media fridays: What MD specialty has the best job prospects?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/health/trainees-in-radiology-and-other-specialties-see-dream-jobs-disappearing.html?_r=0
This week's article is an NYT article about the job market for doctors. We've been told it's great.. except the jobs in radiology are decreasing. Presumably, Obamacare will continue to decrease those jobs. Plus, in California nurse anesthetists are starting to replace anesthesiologists and they'll soon be out of jobs too. I was talking about this with Goran and Keith the other night as we tried to decide what residency program we should go down. So my question to y'all: what residency is most likely to continue to have high demand?
I would tend to say general practitioners, except they could seen be replace by NP's and PA's. My second guess would be surgeons because their job is so technical that nobody else could do it, even if they were legally allowed to. That said, my final answer is neurologists/psychiatrists because more and more people are being diagnosed with mental illness, and at the same time the basic science research in neuroscience is developing faster than any other field.
Anyways, your thoughts?
see you on the other side,
from ken
read something good? send it my way.
Emergency departments will theoretically be less crowded when more people are able to access the health system with the Affordable Care Act. Urgent cares are growing as well.
ReplyDeleteYeah good point. So ER is also out then. MUSC should pay someone to read the ACA this summer and write a summary of it for students.
DeleteOut of all the fields of medicine, emergency is one of the safest. Before coming to medical school I worked in EMS for 9 years and saw that insurance status had almost no bearing on people choosing between the ER or an Urgent Care. There's a couple reasons for this.
DeleteFirst and foremost, people have absolutely no idea what constitutes an emergency and what doesn't. Even when they do know, their first reaction is always "Call 9-1-1!!" When you can push three buttons on your phone and get a half-million dollars of equipment and 5 smiling EMTs and Medics at your front door within 6 minutes, why would you consider going to Urgent Care? This happens a lot. When it does and we're really busy, we inform the patients of their options because EMS can't refuse transport to anyone. We tell them, "You can go with us to the ER and it'll essentially be a $600 taxi ride, or you can have a family member drive you, or you can always go to the Urgent Care down the street. Which would you like?" Probably 9 times out of 10, they'd go with us for one of two reasons. #1. "I'll be seen quicker." (Which is completely false.) #2. "The money doesn't matter, I have insurance." So, more insurance could actually mean more work for ER docs.
There are some other situations, but I've rambled on much more than I initially intended, so I'll spare you.
Interesting and good to know. Also I had no idea you worked in ems for 9 yrs! I'll have to ask you about that.
DeletePlastics. That will NEVER go away, but I wouldn't reduce my 10+ years of education, residency and fellowship training to helping vain people. Of course, that's not all they do, but that aspect of boob jobs and tummy tucks will forever be here to stay.
ReplyDeleteDo you think there will be a point where the medical community just refuses to be paid less? I know most of us aren't in it for the money, but if we're being honest, going through 4 years of medical school and a 3-7+ year residency/fellowship track and racking up $200,000k + in debt looks a lot less appealing when there isn't a bright light at the end of the tunnel. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with being able to afford a Porsche if you busted your ass for 10 years after college to get to that point, and it should stay that way.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm sure there will be tricky conversations about that moving forward. for me personally - the financial / job security I could provide my family was a huge draw. if doctoring didn't bring in enough income to easily support a whole family I wouldn't be in med school today. one possible solution to this is decreasing loans and training time, just making it easier to become a doc.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of radiology, a big boom will occur when we figure out how to do it without exposing patients to harmful radiation. Such new technologies are in the works, and once solidified, demand will soar.
ReplyDeleteAnything related to the aging baby boomer population (e.g., cardiology, geriatrics eventually) will be solid for years to come.
I think the article painted a misleadingly bleak picture - demand for doctors has far exceeded supply for decades, and that won't change anytime soon because doctors take an incredibly long time to train. Who do you think the teleradiology companies mentioned in the article hire? Their employed radiologists probably work better hours, get more experience through a steadier flow of work, thus might even get paid more. The jobs are still there; they just moved to a new business model. It's not the end of the world.
Do what you love, and the job will handle itself. And don't go to some osteopathic program that will pull the plug on you before your training is complete!
One Q I have with the teleradiology companies - why can't they just hire overseas docs as per call centers?
DeleteI think it has something to do with this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.acr.org/Advocacy/State-Local-Relations/Legislative-Issues/Teleradiology/Teleradiology-Licensing-Requirements-by-State