Paid medical surveys are often cited as an example of a good physician side gig to start with because of how easy it is to get started, how flexible it is, and the lack of commitment necessary to engage in this activity. While there are many factors in who makes the most doing medical surveys and if doing medical surveys is worth it, one of the biggest factors in both how much you can make doing medical surveys and how likely you are to get surveys is a physician’s specialty or subspecialty. The physicians that tend to get the most tend to be physicians in specialties with active developments and research, either in the pharmaceutical or medical device realm. This is not a hard and fast rule, as medical survey companies tend to have their own algorithms about who they send surveys to as well. And of course, the more medical survey companies you sign up with, the more opportunities you will get. This article will focus on which physician specialties tend to get more or less paid medical surveys, why, and how to increase your chances of getting more paid medical survey opportunities.
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Paid Medical Survey Resources for Doctors
Sign up for paid medical surveys with some of the best and most recommended paid online medical survey companies on our communities.
If you’ve established a medical survey side gig, you’ll want to maximize the tax benefits of 1099 income for physicians.
Is it always the same specialties that get the most survey opportunities?
Not necessarily, although there certainly do tend to be ones that are the most commonly asked for by more companies than most. The companies offering paid medical survey opportunities each have their own client base, so the types of studies they get will be influenced by who that client base is. Therefore, you’ll often find members of our physician communities commenting that a certain company is really good for them, whereas somebody else may chime in saying that they’ve had the opposite experience with the same company.
What are the specialties that get the most medical survey opportunities?
In general, specialties with more active drug development, expensive drugs, more use of medical devices, and more active research tend to get the most surveys. Whether in the development stage or the marketing stage, due to the huge upfront costs in developing these drugs and go to market strategies, pharmaceutical and medical device companies pour a lot of resources into making sure they are setting themselves up for success.
The specialty most requested by companies on our paid medical survey companies list is usually hematology oncology, which is likely not surprising given the number of (very expensive) drugs always actively being researched and developed in this field.
This is followed by other specialties with many niche and expensive drugs or biologics which have ongoing research, such as neurology and rheumatology. Gastroenterologists, pulmonologists, allergists, surgeons, endocrinologists, and cardiologists also tend to get more surveys due to similar reasons. Dermatologists and psychiatrists often say they get better paid surveys, even though they may not get as many.
Whenever we have a thread on the physician communities where someone says they’re making multiple five figure amounts in surveys doing medical surveys, there’s a good chance they belong to one of these specialties.
Perhaps not surprisingly, these are also specialties that tend to get a lot of physician consulting opportunities and are often requested by companies hiring physicians for consulting opportunities on our physician consulting databases.
Should I even bother signing up for medical surveys if my specialty is not on the list of ones that get the most survey opportunities?
The answer is likely that it depends. What are your goals for how much you need to make to make it worth doing them? Is it hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars, or tens of thousands of dollars? There are many specialties outside of that list that tend to get surveys relatively frequently, and if you fit the demographics associated with getting more paid medical survey opportunities, you may still get a pretty decent number of medical surveys that could add up to thousands of dollars a year.
It only takes a few minutes to sign up to do medical surveys, so there’s very little upfront opportunity cost, but if your goal is to be a radiologist that makes $30,000 a year doing medical surveys, it’s important to realize that it likely won’t happen. You should probably refine your expectations to think about these medical surveys as fun bonus money when they show up, but not count on them as your primary side gig. And if that’s not worth it, then don’t sign up.
Also note that these general trends can change, depending on what’s going on in the world, what the latest and greatest medical breakthroughs and medical news is, and more. There are also reasons why there may be an unusual surge in surveys for particular specialties. For example, during COVID, it felt like there were a lot more surveys available for physicians in critical care and preventative and primary care specialties in our physician communities. Flu season can mean more surveys for certain specialties as well. A major breakthrough article on new research that’s getting a lot of attention may be another reason for companies in that space to seek market research from relevant medical specialties.
If my specialty is not on the list of medical specialties that get the most survey opportunities, is there anything I can do to increase my chances?
The best things you can do if you really want to do surveys but aren’t statistically likely to make a ton of money include:
Signing up with a lot of medical survey companies: This will ensure the greatest chance that surveys will cross your plate. In case it’s helpful, this is our list of medical surveys that our members have had the best experiences with. The good news is that this only takes a few minutes and is free.
Doing the surveys when you get them: The companies track who participates and how quickly, and many tend to reward those who participate by giving them more surveys. It ensures that they’re more likely to get responses faster, which will make their clients happy.
Giving thoughtful feedback: This is more to make sure you don’t hurt your chances of getting more surveys. Companies flag people that seem to haphazardly fly through surveys and weaken the quality of their data.
Is doing medical surveys worth it?
This is a more detailed answer that depends on your goals for what you make per minute, and how okay you are with some of the frustrations associated with doing medical surveys, like screening out of surveys if you don’t meet the criteria. We have a dedicated article on if doing medical surveys is worth it, which you should read to explore more on whether this is a physician side gig opportunity that you want to explore.
Where can I sign up to do medical surveys?
The first step is to sign up online for paid medical survey opportunities from companies that offer them. This is generally quick and free, and just requires you putting in some identifying information so that they can find medical survey opportunities relevant to you. We have a list of the best and most recommended paid online medical survey companies based on the recommendations of our Physician Side Gigs community. These are based on companies that our members have had luck with and that actually pay reliably (you’d be surprised how many companies do not pay reliably - we’ve had to remove several off of our list because of this in the past).
Conclusion
Certain specialties are certainly likely to get more medical survey opportunities than others. Setting your expectations accordingly is an important step in deciding whether or not you want to pursue this additional income stream as a physician side gig.