job description

[prominence]

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can anyone describe what the job respsonsibilities of a toxicologist is? is it more of an academic/research oriented job?

do u need to do an ER residency before applying for a toxicology fellowship? if not, what other fields can u enter from?

is a toxicology fellowship hard to get these days? do many people consider this option?

hows the lifestyle of a toxicologist? (is it stressful? long hours?, etc)

 

[ERMudPhud]

Most of the toxicologist's I know fall into two main groups. One group is the academic group, usually associated with poison centers and universities. They do a fair amount of teaching and research. Most of their clinical work involves consulting on inpatient and outpatient toxicology cases. Another group does industrial toxicology. They work with companies( or sometimes plaintiff groups) evaluating the potential for toxicologic exposures from industrial sources (both to workers and neighbors of the factories). They help design protocals for minimizing these exposures and for monitoring continuing exposures. In the event people get exposed to toxins at the factory they are then involved in treatment and remediation as well.

Most Tox fellows come from an ER background. I have met a few with IM backgrounds but I think that pathway may be disappearing or already gone. I don't know how hard the fellowships are to get these days.

Many of the toxicologist I know work part time as emergency physicians. Full time toxicologist are not as common but their lifestyle seems reasonable. The hours certainly are not as long as many medical fields and stress is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Annette]

You can also do toxicology through preventative med (occ med).

 

[prominence]

ERMudPhud & Annette, thanks for the replies.

is there any advantage either way of doing an emergency medicine or occupation medicine residency, before doing a toxicology fellowship?

 

[ERMudPhud]

I think that would depend most on whether you preferred emergency medicine or preventitive medicine. (two very different fields)