occupational medicine?

[prominence]

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does anybody know what this specialty entails?

where do these physicians work upon completing their residencies?

what is the average salary of these specialists? im sure coming up with a specific figure might not be easy. if u could compare their salary to that of the other specialties, and rank it on a low, average, or high end of the pay scale, that might give me an idea of the range of the salaries where these specialists fall within.

is this a uncompetetive specialty? i do not know anything about it. it does not even have a separate dicussion forum in this site. i never hear of medical students pursuing this specialty. are there many occupational medical docs out there?

in an earlier post, i heard that u must complete an MPH degree during residency. also, is there a required transitional or prelimiary year? are these two statements accurate?

if anybody has any experience in occupational medicine or knows someone in this field and can shed some light on this field, i would greatly appreciate the info. thank you.

 

[DrMom]

I'm not personally in the field, but I used to be an administrator of my state's society of occupational medicine so I'll give this my best shot.

These physicians can work for corporations, insurance companies, or in private practice (doing workman's comp). Most that I have worked with are either in private practice or working for corporations...we also had one working for a hospital.

The ones with corporations generally make more money than the private practice ones because private practice $ is tied to workman's comp reimbursement rates (which are pretty bad in some states). I really don't know what the pay range is specifically, but I do know that some of the private practice ones were complaining (I'd guess the low end was making under $100,000 in my state, but that truly is a guess). I never heard the corporate ones complaining...and I think they all did quite well. Also one of the plusses of occ med is regular business hours, so their average # of hours per week is right around 40!

It is not a very competitive specialty, although it is getting more women because of the good work hours. There aren't large #s of them overall and other specialists can do occ med work.

An MPH is recommended, but many of them don't have one. Don't know about transitional year.

As far as what occ med entails: in the big picture they do pre-employment physicals, drug testing, & care for injuries that occur on the job.

Sorry I don't have more specific information, but I hope that helps some.

 

[prefontaine]

salaries tend to be very low, thus it is not competitive... a master's is completed after an ACGME clinical year...programs are chronically underfunded and dwindling...most oc med positions are held by PCPs who want to work a 40 work week...some programs have an environmental med influence...a # of residencies prefer applicants that are BE/BC...plenty of medical-legal work and no shortage of paperwork and politics...too many employee/patients looking for someone to sue...two months was enough for me

 

[prominence]

dr. mom and prefontaine, thanks for the posts.

prefontaine, what do u mean by 'BE/BC'?

also, is there any website or source where i can get more information on occupational medicine?

thanks again.

 

[DrMom]

Here's a webpage with some links.

 

[prefontaine]

board eligible/board certified

www.acpm.org

look in the green book for details on residency requirements (for any specialty).

 

[bigdan]

prominence-
I've found some info in IERSON'S GETTING INTO A RESIDENCY that may be beneficial. First, Occupational Medicine (OM) is a specialty under Preventive Medicine. It requires training in the form of internship plus 3 yr residency, part of which is used to gain Masters (often in Public Health). Teaching/training/practice/research are required to get board certification. Second, try www.acoem.org for web info.
I have worked in conjunction with OM docs for years. They seem to have a decent lifestyle - most work 9-5 in an Occupational Medicine clinic. I perform functional capacity evaluations under their direction; we often joke about "symptom magnifiers", but when you think about it, that might not be that cool to see all the time. I have no idea about salary.

 

[prominence]

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[prominence]

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