Career development for doctors with a disability

Here's a link to an old BMJ article titled, "Career development for doctors with a disability."
Doctors with disability can face discrimination and hostility from their colleagues, though they are more likely to be better employees. Stuart Mercer, general practitioner and amputee, discusses
This article was written in 1998. We definitely need some modern resources to help disabled physicians find the right type of employment. Our hope is that the power of the Internet will allow disabled heatlhcare professionals to have the ability to share their stories of successes and failures so that others may learn and get inspired to pursue the right types of career opportunities.

Disability project at the Royal College of Physicians

Disability project
Wellcome Trust funded disability project at the Royal College of Physicians

Would you like to be involved?

The RCP is looking for disabled medical practitioners and disabled individuals to be part of a focus group and exhibition based on the college's collection of 17th to 19th century prints of disability.


Representation and identity

The project will highlight the historical and contemporary stories behind the prints and look at the representation of disabled people's bodies in the past and present. The relationship between the scientific practitioner and the disabled individual will also be explored.

Participants will look at the prints and discuss historical images of disability and their relevance to disabled people’s lives today. Images and comments from participants will then be exhibited alongside the prints in a final exhibition.


Focus groups

Participants will need to attend one of the focus groups (for which a small honorarium will be paid) to take place at Shape in Kentish Town, London, on the following dates:

* Monday 5 July 2010 (BSL interpreters / palantypist provided), 10am-3pm
* Tuesday 13 July 2010, 10am-3pm
* Tuesday 20 July 2010, 10am-3pm

To apply, or for more information about the project, please contact Bridget Telfer, audience development co-ordinator: bridget.telfer@rcplondon.ac.uk or 020 3075 1430.

Learn more here.

Disability Accommodation for Applicants to Quintiles

Disabled physicians are often looking for non-clinical employment. How about Quintiles?
Quintiles is the only fully integrated bio and pharmaceutical services provider offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions. 23,000 employees in 60 countries have helped develop or commercialize all of the top 30 best-selling drugs.
Here's a snippet from the Quintiles website about their disability accommodations:

Disability Accommodation for Applicants to Quintiles

We are committed to providing an equal opportunity in job application procedures for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans.

If you find our online application system difficult to use, you may submit a paper resume. Quintiles ADA job application help or you may call +1- 919-998 2000 and provide us with your physical address and we will forward an application to you.

Any misuse of this mailbox may result in your CV or resume being rejected from our system. Please refrain from using this email address unless you are duly qualified to do so.

The Physically Disabled Physician

There's a 1987 article in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) titled, "The Physically Disabled Physician."  The author is Stanley F. Wainapel, MD from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York.

Here's a brief synopsis of the article:
This article reviews the available literature on physically disabled physicians and discusses the attitudinal, environmental, and political barriers they may encounter. Information on 215 physicians and 92 medical students with a wide range of disabilities was analyzed. Currently available personal and technological resources are outlined and special issues pertaining to medical education are highlighted. Greater awareness and acceptance by medical peers are essential for professional success.
JAMA. 1987;257(21):2935-2938.

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Reasonable Accommodations for Medical Faculty With Disabilities
Steinberg et al.
JAMA 2002;288:3147-3154.

Impairment vs Disability
Auerbach
JAMA 1988;259:43-43.

'Disabled' Is Not 'Impaired'
Young
JAMA 1987;258:1173-1174.

Physical Disabilities and the Study and Practice of Medicine
Martini
JAMA 1987;257:2956-2957.

Jobs for disabled physicians

If you're a disabled physician and you're looking for jobs, then you may want to take a look at NonClinicalJobs.com (an online resource that lists some alternative physician job opportunities for physicians who may be disabled).   I've recently had the opportunity to speak with several disabled physicians who are looking for employment opportunities in the clinical and non-clinical setting.  The opportunities are out there, but you need to know how to find them.