Average Case Load Mix by Specialty

[DrSmooth]

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Has anyone seen a quick-reference listing average physician case load mix by specialty? (e.g. neuro: 20% epilepsy. 25% alzheimers, etc etc) Thanks.

 

[LuciusVorenus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthopaedic_surgery#Practice

The important part being the reference for that:

Garrett, WE, et al. American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Practice of the Orthopedic Surgeon: Part-II, Certification Examination. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2006;88:660-667.

I'm guessing other specialties have similar journal articles on application for board certification
but you'll probably have to search for them individually

 

[Morsetlis]

This is like asking to list the boxer-briefs-boxerbriefs preferences ratio for successful investment bankers in the state of New Hampshire.

 

[DrSmooth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthopaedic_surgery#Practice

The important part being the reference for that:

Garrett, WE, et al. American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Practice of the Orthopedic Surgeon: Part-II, Certification Examination. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American). 2006;88:660-667.

I'm guessing other specialties have similar journal articles on application for board certification
but you'll probably have to search for them individually

Thanks, that's exactly what I had in mind. I poked around some other specialties and unfortunately they don't have ranked lists. It would be great to see all specialties in the same place, seems like someone would have done that, any ideas where else to look? What made me curious is I was while shadowing an IM doctor I was talking to him about what IM specialties would be particularly good to shadow, and he would say things like "Oh don't shadow X specialty, they see mostly just Y." So got me thinking about scope of practice vs. actual day to day practice.

 

[TexasPhysician]

You can tailor your practice to whatever you want in most fields.

% of time spent doing anything will vary GREATLY from doctor to doctor.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

You can tailor your practice to whatever you want in most fields.

% of time spent doing anything will vary GREATLY from doctor to doctor.

Agreed. Doctor's for the most part create their own patient populations. I.E. Some orthopods just see hips and knees and choose to omit everything else. Some Fam Med docs specialize in sports medicine and don’t practice on non-adolescent peds, geriatric, primary care, and OB patients. And then there are specialties like EM and trauma surgery that have patient populations based on community illness and injury patterns, which vary from city to city.

-senior medical student / admissions committee interviewer

 

[LuciusVorenus]

Thanks, that's exactly what I had in mind. I poked around some other specialties and unfortunately they don't have ranked lists. It would be great to see all specialties in the same place, seems like someone would have done that, any ideas where else to look? What made me curious is I was while shadowing an IM doctor I was talking to him about what IM specialties would be particularly good to shadow, and he would say things like "Oh don't shadow X specialty, they see mostly just Y." So got me thinking about scope of practice vs. actual day to day practice.

If you're talking about attending level then the two posters above me are right, you can choose to do just about whatever you want. You can center your specialty on some rare disease or do a bit of everything. The post I put above I think is mostly case load as it pertains to residents and fellows. I guess the best way is to really just shadow more doctors, don't know if anyone has ever produced an aggregate of all the data for residents though...

 

[LizzyM]

What you are asking is somewhat driven by the incidence and prevalence of diseases/disorders/conditions in the local population in number and in proportion to other diseases/disorders/conditions in the same population as well as whether a particular physician is a subspecialist or works in a referral center for a rare disorder.

For example, I would guess that the most common endocrine disorder in any US population is Type II diabetes. Is that all that endocrinologists see? No, but it may make up a large proportion of the patients in a general endocrinologist's office. (on the other hand, the type IIs may be managed by general internists and the patients you'll see consulting the endocrinologist will be the type I diabetics). Now, there may be a endocrinologist in a large population center who is known for having written the book (or at least the book chapter 😉 ) on a rare metabolic condition. That doc's practice may include far more patients with that condition because they are referred in either for a consultation or they choose a super-subspecialist for ongoing management or for particpation in research studies. In internal medicine, you could say the same for several other subspecialties.

Shadowing a subspecialist for a single work day would give you a feeling for the variety of cases, the practice style, the challenges faced by that subspecialist.... even a half day clinic can be of interest and of value.