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Professional healthcare representative vs medical representative

The differences between professional healthcare representatives and medical representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a professional healthcare representative and a medical representative. Additionally, a professional healthcare representative has an average salary of $37,042, which is higher than the $36,309 average annual salary of a medical representative.

The top three skills for a professional healthcare representative include government agencies, patients and product portfolio. The most important skills for a medical representative are patients, customer service, and first aid kits.

Professional healthcare representative vs medical representative overview

Professional Healthcare RepresentativeMedical Representative
Yearly salary$37,042$36,309
Hourly rate$17.81$17.46
Growth rate4%4%
Number of jobs127,891176,481
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 76%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age4747
Years of experience22

What does a professional healthcare representative do?

Professional Healthcare representatives are sales employees who manage the company's healthcare products and healthcare client accounts. They are in charge of achieving the sales targets of the company. They form good relationships with clients and distributors to ensure continued business with them. They may visit their clients' office from time to time to check in on them and to provide samples of new products. Professional Healthcare Representatives should be updated on the latest trends in the healthcare industry, as well as new product releases related to their company's main business. They should also know all the pertinent details on the products they sell so they can answer their clients' questions.

What does a medical representative do?

A medical representative is responsible for selling medical equipment, medications, and other medical supplies by demonstrating benefits and features to patients and healthcare professionals. Medical representatives work closely with their company's marketing department to develop strategic procedures and promotional techniques to attract customers and generate revenues for the business. They respond to the customers' inquiries and concerns, take their orders, and process their payments. A medical representative also analyzes the current trends in the medical industry to identify business opportunities that would establish a market presence.

Professional healthcare representative vs medical representative salary

Professional healthcare representatives and medical representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

Professional Healthcare RepresentativeMedical Representative
Average salary$37,042$36,309
Salary rangeBetween $22,000 And $59,000Between $27,000 And $48,000
Highest paying CityTorrance, CALansing, MI
Highest paying stateCaliforniaMichigan
Best paying companyCognizantCapgemini
Best paying industryPharmaceuticalPharmaceutical

Differences between professional healthcare representative and medical representative education

There are a few differences between a professional healthcare representative and a medical representative in terms of educational background:

Professional Healthcare RepresentativeMedical Representative
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 76%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Professional healthcare representative vs medical representative demographics

Here are the differences between professional healthcare representatives' and medical representatives' demographics:

Professional Healthcare RepresentativeMedical Representative
Average age4747
Gender ratioMale, 41.7% Female, 58.3%Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between professional healthcare representative and medical representative duties and responsibilities

Professional healthcare representative example responsibilities.

  • Lead several workshops during POA meetings, and district conference calls, with the aim to improve the team's performance.
  • Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.
  • Promote pharmaceutical products to medical professionals, providing education to medical staffs and patients on disease states and therapies.
  • Account manager for the sales of cardiovascular, diabetes, neurology, and urology products.
  • Screen uninsure and limit insured patients on a daily basis to determine disability and Medicaid eligibility.
  • Provide elite, dedicate support for cardiology units using the new cardiology product.
  • Show more

Medical representative example responsibilities.

  • Achieve market share growth in the psychiatry, cardiovascular, and neurology markets.
  • Lead the nation in new product introduction of ZAC, an anti hypertension medication.
  • Manage the sale of pharmaceuticals to treat hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, depression, women's health and pain/neurological disorders.
  • Manage specialty sales of psychiatry and other products across Mid-Michigan health-care systems.
  • Manage products in gastroenterology, cardiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, rheumatology, and OB-GYN categories.
  • Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.
  • Show more

Professional healthcare representative vs medical representative skills

Common professional healthcare representative skills
  • Government Agencies, 16%
  • Patients, 15%
  • Product Portfolio, 9%
  • Strategic Thinking, 8%
  • Product Knowledge, 8%
  • Disease State, 6%
Common medical representative skills
  • Patients, 17%
  • Customer Service, 13%
  • First Aid Kits, 9%
  • Incident Investigations, 9%
  • CPR, 6%
  • Medical Terminology, 6%