heme/onc or ID?!

[helpmechoose]

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I'm an intern interested in these 2 very different specialties. Since I can't stay undifferentiated forever, I wanted to get some friendly advice on choosing between the two.

My thoughts so far:
Heme/onc - plus: gratifying work, job security, mostly outpatient, good income, lots of advances on the horizon, still some primary care.
minus: 3 yrs of busy fellowship, very sick patients, patients dying, sometimes boring topics (anemia consult again?), presumably long hours

ID - plus: variety, cool cases, not being the patient's primary doctor, relatively low stress, relatively OK hours, opportunity for international work/travel, not very competitive
minus: low salary, mainly inpatient, often have to drive between multiple hospitals, often no clear-cut job description post-fellowship, often just guessing and then waiting for the lab to give you the correct answer

I know these 2 couldn't be more different. I've had some exposure and liked each, but really can't decide and am interested in others' opinions. Am I wrong about the above? What have I missed? Or maybe there's another med specialty you think is better?

Obviously I won't rely on an anonymous forum to choose a specialty, I'm just looking for perspective other than my own. FWIW, I have high student loans and enjoy life outside of medicine too 🙂

 

[Frugal Traveler]

If I was given the choice between ID and hem/onc, I would chose hem/onc.

ID is an interesting field, very academic, lots of neat opportunities... but MRSA gowns and such get on my nerves.

Hem/onc has a plethora of research opportunities and will be a huge field given that cancer may possibility outpace heart disease if it hasn't already. It is depressing nowadays with our caveman treatments (let's irradiate, give someone a drug that is toxic to everything in the body), but as the field becomes refined and cancer becomes more of a chronic disease, it will be quite a rewarding field... working in a cancer hospital or outpatient. Given your high student loans, the salary is nice 🙂... I agree that the thrombocytopenia consults are annoying... and ACD... probably their bain of existence

I do not think you can go wrong with IM... if you do not like one thing or another, there are so many opportunities out there.

Best wishes in your decision

 

[ResidentMD]

I'm an intern interested in these 2 very different specialties. Since I can't stay undifferentiated forever, I wanted to get some friendly advice on choosing between the two.

My thoughts so far:
Heme/onc - plus: gratifying work, job security, mostly outpatient, good income, lots of advances on the horizon, still some primary care.
minus: 3 yrs of busy fellowship, very sick patients, patients dying, sometimes boring topics (anemia consult again?), presumably long hours

ID - plus: variety, cool cases, not being the patient's primary doctor, relatively low stress, relatively OK hours, opportunity for international work/travel, not very competitive
minus: low salary, mainly inpatient, often have to drive between multiple hospitals, often no clear-cut job description post-fellowship, often just guessing and then waiting for the lab to give you the correct answer

I know these 2 couldn't be more different. I've had some exposure and liked each, but really can't decide and am interested in others' opinions. Am I wrong about the above? What have I missed? Or maybe there's another med specialty you think is better?

Obviously I won't rely on an anonymous forum to choose a specialty, I'm just looking for perspective other than my own. FWIW, I have high student loans and enjoy life outside of medicine too 🙂

I also think one of the best things to do is to form a list of issues that are important to you, and discuss these with different levels of people in the respective field. E.g. Fellows, new attendings, established attendings, etc.
They throw insights into some areas that you would never have thought of. and while times are changing rapidly, it provides you newer issues to keep an eye out for.

 

[SwineLake98]

This is an interesting dilemma. I often say that I would co-train in heme/onc and ID if that wouldn't mean 9 years of training 😛 Why? Well, who gets the weird uncommon bugs - the patients who are immunocompromised from the chemo we give them (or HIV). My plan is to do heme/onc because that's the field where my research lies (amongst other reasons), but I'm going to try to pick up as much ID as possible along the way (I'm going an elective in a month) to reduce the number of consults I need to call!