Colorblindness a Hinderance?

[JeremyJHartl]

I am somewhat coloblind. Actually, I am very red-green colorblind. I can see reds, I can't really see green, they all look brown. But if red and green are side by side, I can't see the difference. Like Old Navy recently had a sign in their store which was red lettering with a green background and I couldn't tell what it said.
Anyway, to my question, is there any hinderance for someone going into medical school? Will it slow me down? I know there have been discussions about pathology, but what about other specialties?
Thanks

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[StritchMD2011]

perhaps surgery, but who knows. I'm sure there are some moderately colorblind surgeons out there...

 

[mountainhare]

I am somewhat coloblind. Actually, I am very red-green colorblind. I can see reds, I can't really see green, they all look brown. But if red and green are side by side, I can't see the difference. Like Old Navy recently had a sign in their store which was red lettering with a green background and I couldn't tell what it said.
Anyway, to my question, is there any hinderance for someone going into medical school? Will it slow me down? I know there have been discussions about pathology, but what about other specialties?
Thanks

When I first saw the title of your thread, I thought it was another thread about affirmative action.

My histology professor said that there's generally one or two students at our med school every year who are colorblind. These students are initially very worried about how they'll do in histology class, but in the end they end up doing just fine, she said, since the shape and size of cells under the microscope sometimes give you more useful information than the color. Basically, she said that colorblind students shouldn't be worried about failing histology. I can't think of any other first-year medical-school classes in which colorblindness might be a hindrance... Sorry I can't offer any useful information beyond that, but good luck!

 

[sbs152]

I have a friend who is red-green colorblind too. When he was in junior high, he wore a pair of gym shorts every day that he thought was grey. He wondered why people made fun of him and why nobody would go near him until someone finally told him the shorts were, in fact, hot pink.

Aside from issues like this, I don't think your colorblindness is a problem. Unless it's explicitly stated in a med school's technical standards, you shouldn't be too worried.

 

[Wackie]

Count your blessings. Green vaginal discharge won't bother you so much.

One of my professors is colorblind. He does just fine and his job (outside of teaching) requires as much, if not more, color awareness than medicine.

 

[steppwolf]

Just a guess, but it seems to me that this could be an issue at times. For example, would you be able to detect the difference between blood and bile in the stool?

You should put this question to some people who are already MDs.

 

[Law2Doc]

When I first saw the title of your thread, I thought it was another thread about affirmative action.

My histology professor said that there's generally one or two students at our med school every year who are colorblind. These students are initially very worried about how they'll do in histology class, but in the end they end up doing just fine, she said, since the shape and size of cells under the microscope sometimes give you more useful information than the color. Basically, she said that colorblind students shouldn't be worried about failing histology. I can't think of any other first-year medical-school classes in which colorblindness might be a hindrance... Sorry I can't offer any useful information beyond that, but good luck!

I know a doctor who indicated he almost failed out of pathology due to colorblindness (he made it through, barely, and is now a surgeon). Shape and size are no good if they are all basically the same size and you are trying to eg differentiate pink from purple stained things.

 

[oldman]

one of my attendings (surgery) is color blind. it shouldn't hinder for most things.

 

[TMP-SMX]

My research mentor PhD is colorblind and I do things like histology and pathology. So he asks me about colors sometimes. But he can tell differences if they are wide enough. Not a big deal.

 

[Rafa]

I have a friend who is red-green colorblind too. When he was in junior high, he wore a pair of gym shorts every day that he thought was grey. He wondered why people made fun of him and why nobody would go near him until someone finally told him the shorts were, in fact, hot pink.

Why didn't his parents tell him? Didn't they know?

 

[MeBeans]

I have a friend who is red-green colorblind too. When he was in junior high, he wore a pair of gym shorts every day that he thought was grey. He wondered why people made fun of him and why nobody would go near him until someone finally told him the shorts were, in fact, hot pink.

Aside from issues like this, I don't think your colorblindness is a problem. Unless it's explicitly stated in a med school's technical standards, you shouldn't be too worried.

Just sounds like a bad cover-up to me...
If he thinks hot pink is grey, it'd mean that he could only see greyscale. I haven't heard of colorblindness ever being that bad.

 

[SoCuteMD]

Just a guess, but it seems to me that this could be an issue at times. For example, would you be able to detect the difference between blood and bile in the stool?

You should put this question to some people who are already MDs.

Uhhhh...it's called guaiac.

 

[DoubleU]

Just sounds like a bad cover-up to me...
If he thinks hot pink is grey, it'd mean that he could only see greyscale. I haven't heard of colorblindness ever being that bad.

That's how it is, though. I'm color-blind as well and sometimes things that are actually pink look white or gray to me. I remember in elementary school doing some craft thing with I thought was white yarn. Yeah. It was pink. The thing is that you can't see the red in the pink, so it looks kind of light gray. But you aren't seeing grayscale either because you can still see blues, yellows, etc. I can see red, too, just not if it is a very light red (like pink) or a very dark red (like maroon). Hard to explain unless that's how you actually see.

 

[SteelEyes]

I am an ophthalmology resident and mildly red-green deficient as well. It has not made a difference through med school, internship or residency as of yet. The only thing I have to do is memorize the ishihara numbers or use a cheat sheet because I can't see them myself. I check color vision often and deficiency is very common. I believe there are many more color deficient people out there than people realize. I'm hoping I don't miss NVI, but it hasn't happened yet . . .

 

[45408]

Join the club. about 7% of guys are at least somewhat red-green colorblind, so every med school has some.

 

[evade]

One of my classmates is quite red-green colorblind. He's doing fine. I'm sure you will, too. Just let your Path and Histo profs know, because there might be some stains you'll have trouble picking things out of. Fortunately, H&E is most common (it's red and blue), and you should do fine with that.