If this was true then radiology would be in a similar situation.
I definitely agree with this assessment. On top of that, the job prospects for pathology will never come close to radiology, even with the improvements, likely temporary, to its market. For me I know its the ideal field, I like histology a lot and I don't like the world of clinical medicine, so I will simply grin and bear these cons. Most students can't, which is better for my match prospects, so I can't complain too much.
Very true. Image. Even medical students don’t even know what we do. Some med students think we will be “exposed to chemicals all day” or “we do autopsies” all day.
forums.studentdoctor.net
Interesting...I thought Path was roughly half IMG's. Yet this year's Match is just above a quarter. I know 1 year does not constitute the entire makeup of those in practice which may be closer to half than a quarter. I wonder if it's getting more competitive...? There's usually a strong inverse correlation with the competitiveness of a specialty and percentage filled by IMG's.
This is definitely true, and something med students may be cognizant of, but it's tied to a larger and more important problem, which is reimbursement and our role within the delivery of healthcare. We are ancillary providers that have zero patient contact (ie. no patient satisfaction scores), our work can be easily outsourced to save on the bottom line, and with the exception of dermpath, we are entirely reliant on hospitals and other providers to submit specimens to us. This last part may be similar to other specialties in a sense, such as radiology, but aside from some orthos owning imaging machines and employing radiologists, no other specialty is so entrenched in kickbacks and bottom feeding as pathology. Derm...gastro...urology...all view pathology as a cog in their revenue wheel and make money hand over fist paying pathologists pennies on the dollar for the opportunity to read their specimens, all in the name of "business." Pathologists increasingly take such arrangements in the name of "volume" as our reimbursement has been whittled to a pittance the last 20 years, which also leads to an overutilization in special & immunohistochemical stains in practices that don't necessarily add value but help defray the loss of revenue from declining reimbursement, corporate competition, hospital acquisition, greedy dermatologists/urologists/gastroenterologists, etc.
Still the second largest percentage among all specialties, though I looked at past data and there was a nearly 13 point drop from last year! American students are definitely taking a greater interest.
abpath.org
Exactly. Pathology was the canary in the coal mine.
Very true. Image. Even medical students don’t even know what we do. Some med students think we will be “exposed to chemicals all day” or “we do autopsies” all day.
“People don't want to have a hard time getting a job after residency and heck! they want to make 500k/yr...”
Why not Pathology?
Pathologist here. Pathology and radiology both have little to no patient contact. Would like to know if any of you considered Pathology and if so, why did you consider Radiology over Pathology? Numbers of US grads applying to Pathology have been decreasing over the past years and would like...
I don't know many fam docs that have any autonomy. The army of np/pa midlevels is being shoved down their throat by private equity or large health system so they can employ less docs. Their salaries suck too. I'd still choose fam med over path because you can do well if you are an entrepreneur and pick wherever you want to work
I don't disagree with that assessment - and it is certainly true that a lot of Fam Med docs are getting raked over the coals by either hospitals or PE. But the ones I know are the kinds of docs that would have been good in any field, including Pathology. They're managing to do quite well with even a mediocre understanding of business.
And if you accept Medicare(vast majority) you are “controlled “ by them as well. When clinicians need to “look “for a pathologist and schedule an “appointment“ to have surgical pathology material reviewed and signed out the situation MAY change. Just imagine changing the sentence “ It will take three weeks to get an appointment with the ENT specialist“ to “ it will take 2 weeks to get a pathologist to sign out this case”.
Agree. I know ample FPs / IMs that either a.) work for a physician-owned 'clinic' and are easily > $400k, or b.) are entrepreneurial and started their own urgent care / clinic and are killing it.
Can you imagine what working at urgent care is like? I'm not sure there is a dollar amount to make me do that.
working at? no. Owning and staffing with midlevels? Yes.
Find a state with full practice rights for noctors. Nothing more depressing than a doc getting sued because Jenny McJennison DNP, NPC, ABCDE misdiagnosed a PE as bronchitis on your license.
lol..."DNP". That one always gets me.
