Built out of frustration.
Shared out of principle.
Every resource we found for understanding medical school debt sat behind a paywall or a sales pitch. So we built our own — and made it free.
From personal spreadsheet to public tool
In 2021, midway through medical school and fresh off an MBA, Nik wanted to see — with his own numbers — what each federal repayment plan would actually mean for his finances after graduation. No free tool could show him, so he built one.
He began sharing it with classmates in Saint Louis. In 2023, Jeff joined to turn it into a public resource, and in 2026 the calculator was rebuilt for the biggest overhaul of federal repayment plans in a generation.
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2021
Built during medical school to answer one question: what will my loans actually cost me?
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2021–22
Shared with fellow medical students in Saint Louis.
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2023
Jeff joins; the calculator goes public at debtsdoctor.com.
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2026
Rebuilt for the new repayment landscape: RAP, IBR, and the tiered Standard plan.
Three principles behind the tool
Financial literacy shouldn't cost money
The people who most need this information are the ones who can least afford to pay for it.
Seeing beats being told
A chart of your own projected net worth teaches more than any generic article.
Medicine is different
Long training, delayed earnings, and a large income jump make physician finances unlike anyone else's.
Who we are
Nikolas Marino, MD MBA
Nik is a board-certified internal medicine physician and academic hospitalist in San Diego, where he serves as medical director of a hospital-at-home program and leads an AI task force. Outside the hospital, he is COO of Capsulent, a microencapsulation technology company, and previously served as director of research at Epharmix, a digital health startup that was later acquired. He created the original Debts Doctor calculator during medical school and believes financial literacy should be part of medical training.
LinkedIn
Jeff Bettag, MD
Jeff is a neurology resident at Vanderbilt. He joined Debts Doctor as a medical student in 2023 and turned a personal project into a public resource — building the platform and expanding it to serve students, residents, and attendings nationwide. Now in residency, he's navigating the exact repayment decisions the calculator was built for.
LinkedInRun your own numbers
Compare your repayment options and see your projected net worth over the decades ahead.
Open the calculator