Key takeaways

On June 13, 2026, fifteen OBGYN physicians spent one day answering a question clinicians rarely ask out loud: what does a career look like beyond the exam room? ACOOG's Summer Virtual Symposium, Beyond the Clinic: Expanding the OBGYN Role, brought them together across six sessions and six pathways: industry collaboration, founders and innovators, private practice, academic leadership, advocacy and nonprofit leadership, and writing and media.

What emerged from these career-changing conversations was less about job titles and more about contribution, possibility, and even self-care. The common themes were that curiosity opens more doors than credentials, that no one builds a new path alone, and that the smartest moves are deliberate ones. These are the career conversations no one in OBGYN is having, and the same throughlines surfaced no matter which path the faculty took.

8 career-expanding lessons

Lead with Curiosity, Not Credentials

The most consistent message across all six sessions was that curiosity, not credentialing, is what opens the doors. Anissa Mattison, DO, and Matthew Shelnutt, DO closed the academic medicine session on exactly that: "Stay curious, and don't believe the voice that says you're not qualified."

Industry leaders described staying open-minded about pathways most physicians do not know exist. The physicians who built careers outside the exam room said yes to conversations, lectures, side projects, and unfamiliar rooms, often without knowing where any of it would lead. Curiosity is not a personality trait here. It is a strategy.

Holding Onto Perfectionism is Holding Back Your Career

Perfection was the single biggest internal barrier physicians named across the six Beyond the Clinic sessions. Corinna Muller, DO, FACOOG (Dist.), MBA, put it bluntly in the private practice session: "As physicians, we're perfectionists. We want everything to be perfect. Nothing is perfect in medicine. You never get the perfect patient."

The media and storytelling session opened on the same note: get over the perfection and just start. That perfectionism that is second-nature for physicians can delay the first lecture, the first post, the first product concept, or the first conversation with a legislator. That delay is often the only thing standing between a physician's new side gig or new career.

Your Resume Is Already Full of Transferable Skills

Nearly every session pushed back on the idea that physicians have to acquire some new degree, training, or skills. Whatever move you want to make, your colleagues confirmed that you are not starting from zero. You are starting with clinical practice experience, one of the most demanding training grounds for transferable skills in any profession.

Do OBGYNs Need an MBA to Start a Practice or New Business?

No. Many of the Beyond the Clinic faculty confirmed that you do not need an MBA to start a practice, and the industry and innovation sessions echoed it. Karla Loken, DO shared what a mentor told her early on: "You didn't not go to business school because you couldn't get in."

That reframe opened the door to taking specific courses at Wharton to fill specific gaps. The guidance was consistent across sessions: surround yourself with experts who know what you do not, take the courses or coaching that close specific gaps, and stop assuming you need a credential before you can begin.

Can You Build a New Career on Your Own?

You cannot, and you should not try. Community and mentorship came up in nearly every session, particularly during the industry discussion about using your network to vet opportunities. Faculty advised that when a company reaches out, especially if you are burned out and ready for any exit, physicians often skip the gut check because they want the new role and relief to be real. Do not do this.

Barbra Hanna, DO, FACOOG credited a neighbor who believed in her and made the introductions that led to her current work leading a virtual menopause clinic. Sadaf Lodhi, DO, FACOOG shared how a physician business coaching community helped her understand why her first practice closed and how to structure her concierge practice differently in 2024. Muller's maternal-fetal medicine practice in Alaska runs on the experience of a manager with 20 years in the field.

All or Nothing: Do You Have to Leave Clinical Practice Entirely?

Faculty across every session described long, deliberate transitions from clinical practice rather than clean breaks. OBGYN career expansion almost always starts with a side door.

The industry session was direct about pacing, with Lodhi advising physicians to "take the gloves off slowly." Throughout Beyond the Clinic, faculty kept adjunct teaching positions, worked at free clinics, or maintained telehealth and locums work while building expertise in their new lane. That hybrid period is the right strategic approach.

Trust Your Gut: Your Clinical Instincts Translate in Other OBGYN Careers

The discernment you use with patients works on your own career decisions, too. The industry session was the most explicit: "If it doesn't feel right, it's probably not right," and "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."

Physicians are trained to read situations fast. Pattern recognition, risk assessment, knowing when something is off, and adjusting when new information arrives are valuable clinical skills honed across thousands of patient encounters. Stop assuming you need to think like a businessperson to make business decisions. You already think like a clinician. That is the asset. Use it.

Embrace the Expensive Mistakes. That Is How You Learn.

Every faculty member had a failure story, and that is the point. You will fail at parts of this, and the physicians who succeed are the ones who keep going, learn from what did not work, and build the next thing on what they learned.

About Beyond the Clinic

The ACOOG Summer Virtual Symposium: Beyond the Clinic: Expanding the OBGYN Role in Industry, Advocacy, Innovation, and Media was held live on June 13, 2026. The full event will be available soon as enduring, on-demand CME, offering up to 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ or 6 AOA Category 1-A Credits for physicians, and 6 non-physician credits for students, residents, and other health professionals.

Program Chair: Emmie Strassberg, DO

Faculty: Karla F. Loken, DO; Angela Jones, DO; Andrea Braden, MD; Barbra Hanna, DO; Sadaf Lodhi, DO; Corinna Muller, DO; Anissa Mattison, DO; Matthew Shelnutt, DO; Jodi A. Benett, DO; Kerry Krauss, MD; Franziska Haydanek, DO; Amy Burkett, MD; Renu Joshi, MD; and Vrunda B. Desai, MD.