Surgery: you’ll be working with at least 3-5 people in the operating room. You’ll also have to examine lots of patients to determine whether they need surgery or not and alleviate their fears concerning the operations. Lots of treatments are becoming more conservative, i.e. no surgery at all. After surgery, you’ll have to examine patients to assess their recovery and motivate them. Obviously there are surgeons who chose the specialty because they don’t like working with people, and I think that’s unfortunate, because they’re doing a half assed job. Many surgeries are quite long, and require you to be standing hours at a time not necessarily in a very comfortable position. To become good, you’ll have to specialize, so you’ll be doing the same procedures over and over again.
Radiology: have you considered that this kind of image recognition is a low hanging fruit for a narrow A.I.? I considered radiology too, but this is one of the main reasons I won’t anymore. Also, radiology is easy to do via the internet, so that might lower the earning potential if hospitals hire radiologists overseas. If you’re doing ultrasounds or become an intervention radiologist, there will be a lot of patient interaction, if you’re a neuroradiologist, pretty much none at all.
Pathology or forensic pathology: you’ll usually work alone or with 1-2 other people. You’ll have to explain the findings to other doctors and the patients relatives though. The earning potential isn’t probably that high, in forensic pathology it might be, I don’t know.
If you just want to cut people up without talking to them and master anatomy and histology, pathology is the obvious way to go. It will be also more anatomically diverse than any surgical specialty, since you’ll have to examine the whole body. The compensation doesn’t seem too bad, about the middle of the field in earnings among all physicians.
Hmm, would you say there is still less social interaction in surgery than most other specialties?
The difference is qualitative, not quantitative. In the OR, you spend time with people you know and are expected to be more to the point. Small talk is the overwhelming norm even during surgeries, and it might get quite awkward if you communicated only the necessities. Patient interactions are on average briefer than in the conservative specialties, but you will correspondingly see more patients. The only real me-time in any specialty is paper work.
Oh, and the number one thing to protect you from lawsuits will be the rapport you build with your patients. In any specialty (or profession, for that matter), expect the most well-liked people to be paid the most.
Surgery: you’ll be working with at least 3-5 people in the operating room. You’ll also have to examine lots of patients to determine whether they need surgery or not and alleviate their fears concerning the operations. Lots of treatments are becoming more conservative, i.e. no surgery at all. After surgery, you’ll have to examine patients to assess their recovery and motivate them. Obviously there are surgeons who chose the specialty because they don’t like working with people, and I think that’s unfortunate, because they’re doing a half assed job. Many surgeries are quite long, and require you to be standing hours at a time not necessarily in a very comfortable position. To become good, you’ll have to specialize, so you’ll be doing the same procedures over and over again.
Radiology: have you considered that this kind of image recognition is a low hanging fruit for a narrow A.I.? I considered radiology too, but this is one of the main reasons I won’t anymore. Also, radiology is easy to do via the internet, so that might lower the earning potential if hospitals hire radiologists overseas. If you’re doing ultrasounds or become an intervention radiologist, there will be a lot of patient interaction, if you’re a neuroradiologist, pretty much none at all.
Pathology or forensic pathology: you’ll usually work alone or with 1-2 other people. You’ll have to explain the findings to other doctors and the patients relatives though. The earning potential isn’t probably that high, in forensic pathology it might be, I don’t know.
That’s a very good point about radiology being replaceable.
Hmm, would you say there is still less social interaction in surgery than most other specialties?
I can take physical discomfort,
Yeah, I guess doing the same procedure over and over again might not be super interesting or educational.
If you just want to cut people up without talking to them and master anatomy and histology, pathology is the obvious way to go. It will be also more anatomically diverse than any surgical specialty, since you’ll have to examine the whole body. The compensation doesn’t seem too bad, about the middle of the field in earnings among all physicians.
http://www.medscape.com/sites/public/physician-comp/2012
The difference is qualitative, not quantitative. In the OR, you spend time with people you know and are expected to be more to the point. Small talk is the overwhelming norm even during surgeries, and it might get quite awkward if you communicated only the necessities. Patient interactions are on average briefer than in the conservative specialties, but you will correspondingly see more patients. The only real me-time in any specialty is paper work.
Oh, and the number one thing to protect you from lawsuits will be the rapport you build with your patients. In any specialty (or profession, for that matter), expect the most well-liked people to be paid the most.