I have a family member who has a PhD in CS. Most grads go into industry. What career is this person looking to pursue that they need a PhD in CS? Transplant does have research opportunity, but it also is not a lifestyle field. Someone has to get donor organs at all hours of day and night, as well as operate at all hours to ensure the donor organ is still viable.
As far as doing locums while a PhD student:
1. Locums assignments as a surgeon often involve long stints of call, travel, and living in hotels. Locums opportunities are more plentiful in rural areas and connectivity could be an issue.
2. Will probably be difficult to be a full time PhD student and a surgeon at the same time, so anticipate it will take extra years to finish that PhD or that there will not be much operating/surgeon experiences over those years as a result.
3. Will be difficult to match into a fellowship after being out for years. Not impossible, but operative experience and LORs will need to stand out among applicants with current training and experience with transplant. There is also a perception that locums tend to be one of two groups A) those near retirement who are slowing down but want to maintain an income and B) those who have a hard time keeping a steady job due to either interpersonal or quality issues.
4. Locums assignments are often "light" so operative volumes are low and when in rural areas, bigger cases often need to be sent out due to lack of adequate support systems in the hospital. In rural areas, it may involve lots of scopes and occasional appys and choles with a rare ex lap.
5. Doubt transplant fellowship will allow time for any useful computer science research or connections to be made.
