Dr. Bernie on building a thriving men’s health practice

In this video, Helen L. Bernie, DO, MPH, recaps the session, “How to Build a Thriving Mens Health Practice from Scratch – Academics,” which she presented at the 24th Annual Fall Scientific Meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America in San Diego, California. Bernie is the director of sexual and reproductive medicine at Indiana University and an assistant professor of urology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Video Transcript:

When you're thinking about building a thriving men's health practice in academics specifically, I think the most important thing is know what you want. What is your vision for your practice? Is that heavy clinically? Is that heavy in research, bench research or clinical research? How much does that involve with teaching residents, fellows, medical students. Once you have a vision for what you want, then reach out to giants and experts in the field, find other mentors, ask them questions, how did they build with the practice they have. You can really gain so much insight from other people who have done what you're looking to do. Once you know what you want, you've reached out and asked questions, then you can ask for what you need. That starts oftentimes before you even start your job. Whether that's asking for protected academic times so you can do research, asking for APP or provider help and support in your clinic, grant funding, if that's something you want, or even equipment that you may need in your office like a penile duplex doppler ultrasound or semen analysis machine, so that you can build that practice. Once you have those details set apart, it really comes down to clinic optimization, building your referral network, and then marketing yourself. I think the key takeaway is that it is not easy. It is going to be a lot of hard work, but reach out to others, ask questions, find mentors in the field, pick your village that's going to be the ones that really support you, water that village and don't give up because anything worth trying for is never easy to get.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.