Infectious disease?

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it's a specialty focused on patients suffering from infectious diseases.

My friend is a peds infectious disease resident. She says its cool, like there's always a mystery to solve. They look at symptoms, run tests, and try to narrow it down. I guess it's sorta like the show "House" except the people probably aren't as good looking. 🙂
 
Thanks a lot, guys. Houseish, eh? Would I get to prescribe myself pain meds and go around being a jerk to everyone? 😉
 
in some areas, ID docs mainly care for HIV patients. Can be very challenging.
 
bjolly said:
in some areas, ID docs mainly care for HIV patients. Can be very challenging.
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[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-vZJpqQufs[/YOUTUBE]


Not to mention:
-Frustrating
-Boring
-Not very lucrative (how many junkies and ****** have good health insurance?)
 
Also, a lot of infectious disease doctors manage/run microbiology labs (if they work at a large University Hospital). If you like lab work, it's a great field.
 
DropkickMurphy said:
Not to mention:
-Frustrating
-Boring
-Not very lucrative (how many junkies and ****** have good health insurance?)
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have you ever worked with HIV positive people? this is not how i would describe it having met and worked with quite a few.

more like rewarding, life changing
 
Jolie South said:
have you ever worked with HIV positive people? this is not how i would describe it having met and worked with quite a few.

more like rewarding, life changing
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Rewarding? Life changing? Oh really?
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw[/YOUTUBE]

Yeah, seeing as I've been working in the medical field for longer than you've probably been out of junior high school, I would imagine I've treated more than you have. Life changing? Only in the sense that you get a sense of gratitude that you're not the one with a fatal illness. Come back after you've really worked in healthcare for a few years (shadowing and volunteering as a premed don't count) and see if that showroom clean sense of self-righteousness you're displaying isn't up on blocks in your front yard. 👎
 
DropkickMurphy said:
Rewarding? Life changing? Oh really?
[youtube]a1Y73sPHKxw[/youtube]

Yeah, seeing as I've been working in the medical field for longer than you've probably been out of junior high school, I would imagine I've treated more than you have. Life changing? Only in the sense that you get a sense of gratitude that you're not the one with a fatal illness. Come back after you've really worked in healthcare for a few years (shadowing and volunteering as a premed don't count) and see if that showroom clean sense of self-righteousness you're displaying isn't up on blocks in your front yard. 👎
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seeing as i've worked in a public health capacity in a developing country where in some places 50% of people are seropositive, i think i do know what i'm talking about
 
Jolie South said:
seeing as i've worked in a public health capacity in a developing country where in some places 50% of people are seropositive, i think i do know what i'm talking about
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Oooooh......I bet it will make for exciting fodder for your personal statement. Did you make sure to get plenty of pictures of yourself with the DABs?
 
DropkickMurphy said:
Oooooh......I bet it will make for exciting fodder for your personal statement. Did you make sure to get plenty of pictures of yourself with the DABs?
Click to expand...


yes i did, plus i got one of me carrying a dying elderly woman across raging rapids filled with crocodiles.

it was all so carefully calculated to look good on my app.

there's no way anyone could possibly be interested in public health! [gasp]
 
Jolie South said:
yes i did, plus i got one of me carrying a dying elderly woman across raging rapids filled with crocodiles.

it was all so carefully calculated to look good on my app.

there's no way anyone could possibly be interested in public health! [gasp]
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So tell me more about your public health experience? How much did it cost you? Did you have to get your parents to sign a release? Did they let you actually *gasp* touch real live patients?

(BTW, you're talking to someone who is a member of the APHA and MIPHA 😉 and is involved with public health research)
 
I fulfilled the field work requirement of my Master's with Peace Corps, so it didn't cost me anything except two years of my life.

I actually worked on a lot of cool projects if you're not just being sarcastic which I imagine you are.

. . . community based malaria control efforts, PLWHA support groups, trainings for high school kids in HIV/AIDS & sexual health, health outreach excursions to treat and educate on intestinal parasites, women's empowerment, etc. . .
 
Jolie South said:
I fulfilled the field work requirement of my Master's with Peace Corps, so it didn't cost me anything except two years of my life.

I actually worked on a lot of cool projects if you're not just being sarcastic which I imagine you are.

. . . community based malaria control efforts, PLWHA support groups, trainings for high school kids in HIV/AIDS & sexual health, health outreach excursions to treat and educate on intestinal parasites, women's empowerment, etc. . .
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Ah, my apologies. I wasn't aware you actually formal in public health. There are so many kids on here who think that their little trips mean something, I mistakenly assumed that you were one of them.
 
DropkickMurphy said:
Ah, my apologies. I wasn't aware you actually formal in public health. There are so many kids on here who think that their little trips mean something, I mistakenly assumed that you were one of them.
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It's cool. I understand. I went to school with a lot of kids that were into public health and going to developing countries to improve their chances for med school.
 
OP: I have thought some about ID as a specialty as well. The physician I shadowed had about a 50% office patient load that was HIV. But only half of his time (or less) was in the office. Much of it was inpatient rounding and hospital consults. I think ID really does have the potential to make for a very interesting career. Plus, you could also do a little primary care as a general IM physician as well if you want. That's kind of how I see myself doing it anyway, if I go that direction. I guess we'll just see what happens.
 
hmmm... that was an anti-climactic ending to what was becoming a very entertaining flame war. I'm slightly disappointed, DKM. 🙁
 
Jolie South said:
It's cool. I understand. I went to school with a lot of kids that were into public health and going to developing countries to improve their chances for med school.
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I'm into it just because I have a strange fascination with research methodology and epidemiology. In fact, I'll probably do the JHU distance ed MPH before I enter med school.
 
DropkickMurphy said:
I'm into it just because I have a strange fascination with research methodology and epidemiology. In fact, I'll probably do the JHU distance ed MPH before I enter med school.
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I didn't know that you could do a MPH by distance ed. That's cool.

But on the other hand, I really enjoyed graduate classes. I did mine at Tulane and there was a great atmosphere.
 
athelas314 said:
After taking the Medical Specialty Aptitude Test, I noticed that one of the high-ranked results was "infectious disease". What is this specialty, and what does one do?
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HIV is only one of the specialties for ID docs. Another large group would be immunocompromised patients including both cancer patients, bone marrow and organ transplant patients. These patients receive chemo/immunosuppressive therapy to prevent rejection; both situations knock out the immune system and these patients are very high risk for a host of bacterial/fungal/viral infections. It is the responsibility of the ID doc to know which types of organisms the pt is at risk for and decide which antimicrobial to use. These pts can die very quickly so need rapid intervention. Really cool specialty but not one of the higher paying.
 
Jolie South said:
have you ever worked with HIV positive people? this is not how i would describe it having met and worked with quite a few.

more like rewarding, life changing
Click to expand...

It can be rewarding, but it CAN also be very frustrating. I'm curious - did you see a lot of HIV patients in other countries or in the US? Do you think that your experience was different from one to the other?

I'm asking because I get the impression that a lot of the HIV work in developing countries focuses on the "inspirational" aspect of it - i.e. "Living with the disease," "It's no longer a death sentence," "Fighting against the odds," etc. I think some ID doctors tried that approach here, but it is discouraging to hear patients in the US take that the wrong way.

Sorry - I'm rambling. I've had to think about this lately, partly as a med student and partly on a personal level. If you want to talk more, feel free to PM me. 🙂

athelas314 said:
After taking the Medical Specialty Aptitude Test, I noticed that one of the high-ranked results was "infectious disease". What is this specialty, and what does one do?
Click to expand...

On an outpatient basis, a lot of ID doctors take care of HIV patients and often see patients at STD clinics. Some people in ID also do a lot of epidemiology work.

On an inpatient basis, they see a huge variety of things. People in sickle cell crisis or with chronic diabetes can easily develop certain types of infections, and may need be hospitalized for a bunch of different reasons. Some infections are emergencies and need to be handled very carefully - ex: rabies prophylaxis or CNS infections that are more common in HIV+ patients. People who are immunosuppressed (due to chemotherapy or long term corticosteroid use) or any patient with any kind of implanted device (pacemakers, dialysis catheters) are also at higher risk for infection.

ID is not a procedure-heavy specialty. Other internal med subspecialties do exploratory procedures (ex: bronchscopy [pulm] or colonoscopy [GI]), but ID does not.
 
smq123 said:
It can be rewarding, but it CAN also be very frustrating. I'm curious - did you see a lot of HIV patients in other countries or in the US? Do you think that your experience was different from one to the other?

I'm asking because I get the impression that a lot of the HIV work in developing countries focuses on the "inspirational" aspect of it - i.e. "Living with the disease," "It's no longer a death sentence," "Fighting against the odds," etc. I think some ID doctors tried that approach here, but it is discouraging to hear patients in the US take that the wrong way.



Sorry - I'm rambling. I've had to think about this lately, partly as a med student and partly on a personal level. If you want to talk more, feel free to PM me. 🙂
Click to expand...

I never said it wasn't challenging.

I think any treatment of disease with such serious mental ramifications should necessarily include positive living strategies and the fact that the behavioral/mental component has been abandoned here to me just seems sad. You're not just doing what you can to keep the virus in check. You have to treat the disease as well as the person.

That being said acceptance and positive living aren't easy things for a patient to adopt. It doesn't happen in one consultation. It takes repeated discussions and encouragement. If you've ever taken classes in behavior change, this is a no brainer. People have to feel like they have a reason to adopt what you're telling them.
 
I said earlier that it was sad that the behavioral component of treatment had been left out here. I'm not naive enough to think that doctors here don't care/ are not interested in this. I know that there are many constraints placed upon physicians here. I should also point out that many physicians in Africa don't have the time to discuss these types of things with patients either.

Most of the time, these interventions are led by public health initiatives or nurses/doctors specifically assigned to touch on these issues with patients.
 
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