Medical surveys are an easy way to make a few bucks at a good hourly rate (well, maybe at least for a resident), and there are multiple sites offering surveys to physicians. The caveat is that, of course, most survey sponsors are typically looking for board-certified physicians with multiple years of experience, particularly in sub-specialties. The less experience you have, the more you need to be prepared to get screened out of what seem like promising survey opportunities.
Last updated August 2024. This page contains referral/affiliate links (thank you for your support).
Curizon has been in the business a long time, but they just completely revamped their website and platform. It’s a trusted site for well-paying healthcare surveys for physicians as well as other healthcare professionals. Five new sign-ups per month will win $100.
One of the biggest survey sites is Sermo (also an online healthcare community), which is now offering my readers a $10 welcome bonus. The survey experience has been recently revamped, and once you maintain a balance of $100 in honoraria, you get preferentially invited to more surveys.
ZoomRx is also excellent and has a nice app and better/shorter-than-average surveys. No sign-up bonus for you, but there is a referral one for me if you’d like to support the site!
One of my very favorites is InCrowd, which has a slick mobile-friendly site and will send you survey opportunities by email or text message. These are always of the very short and painless variety (the fastest of all in my experience), so the payouts are small, but it’s good money for the time and basically effortless. You do have to respond quickly before surveys fill up, but you even get a buck when you get screened out. Being referred (like signing up through that link) will earn you a $10 bonus after you answer your first two microsurveys.
M3 now has three separate very active research companies under its umbrella: M3 Global Research, M-Panels, and All Global Circle. Each is currently offering its own $10 sign-up bonus for twelve select specialties (Hematology / Oncology, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Pulmonology, Cardiology, Family Medicine or General Practice, Neurology, Urology, Nephrology, Allergy and Immunology, Surgery, Psychiatry, or Rheumatology).
At the resident level, one of my old favorites has been Brand Institute, which almost exclusively sends out short surveys about potential drug brand names. Payouts are always on the smaller side ($15), but each one is quick (about $1 per minute or more) and screen-outs are rare. So if you get invited to a survey, then you can generally complete it and get the honoraria. No BS. The main style/format is nearly always the same, so you pick up speed as you do more of them. And that honoraria size is also significantly larger than what one can generally pull as a non-physician (e.g. SurveySavvy, the biggest most popular survey site around, usually pays a measly $2 per survey). The website, however, is clunky and terrible. You’ve been warned.
Additional legitimate additional survey sites, many of which are significantly less active, are below:
- ImpactNetwork
- Reckner Healthcare
- OpinionSite
- MDforLives is a newer company that I cannot recommend at this time.
- Olson Research Group
- CurbsideMe (now defunct)
- Epocrates Honors
- DoctorDirectory
- MedSurvey
- Advanced Medical Reviews
- Physicians Round Table
- Truth on Call (text-message based surveys; not sure this is meaningfully active anymore)
- MedQuery
- Medical Advisory Board
- Healthcare Advisory Bureau
- SurveyRx
- Physicians Advisory Council
- Health Strategies Group
- InspiredOpinions (Schlesinger Associates)
- Medefield
- Encuity Research
- e-Rewards Medical
- Physicians Interactive
156 Comments
Hey Ben, could I have a referral for Sermo?
Sent
Thank you for publishing this information. Great Article. By Gregg L. Friedman MD
Hi Ben,
Can you send me a referral for Sermo?!
Thanks!
Done. It appears from my end that at least the referral bonus is gone. I don’t know if the referee bonus is also gone; I reached out to Sermo but let me know if you have a chance.
Aaaaand, Sermo says they have “temporarily” stopped referral bonuses entirely.
Hello Ben
I am from India and I graduated medical school and my qualification is MBBS. I am preparing for entrance exam for specialisation . I joined Brand institute already. Can you suggest some other survey sites that will be suitable for me since I am preparing for residency exam and I don’t work so I m technically not a clinician . Also in the medical field option I just put General practioner although my experience with practising is only internship . I was confused …Can you guide me so I can make alterations also pls some suggestions for survey sites will be helpful .
Thank you.
I don’t know which sites take international doctors in general or India specifically. The best way to find out would be to visit them individually and look. Qualification requirements are usually pretty clear.
You can use g-med.com which is physicians only global community.
Hi Ben,
Thank you for this info. In the current day of 4/19, which websites do you feel are still active and what would be your top ones now in terms of payout to time for an MD?
Thank you
The list is still up to date and I wouldn’t change it at the moment. I would sign up for all ones described in paragraphs before the bullet list. All of these companies have unpredictable offerings for given specialties, so if you want to maximize your chances you have to join a few.
Other sights include LEK, RHONE, Deerfield, Charter Oaks, Focus point, J. Reckner Associates, group dynamics. The best paying and most reliable surveys are from Schlesinger, alpha detail, opinionsite, and olson research. In person focus groups pay the most over $500/hour and they are: Focus point, Schlesinger Associates and J. Reckner Associates. Group dynamics hasn’t called in years, might have been swallowed up by any of the above.
Hi Ben.
Thanks for this great list. I never knew about these surveys until a month ago when I signed up for M3. So far, I’ve been screened out of every single study. Looking forward to trying out the ones on the list. Can I get a Sermo referral as well?
Alas Sermo doesn’t do referral bonuses anymore, so you can just sign up.
Can I get a referral for sermo
Done
Can I get a referral for sermo
Hey Ben. It is a great list. I am currently enrolled in 3rd year of Med school. Can you suggest me some side hustles related to medicine or websites that can allow me to earn a few bucks? The tuition fees is really getting hard to pay.
Local research study volunteer, tutoring, science writing/editing, or writing questions for start-up USMLE products are all things that are reasonable with a third-year skill set.