I am interested in Ophthalmology, but I saw on medscape that the majority of ophthalmologists in 2018 were self employed (I think it was something like 70%). This seems like an absurdly high number given that only 25% of physicians in total are self employed. I also couldn't seem to find any other specialty that came anywhere close to this number. Is Ophthalmology the only specialty that is mostly private practice? Does the specialty very much lend itself to private practice? Also, does this mean that Ophthalmologists generally deal with the business side of medicine more than any other specialty?
Private Practice in Ophthalmology
- Thread starter Bólivar
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Medscape surveys are notoriously inaccurate. I wouldn't put much faith in whatever they publish (including their terrible salary surveys). I would probably say that Ophthalmologists probably have the same employed vs. self-employed distribution as most other fields in Medicine (except maybe hospital-based specialties like ER, etc).
In general, you should want to be involved in the business aspects of Medicine. Otherwise, some bloated-administration is going to take a cut of your pie without bringing any value to your patients. You also want to own equity, so that you can sell something later on and have some job security.
In general, you should want to be involved in the business aspects of Medicine. Otherwise, some bloated-administration is going to take a cut of your pie without bringing any value to your patients. You also want to own equity, so that you can sell something later on and have some job security.
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Take a look at the AAO job listings to get a feel for how much of the jobs are in the private sector vs academia vs government (VA etc). You can also get a rough idea of how many of the listings are group practices trying to add a partner (most) vs a solo practioner selling a practice (not many)
Jobs | Ophthalmology Job Center
Jobs | Ophthalmology Job Center
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Corrected.
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According to the AAO, in 2016 26% of members (which is 99% of ophthalmologists) are in solo practice. Many more are in small practices of two, three or four where they are still owners not employees. Solo practice is still very possible if not the best model in my biased opinion:
Is solo practice still possible? The answer is yes!
The reason why you don’t see so many practices in AAO job search is owners overvalue their practice or sell to private equity. The best career move I ever made was to start my practice from scratch: Steps To Start a Medical Practice
Is solo practice still possible? The answer is yes!
The reason why you don’t see so many practices in AAO job search is owners overvalue their practice or sell to private equity. The best career move I ever made was to start my practice from scratch: Steps To Start a Medical Practice
