PracticeLink helps physicians find the next best steps on their career paths.
Many doctors are deeply committed to their profession—and just as deeply challenged by aspects beyond caring for their patients. They may be busy with electronic medical records or working through insurance coverage details. They face rules and guidelines that affect how they interact with patients. And then add COVID-19’s impact on health care workers starting in 2020.
Through it all, they’re required to keep their stamina and dedication while maintaining continuity of patient care, even when fatigued and in stressful situations—while not impacting their ability to use sound medical judgment.
Amid so many sacrifices, what does society owe physicians who are navigating today’s health care system and future physicians who are filling out their CVs despite the known and unknown battles ahead? The answer is no less than everything, according to Ken Allman, founder and CEO of Hinton-based PracticeLink, the career advancement resource for physicians.
Allman gained firsthand knowledge of what it takes to become a doctor. He briefly attended medical school before shifting into business management and knows the long hours and years of training physicians endure. With those learned lessons, experience, and perspective, he built PracticeLink with the belief that physicians deserve to have the lifestyle, working environment, and respect befitting their efforts in the locations that are best for their households.
Celebrating its 30-year anniversary this year, PracticeLink has grown into a leader in the physician job search space. It provides physicians with free access to job listings and the ability to control their own visibility to recruiters, along with free resources covering virtually every aspect of searching for, accepting, and preparing for a new practice opportunity.
In 1994, just months after monster.com was launched as the world’s first online job search and public résumé database, Allman founded PhysicianPracticeNetwork. Later renamed PracticeLink, it was a subscription-based information service for physician recruiters and providers.
Understanding the unique parameters of the physician job search, the needs of physician recruiters and their organizations, and the way technology was advancing, Allman restructured his service into an internet-based startup. With several home computers in his apartment, he launched the first online job board specifically tailored for physicians.
Through the years, PracticeLink expanded beyond the job board. It has grown to offer a number of other features. One is a series of virtual career fairs allowing job-seeking physicians to network directly with health care organizations. Another—and perhaps most important—is its dedication to job-search and related educational content.
In 2009, PracticeLink purchased Unique Opportunities magazine and rebranded it PracticeLink Magazine. Since then, the company has been dedicated to providing its readers with insights into the important factors to consider when preparing for a job search, how to plan for interviews and site visits, best practices for contract negotiations, and much more.
“I want physicians and recruiters to rely on PracticeLink as more than just a top job board for a physician’s first or next practice,” Allman says. “It is my hope that they gravitate toward the magazine and blog articles for professional growth, industry updates, and helpful tips.”
Over the years, PracticeLink Magazine has received national recognition for its coverage of the physician job search. Most recently, it received two national gold awards and a national silver award in 2023 from the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
While Allman’s mission is to help every physician find their ideal practice nationally, his heart remains squarely in West Virginia, particularly his hometown of Hinton. Growing alongside PracticeLink has been its sister company, Mountainplex.Founded in 2007, the company is dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of the Hinton Historic District.
Those efforts began by transforming a series of buildings into the boutique hotel The Guest House Inn on Courthouse Square. Mountainplex has evolved to encompass more than 20 buildings in the historic district and an island in the New River that holds a bed and breakfast cabin retreat. It includes the high-quality casual restaurant The Market on Courthouse Square, the specialty shop Otter & Oak, and two radio stations. And there’s also the renovated 1929 Ritz Theatre and conference and banquet space in the 1907 McCreery Hotel building.
Just as Mountainplex aims to help the world discover the beauty and charm of Hinton, PracticeLink seeks to help providers discover practice opportunities that fit their professional and personal needs. The lengths Allman is prepared to go in that mission remains to be seen. But they’re sure to be great. Because after all, with everything physicians sacrifice to their training and care for their patients, they’ve earned it.
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