DOer V. Thinker personalities & physician type

[J ROD]

Based on my personality, I am a thinker more than a doer.

What med specialities lean this way?

I can think of rads, psy, maybe neuro; definitely not surgery, EM.

Anyone with more experience please add in.

How about anes, derm, etc.?

Thanks,

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chrisisinnocent]

Add to thinkers; Heme Onc and most IM subspecialties (except GI and interventional cardio), pathology to a certain degree.

 

[DrQuinn]

I was just talking to my wife tonight, I think ID is the most thinker of the specialties. Absolutely no procedures!

Q

 

[dynx]

I was just talking to my wife tonight, I think ID is the most thinker of the specialties. Absolutely no procedures!

Q

NEPHROLOGY! They can explain the pathology, risk factors, consequences and social ramifications of all 336,992 ways your kidneys can fail and then promptly put you on dialysis regardless of the etiology. Oh, or diuretics.

 

[xylem29]

DrQuinn, is your avatar from GOW?

I fcking love that game!

 

[Doc Ivy]

Pulmonary Critical Care--- very intellectual folks. As an attending you probably won't have to do a ton of procedures, residents will be doing lines etc.

 

[Dr JPH]

Nephrology or Cardiology. Smart people. 👍

 

[Bertelman]

I'd steer towards IM or the subspecialties. They seem to think more than they do. Anesthesiology thinks, but does quite a bit, too. People generally choose that field because of the procedures. Intubations, lines, regional blocks, etc. And you're at the mercy of crazy surgeons like JP who like to post lap appys at 0200. That's doin' stuff, not thinkin'.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I always thought the nephrologists were the smartest guys in the hospital and intensivists the best at the combination of thinking and doing (which means I disagree with the above that you will have residents doing procedures for you. As JCAHO increases its surveillance, residents are going to be less likely to be doing procedures unsupervised or without documentation that they are skilled enough to do them. Besides, someone has to teach the housestaff how to do the procedures or to get them out of trouble in they can't do it.)

 

[Irish Eyes]

I'm on rheum right now and the other day (with a completely straight face) my attending described rheumatologists as "the Sherlock Holmes" of all physicians. 🙂

I've seen a few knee taps but otherwise it's a lot of thinking about what labs to order and what the results mean.

Also seems to be a nice specialty field for those who crave long-term patient relationships but don't want to do primary care.

 

[abefromann]

Thinkers are best in the mostly analytical specialties: NEPHROLOGY, CARDIOLOGY, heme/onc, and ID. However, ID is gross. You'll make the most bank in cardio most likely, unless running dialysis centers are your thing. Definitely go medicine subspecialty. Thinkers also do well with radiology and pathology; however you need to be a visually-oriented person for these. Pathology's got its gross aspects as well. Critical care is a good one, but you'll be busy; I'd go through pulmonary or nephrology and absolutely not by way of anesthesia. The latter's a procedure-oriented specialty, and you're associated with surgeons (doers, not thinkers).

 

[deleted87716]

I don't think any doctor can do without thinking. 😉

 

[DarksideAllstar]

I don't think any doctor can do without thinking. 😉

In my limited (and scary) experience, this is not always the case. Everyday I am thankful I am not the one in the hospital for treatment.

 

[deleted87716]

I have one of these in my office, left over from my days at IBM. Still applicable after all these years. 😉

 

[Docgeorge]

I don't think any doctor can do without thinking. 😉

You've never met an orthopod. Conversation with them goes something like this..."Uhh......Bone broke... Er.....me fix...Ugg....go OR."

Disclaimer: The above is obiously a joke so please dont flame me.

 

[deleted87716]

You've never met an orthopod. Conversation with them goes something like this..."Uhh......Bone broke... Er.....me fix...Ugg....go OR."

Disclaimer: The above is obiously a joke so please dont flame me.

Q: What do you call two orthopedic surgeons looking at an EKG?

A: A double-blind study. 😉

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Q: What do you call two orthopedic surgeons looking at an EKG?

A: A double-blind study. 😉

 

[Winged Scapula]

Q: How do you hide $100 from an orthopod?

A: Hide it between pages 1 and 2 of any medicine textbook.

or my current fave... Tape it to the patient's chest (or other non-bone area of interest).

NB: I was recently consulted by nursing staff on an ortho patient with a fungating mass on her breast, with the nipple sloughed off. Despite the fact that her chest exam had been "normal" for days as noted in the H&P, even by the Ortho attending. The patient was Bipolar and evidently not concerned enough about the mass to mention it to anyone and it was finally noticed by a nurse's aide who was helping her change her gown post-op. Makes you wonder about Anesthesia and intra-op placement of the EKG leads as well.😱

Stepping off soap box now...

 

[bones4u]

Q: What do you call two orthopedic surgeons looking at an EKG?

A: A double-blind study. 😉

My personal favorite.

especially considering after 3 yrs of school the only EKG I get right is a-flutter, and that's because the saw-tooth appearance makes me want to saw through bone 😀

kidding of course (about the saw thing, the EKG thing is unfortunately true!)

 

[tomatoattack]

The smartest people in the hospital, at least in the next 20 years, are probably the dermatologists, orthopods, people who went intergrated plastics, ENTs, and rad oncs.

They generally make much better grades and scores than these medicine subspecialty folks you speak of.

Those are the numbers deal with it.

 

[iatrosB]

The smartest people in the hospital, at least in the next 20 years, are probably the dermatologists, orthopods, people who went intergrated plastics, ENTs, and rad oncs.

They generally make much better grades and scores than these medicine subspecialty folks you speak of.

Those are the numbers deal with it.

Be careful...better grades and scores does not equal "smarter". It can simply indicate hard work and a desire to "play the game", not intelligence. Of course it takes a certain level of intelligence to get the best grades and scores...but it isn't a good measure of it, and those without the afore mentioned grades/scores aren't necessarily any less "smart".

 

[Smurfette]

Be careful...better grades and scores does not equal "smarter". It can simply indicate hard work and a desire to "play the game", not intelligence. Of course it takes a certain level of intelligence to get the best grades and scores...but it isn't a good measure of it, and those without the afore mentioned grades/scores aren't necessarily any less "smart".

I agree. Those specialties often do have the highest board scores on average. However, they are the people I least want to be moonlighting in the ER, running a code or reading my family member's EKG...derms and ophthos and orthos are excellent at their specialties, but they do not deal with treating broad ranges of medical problems outside of skin/eye/bone manifestations and certainly not in treating multiple organ systems simultaneously. I don't even know if most practicing derms/ophthos/rads are even ACLS certified after residency.

 

[angel80]

It's not about how much you knew in med school and how well you did on the boards. If you don't use it, you lose it. I am an IM resident, and my attending was talking about one of the GI attendings one day. Appearently, he and the GI attending had done residency together. The GI attending was brilliant during residency. Now, his knowlege of IM has become very limited. He did 3 years of GI fellowship and has been a GI attending for about 5 years. He hasn't had time to keep up on IM info. He hasn't treated CHF or lupus or acute renal failure in years. He is a great gastroenterologist, but he wouldn't be a very good internist. Even though the dermatologists and the radiation oncologists..etc where very bright in med school, after a few years they forget most things.