How clinicians win healthtech advisory work
We get a lot of clinicians asking the same thing: "I don't want to leave medicine completely. But I know I can be useful in advising healthcare startups. How do I get into it?"
A good start, as advisory is the smartest way “into healthtech”. You keep your clinical work, you keep your income, and you build a second track on the side. No huge scary leap required.
But it doesn't fall in your lap. As all good things in life don’t. Here's how you (can) actually win the work.
Know which door you're knocking on
In our experience, candidly, there are two worlds, and they want different things.
The formal world, senior leadership in public health services and some larger commercial roles, runs on credentials. Think FRACMA, GAICD, an MBA, CHIA. If that's your target, start the study now, because these gates don't often open without the post-nominals.
The advisory world is different. Startups, scaleups and most healthtech companies don't necessarily care about your letters. They care whether you can save them from building the wrong thing or risking a huge clinical cock-up. That's the door we're focused on here, and it's wide open.
Tell them what you can do for them, not what you've done
This is the single biggest mistake clinicians make. They send a CV that reads like a clinical career summary. The founder skims it and moves on.
Flip it. Lead with the problem you solve for them. "I'm an ICU consultant. I can pressure-test your clinical workflow, tell you why nurses will ignore your alert, and stop you wasting six months on a feature no one uses." That gets a reply at least.
Your experience is the proof, the offer is the hook.
Find the companies, then go direct
You don't wait to be advertised to, as advisory work is almost never posted.
Head to the ANZ Healthtech Directory and build a shortlist. Filter for companies in your specialty, the ones solving a problem you've lived. Then cold email the founder or clinical lead directly (it’s remarkably easy to find or guess work emails based on domain formats).
Keep it to four sentences: who you are, the problem you solve, why them specifically, and a soft ask for fifteen minutes. Volunteer the first conversation for free. That's your audition (or better still, record a 2 minute Loom video to send with the concise email. People warm to people who can communicate).
To note, it took me 17 years of daily networking to build what we now have with Clinical Advisors.
Do this consistently and you'll out-hustle every clinician sitting around waiting to be discovered (to note, it took me 17 years of daily networking to build what we now have with Clinical Advisors).
Build a daily intelligence habit
The clinicians who land advisory roles are the ones who know what's happening before everyone else.
Set up job alerts and news alerts and scan them every morning with your coffee. Follow the funding rounds and updates on LinkedIn. A company that just raised is a company is going places, sometimes so quick they neglected the clinical advice part. Pulse+IT, What the Health and Talking HealthTech will keep you current on who's moving, who's raised, and who's expanding into your area.
Join the rooms where the work is
Advisory work moves on warm intros. Get into the communities and stay visible.
Start with Creative Careers in Medicine, the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, the Talking HealthTech community and What the Health. If you're in a college, join its special interest group too. The RACGP and RACMA both run them, and the more recently formed Australian Institute of Health Executives (AIHE) can be useful too.
Show up, contribute, and be useful before you ask for anything.
The first one is the hardest
Once you have one advisory engagement on your CV, the next is easier, and the one after that easier still. The goal is simply to get the first logo on the board. Volunteer if you have to. Prove the value, then charge for it.
Need coaching on how to do this? Lock in a call with Clinical Advisors to get moving.
