Pediatric Infectious Disease

[jlm013085]

I am really interested in pediatric infectious disease but I have enormous debt and peds ID doesn't seem to pay that well. Is the pay really that bad or is there room for growth?

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[dextor2003]

To piggy back on this, would anyone mind also commenting on the job outlook / need for peds ID?

 

[Stitch]

I'm not an ID specialist, but my understanding is that most who do ID will practice at an academic center; there will also be some sort of research expectation like there is for anyone at such a center. There are a few private practice ID people, but they generally do a lot of gen peds as well. The pay for ID is definitely at the lower end of the scale, often less than what general pediatricians make. I don't know what the current job market is like, but can ask around.

Despite these down sides (?), most people I know who do ID love it, and are very good at it. There's a huge amount of diversity in it, so it's easy to find something that can interest you, from tropical medicine, to infection control and epidemiology to specific bugs or viruses. One of my friends is a world expert on Staph aureus, and gets really excited whenever he gets to geek out about all the different virulence and resistance mechanisms it has.

 

[mvenus929]

Most people who do ID do something else as well. They either focus on research, teaching, or focus their practice to work with different populations. Of the Peds ID folks I know, one does a significant amount of gen Peds in addition to being residency program director, one does a lot of,global health stuff, three do a lot of research, one acts as clerkship director, and one found a niche working with CF patients.

 

[dextor2003]

I'm not an ID specialist, but my understanding is that most who do ID will practice at an academic center; there will also be some sort of research expectation like there is for anyone at such a center. There are a few private practice ID people, but they generally do a lot of gen peds as well. The pay for ID is definitely at the lower end of the scale, often less than what general pediatricians make. I don't know what the current job market is like, but can ask around.

Despite these down sides (?), most people I know who do ID love it, and are very good at it. There's a huge amount of diversity in it, so it's easy to find something that can interest you, from tropical medicine, to infection control and epidemiology to specific bugs or viruses. One of my friends is a world expert on Staph aureus, and gets really excited whenever he gets to geek out about all the different virulence and resistance mechanisms it has.

Most people who do ID do something else as well. They either focus on research, teaching, or focus their practice to work with different populations. Of the Peds ID folks I know, one does a significant amount of gen Peds in addition to being residency program director, one does a lot of,global health stuff, three do a lot of research, one acts as clerkship director, and one found a niche working with CF patients.

Thank you both so much for the information! It would be a dream come true to do peds ID and work in global health. But for the latter, do you know if an MPH is recommended if you already have an ID background, especially you want to focus on treating patients moreso than on research?