All the info I've ever found here or recieved from any of my professors agrees with this thread 100%.
It seems like working academically, a physician-scientist has to go through 8 years of schooling and 5+ years of extra training in a clinical specialization so they can work on the same thing, all day, every day.
I hear a lot of other stories of physician-scientists going into a field of industry and living highly dynamic lives with ever-changing roles, traveling frequently and generally never living the same day twice.
For example, a friend's family knows a neuropsychiatrist MD/PhD who truly lives her profession. People fly her all over the country and pay her well to come see if their products are safe, come treat this or that person, come research for such-and-such company, come examine a defendant and offer your expert opinion of their sanity in court, so on and so forth.
I recently got in touch with a friend of a friend who does something similar. Big pharmaceutical companies have him serve all sorts of new and novel functions, usually pertaining to clinical trials. On top of that, he gets paid $50 per hour every hour he is not at his house because of work, which is almost never. He flies all over the country solving new problems every single day, most expenses paid, and he takes home a salary approaching ($50 per hour)x(24 hrs/day)x(365 days/year)=$438,000.
If there is anything enticing to me about the MD/PhD lifestyle at all, it's the active and dynamic role they play in various industries. I'm not knocking the academic physician scientist lifestyle in the least, I just happen to find the industry lifestyle far, far more appealing.
I hope this offers some insight. I really want to see Blazinfury's question answered. Later today I might try to get in touch with the pharmaceuticals/clinical trials guy and ask him that exact question, and hopefully we can all get a good answer.
