Academic Transplant Surgeons?

[Petey Piston]

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I've read about Indiana University's School of Medicine Abdominal Transplant Surgeon fellowship

I read it was an academic position. How do academic positions work? Do you become a professor?

How much do academic abdominal(liver, kidney, pancreas, etc) transplant surgeons make? No one seems to post data about it anywhere

Also, is transplant surgery the best medical management-surgical combination out there? I've also heard of OB/GYN, is there any others?

Sorry lots of questions, but I'd feel much more at ease if I had a few answers 🙂

 

[ACSurgeon]

I've read about Indiana University's School of Medicine Abdominal Transplant Surgeon fellowship

I read it was an academic position. How do academic positions work? Do you become a professor?

How much do academic abdominal(liver, kidney, pancreas, etc) transplant surgeons make? No one seems to post data about it anywhere

Also, is transplant surgery the best medical management-surgical combination out there? I've also heard of OB/GYN, is there any others?

Sorry lots of questions, but I'd feel much more at ease if I had a few answers 🙂

This will probably get moved to pre-allo (as it should), but I'll give you some answers here.

Transplant surgery is done mainly at academic centers due to the critical nature of the patients. However, I am certain private practice groups exist at hospitals that are large enough.

I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding the IU fellowship being academic, but my guess is that since it's at an academic center, they're calling it that. Just because you train at an academic center does not mean you have to become a professor (although if you're interested in becoming a professor, you should try to train at an academic center).

Salary depends on too many things, so I won't even try to address that.

Regarding the mix of medicine and surgery, you'll have to wait until your third year to see what the right mix is for you. Surgeons are surgeons; not internists. However, general surgeons (and those who do fellowships after gen surg) tend to be more hands on with their patients, and so, do more medical management than other surgical subspecialties.

OB/GYN has a good clinical and surgical mix, but I'm not sure they do alot of general medicine (although they theoretically could serve as PCP's, I just haven't seen it done).

 

[SocialistMD]

Also, is transplant surgery the best medical management-surgical combination out there?

See also: trauma/critical care.

 

[45408]

See also: trauma/critical care.

Definitely. I'd argue that most OB/gyns don't do a lot of medical management of surgical patients, unless it's a gynecologist-oncologist (an OB/gyn fellowship).

 

[Winged Scapula]

I've read about Indiana University's School of Medicine Abdominal Transplant Surgeon fellowship

I read it was an academic position. How do academic positions work? Do you become a professor?

How much do academic abdominal(liver, kidney, pancreas, etc) transplant surgeons make? No one seems to post data about it anywhere

Also, is transplant surgery the best medical management-surgical combination out there? I've also heard of OB/GYN, is there any others?

Sorry lots of questions, but I'd feel much more at ease if I had a few answers 🙂

This will probably get moved to pre-allo (as it should), but I'll give you some answers here.

Transplant surgery is done mainly at academic centers due to the critical nature of the patients. However, I am certain private practice groups exist at hospitals that are large enough.

FYI: PP generally don't "exist" at hospitals unless they are hospital employed surgeons (which aren't nearly as common). Remember the majority of surgeons in the US, even specialists, are in PP. The busiest transplant surgeons we have in my large city are not at the few academic institutions but in PP, and operate at several hospitals in town.

OB/GYN has a good clinical and surgical mix, but I'm not sure they do alot of general medicine (although they theoretically could serve as PCP's, I just haven't seen it done).

Many younger women will treat their Ob-Gyn as their PCP but in most, they aren't managing anything outside of the Ob-Gyn realm. Women with more complicated medical problems are generally referred out to FM or IM.

Let's not forget ENT and Uro as good mixes of clinical and surgical. Trauma/CC perhaps, but except in the major K&GCs, you aren't operating all that much.

And yes, moving to Pre-Allo...

 

[Helen Wheels]

Also, is transplant surgery the best medical management-surgical combination out there?

I am not sure what you mean by "best" but I can tell you transplant docs spend a lot of time managing patients in clinic in between surgeries. My Mom was a liver transplant patient for the last seven years of her life. We practically lived at the transplant clinic. My Mom saw the surgeons way more than her PCP. In some respects, transplant surgeons kind of function as primary care because they see their patients so often and everything any other physician wants to do has to be cleared though the surgeon. And this isn't just for a few weeks after surgery... this is for the rest of the transplant patient's life. This is way more intense than a surgeon who takes out a gallbladder and never sees the patient once they have recovered from post-op.

BTW, I don't think I am surgeon material, but if I were going to be one, it'd definitely be transplant. Besides my Mom, we spent a lot of time in clinic and met a lot of other patients. It has to be the coolest thing in the world to take someone who is dying and fix them up and give them more life!

 

[Petey Piston]

any salary ranges for these surgeons? I'd guess 275-300k, but no one ever posts clear ranges. Not interested in private practice ranges.

Do neurosurgeons have a lot of medical management and patient follow-up? I know transplant surgeons care patients pre to post op, what other surgical specialties do this?