"Different" career pathways in Medicine

[somerandom]

Lately I've been wondering what I might end up doing with my medical degree.

I've always concentrated my thoughts mainly on the more common specialties like a type of surgery or general practice.

I realised the other day that you can become a forensic pathologist from a medical degree (after a residency in pathology?) and I had never thought about that before.

I'm wondering if people can broaden my view and fill me in on some of the less common career pathways people take after graduating with a degree in medicine?

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[OveractiveBrain]

Lately I've been wondering what I might end up doing with my medical degree.

I've always concentrated my thoughts mainly on the more common specialties like a type of surgery or general practice.

I realised the other day that you can become a forensic pathologist from a medical degree (after a residency in pathology?) and I had never thought about that before.

I'm wondering if people can broaden my view and fill me in on some of the less common career pathways people take after graduating with a degree in medicine?

Path...Genes...Genotyping patients for risk and treatment. The wave of the future

Consultant for hospitals on hwo to be more efficient

 

[D elegans]

I'm wondering if people can broaden my view and fill me in on some of the less common career pathways people take after graduating with a degree in medicine?

Airline pilot
Pro golfer
Ninja




Yeah path isn't what you typically think of when you think a doctor. You can do consulting as OveractiveBrain said, you could go work for pharmaceutical companies, you could do purely research...

That being said, I would suggest that there are alternative ways to do most of those things and getting an MD for those purposes is way too much work/money.

 

[Rothbard]

nm

 

[CassieBagley]

-Government health policy consulting/legislation
-Teaching/professorship
-Advisor to media/ TV/ movies
-Morgue/forensics
-Exotic location of clinic work such as prison, overseas or with army
-Journalism/writing (NY times health, etc.)

The possibilities are numerous

 

[Valadi]

For residency/fellowship paths:

Forensic psychiatry (dx criminals)
Aerospace medicine (treat astronauts)
Deep sea medicine (treat divers)
OB/Gyn -> genetic, reproductive
Path -> genetics
Preventive medicine residency (its new)

 

[somerandom]

Ninja

Where do I sign up


Thanks guys for the great answers. Any more?

 

[D elegans]

Ok so about these different career paths, why do you want to focus on these? Are you yourself following a different med student pathway at the moment?

I'm pondering over that sort of thing... you know taking a break after term 1 and enjoying romance before I turn into an insufferable, self-defeating ass like so many examples before me. I'm not referring to this threads' posters, but rather students who seem to have been thinking inside the box for too long and are dieing from the inside out as a result of it. I don't want the M.D. to become a part of who I am. I don't want to change, but I see that if I don't take a break for half a year, I'm going to miss out on something more important than securing a prestigious residency placement in my home city.

lol wut

 

[somerandom]

Ok so about these different career paths, why do you want to focus on these? Are you yourself following a different med student pathway at the moment?

I'm pondering over that sort of thing... you know taking a break after term 1 and enjoying romance before I turn into an insufferable, self-defeating ass like so many examples before me. I'm not referring to this threads' posters, but rather students who seem to have been thinking inside the box for too long and are dieing from the inside out as a result of it. I don't want the M.D. to become a part of who I am. I don't want to change, but I see that if I don't take a break for half a year, I'm going to miss out on something more important than securing a prestigious residency placement in my home city.

I'm really just curious as to all the different options that are out there that I've never even thought about before.

I get what you mean. You love medicine, but you also want to make sure that you still have a life outside of medicine?

 

[infarct]

You can run for president: Ron Paul.

 

[HumbleMD]

Please don't apply to medical schools if you have no intention of practicing any sort of clinical medicine this early on. Not only are you taking up a vital seat, you will be bored to tears.

 

[Jolie South]

More appropriate topic for Pre-Allopathic. Moving.

 

[Law2Doc]

Please don't apply to medical schools if you have no intention of practicing any sort of clinical medicine this early on. Not only are you taking up a vital seat, you will be bored to tears.

Agreed. Med school is a four year program designed to train future clinicians. It isn't something you would want to try to dabble in, spend $200k on, spend your entire awake life for 4 years immersed in, only to deviate off and become a TV advisor, ninja or whatever. It's one thing to become a doctor, work for a while and then find a different niche and quite another to go into med school knowing you aren't even planning to be a doctor. The latter is a bad idea. And honestly, most of the suggestions (NY Times journalist, TV advisor) are going to want someone who has worked as a clinician for a while, not just received a medical degree. The medical correspondents you see on TV have actually worked for years as doctors -- they aren't merely MDs without experience. No TV show is going to hire a freshly minted MD grad when there are plenty of folks who actually worked as clinicians available to take the job.

Med school is a long hard road if your goal isn't even on that road. Forget about med school if your goal is to be a journalist or some other non-clinician job. Find a more direct and less school intense path to that job. Medical school is meant to train clinicians. That's all it does well. If you aren't desirous of that career, it's simply the wrong path for you. You don't go to med school with the thought that it leaves different paths open. You go in only if the one path it trains for is the one you are interested in.

 

[somerandom]

I am planning on working as a clinician. Just curious what's out there. I guess I'm really wondering about some of the sub specialties that aren't that common. . .

 

[Big McHuge]

I agree if you know you don't want to practice clinically, then I wouldn't do it. Heck, I'm a 2nd yr and I almost quit this year bc my career goals are a bit out of the box so I sympathize with you on this topic. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't have gone to medical school. However, I think it can only help for what I want to do and I don't hate the science I'm learning, I just don't find patient care intellectually stimulating.

 

[Miss Alyssa]

some of the interesting subspecialties that I've come across from ob/gyn that I didn't know about before med school:
reproductive infectious disease and immunology
pediatric gynecology
breast surgery
reproductive medical genetics
pelvic reconstruction/ urogynecology

 

[TonyTonyChopper]

Dexter went to med school. He's a blood splatter specialist. He's also a serial killer....

 

[munchymanRX]

Lately I've been wondering what I might end up doing with my medical degree.

I've always concentrated my thoughts mainly on the more common specialties like a type of surgery or general practice.

I realised the other day that you can become a forensic pathologist from a medical degree (after a residency in pathology?) and I had never thought about that before.

I'm wondering if people can broaden my view and fill me in on some of the less common career pathways people take after graduating with a degree in medicine?

-Pharmaceutical Consultant
-Medical Administrator
-Medical school professor
-Health Lobbyist
-Biomedical researcher
-County Medical examiner (somewhat like your given example)
-Medical policy analyst
-Medical school Dean
-High school teacher
-Nonprofit work
-Financial Analyst

Just to name a few..

 

[Morzh]

Seen the X-Files? Forensic pathology-->join FBI-->be Dana Scully.

 

[organdonor]

You can look up all residencies and fellowships here

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/graduate-medical-education/freida-online.shtml

Click on "residency fellowship training program search" to the left side of the screen, then click "choose specialty." Residencies are under the "specialty" tab and fellowships, which are done after residencies, are under the "subspecialty" tab.

The required residency for a particular fellowship is indicated by the one or two letter abbreviation. For instance, P indicates you must finish a pediatric residency in order to apply for said fellowship, while IM indicates internal medicine and so on.

 

[Law2Doc]

-Pharmaceutical Consultant
-Medical Administrator
-Medical school professor
-Health Lobbyist
-Biomedical researcher
-County Medical examiner (somewhat like your given example)
-Medical policy analyst
-Medical school Dean
-High school teacher
-Nonprofit work
-Financial Analyst

Just to name a few..

With the exception of med school professor or dean, med school isn't the most direct or highest yield path to any of these jobs. In most states the medical examiner isn't even an MD BTW. Don't go to med school if your true goal is any of these.

 

[Law2Doc]

Seen the X-Files? Forensic pathology-->join FBI-->be Dana Scully.

Or better yet don't go to med school, join the FBI and be Mulder.

 

[Telencephalon]

With the exception of med school professor or dean, med school isn't the most direct or highest yield path to any of these jobs. In most states the medical examiner isn't even an MD BTW. Don't go to med school if your true goal is any of these.

This is not entirely correct. The term medical examiner is usually understood to refer to an MD trained in death investigations. Ideally, these individuals are board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and have undergone further fellowship training in Forensic Pathology.

However, in a disturbingly large proportion of jurisdictions, medico-legal death investigations do continue to come under the authority of a coroner who is typically an elected official. New Orleans is probably the largest, most urban area where this applies and their coroner has been for years an elected Obstetrician-Gynecologist. Even in these jurisdictions it is typical for medical death investigations to be handled by Forensic Pathologists, either on staff with the Coroner's office or by consultation.

OP: Wanting to be a forensic pathologist and medical examiner is a perfect reason to want to go to medical school. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise

 

[Klokke]

For residency/fellowship paths:

Forensic psychiatry (dx criminals)
Aerospace medicine (treat astronauts)
Deep sea medicine (treat divers)
OB/Gyn -> genetic, reproductive
Path -> genetics
Preventive medicine residency (its new)

Preventive Medicine residency is NOT new. In fact, it's one of the OLDEST specialties and encompasses the Aerospace, Hyperbaric (Undersea), and Occupational medicine subspecialties.

 

[DocGodfather]

I quit premed years ago because I withdrew from OChem twice, along with a mediocre GPA, even though I've wanted to be a doctor my whole life. I went the liberal arts route and got my undergrad and grad degrees, did some teaching abroad, and was in banking. Now, six years later, I'm back giving it one more try. No regrets because people who sit around around and regret things are losers lol. Life isn't perfect and the good usually comes with the not so good. There's nothing like the feeling of going after your dream, and like many of you, medicine is the number one priority in my life now.

I suggest if anyone has doubts about medicine, try other things out. I did, and I appreciate my premed status 100 X more now. I'm thankful I heard about SDN, because this is the only place where I can turn to for advice and to actually listen to others that have the same interests as I do.

 

[DocGodfather]

By the way, anyone know if I can change my username and how?

 

[sector9]

By the way, anyone know if I can change my username and how?

You can submit a request to change your username, but it is only available to donors as it creates more work for our admins.

More information can be found here https://help.studentdoctor.net/entries/94482-change-member-name