Side hustle for doctors: 6 options compared, and which to try first

The best side hustle for doctors to try first is paid expert calls and surveys about the drugs, devices and workflows you already use, because one takes an hour or less, needs no new license, and can pay more than a clinical hour. Chart review, medical-legal work, advising health tech startups, medical writing and locum shifts all work too, but each takes more hours, more paperwork or more risk to your license and your job.

This post compares the six for physicians who keep their clinical work, then says which to try in what order.

1. Price your spare hours against your clinical hour first

A side hustle should pay more per hour than medicine, or give you something medicine does not. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for physicians and surgeons at $275,930 a year, or $132.66 an hour, in May 2025.

Use that hourly figure as the bar. An option below it needs another reason, such as variety, a break from patients or a skill you want to build. That is a fair reason. It should just be the reason you picked, not a surprise you find in your tax return.

2. Read your hospital's outside activity policy first, because it decides who insures the work

Hospitals and medical schools often require approval before paid outside work, and some treat clinical work and consulting differently. The University of Pittsburgh's medical faculty outside consulting policy is a typical example. The department chair gives preliminary approval of "any extramural consulting activity" and the Dean gives final approval. Its examples of consulting include NIH study sections and "offering expert testimony in court," and it says consulting does "not include the provision of patient care."

The same policy has the clause that matters most for malpractice. Faculty who do not credit clinical income to the university "will not be protected by the University professional liability insurance" for those services. Expect your employer's policy to cover only work it approved. The AMA's insurance agency says outside work, moonlighting and telemedicine through a separate platform may not be included in an employer's malpractice policy.

Two groups have extra rules:

• Residents. The ACGME's Common Program Requirements, in effect since July 1, 2026, say "PGY-1 residents are not permitted to moonlight," and that internal and external moonlighting counts toward the 80-hour weekly limit (sections 6.25.a and 6.25.b). Your program can add its own limits.
• Researchers with federal grants. Under the Public Health Service rules in 42 CFR 50.603, more than $5,000 a year from one company counts as a significant financial interest you must disclose, and so does any equity in a private company.

The post on moonlighting policies covers how to find every document that sets the rule and how to ask for approval in writing.

3. Compare the six options on pay, time and conflict risk

The sections below fill in each row.

4. Start with paid expert calls and surveys, because they need nothing new

Investors, consultants and companies pay to hear how a practicing physician actually chooses a drug, a device or a software vendor. You set the rate on expert networks: GLG says experts "Set your own rate", and AlphaSense's call service, on a page aimed at buyers, gives an average expert rate of about $450 across all fields. Surveys pay less per piece; Sermo's guide quotes honoraria of "approximately $5 to more than $500".

The conflict risk is real but narrow. Never discuss a trial you work on, your employer's confidential plans or anything about a patient. Our guide to paid surveys for doctors covers how the panels pay, how screeners work, when the Sunshine Act applies and the expert network case every physician should know.

Here is a made-up example. Dr. Haddad is an emergency physician who switched her department's sepsis alert software last year. An investor asks for an hour on why they switched, what the nurses hated and how alert fatigue changed. She can answer all of it without naming a patient or a hospital contract, and the call fits between two Saturday chores.

5. Take chart review and utilization review when you want steady work from home

Chart review means reading a case and answering a question about it. Few review companies publish pay, so here is one example from one organization. An April 2025 post on the Michigan State Medical Society's site recruits reviewers for PRO, a Michigan physician review organization. It says insurers ask "utilization questions," such as whether a surgery was medically necessary, and hospitals ask "quality questions" about whether a case was managed well. PRO pays reviewers "starting at $125 per chart" and requires board certification, at least 20 hours a week of clinical practice and five years of experience. Treat that as one organization's rate, not a market average.

State law sets a floor for some of this work. Idaho's external review statute, for example, requires a clinical reviewer to hold a nonrestricted license in a US state, current specialty board certification, recent clinical experience with the condition, and no material conflict with the insurer, the patient, the treating provider or the maker of the drug or device in question.

Two questions to ask before your first case:

• Which licenses do you need? Review organizations differ, so ask whether a case requires a license in the patient's state.
• Who covers your liability? Ask in writing whether the review company's policy covers reviewers, since your clinical policy may not.

6. Do medical-legal expert work only if you are ready to defend every sentence

Medical-legal work pays the most per hour of the six. SEAK's 2024 survey of expert witness fees, across more than 1,600 experts in all fields, found medians of $450 an hour for file review, $475 for depositions and $500 for trial testimony. It does not publish a physician-only figure for free. Our post on expert witness pay covers retainers, deposition billing and invoicing.

The AMA's ethics opinion on medical testimony sets two rules worth memorizing: testify "only in areas in which they have appropriate training and recent, substantive experience and knowledge," and never accept pay "contingent on the outcome of litigation."

States can add their own paperwork. Florida, for example, issues an expert witness certificate that lets a physician licensed in another state give expert testimony there about the prevailing standard of care in medical negligence cases. It costs $50, lasts two years and does not authorize practicing medicine. The post on how to become an expert witness covers the evidence rules, the CV, fee schedules and cross-examination.

7. Advise a health tech startup when you would answer its questions for free anyway

Advising pays mostly in equity, which may never be worth anything. The post on startup advisor compensation covers typical grants.

Physicians have a reporting rule engineers do not. If the startup makes a drug, device or supply that Medicare, Medicaid or CHIP pays for, it can count as an "applicable manufacturer" under 42 CFR 403.902, and its consulting fees and stock grants to you can be reported in Open Payments. "Consulting fee" and "Current or prospective ownership or investment interest" are both reportable categories. A scheduling app is not a drug or a device, so that definition does not reach it. A device company can be one.

Never advise a company that sells to your own department while you help choose vendors. Cap the hours in writing.

8. Write about medicine under your own name only for work you actually did

Medical writing covers patient education, continuing education content, journal articles and content for health companies. We did not find a public pay source we trust, so ask each client for a per-piece rate before you start.

The risk is authorship. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors sets four criteria for authorship, including "Final approval of the version to be published" and agreeing to be accountable for the whole work. It says writing assistance alone does not make someone an author, and that those contributors should be acknowledged. So write freely as a hired writer, and never sign a paper you did not substantially shape. A company's draft with your name on top is the one assignment to turn down.

9. Treat locum shifts as extra clinical work, with its own insurance and license checks

Locum tenens work is clinical work in another setting, so it pays a clinical rate and brings clinical risk. Two caveats matter most. First, AMA Insurance says agency malpractice coverage is typically limited to work done through that agency, and physicians who book directly with a facility generally buy their own. Second, you need a license in the state where you practice. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact offers "a voluntary, expedited pathway to licensure" and lists 44 member states plus 2 territories as of September 30, 2026.

Pick locums when you want more clinical income and accept more clinical hours. Do not pick it to escape them.

Our order: calls and surveys, then chart review, then the rest

Start with paid expert calls and surveys, since they need no new license or insurance and you can decline any request. Add chart review if you want steady work from home. Take medical-legal work after you have read the expert witness rules, and leave startup equity until you have checked the Open Payments question and your employer's policy.

Where Instant Expert fits

On Instant Expert, a buyer invites you to a specific paid call or a written or voice answer and sets the amount up front. You receive the full amount offered, and you can reply with a higher price. You can claim your profile or see open paid requests on the request board.

Today, find your hospital's outside activity policy and search it for "consulting" and "liability."