Gone are the days where pursuing Dentistry in your undergraduate meant that you are only going to be a clinical dentist, either working with your clinical practice or teaching at a dental college. Nowadays, dentists in India are successfully venturing into fields that are entirely unrelated to the dental world. Sectors like Pharmacovigilance, Management Consulting, Finance, and Advisory, Bioinformatics, and Medical Coding.
For the last 10 years, there has been a noticeable change in the trends of dentistry. This trend has been pronounced due to the advent of the internet, where you have the accessibility to learn a new skill online while sitting in your room's comforts and can even earn certifications. But when it comes to Dentistry, we often think it's nearly impossible to get a job opportunity at a Corporate/Startup just after BDS because we aren't trained for the necessary skill sets. But in this new era of social media and easy access to the internet, there is nothing in the world that can stop you from learning a new skill and networking with someone who can help you land a job.
Now when we talk about how being a dentist, one can work as a health consultant or a medical advisor. A Medical Advisor/ Health Consultant is someone who provides a significant contribution towards the evaluation, critiquing, and communication of relevant medical/scientific information related to a company's products. Medical Advisors assist clinical research teams and often help training and supporting the sales force. A Medical Advisor also provides an authoritative opinion regarding medical-based questions and legal and regulatory matters, thus enabling colleagues to comply with the required statutory requirements.
A few roles as a medical advisor are:
– Work with the marketing department to develop medico-marketing strategies and materials.
– Work closely with the medical information teams to ensure that all the company's products are available.
– Provide support to the regulatory and legal affairs department for obtaining applicable product licenses.
– Conduct an analysis and life cycle plans of competitor's products as well as their product pipeline.
– Work with medical/technical writers for the creation of marketing material, package inserts.
– Participate in local and international meetings to represent the company. - Training of doctors and workforce field.
As per the current dental scenario, a few positions in some of the best companies belonging to an industry/domain related to:
Medical Devices and Dental Product Companies - KaVo Kerr, Dentsply Sirona, Nobel Biocare, Straumann, Ormco, Invisalign, Vatech, 3M, Carestream, Planmeca, Siemens, GE, J&J, etc.
Pharmaceuticals (Pharmacovigilance) - Abbott, Cipla, Pfizer, Glenmark, etc. Pharmacovigilance is the study and the prevention of adverse effects of pharmaceutical products. It is the reason that many drugs are withdrawn from the market, and the quality system of the medical industry is maintained. There is no shortage of jobs in this field, as high-quality pharmacovigilance practice helps in good business dealing.
Virtual Scribing - IKS Health. A Virtual Scribe is a person who listens to and documents the doctor-patient encounter in real-time. Virtual Scribe will be busy entering notes, CPT and ICD codes, eRx, orders, and other relevant data directly into the patient's chart — while the doctor is busy seeing and providing care to the patient. These are relevant for U.S. Healthcare, but many companies have outsourced this work to India.
Healthcare Consulting - E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte, McKinzie, PWC, Boston Consulting Group, etc.
Healthcare I.T. - Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, etc.
Health Insurance (Medical Writing) - HDFC, Credihealth, ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz, Star Health, etc. Medical underwriting refers to the process by which a life or health insurer uses an applicant's medical history to decide whether they can offer a policy and whether the policy will include pre-existing condition exclusions and/or a premium's higher than the standard rate.
Dental Clinic Chains - Clove, Axis, etc.
Hospitals - Fortis, Apollo, Manipal, Reliance, Columbia Asia, etc.
Public Health Organizations - UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, IDA, etc.
Healthcare Start-Ups - Practo, Home-Health, Bonvive, HealthRx, Portea, Lybrate, MedPlus.
P.S.: To have an insight into these job opportunities, you can always look upon the company or the organization websites or job portals like LinkedIn, Monster.com, Naukri.com, Indeed, Glassdoor.