I just walked this path.
I built danielaragon.me because the map I needed did not exist. Here is why.
You are not behind. You were never given the next page.
The map ran out for me too.
I am a physician finishing 15 years of training. Pre-med, medical school, business school, internal medicine residency, critical care fellowship, and one more fellowship before I signed as a private-practice physician. Every step of that path came with explicit instructions handed down by someone older who had walked it before. The MCAT had study guides. Step 1 had First Aid. Match season had a defined algorithm with a date and a button.
Then I hit my final year and the instructions stopped. The first contract landed in my inbox. Salary numbers bigger than anything I had ever seen. Clauses I did not understand. A non-compete that did not feel reasonable. A recruiter telling me everything was standard. A program that wanted me to stay. A family asking the right questions and a tired post-call brain unable to answer them.
The institution that handed me a map for 15 years was suddenly silent. Not because anyone was being unkind. Because at this transition, the institution's interest stops aligning with mine. That silence is structural. And it is the most expensive silence in a physician's career.
I built what I wish someone had handed me.
Three resources, in your own pocket, on your own timeline.
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1The Private Practice Directory exists because when I looked for private-practice options in my target market, I found 3 to 5 jobs through my program and recruiters. I built the directory because I wanted to see all of them. 53,000+ vetted practices, 51 jurisdictions, 28 specialties.
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2The Real Contract course exists because the contract the recruiter hands you is written by lawyers paid to protect the hospital, and there is no equivalent of First Aid for it. I made the course I wish I had taken before my first contract showed up. 2 hours. $99. Every clause that matters.
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3The Physician Contract Lawyers Directory exists because the right attorney for a physician contract is not your cousin who does real estate. I built the state-by-state list so the next physician does not have to ask three friends and a recruiter who to call. Physician-friendly attorneys, organized by jurisdiction.
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4Beyond the Boilerplate is the weekly newsletter for physicians making the transition. Contract teardowns, practical tips, the conversations I wish I had had earlier. Subscribe to follow along.
A physician who learned the business of medicine alongside the medicine.
I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. I am bilingual in Spanish and English, with enough German and Romanian to survive in those countries. I play piano. I serve on the board of my church and have served as a Director of Health and Stewardship in two congregations. These things are not on the CV. But they are what made me the physician I am today.
The CV says I went to medical school, completed an internal medicine residency, and trained as a critical care intensivist. I earned an MBA in healthcare administration because the business of medicine is the one course nobody teaches in medical school, residency, or fellowship. During my final year of training, I signed with a private practice. The contract on my desk was the moment everything I had learned in business school met everything I had learned in medicine in one document.
You are about to make the biggest business decision of your career. Here is the map.
Three steps from training to attendinghood.
See every option. Read what you are signing. Sign with a guide.