future job market?

[pathman1]

I know you should go into a field b/c you really like it--but mind you medical students take out alot of loans and incur alot of debt during their training years. In order to pay this back a job is of primary importance. I'm sure someone has posed this question before in the past, but i can't seem to find the post. Anyone want to take a crack at how the pathology job market will be when students like myself (3rd yr medical student) go out job hunting? I know it is difficult to predict, but i think it would be comforting to know that there will be a job for us in pathology when we get out.

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[PathOne]

UNLESS the population suddenly stops aging,
UNLESS molecular diagnostics can actually provide automated, sensical and reliable diagnosis and staging information, and
UNLESS people and their healthcare providers should suddenly stop caring about the risk of cancer,

I DO believe that pathology will do just fine in the next many years. Not great growth, but a nice and easy increase in total examinations...
That's not to say that salaries for instance won't come down. They might. But that would be due to sudden political or other activism which hits all of medicine, not just pathology.

 

[yaah]

You can potentially argue about the increasing or decreasing importance of every field in medicine. Trying to speculate becomes pretty pointless once you start thinking about it - I have heard people say radiology is doomed as a specialty. And others say it is going to be even more important. Same with surgery. And primary care. It goes on and on.

But path isn't going anywhere for awhile. All these fancy new tests can help aid in diagnosis, but ultimately the histology is what gives you the diagnosis in cases involving the right scenarios.

 

[Thrombus]

i agree

job market will be good

especially as more and more doctors are forced to practice legal based medicine rather than evidence based medicine

population ages and cancer climbs as a killer across the board

a better question will be who will pay us as the citizenry for some reason is starting to think that they all deserve free health care

jobs will be plentiful, but will our incomes?

 

[pathdawg]

i agree

job market will be good

especially as more and more doctors are forced to practice legal based medicine rather than evidence based medicine

population ages and cancer climbs as a killer across the board

a better question will be who will pay us as the citizenry for some reason is starting to think that they all deserve free health care

jobs will be plentiful, but will our incomes?

It is really impossible to predict. The job market in path seems to be cyclic. When I started residency (1995) the market was pretty good. Then the next two years ('96-97) were horrible in terms of the national job market in pathology. I saw a few really good senior residents and fellows go jobless for a while. Some had to do more fellowships, some had to go to a not so desirable areas. It has come back since, but not to the point that I would call it stellar.
It is also very dependent on location. The northeast and California, for example, have traditionally been tougher to land a spot (more desirable cities, more doctors living in them, less jobs available) than the southeast and rural midwest.
I think that if pathology is what you want to do, then do it. You will never get rich off pathology (or any other field in medicine to be honest), but the job market situation will work itself out in the end.

 

[Doctor B.]

Never base a specialty decision on the job market. You'll hear such conflicting information (look at the numerous posts in this forum on the topic) that it's not worthwhile to use job market as a criterion for specialty choice. Choose your field b/c you love it; you will find a job.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Never base a specialty decision on the job market. You'll hear such conflicting information (look at the numerous posts in this forum on the topic) that it's not worthwhile to use job market as a criterion for specialty choice. Choose your field b/c you love it; you will find a job.

Absolutely! Whichever field you look at, there will be somebody who bitches and moans about how their field sucks or why they hate their lives. Do something because you have a passion and a love for it...so that you don't end up like these folks. You only live life once....be happy.

 

[LADoc00]

Absolutely! Whichever field you look at, there will be somebody who bitches and moans about how their field sucks or why they hate their lives. Do something because you have a passion and a love for it...so that you don't end up like these folks. You only live life once....be happy.

Hmmm, does picking a residency based on a few episodes of CSI and 2 week BS rotation in "general pathology" sound anymore more sensible than listening to other people bitch and moan? Where did the "passion" come in? When you saw your first floater at the ME office? Maybe that first time you opened a juicy bowel resection? Im not sure about the word passion, that sounds a bit much.

Picking a residency is like marrying a girl youve been dating for only 4 weeks. Sometimes you pick at random and it works, sometimes it doesnt.

The play the devil's advocate, pathology is facing tough times. To draw an analogy from The Chronicles of Riddick, commericial labs are like Necromongers, they seek to take over and assimilate pathology groups all over the US. They find ways around the ban on the corporate practice of medicine in California by using proxies and are bankrolled by international interests. They are only getting bigger and stronger, more efficient more terrifying. Under these dark masters, you will slave 12 hours/day, have half your previous vacation and see x2 as many cases/year. Where there was need for 2 pathologists, there will now be space for only 1. Total CONSOLIDATION, en masse. The profits of this increased efficiency wont go the pathologists themselves but to shareholders and executives in office buildings in New York, Los Angeles, Brussels, Hong Kong.

The only question is: does Pathology have at least one Furion left in it?

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Hmmm, does picking a residency based on a few episodes of CSI and 2 week BS rotation in "general pathology" sound anymore more sensible than listening to other people bitch and moan? Where did the "passion" come in? When you saw your first floater at the ME office? Maybe that first time you opened a juicy bowel resection? Im not sure about the word passion, that sounds a bit much.

Don't question the passion! And as my friend says, "Don't question the desire!"

The only question is: does Pathology have at least one Furion left in it?

Screw Furion. I'm Arthas beeyotch.

 

[toby2]

The play the devil's advocate, pathology is facing tough times. To draw an analogy from The Chronicles of Riddick, commericial labs are like Necromongers, they seek to take over and assimilate pathology groups all over the US. They find ways around the ban on the corporate practice of medicine in California by using proxies and are bankrolled by international interests. They are only getting bigger and stronger, more efficient more terrifying. Under these dark masters, you will slave 12 hours/day, have half your previous vacation and see x2 as many cases/year. Where there was need for 2 pathologists, there will now be space for only 1. Total CONSOLIDATION, en masse. The profits of this increased efficiency wont go the pathologists themselves but to shareholders and executives in office buildings in New York, Los Angeles, Brussels, Hong Kong.

The only question is: does Pathology have at least one Furion left in it?

Very keen observation. I've been following the growth of Ameripath with some interest. In '95, they had revenue of approx 16 mil. In 2001, revenue was 418 million+ and they had bought out 50+ groups, had contracts with 200+ hospitals. I see even Bernie Ackerman had joined, http://www.dermpathdiagnostics.com/...topathologists&CFID=13378581&CFTOKEN=25098041 , not sure when. But taking a look at what they paid for some of their acquisitions in '96 and '97 (p. 30 of http://ameripath.com/aboutus/annualreports/1997.pdf), it is easy to see why some groups chose to sell out instead of keeping ownership.

Are there still Furions in pathology? I like the story on p 64 of their 2001 SEC report http://ameripath.com/aboutus/annualreports/2001.pdf wherein 2 pathologists in their Birmingham AL practice got fed up with Ameripath and left to start their own lab, taking all their business with them. Ameripath was unable to recoup their business and wrote off a loss of 3.8 million that year as a result. Basically, corporate medicine is growing and there are changes happening (some good, some bad), but as these docs demonstrated, we do not have to put ourselves at the mercy of these Necromongers (an aptly descriptive term).

 

[cytoborg]

Are there still Furions in pathology? I like the story on p 64 of their 2001 SEC report http://ameripath.com/aboutus/annualreports/2001.pdf wherein 2 pathologists in their Birmingham AL practice got fed up with Ameripath and left to start their own lab, taking all their business with them. Ameripath was unable to recoup their business and wrote off a loss of 3.8 million that year as a result. Basically, corporate medicine is growing and there are changes happening (some good, some bad), but as these docs demonstrated, we do not have to put ourselves at the mercy of these Necromongers (an aptly descriptive term).

Interesting!
Necromongers...