highest paid medical professions

[iwantthis]

bouncing off of md2b20004's op, what do you guys think is the highest paid medical profession..... dentistry, anethesiologists, surgeons, dermatologist, pediatricians, optomotrist, psychology, podiatry, vets, etc...... just curious of your opinions i've read that anethesiologists won't be as needed in the future b/c they are being replaced by crna'a & aa's, even though of course the anesthesiologists have more options and responsibilities. just wondering guys...... a conversation piece

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[CycleCA]

bouncing off of md2b20004's op, what do you guys think is the highest paid medical profession..... dentistry, anethesiologists, surgeons, dermatologist, pediatricians, optomotrist, psychology, podiatry, vets, etc...... just curious of your opinions i've read that anethesiologists won't be as needed in the future b/c they are being replaced by crna'a & aa's, even though of course the anesthesiologists have more options and responsibilities. just wondering guys...... a conversation piece

Anesthesiologists unnecessary? No way. Cruise on over to the anesthesiology section of this board and you'll find a good discussion about this topic. I also want to be an anesthesiologist, but know that nurses/AA's are getting in and increasing their scopes of practice. Still, they don't have the technical or medical expertise to function on the same level as an anesthesiologist, or the amount of education or preparation. Anesthesiologists will always be necessary, but I think that at the root of this debate is cost cutting by healthcare and CRNA's/AA's fighting for more practice rights and autonomy. They're all grabbing the dollars, basically, and trying to unionize (essentially). Anyways, this is my 2 cents for the night.

 

[Law2Doc]

bouncing off of md2b20004's op, what do you guys think is the highest paid medical profession..... dentistry, anethesiologists, surgeons, dermatologist, pediatricians, optomotrist, psychology, podiatry, vets, etc...... just curious of your opinions i've read that anethesiologists won't be as needed in the future b/c they are being replaced by crna'a & aa's, even though of course the anesthesiologists have more options and responsibilities. just wondering guys...... a conversation piece

You are lumping a lot of careers together that don't really have much similarity, some of which do not even require graduate education (eg psychology). Best to ask folks on other boards what they earn rather than have folks heading into eg medicine speculate on what eg an "optomotrist" earns.

I suspect your real agenda is your latter comment anyhow, because there was no other reason to add it in to your previous, and unrelated "question". The same two pseudo questions keep popping up as "I read..." or "I heard..." -- that CRNAs or other allied professionals are stealing physician jobs (especially anesthesia), or that radiology is going to be outsourced. Truth of the matter is that neither of these things has happened yet, and that these threads really just fuel the next set of threads -- someone will read the OPs post and a few weeks later post "I read that..."
I think that allied professionals do, in fact, make slow inroads into physician practice and that physicians are not defending their turf staunchly enough, which is a mistake. They should really learn from lawyers who have squelched many efforts of paralegals, realtors and CPAs to claim certain quasi-legal and document form work as their own. But I wouldn't say there is an imminent threat to anesthesiology as of yet.

 

[iwantthis]

You are lumping a lot of careers together that don't really have much similarity, some of which do not even require graduate education (eg psychology). Best to ask folks on other boards what they earn rather than have folks heading into eg medicine speculate on what eg an "optomotrist" earns.

I suspect your real agenda is your latter comment anyhow, because there was no other reason to add it in to your previous, and unrelated "question". The same two pseudo questions keep popping up as "I read..." or "I heard..." -- that CRNAs or other allied professionals are stealing physician jobs (especially anesthesia), or that radiology is going to be outsourced. Truth of the matter is that neither of these things has happened yet, and that these threads really just fuel the next set of threads -- someone will read the OPs post and a few weeks later post "I read that..."
I think that allied professionals do, in fact, make slow inroads into physician practice and that physicians are not defending their turf staunchly enough, which is a mistake. They should really learn from lawyers who have squelched many efforts of paralegals, realtors and CPAs to claim certain quasi-legal and document form work as their own. But I wouldn't say there is an imminent threat to anesthesiology as of yet.

the point of the thread is simply to strike conversation... not trying to bash or anything, i just like hearing what other people think. when i wrote the thread i was thinking about those two things, therefore i put it in there b/c i wanted to............ no hidden agenda or anything. and quite frankly i feel that you are threatened or something by the thread-- why are you getting so offensive over basically nothing... dude its purely conversation, not a debate or anything, NO FACTS-STRICTLY OPINIONS, i didn't go to the other boards b/c i want other people's opinion mainly from ones in non-trad..... IT'S NOT THAT SERIOUSSSSS ........... lighten up, if you don't like the thread, don't respond, k no love lost -- and what are threads for if you cant post what you want, who cares if this fuels something else, YOU don't have to respond.... LIVE, LOVE, SMILE

hey thanks for the feedback

 

[iwantthis]

Anesthesiologists unnecessary? No way. Cruise on over to the anesthesiology section of this board and you'll find a good discussion about this topic. I also want to be an anesthesiologist, but know that nurses/AA's are getting in and increasing their scopes of practice. Still, they don't have the technical or medical expertise to function on the same level as an anesthesiologist, or the amount of education or preparation. Anesthesiologists will always be necessary, but I think that at the root of this debate is cost cutting by healthcare and CRNA's/AA's fighting for more practice rights and autonomy. They're all grabbing the dollars, basically, and trying to unionize (essentially). Anyways, this is my 2 cents for the night.

YOUR RIGHT IT'S ALWAYS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...

 

[Beau Geste]

Leave it to the Thunderdome......

 

[TheRealMD]

Go be a neurosurgeon. They have the highest average pay.

 

[etf]

Go be a neurosurgeon. They have the highest average pay.

not even close. the chief executive of an insurance company, like, oh, say UNH. billy mcguire has picked up a little over a bil with his M.D.

 

[lisichka]

bouncing off of md2b20004's op, what do you guys think is the highest paid medical profession..... dentistry, anethesiologists, surgeons, dermatologist, pediatricians, optomotrist, psychology, podiatry, vets, etc...... just curious of your opinions i've read that anethesiologists won't be as needed in the future b/c they are being replaced by crna'a & aa's, even though of course the anesthesiologists have more options and responsibilities. just wondering guys...... a conversation piece

nurse practitioner in a medical spa dermatologists are overrated.

 

[IHeartNerds]

not even close. the chief executive of an insurance company, like, oh, say UNH. billy mcguire has picked up a little over a bil with his M.D.

True, but of real doctors, either neurosurgery or pediatric CT wins with average income. This is not (as far as I'm aware) too debatable, with average income of NSGY around 400k and pediatric hearts ~400-500. Of course, the sample is skewed because of the small size of those specialties. They also have some of the worst hours, so go figure.

 

[Law2Doc]

the point of the thread is simply to strike conversation... not trying to bash or anything,

When you lump a lot of pretty unrelated fields, along with subspecialties of medicine, and call them all "medical professions", you are going to ruffle feathers. Not every job is a profession (as you will see when you apply to certain med schools and they ask you in an interview or essay to discuss being a professional), subspecialties like anesthesia, derm, peds and surgery are all specialties within the profession of medicine, not professions in and of themselves. And when your focus is money you will rub people the wrong way as well.

You shouldn't be deciding between whether to be an optician or a vet or a dentist based on which pays more --those are hardly similar jobs -- you need to figure out which one interests you. When you are looking for a 9 to 5 job where you are living for the weekend, you can worry about which pays more. When you are looking at a career that is going to suck up 70 hours a week, including many weekends, for the rest of your professional life, you have to actually care about whether it interests or excites you. So the answer to which pays more is "it doesn't matter" because frankly that isn't the yardstick anyone would or should use to determine which one to go into.

 

[mordounhas]

Orthopedic spinal surgery has the highest average according to Allied Physicians and a few other places. The average salary with two years or less is just shy of 400,000 and with 3 or more years, it's up to 670k.

 

[Law2Doc]

True, but of real doctors, either neurosurgery or pediatric CT wins with average income. This is not (as far as I'm aware) too debatable, with average income of NSGY around 400k and pediatric hearts ~400-500. Of course, the sample is skewed because of the small size of those specialties. They also have some of the worst hours, so go figure.

As with all things, you have to factor in time value of money. $1 today is worth a lot more than that same dollar if you get it years later. So if it takes you 10 years more of training to earn twice as much, you probably came out behind.

 

[Law2Doc]

Orthopedic spinal surgery has the highest average according to Allied Physicians

Don't rely on headhunter boards for accurate indications of salary. Their job is to puff it up to get people to use their services. Also, never look at the "maximum" column on such sites -- that is just an indication of a salary that you will never get close to, because it represents unique circumstances that cannot be duplicated.

 

[etf]

Orthopedic spinal surgery has the highest average according to Allied Physicians and a few other places. The average salary with two years or less is just shy of 400,000 and with 3 or more years, it's up to 670k.

actually from what i understand anything to do with spinal surgery - either ortho or neuro, tends to be the highest paid, since most involve bread-and-butter procedures that you just do a lot. high volume = high revenue. although, high risk = high malpractice insurance.

 

[dr midnight]

Even with the pay you have to look at the overhead.... Malpractice insurance, time in RES etc. Also how much you deal with HMO.... They never pay what your worth and you will need extra staff just to take care of insurance... many plastic sur. are cash only.... they may make more with better hours

 

[maestro1625]

I'd just assume your location is likely to trump your specialty... there will be exceptions on both ends though.

But if you want to make money, live in an area with a lot of rich people with good insurance.

 

[paranoid_eyes]

plastics/derm...

 

[Law2Doc]

I'd just assume your location is likely to trump your specialty... there will be exceptions on both ends though.

But if you want to make money, live in an area with a lot of rich people with good insurance.

Your costs will be much higher if you live in a ritzy area. And in the day of insurance reimbursements, you generally earn more doing a higher volume business, assuming your patients have some form of insurance (whether "good or not"). So you often can come out ahead in areas that are less affluent, more middle class, but more densely populated locations, rather than locating a practice where the rich people live. Of course there are exceptions -- elective things like plastics, for instance, tend to do better in the upscale areas.