MD to ??

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electricse

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Hi

I was just wondering after reading a lot of stories from people who have left various careers to start training for medicine, if any MD's have left medicine for another career? I am quite intrigued to know if any docs here have made the switch?:thumbup::hardy:

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Hi

I was just wondering after reading a lot of stories from people who have left various careers to start training for medicine, if any MD's have left medicine for another career? I am quite intrigued to know if any docs here have made the switch?:thumbup::hardy:

I have heard of a doc going to pharmacy or into the business world.

Personally, i think retirement would be the best option!
 
Hi

I was just wondering after reading a lot of stories from people who have left various careers to start training for medicine, if any MD's have left medicine for another career? I am quite intrigued to know if any docs here have made the switch?:thumbup::hardy:

Many of my friends have added other careers in addition to medicine. My cousin is an MD/JD who practices both law and neurosurgery. I am an MD/Ph.D and practice both medicine and teach. I have other friends who combine business with medicine and public health with medicine. The bottom line for all of us is that we have not left medicine but medicine has given us options that expand into other careers or is compatable with other careers especially teaching.
 
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I have a friend that left medicine after practicing for 25 years to open his own restaurant and then he has a friend who left medicine after about the same time to open his own photography business. Both appear to be incredibly happy now :D
 
Hi

I was just wondering after reading a lot of stories from people who have left various careers to start training for medicine, if any MD's have left medicine for another career? I am quite intrigued to know if any docs here have made the switch?:thumbup::hardy:

*Consulting
*Teaching
*Research
*Pharmaceuticals
*Biotech
 
There were at least two MDs in my law school class, and we had a professor who had an MD (went to law school immediately after medical school graduation instead of doing a residency). You'll also find people who switch to the business side of things. In fact, there are a few conversations about it right now in the Business forum here.
 
Hi

I was just wondering after reading a lot of stories from people who have left various careers to start training for medicine, if any MD's have left medicine for another career? I am quite intrigued to know if any docs here have made the switch?:thumbup::hardy:

While there are certainly some, it is considerably more rare due to the golden handcuffs involved. You spend 7-10 years in school and training becoming a physician, and expend several hundred thousand dollars in debt. At that point few people consider themselves in a position to start another career, and feel a need to start earning money to pay down your debt. By contrast you could go to law school, be paying off much of your debt the year after graduating (ie the 4th year out of college), and be in a good financial position to try something else.
 
Anybody go for an MBA after MD or something else?

Anybody dip out of residency for whatever reasons and find another field of work?
 
Anybody dip out of residency for whatever reasons and find another field of work?

It's rare. You have $200k of debt by that point, and the only skill you bring to the table in most cases is being a physician. But sure, there's always 1-2 at every med school who decide they don't want to be a doctor, and find something else. If they are smart, they did enough residency to be licensed so they have a fall-back position if their other efforts don't pan out. An MBA isn't the ideal thing to jump into because the better MBA programs tend to require a decent amount of work experience before applying, and outside of joint degree programs, your residency experience might not cut it. The MBA won't really open doors anyhow -- the programs are meant to enhance existing business skills, not give you new ones and a start into a new industry. You are better off trying to leverage your MD into a job in the pharmaceutical or healthcare consulting industry, and if that works out then get an MBA later on down the road, on your company's dime.
 
Anybody go for an MBA after MD or something else?

Anybody dip out of residency for whatever reasons and find another field of work?

I know one guy who entered an MBA upon graduation (with MD) and never looked back. But his wife started her residency at the same time.
 
I know one MD who got his JD and now works in law full-time. Our neighbor was in her second year of residency (I forget the area - maybe OB/Gyn) and quit to raise her kids. They are now teenagers, and she is looking to do something in medicine. But she has no regrets about being a SAHM.
 
I plan to teach at some point...
 
One of my friends said about 20% of his class did NOT go on to residency but pursued something else with their MD. There are many options.

Research (genetics, microbio, bioengineering, etc)
Big Pharma
Forensics/Pathology
Public Policy
Hospital finance
Public Health (CDC, State epidemiologist, etc)

Basically, the MD makes you qualified for a lot of different things, even if you don't actually practice on patients. But you better at least not mind clinical work or it's going to be a long slog through medical school!
 
One of my friends said about 20% of his class did NOT go on to residency but pursued something else with their MD.

There is no US allo school with this large a percentage, single digits at best. Does your friend go to school in a foreign country?
Pathologists and epidemiologists generally do a residency, and most of the folks who go into research or other non-clinician endeavors are well advised to do at least some amount of residency to keep the doors open.
 
There is no US allo school with this large a percentage, single digits at best. Does your friend go to school in a foreign country?
Pathologists and epidemiologists generally do a residency, and most of the folks who go into research or other non-clinician endeavors are well advised to do at least some amount of residency to keep the doors open.

Huh. My friend coulda been wrong. He went to Thomas Jefferson in Philly. Not sure where to find stats like that.
 
I plan to leave. I am just reluctant to "quit."

I have rationalized it, I am not renewing my contract this August 01, 08, 'not quitting'. However, I still have not told the PD. Psychologically, this is a big step off the cliff. A doc without a completed residency, well it is a big deal to me, but I don't want to spend another day in residency.

I could end up on my feet or with my legs permanently broken with irreversible regret.

I have lined up a full time position in government doing employment physicals, no brainer work in a nice locale. No weekends, holidays off, no call, no malpractice worries, no diagnosis, no treatment, no prescriptions unless its for friends with simple problems. (I still have a license.)
While I gain an MPH online and then branch out into infectious disease and public health government work.

I want to be the one physician in a group. When one works at a hospital there are so many physicians around that administration loses their appreciation for their hard work and take advantage.

I am also in the National Guard as a doc so I can still be deployed as a flight surgeon taking care of the already health aviation crews 3 months at a time. I think I'll be okay, with this decision. I won't be completely removed from medicine. The military still sends me off to short training courses to maintain rudimentary skills. (Which is why my current residency year was extended a month.)

I just need to take a few more steps toward that cliff now.

(Man, I hate residency!)
 
I plan to leave. I am just reluctant to "quit."

I have rationalized it, I am not renewing my contract this August 01, 08, 'not quitting'. However, I still have not told the PD. Psychologically, this is a big step off the cliff. A doc without a completed residency, well it is a big deal to me, but I don't want to spend another day in residency.

I could end up on my feet or with my legs permanently broken with irreversible regret.

I have lined up a full time position in government doing employment physicals, no brainer work in a nice locale. No weekends, holidays off, no call, no malpractice worries, no diagnosis, no treatment, no prescriptions unless its for friends with simple problems. (I still have a license.)
While I gain an MPH online and then branch out into infectious disease and public health government work.

I want to be the one physician in a group. When one works at a hospital there are so many physicians around that administration loses their appreciation for their hard work and take advantage.

I am also in the National Guard as a doc so I can still be deployed as a flight surgeon taking care of the already health aviation crews 3 months at a time. I think I'll be okay, with this decision. I won't be completely removed from medicine. The military still sends me off to short training courses to maintain rudimentary skills. (Which is why my current residency year was extended a month.)

I just need to take a few more steps toward that cliff now.

(Man, I hate residency!)

Sounds wise, your path of keeping one foot in medicine.

I'm coming from business w/over 10 yrs experience, and have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I've volunteered for many months in different clinical settings and have heard MDs and their thoughts on this too.

Biggest things I've seen in business that make me prefer medicine:

- focused on business issues, which may or may not help people, but definitely won't help others in the way that doctors can help people. After a certain amount of time focusing on measuring things and training people in processes and optimizing performance, it kind of seemed unimportant to me in the big scheme of things.

- in business, things are not nearly as hierarchical - there is a boss, assistant vp, general manager, but they got there by starting in low level positions & working their way up, there's a pretty clear connection between levels, and there's little looking up to a manager because he/she's the boss. If they're good, THEN a worker would look up to them, but it's different than medicine where the MD can tell the RN or the PA exactly what to do, and the RN/PA will do exactly that or potentially be fired.

-business has lots of uncertainty regarding what is "right". IBM focused on mainframe versus PC and now Microsoft controls the app market rather than IBM, because IBM guys didn't grasp how the market would change in the late 70's/early 80's. Lots of similar examples. Medicine seems a bit more clear cut in that if a person comes into the ER with chest pains, you given them an aspirin and do these tests within this timeframe.

-businesses (at least large ones) are very political, if you get ahead depends quite a bit on convincing others of your value. And if your boss is conniving and you're hard working and good at your job, you may be invisible to others if you can't broadcast your successes around the company.

- job uncertainty - in business (probably not in government given my experience in the public sector) things are uncertain, had a relative lose a senior level job because his firm bought a small firm, the small firm president was given my relative's job. Another executive I know lost his position when his division was disbanded. At that level, often to keep similar salary, one must relocate. Both of the people I'm thinking of took over a year to locate similar positions. It scares me to potentially be mid-50's and lose an executive level job when my kids are at private colleges and I'm 10 years from retirement, medicine seems more secure.

-income. MDs I know discuss their effort & often that they feel worth more than they earn given the years spent training. The average household in the US earns 47K or so, there are a lot of college grad households who earn less than 100K, seems like a long time to pay off med school loans on that salary. The people I knew pursuing the executive jobs were at the office until 7-8pm every night, working lots of weekends, for many years in the hopes of getting that promotion. Seems more certain to know that, after residency, you're at 200K per year or whatever, and can focus on doing your job well without having to worry about money, too.
 
Sounds wise, your path of keeping one foot in medicine.

I'm coming from business w/over 10 yrs experience, and have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I've volunteered for many months in different clinical settings and have heard MDs and their thoughts on this too.

Biggest things I've seen in business that make me prefer medicine:

- focused on business issues, which may or may not help people, but definitely won't help others in the way that doctors can help people. After a certain amount of time focusing on measuring things and training people in processes and optimizing performance, it kind of seemed unimportant to me in the big scheme of things.

- in business, things are not nearly as hierarchical - there is a boss, assistant vp, general manager, but they got there by starting in low level positions & working their way up, there's a pretty clear connection between levels, and there's little looking up to a manager because he/she's the boss. If they're good, THEN a worker would look up to them, but it's different than medicine where the MD can tell the RN or the PA exactly what to do, and the RN/PA will do exactly that or potentially be fired.

-business has lots of uncertainty regarding what is "right". IBM focused on mainframe versus PC and now Microsoft controls the app market rather than IBM, because IBM guys didn't grasp how the market would change in the late 70's/early 80's. Lots of similar examples. Medicine seems a bit more clear cut in that if a person comes into the ER with chest pains, you given them an aspirin and do these tests within this timeframe.

-businesses (at least large ones) are very political, if you get ahead depends quite a bit on convincing others of your value. And if your boss is conniving and you're hard working and good at your job, you may be invisible to others if you can't broadcast your successes around the company.

- job uncertainty - in business (probably not in government given my experience in the public sector) things are uncertain, had a relative lose a senior level job because his firm bought a small firm, the small firm president was given my relative's job. Another executive I know lost his position when his division was disbanded. At that level, often to keep similar salary, one must relocate. Both of the people I'm thinking of took over a year to locate similar positions. It scares me to potentially be mid-50's and lose an executive level job when my kids are at private colleges and I'm 10 years from retirement, medicine seems more secure.

-income. MDs I know discuss their effort & often that they feel worth more than they earn given the years spent training. The average household in the US earns 47K or so, there are a lot of college grad households who earn less than 100K, seems like a long time to pay off med school loans on that salary. The people I knew pursuing the executive jobs were at the office until 7-8pm every night, working lots of weekends, for many years in the hopes of getting that promotion. Seems more certain to know that, after residency, you're at 200K per year or whatever, and can focus on doing your job well without having to worry about money, too.

thanks for posting! :):luck:
 
Seems more certain to know that, after residency, you're at 200K per year or whatever, and can focus on doing your job well without having to worry about money, too.

You apparently haven't been keeping tabs on the fact that medicine is the one profession that lost ground against inflation while all the others gained this past decade, and that reimbursements are predicted likely to continue to decline, and that average hours in primary care have been going up of late. There have been lots of articles in the past year about FPs having to take on second jobs and sell things on ebay to keep their incomes competitive. So it's really same story different career. You don't go into medicine for the money anymore. And certainly not if you are a nontrad coming from a well paid business path.
(And not to mention that all this ignores the investment of a decade or more up front you have to make to get into medicine, which is huge when you factor in the time value of money and opportunity cost. You will be borrowing for a decade when you could have been earning. That already probably puts you many hundred grand behind before you even get started in this field.).

I also think you are drastically underestimating how hierarchical and political medicine is. I do agree with you about the job uncertainty/stability issues. But I wouldn't make that the driving force in choosing a career. Do it because you enjoy it and find it interesting. Most of the other stuff you are kind of wrong about.
 
My mother teaches a photography class and has a student who was a doctor and quite to pursue photography. He's happy as a clam about it. From what I've heard though, he may be the type who got into medicine because of family pressure or for other less-than-ideal reasons. Of course, he probably takes for granted that he has the leisure to pursue his hobby only because of the money he made as a doctor.
 
You apparently haven't been keeping tabs on the fact that medicine is the one profession that lost ground against inflation while all the others gained this past decade, and that reimbursements are predicted likely to continue to decline, and that average hours in primary care have been going up of late. There have been lots of articles in the past year about FPs having to take on second jobs and sell things on ebay to keep their incomes competitive. So it's really same story different career. You don't go into medicine for the money anymore. And certainly not if you are a nontrad coming from a well paid business path.
(And not to mention that all this ignores the investment of a decade or more up front you have to make to get into medicine, which is huge when you factor in the time value of money and opportunity cost. You will be borrowing for a decade when you could have been earning. That already probably puts you many hundred grand behind before you even get started in this field.).

I also think you are drastically underestimating how hierarchical and political medicine is. I do agree with you about the job uncertainty/stability issues. But I wouldn't make that the driving force in choosing a career. Do it because you enjoy it and find it interesting. Most of the other stuff you are kind of wrong about.

Many different opinions on this, I understand. Business comments are based on personal experience working for public sector, fortune 500 company, fortune 1000 company, self-employed, and working for a very small company for 2 yrs + per experience. Can't say I've not tried different things!

Medicine may pay less than it did, family practicioners in my opinion are way underpaid for the time and effort that they put in. I suspect that some aspect of this this will change, or there will be very few FP's left. In my opinion, a likely way that this will change is either FPs will become more experienced in managing large, non MD staffs that handle most cases that come in, or family practice may become a PA/Nurse Practioner field to a great extent. I'm not really looking at going that route due to personal interests in more research-related areas of medicine, the MDs I know are not FPs and I'm unfamiliar with many FP issues.

One thing I've learned is that it is a horrible decision to pursue a career for the money. I have experience in a technical field that pays well, and got very bored very fast. That said, I can't take out 4 years of time and loans to become a vet and start at 46K (around what vets start at in my area). So money has some role in decisions, too, just not the sole role.

Can't comment about hierarchy in medicine, as I've very limited experience there. I do know that for a number of medical practices, one can decide to go out on one's own (like my relative did), there are groups that help provide loans to assist in this process. I'm seriously considering that at some point in the future.

Every career has good and bad points, definitely makes sense to do a heckuva lot of research before starting med school, I'm 10 yrs or so from being done as of now, presuming 09 start.

cheers!
 
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