navigating New Horizons: A Pediatric Endocrinologist's Journey from Clinical Practice to Chief Medical Officer in the Pharma Industry with Dr. Kreher, MD
Join us for an enlightening discussion with Dr. Nerissa Kreher, a trailblazing pediatric endocrinologist who successfully transitioned from clinical practice to the pharmaceutical industry as a Chief Medical Officer. In this conversation, Dr. Kreher shares her invaluable experiences and highlights the essential role of networking in her career transformation. She offers practical advice for introverted physicians on how to connect authentically with others and make the most of their unique narratives.
Dr. Kreher’s journey is a testament to the power of continuous learning, inspiring fellow physicians to remain open to acquiring new skills, even when the future feels uncertain. This episode explores the numerous roles that physicians can pursue beyond traditional clinical settings, showcasing how their innate leadership abilities can create a substantial impact within the pharmaceutical realm.
By collaborating with experts across diverse fields such as finance and marketing, and crafting CVs that not only motivate but also celebrate achievements, we illuminate the untapped potential within the medical profession. I also recount my experience founding Pharma IndustryMDCoach during the COVID-19 pandemic to help physicians explore non-clinical career avenues, underscoring the vast opportunities for growth beyond the hospital environment.
Don’t miss this chance to gain insights from Dr. Kreher and ignite inspiration for your own career path.
Connect with Dr. Kreher:
https://industrymdcoach.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nerissa-kreher-md-mba-1387465/J
Though I am a physician, this is not medical advice. This is only a tool that physicians can use to get ideas on how to deal with burnout and/or know they are not alone. If you are in need of medical assistance talk to your physician.
Learn more about female physicians' journey through burnout to thriving!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/books
Let's connect for speaking opportunities!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/dr-shahhaque-md-as-a-speaker
Check out the free resources from The Worthy Physician:
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/freebie-downloads
Battle of the Boxes
21 Day Self Focus Journal
Welcome to another episode of the Worthy Physician. I'm your host, dr Sapna Shah-Hawk, reigniting your humanity and passion for medicine. With each episode, we bring you inspiring stories, actionable insight and expert advice. Get ready for another engaging conversation that could change the way you think and live. Let's dive in. What does it look like getting into the pharmaceutical industry being a physician?
Speaker 1:Today we have Dr Nerissa Krayer, who is going to help outline her journey and maybe what it takes for you, if you're interested in a non-clinical position or looking at something in which to transition into, this is the podcast for you. So, dr Krayer, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. So to me it's very interesting the kind of the nemesis of and again, this is not throwing shade at the pharmaceutical industry, but there's always a preconceived notion of the good, the bad and the ugly in medicine Insurance companies definitely being up there, government regulation definitely being up there, but big pharma, the pharmaceutical industry also rubs us the wrong way and I don't necessarily think that's a fair assessment. How long have you been working in the pharmaceutical industry as a physician?
Speaker 2:So I've been working in biotech and pharma for almost 20 years now.
Speaker 1:And what got you started? Because, as we were talking prior, to, you did residency and pediatrics, then a fellowship in endocrinology.
Speaker 2:Right. So pediatric endocrinologist and worked for a year after fellowship, needed to move to the Boston area for my partner's match, also a physician, for my partner's match, also a physician, and I was on a clinical research track. So during my fellowship I did a master's in clinical research, an IH-sponsored program and really had my sights set on academic clinical research. Thought that was going to be the path at Mass General Hospital in the pediatric endocrine division and unfortunately, through a couple of turns of events, that position did not exist after we matched in Boston. So I was moving to Boston with my partner and two young kids and I needed a job. I looked around at other places Hasbro, children's Hospital in Rhode Island, dartmouth up in New Hampshire and just didn't find the right thing for me.
Speaker 2:Again, holding true to wanting to do clinical research, not full-on clinical medicine, day-to-day and through networking, which I think is a really important skill for physicians to have, I was able to land my first job in the pharma industry. It was a biotech role, medical affairs, so I was sharing the science of the company and it was specific to the company's growth hormone product. So as a pediatric specific to the company's growth hormone product, so as a pediatric endocrinologist. It was the perfect match for the company and for me to work with their recombinant human growth hormone.
Speaker 1:That's pretty serendipitous. It's just couldn't get any better.
Speaker 2:I tell my children, who are now young adults, and I tell physicians this that we don't always learn to network and it's a really important skill. Had I not been speaking with this person who already worked in pharma and explaining my situation, and had she not asked for my resume, that role would not have come to fruition. Asked for my resume, that role would not have come to fruition. So, putting your story out there, talking to people and networking is really critical.
Speaker 2:How did you learn how to network? Yeah, so, as an extreme introvert, and I've slowly moved myself closer and closer to the extroverted side of the scale, although I'll never be an extrovert. That was hard, but what I've learned over my time in the industry is one people like talking about themselves. So if you frame it in learning someone's story and being interested in the person, that is an easier way than if you frame it from the standpoint of you're taking away someone's time or you're asking for something or you're requesting something from someone. There's a lot of mindset shift in how you think about networking, and the last thing I'll say about that is reminding yourself that people generally really like to help others, and especially in our path right in our career, physicians want to help one another. So if you frame it from that perspective, I think it makes it much more comfortable to go and have a conversation with someone, knowing that they probably want to help.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that, because you're shining a light on the positive side of humanity which I think we forget, especially in clinical medicine, and maybe even the business side or the pharmaceutical side. It's very easy to lose sight of that. We tend to get jaded.
Speaker 2:Yes, and from an evolutionary standpoint and bringing in some of the life coaching piece, we are prone to go to fight or flight and the negative because evolutionarily that kept us safe and so trying to get away from that and take a focus on some positive instead of immediately going to the negative, that's just a life lesson, generally speaking.
Speaker 1:Now you're 20 years into the pharmaceutical part of the medical world and you specifically said I don't really want to do clinical medicines, more clinical research. That was your interest. So, besides networking, how would a physician really get to or share your path and how do they know if that's for them?
Speaker 2:My path.
Speaker 2:Over the last 20 years, I've been at, I think, six different companies, both medical affairs and clinical development, and I've worked my way up from entry-level role, a director level, to the chief medical officer role, which is really the highest medical role in a company, and I oversee all of these functions now so medical affairs, clinical development and drug safety and through that time I've obtained skills along the way. I think it's really important for people to know that as physicians, we've typically been the creme de la creme of whatever your high school graduating class or your college graduating class, and we've worked really hard for that. But you don't have to know everything.
Speaker 2:Going into a new role like the pharma industry, you learn a lot along the way, and so I think being able to get comfortable with it's okay not to know everything, and I say this because when I work with physicians that are interested, they look at a job description on LinkedIn or Indeed or one of the sites, and they look at the qualifications and they say, oh, I don't have all of those. Oh, I don't have all of those, and no one does, because if you've never worked in pharma, how can you have pharmaceutical industry experience? That's just not possible right, and so it's taking that leap of faith that you're a highly intelligent person as a physician and you can learn new things while you're in the job, and that's one of the critical pieces that people have to get over as they're starting this journey into exploring the pharma industry.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that, because you're absolutely right, but we have so many skills that are translatable.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that ties a little bit to your other question about how do you do it. You need a resume, not an academic CV. That's a tangible takeaway for a physician listening Most people only have an academic CV and it's probably not incredibly up to date and so being able to translate that into a resume and really speak to what skills you bring to the table Again, when I'm working with physicians, I'm brainstorming with them and reminding them of all the skills. So they think about things like leadership as an example, and physicians will say I don't do leadership, I don't have leadership experience, and I actually chuckle at them because they're always leading a team, whether it's they're working in academics and they have residents and fellows and nurses and nurse practitioners and extenders and their finance partners and the office manager. They are leading those teams and so it's reminding physicians of the numerous skills they have outside of only their clinical training their clinical training.
Speaker 1:Amen to that, because we forget that again. Let's just, I think we go into this mindset of, okay, I'm going to heal people, I'm going to be a healer, I'm going to be a physician, but what we think about how that looks like and then what the training prepares us for in the way we get out in the real world, that three totally different things. We're working with human beings and, again, practicing at the top of the license. We're not. We do steer that ship. Now there are some instances where maybe we don't, but if we break it down and on the day to day, nine times out of 10, I do think the physician does, and that's where we can make the biggest impact. We forget that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I very much agree with you, and it's reminding ourselves of the really critical role we play in this ecosystem.
Speaker 1:Now, before we had been talking, and I'm loving everything you're saying, because one thing I tell my med students and residents I worked with in the past is, as you go through your career, make sure to update your CV or your resume in real time.
Speaker 2:That is great advice. We forget all of the things we've accomplished. We forget all of the things we've accomplished.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and on those days when you're down, it's nice to be able to pull that out. And not that it's the only benchmark, but it is a benchmark for if you need something tangible, just like that. But for those listening, how would you frame being in the world of pharmaceuticals as a physician?
Speaker 2:Yes. So in talking to physicians about the role, one of the things that I want to share with them is it's a very different world of being around people with very different skill sets. So when we practice medicine not that we're not around people with very different skill sets, so when we practice medicine not that we're not around people with different skill sets, but if you think about the vast majority of your day, it's people who understand clinical medicine. They understand the flow, they understand the terminology, they understand the disease states. In pharma and biotech, you have people who are expert at finance and speak a very different language than a physician. You have people who are expert at marketing and sales, and health economics is another example. So all of the sudden, you're in this world where you don't understand everything and you can't actually. That's why we have lots of people with lots of different expertise, and so that can either be a challenge or an opportunity.
Speaker 2:The opportunity is every single day I get to learn new things from colleagues who are expert in their world. Biostatistics is an example. I have taken three or four biostatistics courses and I still. It just doesn't completely stick in my brain, but I have a biostatistician sitting beside me who can teach me and remind me. So that's the opportunity. The challenge is sometimes it can be frustrating because you're trying to explain a clinical disease or a clinical state and you're not with people who speak that language anymore, and so you have to think about new ways of explaining a disease or a condition, and so it's just a different way of interacting with the world that is not as maybe contained as the clinical world, but it's fun. It's just something that people have to be aware of. They're not always going to be able to talk like you, and I would talk as physician to physician, just like each patient is different.
Speaker 1:When you're trying to explain things Now, tell us more about the company you've started, because you're the CEO and founder of the Pharma Industry. Md Coach Is that correct?
Speaker 2:That's right About gosh. Almost three and a half years ago now, we were in the beginning of COVID. I was part of a women's physician group around life coaching. I was learning a lot, but I was listening to physician colleagues who were in a lot of pain. No, ppe, everyone was scared. We didn't know what this virus was. A really a really dark time.
Speaker 2:And I don't have an active license anymore.
Speaker 2:I don't practice, so I couldn't help by taking a shift in an urgent care.
Speaker 2:I really wanted to be able to do something and I decided that I could help educate physicians about the options that they have, because people were feeling very hopeless and helpless and I wanted them to understand that, although it's not for everyone, there are ways to utilize your clinical skills and your medical training in ways that don't require clinical practice. And so I created this company to help physicians learn about the path to pharma and biotech. And now again, almost three and a half years later, I've helped upwards of 75 to 80 physicians figure out is this the path they want and, if it is, how do they get there? And this has been hematologists, oncologists, this has been pediatric child abuse specialists, this has been family medicine, internal medicine, and so I'm really quite proud that I've been able to share this path. That, again, is not right for everyone, but it is right for a number of people, and it's been really fun to be able to create something, build something, go through my own ups and downs learning how to build a business.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that and thank you for stepping up in the way that you did, because that's that just shows the camaraderie and the big parts I think physicians have, and also we've been through a very dark time. I I don't think that that hadn't happened for 100 years, approximately since the spanish flu, and we lived through that and looking back on that the good and the bad, the ugly, the beautiful here we are today. But thank you for pointing that out, because that just I don't know that just really set very well with me. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you Again. I think it does touch on wanting to give back, wanting to do the right thing and wanting to help.
Speaker 1:That's why many of us went into medicine we want to be able to help people how can listeners reach you if they wanted to sit down and have a conversation or even explore this avenue? How do they reach out?
Speaker 2:to you, sure? So I have a website. It's industrymdcoachcom, and also the email address is the same industrymdcoach at gmailcom. I do offer free consultations with people to talk through, answer questions, lots of free information on the website about the path. So podcasts like this, those recordings are there, as well as a weekly blog that I've written since the beginning. So, again, lots of free information for people to explore and happy to converse with folks and see if this is something that might work for them.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that, and those links will be in the show notes Now. I always ask my guests what is one last pearl of wisdom that you would like to leave with us? What is one last pearl of wisdom that you would like to leave with us?
Speaker 2:I think an important pearl is we have to be brave enough to put ourselves out there. We have to be brave enough to fail to really move forward in our lives. And again, as physicians we're not always used to a lot of failure, and so being able to step out of that comfort zone, put yourself out into the world, it will come back in a lot of positive returns and opportunities. But you'll never know if they're out there if you don't put yourself out there and give it a try.
Speaker 1:Those are beautiful words of wisdom, and there's always an opportunity to learn from where we don't do exceedingly well. Yes, that's life, exactly, dr Krayer. Thank you so much for your time and just I've.
Speaker 2:This has been a wonderful conversation, thank you so much and appreciate what you do with your podcast. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to another episode from the Worthy Physician podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who'd love it too. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who'd love it too. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube, linkedin, instagram for more updates and insights. Until next time, keep inspiring, learning, growing and living your best life.