Are Paid Medical Surveys Worth It In 2024?

There have been many publications over the past few years about physician-side gigs. Whether they are a response to economic pressures, a burnout epidemic, or strictly the joy of extra income, side gigs can be a great option for doctors to diversify their revenue. Our site is no stranger to this concept either. I have written extensively about some of the best physician side gigs. However, one that seems to have become a mainstay for many is paid medical surveys. 

Who doesn’t want to earn a little more money using their expertise alone? Healthcare professionals spend years (if not decades) mastering their practice; they might as well get paid for it, right?! However, does it hold up compared to real estate investing or medical-legal consulting? How much can you realistically make taking paid medical surveys? This post takes a deep dive into this topic, so you don’t have to. So, are paid medical surveys worth it in 2024?

What are Paid Medical Surveys?

If you came to this article looking for paid medical surveys, you likely already know what they are. However, for the uninitiated, it is important to briefly explain them and how they work.  

Paid medical surveys offer an essential service. These surveys connect medical professionals, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies. The surveys collect valuable insights and opinions, enabling innovative treatments and medical advancements. Medical professionals can impact the healthcare landscape by participating in these surveys while earning income.  

As healthcare professionals, you have spent years (sometimes decades) gathering knowledge and experience, which is valuable. Given your extensive training, research and pharmaceutical companies are willing to offer financial compensation for your time and opinion. Depending on your specialty, subspecialty, niche, and geographic location, you will receive varying incentives for survey completion. These surveys can even offer thousands of dollars to physicians who complete them regularly and efficiently.  

Who is Eligible for Paid Medical Surveys?

Though our website primarily caters to physicians and high-income healthcare professionals, we wish to be inclusive to all! Many medical survey platforms aspire to do the same. I often partner with several medical survey platforms and ask the question: Who can sign up? Though the requirements vary by platform, here is a common list of professionals who can sign up:

• Physicians
• Medical residents and fellows
• Pharmacists
• Advanced practice providers (Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants)
• Nurses
• Dentists
• Dental hygienists
• Veterinarian
• Hospital administrators
• Genetic counselors
• Image technologists
• Psychologist
• Optometrists

No matter your healthcare background, there may be a platform willing to pay for your opinion. There are, however, a few nuances that are pertinent to address. These will primarily affect physician specialists and subspecialists.  

Specialty Matters

First off, your medical or surgical specialty matters. By the very nature of pharmaceutical and technological innovation, some specialties live on the forefront more than others. Cancer and heart disease remain some of the deadliest diseases globally. Because of this, oncologists’ and cardiologists’ opinions are highly valuable as their expertise can help companies strategically invest and innovate. This does not mean that emergency medicine physicians, family practitioners, and pediatricians will not have an abundance of surveys. Still, there does appear to be a compensation increase for certain specialties.  

Experience Matters

Aside from your chosen specialty, there appears to be an incentive to prioritize experience. Many survey platforms utilize screening surveys to determine paid survey eligibility. Often, these surveys work to select the most experienced and qualified participants, which makes sense. However, it is important to note that many trainee physicians or early career physicians may potentially ‘screen out’ more than later career physicians, given their lack of experience. Fortunately, some survey platforms may even pay you a nominal fee if you screen out of their offered survey.  

How are Physicians Compensated?

Now that you have learned a little about paid medical survey platforms and their selection process, let’s discuss how physicians are compensated. Like many other healthcare professions, the answer is a bit more complicated.  

All the paid medical survey platforms I have listed below offer cash compensation. However, my list is in no way exhaustive. Plenty more survey platforms exist. Though I have selected platforms that provide cash rewards, some will offer incentives like gift cards or visa cards. Given that this post concerns paid medical surveys as a side gig for income generation, I primarily focus on partnering with platforms offering cash incentives.  

It is also important to note that some platforms require minimum compensation before a payout occurs. Companies like M3 Global Research have no payout minimum, but others may require a $50 or $100 minimum before direct deposit or check can be provided. Further, if you truly create a side gig using paid medical surveys and accumulate substantial revenue, many platforms allow you to schedule payouts (e.g., on the same day every month).

How Much Can Physicians Make from Paid Medical Surveys?

On to the more important question of this post: How much can physicians realistically make from paid medical surveys? Given that I have interacted with medical surveys for years now, the best answer is, you get out what you put in… with a few caveats. 

Specialty and Experience

First, it is important to recognize that, depending on your specialty and experience, you will have more or less regular surveys. This can largely be overcome by signing up for a majority of respectable survey platforms. You can make up for what you may lack in niche specialty by sheer frequency and volume.  

Time Commitment

Another aspect to consider is your time commitment. For many physicians, a side gig must be managed outside their professional obligations. Many physicians may only have time on evenings or weekends to complete surveys. This may largely limit the number of surveys you can statistically complete monthly. For others who have frequent breaks in their day or have a less clinical burden, reacting and completing surveys quickly will allow you to generate revenue quickly. Most platforms allow survey competition easily over a computer or smartphone, limiting the barriers to timely completion.

Type of Survey

There does appear to be an association between time commitment, interaction, and reimbursement. A telephone interview will generally pay more than an online survey. In my experience, online surveys can range from $5 for a brief microsurvey to $100-$500 for more extensive online surveys. Further, telephone interviews often can range from $200-$1000 or more depending on the time commitment and information needed.  

Example

Let’s say a physician signs up for five medical platforms offering five surveys a week with an average reimbursement of $20. Assuming this physician is screened out of at least one survey a week (20% screen-out rate), then theoretically, the physician could make $80 per platform per week. That could be nearly $400 a week or $1,600 a month in supplemental income. That could generate almost $20,000 in additional revenue annually. This is just an average as well.

Honestly, with the compensation for telephone interviews and lengthier online surveys, your reimbursement could be well above this, approaching $30,000 or more annually! Don’t believe me? Check out this article from The White Coat Investor titled How I Made $30,000 Taking Doctor Surveys. The article shares excellent insight into why specific individuals can make paid physician surveys a lucrative side gig.  

Are Paid Medical Surveys Worth It in 2024?

So, with all the information above, are paid medical surveys worth it in 2024? Yes, I believe they largely remain a viable side gig presently. For physicians looking to get into the side gig business, there is little to no barrier to entry for paid medical surveys aside from the time commitment. Physicians are largely able to tailor their surveys to fit their schedules. Be it constant and diligent monitoring for new surveys or unwinding on the couch while completing a few; there is a way to make it fit any schedule.    

Different side gigs will require different time commitments and, ultimately, different reimbursements. On the spectrum of physician-side gigs, you will not double your physician income with paid medical surveys, but you will have the opportunity to make five figures routinely with no monetary investment. Further, unlike real estate investing or medical-legal consulting, there is no educational barrier to entry either. Your professional expertise is the fund of knowledge needed to complete these surveys and generate income. This is not passive income but an opportunity for physicians to diversify their income portfolio. One I think all physicians should consider when deciding if a side gig is right for them.  

The Best Paid Medical Surveys of 2024

I keep a page dedicated to the Best Paid Medical Surveys. I work to maintain and update this page as I discover and/or partner with new medical survey platforms that are reputable, user-friendly, and offer paid compensation. However, for efficiency, below are the paid medical survey platforms I have worked with personally and feel meet my high standards.

If you are looking to start income generation using paid medical surveys as a side gig, I suggest you sign up using the links below so that you will have a plethora of surveys to choose from at any given time. This will increase the volume available to you. Further, the sooner you sign up and complete surveys routinely, the more surveys will be offered, and you will be deemed a dependable client. Here are the platforms I recommend:

All Global Circle

All Global Circle is ‘an international company that specializes in engaging healthcare profession market research activities that informs the healthcare industry.’  They prioritize focusing on providing a safe and rewarding experience for their panel of members while simultaneously providing clients with a consultative service.

For healthcare professionals, (primarily physicians) All Global Circle wishes to ‘provide research surveys that are relevant and rewarding and ultimately help shape the future of medical research.’   They predominantly target physicians for their medical opinions using both online surveys and telephone interviews.  They provide reimbursement through cash and maintain a reward catalogue associated with your account.  Some of these rewards include products, electronic certificates, gift cards and vouchers.  They can also provide rewards in the form of PayPal and Amazon electronic certificates. 

I personally have had great interactions with All Global Circle.  Either through their paid medical surveys or their customer service, they are easy to work with and user friendly.

M3 Global Research

M3 Global Research is one of the more senior paid medical platforms.  I personally have been using the platform since I became a board-certified physician.  They do a great job of offering regular emails that are short and straight-forward.  They offer all paid medical surveys that you may qualify for.  I use the term ‘may’ as for most of these paid medical surveys there is often a gated screening survey.

These screening surveys are often brief 2-5 minute questionnaires where you answer further professional and demographic information about yourself.  Depending on your answers you will either be screened in or out for the survey.  Keep in mind that you could meet criteria for the survey but be excluded because they already met their needed number of respondents.

In my experience with M3, there are always a handful of surveys available at any given time.  I can complete them on my phone or computer while I relax or have a moment of down time.  Many of the surveys will allow you to save and return to them later if needed.

Online surveys pay anywhere from $5 to $400 dollars depending on your specialty and length of the survey.  Telephone interviews offer substantially more.  You are allowed to redeem your cash rewards at any amount, there is no minimum!  The process is easy and you can return to your account to track your surveys and reimbursement. 

M-Panels

According to their website, M-panels offers industry leaking market research services, delivering high quality data to inform decision making at every level. They are experts in a full range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, leveraging innovation in technology and data services to transform raw data into actionable insights to drive business growth and success.

Regarding physician surveys, their membership is free. They also advertise that the typical survey duration is between 20-30 minutes, with an honorarium ranging from $3-$8 United States Dollars (USD) per minute (but this may vary depending on topic). They are another great option that offers frequent, user-friendly medical surveys. I would definitely add M-Panel to your plethora of platforms as you create side gig income.

InCrowd

InCrowd is a platform that I remain well acquainted with.  They are somewhat unique in the world of paid medical surveys and platforms.  The primary factor separating InCrowd from other survey platforms included in this list is their offer of microsurveys.  Microsurveys are short (or short-form) surveys that only ask the participant a handful of questions.  Because of this, their surveys are easily completed on mobile devices (tablets and phones).  For busy physicians, I have discovered InCrowd’s microsurveys are quick and efficient way to boost income.

Registration for InCrowd’s platform can be completed quickly and asks for generic profile information (name, email, password, address, and professional information).  InCrowd is a great paid medical survey platform for those looking to increase their supplemental income without offering up too much of their time. 

OpinionSite

OpinionSite is one of the more established paid medical survey platforms on this list.  Joining OpinionSite is very easy and straight-forward and should take less than 5 minutes.  Once your registration is approved, OpinionSite will begin offering you ‘meaningful medical research that fits your interests, with invites being sent to your inbox whenever a new research opportunity matches your profile.’ 

Some of OpinionSite’s advertised member benefits include a wide array of surveys and interviews that are well compensated, privacy, and digital payment tools to allow for quick and easy reimbursement.  Information required for signup includes: name, birth year, email, phone number, and a chosen password.  You can select if you want surveys delivered to your email, mobile device, or both.  Lastly, they offer paid medical surveys to a wide array of healthcare professionals.

Sermo

Sermo was started in 2000 as Worldone Research and has been a platform in the industry for over 24 years now! Now they operate a massive paid survey platform and offer great incentives for all comers. I will note, they also offer micro-surveys similar to InCrowd and all are mobile optimized for ease of use anywhere! Here is their blurb:

Sermo is the largest global healthcare professional network, connecting more than 1.3 million HCPs across 96+ specialties. With high-paying opportunities focused on current medical topics like innovative treatments, medical device reviews and AI, members can earn over $15,000.

Last year, Sermo paid $20 million to members and offers flexible payment options including direct deposit, PayPal, gift cards or charity donation. Members conveniently complete surveys using the simple, mobile-friendly interface or interviews.

For physicians, Sermo also provides a social community for patient case collaboration, CME opportunities, medical news, lifestyle discussions, and the world’s largest searchable database of drug ratings from verified doctors.

ZoomRx

ZoomRx is another relatively young platform that has made a name for itself in recent years.  Similar to InCrowd, they have prioritized ease-of-use as a factor when creating their survey platform.  ZoomRx utilizes an app that is downloadable on both iPhones as well as Android phones.  Given the fact that ZoomRx’s paid medical platform is interacted with through an application, it offers a very user-friendly experience.  According to their website, ZoomRx is ‘designed to be quick and easy.  You can take our surveys on the go from any mobile device and record voice responses instead of typing.  If you get interrupted, you can pick it up right where you left off.’

Like The Motivated M.D., ZoomRx also has a charitable mission.  You have the option to donate a portion of your medical survey honoraria to Watsi.  Watsi’s mission is simple, they wish to make ‘healthcare accessible for everyone.’ 

Take Home Points

Paid medical surveys are one of many physicians’ avenues for side gigs. In 2024, they remain a viable option for doctors looking for a low-barrier-to-entry option. There is no monetary capital needed, just your time. Further, physicians can generate five figures of additional income annually with dedication. If you are a sought-after specialty, this may be even more lucrative! Take the time to research on your own, determine any barriers in your state or country, and then sign up! I hope this article was helpful. As always…

Stay motivated!

The Motivated M.D. 

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