Procedural vs. non procedural

[DPPM]

I've been seeing a lot of posts referring to "procedural" specialties. What would you consider procedural specialties vs. ones that aren't? How do you define procedural in this context? I would imagine all surgery would be considered very procedural, but what about IM specialties/pediatric/pm&R etc. Which ones aren't very procedural?

Also, a seperate (but possibly related?) question: which specialties allow for the most interaction with patients? Thanks in advance for the replies

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[OSUdoc08]

I've been seeing a lot of posts referring to "procedural" specialties. What would you consider procedural specialties vs. ones that aren't? How do you define procedural in this context? I would imagine all surgery would be considered very procedural, but what about IM specialties/pediatric/pm&R etc. Which ones aren't very procedural?

Also, a seperate (but possibly related?) question: which specialties allow for the most interaction with patients? Thanks in advance for the replies

Some Examples:

More Procedural:
1. Any Surgery
2. Emergency Medicine
3. Interventional Radiology
4. Interventional Cardiology
5. Anesthesiology

Less-Procedural:
1. Pediatrics
2. Family Practice
3. Diagnostic Radiology
4. Internal Medicine
5. Psychiatry
6. Neurology
7. Dermatology
8. Occupational Medicine

 

[Winged Scapula]

I would add Gastroenterology (an IM subspecialty), Critical Care (either a Surgical or Medical subspecialty) to the more procedural category and Derm can be as well, especially if they've completed a Moh's fellowship.

Most fields will allow for patient contact, just in different venues and to different degrees. Its a fallacy that surgeons and Anesthesiologists don't have much patient contact (they have clinic too) and while DR and Path don't have much direct contact, they do have some (especially DR when doing studies like fluro which require more than a tech present).

The "most" contact, by which I assume you mean with patients who are alive, awake and can participate in a conversation would probably be more office based specialties like Peds and FP.