Draft:PracticeLink

PracticeLink

Company type	Privately held
Industry	Employment website
Founded	November 1994 (1994-11) in Hinton, West Virginia
Founder	Ken Allman
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri , United States
Area served	United States
Owner	Ken Allman
Number of employees	~50 (2023)

PracticeLink is an American employment website for physicians, launched in November 1994 as the first physician job board on the Internet. It is headquartered in Hinton, West Virginia, with a second office in St. Louis, Missouri.

History

In 1994, entrepreneur Ken Allman established PhysicianPracticeNetwork, soon renamed PracticeLink, as a subscription-based early World Wide Web service designed to match physicians and mid-level practitioners with recruiters. Prior to PracticeLink, as in most fields, physician job listings were circulated physically nationwide. As the internet gained prominence, online job boards emerged in other fields: Allman was an early adopter, setting up servers in his apartment to create the site.

Also reflecting its early role in the industry, Practicelink posted the first recruitment video to the Internet. At the time, it was a process of taking film and digitizing for the Internet. The video accompanied a physician job posting. Since the creation of PracticeLink, Allman has received numerous recognitions for his role in the development of online employment sites, including making the Inc. 2017 list of greatest entrepreneurs and one of the top 100 most influential talent acquisition thought leaders by recruitment technology association TAtech. In 2014, Allman was named the West Virginia Small Business Person of the Year by the United States Small Business Administration.

Operations

Reflecting its original role as a job matching service, PracticeLink aggregates job listings from American hospitals, medical groups, healthcare systems, academic institutions, government agencies, the United States military, and employment agencies. PracticeLink represents more than 5,000 healthcare facilities nationwide and is actively used by tens of thousands of physicians and advanced practitioners.

Since its inception as an online employment matching service, PracticeLink has expanded into operating as a career advancement resource for physicians. In 2009, PracticeLink acquired the magazine Unique Opportunities, rebranded as PracticeLink Magazine. This combined PracticeLink’s direct job resources with a content resource. The print publication has a quarterly circulation of about 100,000 and is accompanied by the digital companion site magazine.practicelink.com. The magazine examines the job search steps and timeline, interview stages, and contract and compensation best practices. It has received national recognition, including three national awards in 2023 from the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

In addition to its magazine and online matching services, it sponsors physician career fairs and provides educational content for physicians and residents, with advice on topics icnluding interviewing, contract negotiations, medical license needs, and relocation considerations. As a single-subject search engine for physicians, its central function is an example of vertical search, given that PracticeLink works with most healthcare organizations in the U.S. in every medical specialty, including large specialty fields such as Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine, and some additional professions including Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.

PracticeLink has been recognized as one of the best places to work in healthcare by Modern Healthcare and Becker’s Hospital Review.