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Therapeutic specialist vs medical representative

The differences between therapeutic specialists 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 therapeutic specialist and a medical representative. Additionally, a medical representative has an average salary of $36,309, which is higher than the $35,912 average annual salary of a therapeutic specialist.

The top three skills for a therapeutic specialist include patients, disease state and healthcare professionals. The most important skills for a medical representative are patients, customer service, and first aid kits.

Therapeutic specialist vs medical representative overview

Therapeutic SpecialistMedical Representative
Yearly salary$35,912$36,309
Hourly rate$17.27$17.46
Growth rate4%4%
Number of jobs2,151176,481
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 78%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age4747
Years of experience22

What does a therapeutic specialist do?

A therapeutic specialist supports the Intensive Therapeutic Care teams to provide quality care for children and young people who have experienced abuse, neglect, or trauma, helping them to meet their goals. They work closely with case managers to ensure decisions are made by guiding. It is part of their varied tasks to do an assessment, transition and planning for children and young people entering short-term placement. In addition, they develop transition plans for children or young people to exit into permanent pathways in collaboration with stakeholders.

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.

Therapeutic specialist vs medical representative salary

Therapeutic specialists and medical representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

Therapeutic SpecialistMedical Representative
Average salary$35,912$36,309
Salary rangeBetween $24,000 And $52,000Between $27,000 And $48,000
Highest paying City-Lansing, MI
Highest paying state-Michigan
Best paying company-Capgemini
Best paying industry-Pharmaceutical

Differences between therapeutic specialist and medical representative education

There are a few differences between a therapeutic specialist and a medical representative in terms of educational background:

Therapeutic SpecialistMedical Representative
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 78%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Therapeutic specialist vs medical representative demographics

Here are the differences between therapeutic specialists' and medical representatives' demographics:

Therapeutic SpecialistMedical Representative
Average age4747
Gender ratioMale, 45.4% Female, 54.6%Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.5% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.4% 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 therapeutic specialist and medical representative duties and responsibilities

Therapeutic specialist example responsibilities.

  • Lead product launch of dermatology sales for Nucort and Halog
  • Manage educational speaker programs for physicians, nurses and pharmacists, introducing new oncology products.
  • Develop and maintain repeat clientele in a competitive cardiology sales market.
  • Value add programs for psychiatry departments within each assign hospital and clinic.
  • Diversify customer base by launching a variety of new products in allergy, otolaryngology, psychiatry, and pulmonary arenas.
  • Specialize in cardiology and endocrinology prescription products.
  • 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

Therapeutic specialist vs medical representative skills

Common therapeutic specialist skills
  • Patients, 23%
  • Disease State, 14%
  • Healthcare Professionals, 11%
  • Business Plan, 9%
  • Account Management, 8%
  • Medicaid, 7%
Common medical representative skills
  • Patients, 17%
  • Customer Service, 13%
  • First Aid Kits, 9%
  • Incident Investigations, 9%
  • CPR, 6%
  • Medical Terminology, 6%