Academic Heme/onc Salaries

[mrdu]

I am interested in a career in academic heme/onc and was hoping to learn more about the salary range one can expect right after fellowship and then more long term. Thank you!

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[bronx43]

I am interested in a career in academic heme/onc and was hoping to learn more about the salary range one can expect right after fellowship and then more long term. Thank you!

Go find the data for AAMC salaries. MGMA has an "academic" section too.

You'll be taking a huge paycut, but if that's your cup of tea... then go for it.

 

[whoknows2012]

From my experience speaking with onolcogists and fellows applying for jobs the range in NYC at the academic centers for starting salaries is 200-250. In suburban areas surrounding nyc as well as other smaller cities I’d expect this to be in the 250-300 range (or higher? Esp in rural areas and Midwest/southeast). Keeping in mind that many academic oncologists eventually make much more than this

 

[visari]

I've heard numbers as low as 120K at some major academic institutions on the east or west coasts. your average mid-tier academic job in the midwest --> ~200-300K depending on location and workload ...etc

 

[gutonc]

I can comment on the institution where I work (in an academ-ish capacity). Base salary for new grads just recently broke the $200K barrier. Barely.

This is for 2.5 clinic days weekly and 4-8 inpatient/consult weeks a year (depending on the section...benign heme, solid tumor, leuk/BMT). You will always have residents and fellows on your inpatient/consult time. You will rarely have them in clinic (for better or worse). 3% COLA/year. Pittance increases for moving up in the academic rank (like 5% to go from Asst to Assoc Prof). You can buy back clinic time with grants or admin duties. To actually increase your salary, you need to get an endowed chair or go harvest cash from industry.

As a "community based doc" in this institution, I work 3 clinic days a week. Cover 4 weekends a year. Can have as much teaching responsibility as I want (which is virtually none) and make 50% more than the docs at the mothership. I have admin duties that I get an extra 10% for doing.

 

[TheBigCat]

In Boston 180-200K is pretty typical for an instructor-level position. Salary bumps for academic promotions are significant though, at my institution assistant professors get a 40-50K pay increase.

 

[rheum18]

I can comment on the institution where I work (in an academ-ish capacity). Base salary for new grads just recently broke the $200K barrier. Barely.

This is for 2.5 clinic days weekly and 4-8 inpatient/consult weeks a year (depending on the section...benign heme, solid tumor, leuk/BMT). You will always have residents and fellows on your inpatient/consult time. You will rarely have them in clinic (for better or worse). 3% COLA/year. Pittance increases for moving up in the academic rank (like 5% to go from Asst to Assoc Prof). You can buy back clinic time with grants or admin duties. To actually increase your salary, you need to get an endowed chair or go harvest cash from industry.

As a "community based doc" in this institution, I work 3 clinic days a week. Cover 4 weekends a year. Can have as much teaching responsibility as I want (which is virtually none) and make 50% more than the docs at the mothership. I have admin duties that I get an extra 10% for doing.

Do you work part private practice in the community (2 days/wk) and part academic at this institution you mention (for the remaining 3 days/wk)?

 

[gutonc]

Do you work part private practice in the community (2 days/wk) and part academic at this institution you mention (for the remaining 3 days/wk)?

No. I work 3 clinical days for a community-based academic clinic and I faff off the other 2 days.

 

[RectalProlapse]

I can comment on the institution where I work (in an academ-ish capacity). Base salary for new grads just recently broke the $200K barrier. Barely.

This is for 2.5 clinic days weekly and 4-8 inpatient/consult weeks a year (depending on the section...benign heme, solid tumor, leuk/BMT). You will always have residents and fellows on your inpatient/consult time. You will rarely have them in clinic (for better or worse). 3% COLA/year. Pittance increases for moving up in the academic rank (like 5% to go from Asst to Assoc Prof). You can buy back clinic time with grants or admin duties. To actually increase your salary, you need to get an endowed chair or go harvest cash from industry.

As a "community based doc" in this institution, I work 3 clinic days a week. Cover 4 weekends a year. Can have as much teaching responsibility as I want (which is virtually none) and make 50% more than the docs at the mothership. I have admin duties that I get an extra 10% for doing.

GutOnc, do these hybrid jobs ever allow you to site specialize, not to a ridiculous degree (i.e., only small cell CRPC transformation in the left distal femur), but can you enter into a practice analogous to yours marketing yourself as the "GI" or "Thoracic" guy?? From what I've heard from traditional "private practice" folks in the community, is that these positions, at least fresh out of training, are a rarity top come by and your 95% more likely to end up dedicating many years to enjoying the wonders of breast, benign heme, prostate. But I was curious as to the marketability of a new hire designating themselves as the "XYZ" oncologist is, if there is indeed any???

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

 

[gutonc]

GutOnc, do these hybrid jobs ever allow you to site specialize, not to a ridiculous degree (i.e., only small cell CRPC transformation in the left distal femur), but can you enter into a practice analogous to yours marketing yourself as the "GI" or "Thoracic" guy?? From what I've heard from traditional "private practice" folks in the community, is that these positions, at least fresh out of training, are a rarity top come by and your 95% more likely to end up dedicating many years to enjoying the wonders of breast, benign heme, prostate. But I was curious as to the marketability of a new hire designating themselves as the "XYZ" oncologist is, if there is indeed any???

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

As a new hire it's going to be hard, unless you're joining a large group (academ-ish or otherwise) that just happens to need your area of expertise.

That said, you can certainly work your way into such a gig. When I first started my job 6 years ago, despite my interest being GI oncology, I saw about 80% breast and lung. As time has gone on, and the group has grown at my office (we have 5 offices but ours is the largest/busiest), I've been able to tailor my practice so that it's about 50% GI, 40% breast and lung and 10% everything else, which I kind of like. I enjoy the variety, but appreciate the opportunity to only have to dive deeply into a few disease states.

I have a friend who finished fellowship a couple of years after me who joined a hospital employed group that fancies itself as academic (they have an IM residency and a few surgical subspecialties, as well as a "vanity" research institute. She was able to start out doing 50/50 lung/everything else and in the last 3 years has moved her practice to nearly all lung with a smattering of ENT stuff.

Bottom line is that it can be done. But outside of a classic academic setting, it's not going to be common.

 

[visari]

GutOnc, do these hybrid jobs ever allow you to site specialize, not to a ridiculous degree (i.e., only small cell CRPC transformation in the left distal femur), but can you enter into a practice analogous to yours marketing yourself as the "GI" or "Thoracic" guy?? From what I've heard from traditional "private practice" folks in the community, is that these positions, at least fresh out of training, are a rarity top come by and your 95% more likely to end up dedicating many years to enjoying the wonders of breast, benign heme, prostate. But I was curious as to the marketability of a new hire designating themselves as the "XYZ" oncologist is, if there is indeed any???

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

As someone who was recently looking for a job, I second what @gutonc said.

It all depends on the type of practice you're joining. A hospital-based group with 15 or so physicians, yes it's possible to have some preference for a certain tumor group. not exclusive but it's possible. I found many jobs like that during my search where it's not advertised as looking for a sub-specialist but they would certainly try to tailor your practice to your interests. Now as you mentioned, this has to be a large tumor type (breast, lung, GU, maybe malignant hem ...etc) and not sarcoma or survivorship in Hodgkin's or something ridiculous like that.
This's something that can be talked about when you're negotiating your contract but I don't think it would be a good strategy marketing yourself to private practices as the "XYZ oncologist". the majority of practices want you to be comfortable seeing everything.

On the other hand, if you're joining a 5 physician group in more of a rural area..it's not going to happen. You'll see whatever comes through the door.

 

[QualityProcess]

4-8 inpatient/consult weeks a year

I have seen you refer in the past to your occasional "moving the meat" responsibilities... is this what you mean by that? I have never seen the expression beyond the typical 7/7 hospitalist role.

 

[gutonc]

I have seen you refer in the past to your occasional "moving the meat" responsibilities... is this what you mean by that? I have never seen the expression beyond the typical 7/7 hospitalist role.

This is not my job. That's what the "real" academic docs that work for the same hospital system that I do have to do.

But no. I refer to the piles of ludicrous "abnormal CBC finding = heme consult" new patients I get every week. I used to rail against them. Now I don't even ask for a full new patient slot for them. I lab them up (usually ordering about $2-5K more worth of labs than is even remotely necessary), see them back for 5 minutes in 2 weeks with the (almost universally normal) results, d/c them from f/u, and watch the wRVUs pile up in my bonus check.