So how does a doctor want to become a data analyst?
SELECT data_analyst
FROM doctor;
The simple answer might be - work life balance.
The complex answer, ironically, came from… data analysis.
JOIN simple ON answer_id
In the industry of chiropractic care… there is no balance.
Vacation or illness can become an impossible scenario resulting in loss of income as a closed door make no revenue. The answer for most of the industry seems to be - work unrealistic hours.
There are few means of employment. Job security is tied to staying in one location for as long as possible. Moving or changing practice styles alienates the client base. You essentially end up starting from scratch in each scenario. Sometimes going on vacation feels similar!
There isn’t much of a work from home option in this profession either… obvious, I know.
JOIN complex ON answer_id
JOIN complex ON time_id
JOIN complex ON product_id
Most people assume chiropractors develop a healthy source of revenue as implied by their professional status.
While that is true in some cases, its often not true for most.
Economic data revealed a strong correlation between income and clinical hours worked.
Spoiler: It’s heavily dependent upon time.
Pouring over the data in Excel Google Sheets (shh!) as formula based EDA… discovered what I already internally knew.
Income in this profession is tied to time, not value - and becoming less valuable with each new data set explored. Appearing in the data are troubling trends in the future of the profession. I don’t intend to emit a sense of greed here as I thoroughly enjoy helping people. In truth the opposite exits, good doctors are eclipsed by good sales people. Uncomplimentary, there are correlations in income within the industry that orbit ethical issues. A topic for a future blog post - to be reinforced by data.
The sum of calculations for hourly wage results are quite shocking.
The average chiropractor makes $26 / hour.
How can that be?! Consider that he median weekly hours worked is 75 hours having a spread of 15 hours. Yes. You read that correctly. A high confidence interval shows that chiropractors spend between 60-90 hours working each week. I’ve lived that. It wears on you at any age. A reflection on my earlier ‘simple answer’ - open doors and long hours are a determining factor in the success of a practice. What’s worse, clinician age has a positive linear relationship to more working hours. Not less! Not positive.
[Parking space for link to a future dashboard on economy of chiropractic profession]
This didn’t seem like a balanced lifestyle or great financial future for me and my family.
So I continued pondering the course of my future.
That is until realizing my wife’s critique of an obsession with tabular data could in fact be a solution.
As it turns out, I am quite passionate about data.