My Dismal Residency Salary Caused Me to Quit Training — And Start My Own Independent Practice!

We’re featuring a doctor who has decided to go (or remain!) independent to restore their autonomy and provide better patient care. This week, meet Nidhi Chillara, Chief Innovation Officer at NC Digital Clinic. You can connect further with Nidhi on LinkedIn.

1. Nidhi, you recently deactivated your NPI because you got so fed up with the low resident pay and lack of transparency around salaries for young doctors. Tell us what happened. In my first year of categorical residency, my paycheck abruptly never deposited. Living in New York City, this was the beginning of a journey in understanding just how inequitable graduate medical education can be. In my second year, I was jumping between Airbnbs, and by the time third year began, I could no longer make this work. And of course, healthcare systems see residents as some sort of newborns who they shouldn’t respond to or understand as also being employees. I pushback in the form of absurd reports requested against medical advice from HR. I knew it was time to halt my licensure process.

2. There's a whole group of doctors out there going through similar experiences, and yet, do you feel there's a culture of silence in medicine where doctors are encouraged not to talk about compensation issues? Why would you like to see that change? I was shocked that all of my residency class went silent, including leadership, when I was trying to follow the law and the terms of my contract. The silence was in both directions. I actually began creating my own communities in NYC where the fear of threats or retaliation would cease. These are what people fear, including that supporting someone who speaks out will get them involved. People don’t like the thought of going to hearings, following a judicial process, or knowing pay is an issue.

If more people spoke out, we would like going to work more, feel like we could be ourselves, and actually make other people feel better.

3. How could more salary transparency and platforms like Offcall help to shift this culture and make a dent restoring autonomy back to physicians? When people realize they aren’t alone, since social media isn’t usually the place to post about national issues like compensation, they want to find a place to discuss and solve mutual problems. A place like Offcall ensures there is a community for clinicians separate from healthcare entities. Plus the types of media you create make it collaborative rather than punitive.

4. You decided it was time to go independent! Tell us about your new practice, the types of patients you want to be seeing, and why going independent gives you hope about your future in medicine? I had help to launch a start-up in 2021 before intern year based on the intersection of health and wellness. Though the founders ended up finding their own niche, I was inspired by entrepreneurship and to address the continued issues I saw in emergency medicine by launching my own clinic.

Specifically, I believe emergency visits need to be longer, more affordable, and they should not always require medical intervention even though that’s why people show up sometimes. My hope is that those of us who train for years, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, and give away our 20s-30s will experience some personal satisfaction. My clinic integrates a background in arts with science. I hope to see clinicians take the initiative even when old-school medicine tells us we need more training.

5. How can other physicians support you? Or how can they reach out if they are looking for advice or going through similar experiences? Anyone who wants to learn more about integrative medicine, or if you are seeking help and feel you have to be silent, or lastly, if you might want to apprentice me for my final years of residency, I'd love to chat and can be reached at: digitalclinic@nidhichillara.com.

Have a career story of your own to share? We want to hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter and reach out directly: contact@offcall.com.

If you're new to Offcall, we're a new platform for and by doctors trying to bring about salary transparency in medicine and collect anonymous compensation data in order to help physicians know their worth and negotiate in their specialty.

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