Happiest Specialty

[MOHS_01]

Thank you, not sure if the compliment is always warranted, but thanks anyway.

Here are my thoughts on oncology -- and I have no crystal ball -- but many of the treatments that we provide are for naught, many others are in pursuit of minimal gains, etc -- all of which is done at a measurable expense. Given that we live in a world with finite resources (including those monies available for seizure from the working private citizenry) and the fact that we have now relinquished the means of determination for the allocation of these finite resources to the government, the masses will have abide by the rules that they set in place. This will mean an application of "uniform standards" -- such as "quality adjusted life years", cost efficacy, and comparative effectiveness. The architects of our proposed system have gone on record praising Britain's NHS -- and we should all know the practice of oncology varies significantly between our two systems.

Even if they do not disallow many treatments, they will render them financially untenable for the private practice to provide. If you remove any possible profit potential via the price fixing mechanism, you have a de facto abolition of services without the political fallout. These services will then be relegated to treatment centers who enjoy some form of subsidization -- whether this is direct subsidization as is the case with university settings or via an indirect subsidization through the confiscation and reallocation of funds from more profitable ventures (think large MSC).

Another likely scenario would be the relegation of "unproven" or "treatments with questionable benefit" to nothing other than clinical trial status. This has been the push for some time by the academic types already -- a way of creating a special, privileged status for them at the expense of those in the community at large. It would be a great way to guarantee and funnel any and all remaining pharmaceutical monies into the hands of academia, would it not? Not that any of our esteemed colleagues would even so much as entertain such a thought...

Naturally, barring further state intervention and regulation, a secondary insurance market would evolve -- leading to a two tier healthcare system (which is what we were trying to avoid in the first place, right?).

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[MOHS_01]

The public will go ape if they are denied access to every reasonable (and most unreasonable) treatment modalities available. However, there is nothing saying the government has to continue its current reimbursement model. Chemo will stop being billed as a procedure, and when that happens the bottom will fall out of medical oncology. And there will not be a great public outcry, since access to chemo will not be DIRECTLY effected. There will be certain centers that will move to a cash-only practice, but these centers would need to have serious name recognition (MD Anderson comes to mind) in order to justify the difference in cost to the patient.

You got it -- I did not see your post prior to my last one.

 

[Slack3r]

Another likely scenario would be the relegation of "unproven" or "treatments with questionable benefit" to nothing other than clinical trial status.

Or they'll simply deny access to newer "unproven" treatments like they already do in Britain.

 

[p53]

Only a med student or an intern would make such an ignorant comment. Suffice to say that interventional radiology is shunning the practice of just doing procedures. IR of today and tomorrow includes rounding on IR patients, seeing IR patients in clinic, and doing IR consults on the floor. This means IR is copying cardiology's clinical model.

In my opinion, I don't think the current model of cardiology is sustainable. Let's take interventional cards as an example. This is at least how my hospital did. The interventional cards not only did the the interventional work but they also had to do clinic, do consults, round on pts, and read imaging on different days. Basically, one stop-shopping. This is why they're always busting their butts. However, you aren't going to be as efficient and skillful as someone who does only interventional work or imaging full-time. I think the radiologists had it right when they divided the work into interventional radiology and diagnostic radiology.

With no more consult codes and cards procedures getting hit hard this year, I think more and more cards will recognize that they can't be master of everything and that they have to focus on one area. With Obamacare, more and more imaging will be moved to the hospitals. This is where it will get interesting to see what the future of cards and rads play out. I wouldn't discount the extra-cardiac and extra-colonic findings. This is why cardiac CTA is still in play for rads. You simply can't cut out the lung fields as some cards have tried to do. This is especially so when there is no emphasis on radiation dose. Patients shouldn't have to get more radiation exposure than necessary.

 

[Taurus]

Only a med student or an intern would make such an ignorant comment. Suffice to say that interventional radiology is shunning the practice of just doing procedures. IR of today and tomorrow includes rounding on IR patients, seeing IR patients in clinic, and doing IR consults on the floor. This means IR is copying cardiology's clinical model.

I think you're missing my point. Add to your list of activities reading images. Is someone who does consults, rounds, and procedures in addition to reading images going to be able to read images as well and as efficiently as someone who is dedicated to it only? Common sense tells you I don't think so. It's more efficient to take a conquer and divide approach. Obamacare btw is about cost-control and efficiency. This is where I think radiology will get an edge. They can reclaim imaging from other subspecialty groups like cards, ortho, etc that have encroached on imaging. If you take it to the extreme, you can even break off doing procedures from consults and rounding. Someone who does only procedures is going to be more efficient and cost-effective than someone who does it all.

If a hospital that take this approach and shows that it can reduce costs, then others will follow. The only reason why IR had to become more clinical because of groups like cards and vascular surgery were eating their lunch. This doesn't mean it is the best or most cost-effective approach. As the era of "bundled payments" and this new Medicare control board comes closer, the issue of efficiency and cost-control will take on more importance. When every procedure, whether necessary or not, was reimbursed, groups like cards wanted to take on more and more. But if you're going to be paid the same if you do one procedure or 10 of them, there's less incentive for groups like cards to want to do more imaging or procedures. This is why I think groups like radiology can use this era as an opportunity to regain lost ground.

 

[p53]

Taurus, spend a couple rotations in the IR as a radiology resident before you speak. The reason IR is admitting patients, rounding on patients, doing consults, and following up in the clinic is because of necessity. An interventionalist can no longer just wait and wait for cases. If you do you will be stuck with low level reimbursement procedures such as picc line placements and declots. Just doing procedures is no longer feasible bc the referring cases are drying up. An IR physician must have a full clinical service to get the high end cases. Your comments are 5 years behind. Not surprising since you havent started radiology yet. Radiology is in flux. For example nephrologists are starting to keep their patients and do nephrostomy tubes themselves. interventional nephrology fellowships are cropping up everywhere. Subspecialties such as neurologists, ortho, neuro, nephrology are taking cardiologys lead and taking imaging and procedures from radiology. Radiology by nature is a service oriented specialty for clinical services. Now what happens if Nephrologists no longer send imaging and procedures to rads for nephrology cases. What can a radiology department do? Answer is nothing. Radiologists dont control patients so they have no control if a subspecialist decides to do it themselves. This is what happened in Cards stole cardiac catherization, cardiac echo, and cardiac nucs bc of money and they controlled the patient flow. Other specialities are now doin the same thing against radiology

 

[Taurus]

Taurus, spend a couple rotations in the IR as a radiology resident before you speak. The reason IR is admitting patients, rounding on patients, doing consults, and following up in the clinic is because of necessity. An interventionalist can no longer just wait and wait for cases. If you do you will be stuck with low level reimbursement procedures such as picc line placements and declots. Just doing procedures is no longer feasible bc the referring cases are drying up. An IR physician must have a full clinical service to get the high end cases. Your comments are 5 years behind. Not surprising since you havent started radiology yet. Radiology is in flux. For example nephrologists are starting to keep their patients and do nephrostomy tubes themselves. interventional nephrology fellowships are cropping up everywhere. Subspecialties such as neurologists, ortho, neuro, nephrology are taking cardiologys lead and taking imaging and procedures from radiology. Radiology by nature is a service oriented specialty for clinical services. Now what happens if Nephrologists no longer send imaging and procedures to rads for nephrology cases. What can a radiology department do? Answer is nothing. Radiologists dont control patients so they have no control if a subspecialist decides to do it themselves. This is what happened in Cards stole cardiac catherization, cardiac echo, and cardiac nucs bc of money and they controlled the patient flow. Other specialities are now doin the same thing against radiology

I think we're saying the same thing.

My point is when you're getting paid the same amount regardless if you do that procedure or read that image will most people still want to do them? I don't think so. Why go home at 7pm when you could have been home at 5pm? Why go into the hospital at 3am when you could be in bed? Take away the financial incentive to do procedures or read images and you will change behavior. Money after all is a powerful motivator. Obamacare and the bureaucrats in Washington want to eliminate those incentives that drive up medical costs. In this environment, I would argue that it is good for radiology. The existing environment would have slowly bled radiology so that eventually every specialty would have done its own procedures and imaging. Under Obamacare, I believe that it actually will drive imaging and procedures back to radiology. This of course depends heavily how the hospitals divide up "bundled" payments.

We shall see if my prediction holds up.

 

[vancouvergeorge]

God this thread is depressing for a career-switcher like me who left finance and now up to my neck in med school debt. It has been very sobering.

What about general surgery? Isn't reimbursement already rock bottom? And we have a severe shortage, right?

What's the future of ortho? Will it also see large reimbursement cuts like for rads and cards?

The VA is sounding better and better. At least they got pensions and can't get sued.

 

[bronx43]

God this thread is depressing for a career-switcher like me who left finance and now up to my neck in med school debt. It has been very sobering.

What about general surgery? Isn't reimbursement already rock bottom? And we have a severe shortage, right?

What's the future of ortho? Will it also see large reimbursement cuts like for rads and cards?

The VA is sounding better and better. At least they got pensions and can't get sued.

Depending on the type of finance you were doing, I'd say your choice wasn't all that bad. Lucrative specialties in medicine may get hit pretty bad in the future, but high financiers aren't exactly living it up right now.

 

[vancouvergeorge]

Depending on the type of finance you were doing, I'd say your choice wasn't all that bad. Lucrative specialties in medicine may get hit pretty bad in the future, but high financiers aren't exactly living it up right now.

Grass is always greener... even after one has jumped the fence.

I'd be happy with $200k+ a year doing what I want to do. I left finance because I was coming home from work in a cab at 2am asking myself "what the hell I'm doing?"

Could gen surg or ortho see below $200k? Below $200k would make me feel a little bitter as I had made low six figures as an analyst before med school. The medical profession is being nickeled and dimed compared to biglaw, Big 3, Big 4, even with the recession. Even pharmacists make $120k right out of school and they work 40 hrs a week.

 

[Taurus]

Grass is always greener... even after one has jumped the fence.

I'd be happy with $200k+ a year doing what I want to do. I left finance because I was coming home from work in a cab at 2am asking myself "what the hell I'm doing?"

Could gen surg or ortho see below $200k? Below $200k would make me feel a little bitter as I had made low six figures as an analyst before med school. The medical profession is being nickeled and dimed compared to biglaw, Big 3, Big 4, even with the recession. Even pharmacists make $120k right out of school and they work 40 hrs a week.

Funny you should mention law and pharmacy as alternative fields.

Law is even more screwed up than medicine. I could go into great detail but this very recent article talks about one of the most serious threats to law. The outsourcing of legal services.

Where Have All The Lawyers Gone?

If you think pharmacy is better, maybe you should spend some time in their forum. Every other thread is pretty much about how dire their future is. Pharm is again more screwed than medicine in the future.

Bottom line, there are very few gauranteed middle-to-upper income and safe professions anymore. Medicine and dentistry are still the best IMHO.

 

[vancouvergeorge]

Funny you should mention law and pharmacy as alternative fields.

Law is even more screwed up than medicine. I could go into great detail but this very recent article talks about one of the most serious threats to law. The outsourcing of legal services.

Where Have All The Lawyers Gone?

The outsourcing of legal services like document review doesn't affect the biglaw associates. It mainly affects the already much abused paralegals and legal temps who do document review in a basement.

Those who can manage to match into a ROAD specialty could easily land a biglaw position had they went to law school. Law school classes are much larger than med school classes, the prelaw requisites are a joke (thus GPA can be maintained), and the LSAT is far easier to prepare than the MCAT not to mention the pool of test takers is larger for the LSAT (a 90th percentile on the LSAT is the equivalent of a 75th percentile on the MCAT). And law schools don't even do interviews!

Sure there are lots of unemployed lawyers around, but the AOA med student would not be one of them had he gone to law school.

The starting salary for biglaw associates is $160k plus bonus versus $45k for the surgical intern. After 5 years, the biglaw associate is making $250k plus bonus versus the $55k of the ortho chief resident. If the associate makes partner, he is making $500k to millions. Even if he doesn't and gets kicked out, he can find in-house corporate work for $180-$250k. At the end of 5 years, the surgeon is down $750k compared to the typical biglaw lawyer (not to mention the student loans accruing interest).

We will see a severe shortage of surgeons if surgical specialties drop below $200k in compensation. Why bother when family medicine can make $150k?

 

[bronx43]

Grass is always greener... even after one has jumped the fence.

I'd be happy with $200k+ a year doing what I want to do. I left finance because I was coming home from work in a cab at 2am asking myself "what the hell I'm doing?"

Could gen surg or ortho see below $200k? Below $200k would make me feel a little bitter as I had made low six figures as an analyst before med school. The medical profession is being nickeled and dimed compared to biglaw, Big 3, Big 4, even with the recession. Even pharmacists make $120k right out of school and they work 40 hrs a week.

I highly doubt gen surg or ortho can ever see below $200k. The specialties that are targeted are mostly the lucrative non-surgical specialties like radiology, radiation oncology, interventional cardiology, etc. Gen surg is starting to see its reimbursement rates go back up.
The worst thing that can happen to medicine, in my opinion, is a leveling out of incomes between specialties. There won't be radiologists making $400k and PCPs making $150k.

 

[bronx43]

The outsourcing of legal services like document review doesn't affect the biglaw associates. It mainly affects the already much abused paralegals and legal temps who do document review in a basement.

Those who can manage to match into a ROAD specialty could easily land a biglaw position had they went to law school. Law school classes are much larger than med school classes, the prelaw requisites are a joke (thus GPA can be maintained), and the LSAT is far easier to prepare than the MCAT not to mention the pool of test takers is larger for the LSAT (a 90th percentile on the LSAT is the equivalent of a 75th percentile on the MCAT). And law schools don't even do interviews!

Sure there are lots of unemployed lawyers around, but the AOA med student would not be one of them had he gone to law school.

The starting salary for biglaw associates is $160k plus bonus versus $45k for the surgical intern. After 5 years, the biglaw associate is making $250k plus bonus versus the $55k of the ortho chief resident. If the associate makes partner, he is making $500k to millions. Even if he doesn't and gets kicked out, he can find in-house corporate work for $180-$250k. At the end of 5 years, the surgeon is down $750k compared to the typical biglaw lawyer (not to mention the student loans accruing interest).

We will see a severe shortage of surgeons if surgical specialties drop below $200k in compensation. Why bother when family medicine can make $150k?

I don't know why people are always so eager to make comparisons between industries when trying to evaluate success of individuals. Big law and medicine take different skills to succeed. Just because one can achieve success in one doesn't mean he can achieve equal success in the other. Many of the top medical students I know are just people who have no other skills than a wicked memory. Many others aren't exactly socially savvy, but work like mules memorizing medicine.
At least in many business industries (I don't know enough about big law, but I assume it's quite similar), soft skills often trump hard skills, and the hard skills aren't determined by one's memory.
Throw in the fact that the majority of medical students didn't attend top national undergrad institutions, and I would contend that had most medical students not gone into medicine, their income potential would be far below that of medicine, unless they opt for primary care.

 

[vancouvergeorge]

I don't know why people are always so eager to make comparisons between industries when trying to evaluate success of individuals. Big law and medicine take different skills to succeed. Just because one can achieve success in one doesn't mean he can achieve equal success in the other. Many of the top medical students I know are just people who have no other skills than a wicked memory. Many others aren't exactly socially savvy, but work like mules memorizing medicine.
At least in many business industries (I don't know enough about big law, but I assume it's quite similar), soft skills often trump hard skills, and the hard skills aren't determined by one's memory.
Throw in the fact that the majority of medical students didn't attend top national undergrad institutions, and I would contend that had most medical students not gone into medicine, their income potential would be far below that of medicine, unless they opt for primary care.

Wicked memory is important for just about everything in life. That and hard work. The smartest and most useful people I know are people with excellent longterm and working memory and those who are hardworking enough to constantly learn and absorb new knowledge and experiences.

This cult of "critical thinking" and soft skills that our society champions above all else is utter BS and is mainly just a crutch for laziness and incompetence. The math in GMAT is something most intelligent 8th graders can do and is simply a matter of familiarity and repetition. All the meetings in the business world that I've been to where teamwork and thinking were supposed to be happening were utter wastes of time. I'm sure you agree too. What we actually get in these meetings is a bunch of half-baked, unoriginal or blatantly obvious ideas (the person who came up with it thinks he's being brilliant, but that's because he's too lazy to do a doc review to realize his idea ain't all that original or too stupid to remember what he was asked to read).

Fact is, the majority of law students at T14 schools didn't go to top undergrads either. Law schools don't even care about undergrad reputation, all they care about is LSAT and GPA. And law school has some of the most socially awkward people of the all the professional schools. Remember, they don't even interview. Unfortunately, many of them go on to work in biglaw, hence the reputation of biglaw.

I went to a top undergrad, the sad thing is most of my undergrad buddies ended up getting the shaft for both med school and law school because of grade deflation, more course exploration and higher competition. You would be completely wrong if you think the smartest people at top undergrads go to law and business schools.

But you are right on one thing, biglaw and management consulting might be problematic for those who have moral qualms about billing their clients $400 an hour for catching typos, reusing old deliverables, organizing Excel spreadsheets, stating the bloody obvious and advising clients who are far more knowledgeable than you (in other words, not much advice at all), relaying what the partners write and adding bullet points with high falutin' words on PowerPoint presentations.

General surgeons deserve every penny they earn by comparison.

 

[bronx43]

Wicked memory is important for just about everything in life. That and hard work. The smartest and most useful people I know are people with excellent longterm and working memory and those who are hardworking enough to constantly learn and absorb new knowledge and experiences.

This cult of "critical thinking" and soft skills that our society champions above all else is utter BS. The math in GMAT is something an intelligent 8th grader can do and is simply a matter of familiarity and repetition. All the meetings in the business world that I've been to where teamwork and thinking were supposed to be happening were utter wastes of time. I'm sure you agree too. What we actually get in these meetings is half-baked and unoriginal ideas (the person who came up with it thinks he's being brilliant, but that's because he's too lazy to do a doc review to realize his idea ain't all that original or too stupid to remember what he had read).

Fact is, the majority of law students at T14 schools didn't go to top undergrads either. Law schools don't even care about undergrad reputation, all they care about is LSAT and GPA. And law school has some of the most socially awkward and inept people of the all the professional schools. Remember, they don't even interview. Unfortunately, many of them go on to work in biglaw, hence the reputation of biglaw.

I went to a top undergrad, the sad thing is most of my undergrad buddies ended up getting the shaft for both med school and law school because of grade deflation, more course exploration and higher competition.

I wouldn't agree with excellent memory as a necessity for success. Hard work, however, is. It's possible we're referring to different types of memory. The one I'm talking about is the one used in medical school, where one can remember minutiae better than his/her colleagues. I can't think of many instances outside of medicine, where such a skill would add much value - especially over other virtues such as resourcefulness (street smarts) or creativity.
And by soft skills, I meant more along the lines of social and interpersonal skills. At least in management consulting, an industry I'm familiar with, it was imperative to have excellent people skills, and of course, hard work. Some of the most talented academic people weren't always the best performers. In fact, I would argue there was more of an inverse correlation.
I'm not very familiar with big law, but from what I've seen in business and bschool, I would say that a minority of medical students could have been equally successful in business, and even a smaller minority could even have been hired.

 

[Taurus]

The outsourcing of legal services like document review doesn't affect the biglaw associates. It mainly affects the already much abused paralegals and legal temps who do document review in a basement.

Those who can manage to match into a ROAD specialty could easily land a biglaw position had they went to law school. Law school classes are much larger than med school classes, the prelaw requisites are a joke (thus GPA can be maintained), and the LSAT is far easier to prepare than the MCAT not to mention the pool of test takers is larger for the LSAT (a 90th percentile on the LSAT is the equivalent of a 75th percentile on the MCAT). And law schools don't even do interviews!

Sure there are lots of unemployed lawyers around, but the AOA med student would not be one of them had he gone to law school.

The starting salary for biglaw associates is $160k plus bonus versus $45k for the surgical intern. After 5 years, the biglaw associate is making $250k plus bonus versus the $55k of the ortho chief resident. If the associate makes partner, he is making $500k to millions. Even if he doesn't and gets kicked out, he can find in-house corporate work for $180-$250k. At the end of 5 years, the surgeon is down $750k compared to the typical biglaw lawyer (not to mention the student loans accruing interest).

We will see a severe shortage of surgeons if surgical specialties drop below $200k in compensation. Why bother when family medicine can make $150k?

You don't think that biglaw is affected? Maybe you should spend some time doing research before you make that statement.

JD Underground is a very useful site to learn what's happening to the law field. Google some of the recent articles in the NYT, WSJ, MSNBC, etc, about how f*cked the law profession is. Legal outsourcing is just one of many problems that field has.

Law firms have begun to reduce biglaw starting salaries to $120k from $160k because of so much supply and less demand. There are too many law schools pumping out too many lawyers. Basic supply and demand issue. Starting dates for new grads have been deferred by 1 or more years. Summer intern class sizes from been reduced drastically. The financial crisis has caused a reduced demand for legal services. Many law firms have had layoffs. Clients are demanding seasoned lawyers and refuse to pay high hourly fees for the training of fresh associates.

So, even biglaw is not what it used to be. The issues plaguing law profession is systemic and severe. They won't abate even once the economy improves. You would have to be pretty foolish to go into law right now thinking that you will be successful.

 

[bronx43]

But you are right on one thing, biglaw and management consulting might be problematic for those who have moral qualms about billing their clients $400 an hour for catching typos, reusing old deliverables, organizing Excel spreadsheets, stating the bloody obvious and advising clients who are far more knowledgeable than you (in other words, not much advice at all), relaying what the partners write and adding bullet points with high falutin' words on PowerPoint presentations.

General surgeons deserve every penny they earn by comparison.

Oh, I agree that general surgeons deserve every penny they earn, as do most internists. The only problem I have is with the overwhelming sentiment brooding within the medical profession that anyone capable of becoming a physician could have achieved equal success in any other industry. In addition, I've noticed a trend that the physicians or medical students least capable of actualizing such a claim are the ones most enthusiastic about repeating them. I suspect it's due to the fact that graduates of better universities often see their business or big law counterparts, and understand that it's not exactly a piece of cake to make a lot of money in other professions, whereas graduates of 2nd or 3rd tier universities are used to being so above and beyond their undergraduate peers that they develop the delusion that they have the ability to achieve everything and anything. Sadly, it's also the latter of the two that would bitch and moan constantly without a realization of the benefits of their profession, and feel a sense of entitlement to whatever their compensation is.

 

[DrMed2009]

Maybe it just shows how superficial this country is and where it's values are at. Some people well let their insides roit to hell but when the first blemish pops up they stop everything and rush to get it taken care of.

I am from Germany and dermatology is one of the /the least specialty chosen. Actually out of my class only one went into dermatology..and no it is not competetive at all. I think in the US a lot of students wanna go into derm cause of the hours and the money. In Germany dermatology is actually the specialty along with family med and peds that make the least money (and since we have socialized medicine, doctors no matter what specialty don't make anywhere close to what US doctors make).

 

[bronx43]

I am from Germany and dermatology is one of the /the least specialty chosen. Actually out of my class only one went into dermatology..and no it is not competetive at all. I think in the US a lot of students wanna go into derm cause of the hours and the money. In Germany dermatology is actually the specialty along with family med and peds that make the least money (and since we have socialized medicine, doctors no matter what specialty don't make anywhere close to what US doctors make).

Makes sense. What are the most popular specialties in Germany?

 

[Doc013]

Radiologists are the happiest physicians I've met.

Just want to agree that successful MD students will not be necessarily successful in other fields.

 

[avatarftw]

Agreed.

Fact is, the majority of law students at T14 schools didn't go to top undergrads either. Law schools don't even care about undergrad reputation, all they care about is LSAT and GPA. And law school has some of the most socially awkward people of the all the professional schools. Remember, they don't even interview. Unfortunately, many of them go on to work in biglaw, hence the reputation of biglaw.

I went to a top undergrad, the sad thing is most of my undergrad buddies ended up getting the shaft for both med school and law school because of grade deflation, more course exploration and higher competition. You would be completely wrong if you think the smartest people at top undergrads go to law and business schools.

But you are right on one thing, biglaw and management consulting might be problematic for those who have moral qualms about billing their clients $400 an hour for catching typos, reusing old deliverables, organizing Excel spreadsheets, stating the bloody obvious and advising clients who are far more knowledgeable than you (in other words, not much advice at all), relaying what the partners write and adding bullet points with high falutin' words on PowerPoint presentations.

General surgeons deserve every penny they earn by comparison.

 

[digfast]

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[muhali3]

What about the neurologists?
They don't seem to make a whole lot of money (a couple of big players here and there but overall not too lucrative), but they looked pretty happy to me overall. Even the residents were really friendly happy people. I get the nagging feeling that there is a horde of disgruntled unhappy neurologists out there and I've somehow not been able to discover them. I suppose that when there is an oversupply of neuro's in the next 30 years and salaries plummet, things may be different. I hope not.

Certain personality types are attracted towards certain specialties. If you believe in MBTI, studies have shown that Neurology attracts NT types the most. I think the major reasons for dissatisfaction in any specialty are malpractice, declining income, and hours/call schedule, not the actual nature of the work.

 

[digfast]

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[squareknot]

Nt?

 

[danielmd06]

NT = "Intellectual" type of personality.

There are four major classifications: http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/nt-temperament/. The others are "Protectors," "Creators," and "Visioniaries." There'e even a test on the link you can try out.

I'm an ENTJ neurologist.

 

[Osteoimperfecta]

j

 

[pgg]

My roommate is a lawyer making 75K working close to internal medicine hours. Right now if you want to make these "X is better than medicine arguments" with any validity, do not use law or MBA. Both are in the DUST!....Btw, even if you pay physicians 80K, medschools will still fill up, go ask the Germans and Israelis. Maybe not with the best and brightest(whatever that means), but you will still have very competent physicians. That is the unfortunate truth.

B-b-b-b-b-b-but what about investment bankers?


Years and years ago, someone posted a poll in the pre-allopathic forum about what people would do to get into med school. The fact that "eat a poop hot dog" made the poll and got votes told me everything I need to know about whether med school classes will always fill.

 

[Osteoimperfecta]

B-b-b-b-b-b-but what about investment bankers?


Years and years ago, someone posted a poll in the pre-allopathic forum about what people would do to get into med school. The fact that "eat a poop hot dog" made the poll and got votes told me everything I need to know about whether med school classes will always fill.

enough said

 

[pgg]

enough said

If only those premeds knew about the sandwiches coming up on the menu ...

 

[JaggerPlate]

B-b-b-b-b-b-but what about investment bankers?


Years and years ago, someone posted a poll in the pre-allopathic forum about what people would do to get into med school. The fact that "eat a poop hot dog" made the poll and got votes told me everything I need to know about whether med school classes will always fill.

1. I feel the same way about the poop hot dog comment, and the worst part is that it's not hyperbolic ... in the least.

2. I always found the I-banking comparisons funny. It was great to hear an 18 year old pre-med state that if medicine wasn't an option, he'd just become a balla' I-banker making 800k a year. Never believed me when I said the skill sets were just a TAD different, and the A you got in Orgo I wouldn't translate into investiment moniez.