Lets talk TURKEY $$$

[josephf1]

How much do you all plan to make in cardiology? How much do you expect to have to work to make that? Any 3rd yr fellows already getting jobs vs inpractice cardiologists have input?
* noninvasive vs interventional vs EP
* prior to making partner vs after
* buy-in to partnership
* call schedule - how bad is bad
* planned medicare cuts/reforms in place to take effect soon
* malpractice costs and volume of law suites
Just wondering if it is all worth it after being gunner for cards for so many years?
I would say for all this work I would have to make 400K+ to make it worth while

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[tachycore]

First, haven't you gotten information from fellows in your own school/program?

It varies by states and setting after all. Plus, you can gather preliminary data by scouring the web.

Second, it's really up in the air.

Read up on the news to see what I mean. The current fad is EP, but who knows how long that'll last until the CMS (or maybe the reform) gets to it.

http://www.theheart.org/article/1018537.do

Third, judging by your fixation on salary and hours and other issues, I take it you plan on some form of private practice.

I do hope you plan for a bit more tact on the interview trail. It's almost as if you're asking a woman in a social setting her age and weight.

 

[dragonfly99]

You can google cardiology physician salaries and probably get as good an idea as a bunch of med students and residents and fellows on here could give you. A quick Google by me turned up salaries in the 240k-270k range...this was noted to be average and perhaps to represent midcareer physician salaries. You can expect to make higher end salaries if you do interventional, but the lifestyle is brutal. You have to ask yourself if you are up for being called in at 4a.m. for the rest of your professional life, b/c that is what you are signing up for. Not to do that every day, but I would think to be in that position a couple times/week, or at least once/week, would not be at all unusual. If you do academics it would likely be blocks of call, adding up to several weeks/year. Interventional cards is not for the faint of heart. If you want to make big money and work less hard, do radiology or anesthesia (private practice) or maybe derm.