professors...how do they do it?

[docmemi]

do you know any hardcore, famous professors who have 150 publications, 7 books, book chapters, are directors of big divisions, run different programs, teach, etc?

my question is, how the f do they do it? they must be so tolerant and self-less. i dont think i want medicine to become my life...i want to have a family and be able to travel and do other things i like. does that mean i should go into some kind of primary care or internal medicine subspecialty and work at a community clinic?

i just dont understand how some of these people can have so much power to do so many things for so long. maybe im just weak?

thoughts?

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[tupac_don]

do you know any hardcore, famous professors who have 150 publications, 7 books, book chapters, are directors of big divisions, run different programs, teach, etc?

my question is, how the f do they do it? they must be so tolerant and self-less. i dont think i want medicine to become my life...i want to have a family and be able to travel and do other things i like. does that mean i should go into some kind of primary care or internal medicine subspecialty and work at a community clinic?

i just dont understand how some of these people can have so much power to do so many things for so long. maybe im just weak?

thoughts?

Well I think it comes down a lot to efficency, and also once you get to a certain level, you pretty much get the credit and others do the work. So say some research that some big shot MD publishes. Do you really think that he goes and collects all the data and does the so called trench work. Hell no. The big shot will get the idea and then will get nurses, residents, students to do his bidding. Then when its all set and done, he will look over the data write on it. A statistician will go over the stuff and do all statistics, other people will do editing and the MD is still the main guy on there. Also I know that many of them will be second on the paper, simply by just reviewing a paper of someone lower on the food chain, like a resident, RN, PA, and so forth. So that way its eazy to publish a lot. Also it depends what field you are in. Some fields are more conducive to publishing, writing and research. Namely fields like neurology, oncology, infectious diseases, where lot of new drugs are coming out.

But also efficiency, really loving what you are doing and want to do that have to be there. I mean if you are super organized you can do a lot of stuff. But many people can't get that level of efficency, where they can just go from one thing to another without skipping a beat. Most people can't watch TV for 40 min then eat 15, then study 2hrs, then go workout 45 min, take shower 15min, study 4 hrs, write a paper (3 hrs), watch tv 45 min. I mean you might laugh and say yea of course you can do that. Sure you can once, twice three times, by forcing yourself or if you have to. But those who are really tallented and have energy can do it without skipping a beat and every single day. That is very important. I for one find it hard to go from one extreme to another. It's tough to go to books right after working out and switch gears so abruptly. Or to read something if you just came back working a 12 hr shift, you are tired. But if you can master this aspect and gain that efficency, then you can really get things cooking.

 

[dara678]

Yeah I know a prof like that. She's the head of hematology here at USC, the director of our heme systems during first year, the medical director of norris cancer hospital, some expert in lymphoma (Bloom chair of lymphoma or something), has publications in HIV, and also is on some HIV committee in Washington. Plus the fact that during this system she teaches 3-4 days out of the week, with lectures + small group sessions.

She let her secretary do a lot of the paperwork.

 

[doc05]

leaders in academic medicine are very very smart (more so than your average doctor); very efficient (as previously mentioned); and love their work (they would rather work than be at home sitting on their asses all day).

Also, realize that much of what they do is on "auto-pilot." Underlings do legwork for their research (many MD's will have PhD professors running their labs); book chapters and review articles they write may be so closely related to their area of expertise that these can be written very very quickly. Their secretaries handle all of the minor details, scheduling, etc.

and they have worked very hard to get where they are. So while it may seem effortless, that's mainly because of all the years they've put in.

 

[Sohalia]

...Also I know that many of them will be second on the paper, simply by just reviewing a paper of someone lower on the food chain, like a resident, RN, PA, and so forth. So that way its eazy to publish a lot.

Yes, I think everything previously said is correct. Also, one way to help get a lot of papers published is to be instrumental in the creation of a database. You then use the database to write a bunch of papers, and basically everyone else who uses the database puts you down as one of the authors on their papers. Voila!

 

[omarsaleh66]

yeah and you can recycle papers too. Get 1 paper published, reformat it and republish it somewhere else. Redo it a couple years later with some new 2004-2005 stuff and republish it as a review or "new concepts". 1 paper = 3 publications (and the chairman didnt even write the paper, med students or residents wrote it) but the MD just added 3 pubs to his CV while he did about 15-20 minutes of work. By the way most of these profs got alot of med students/residents/physicians doing these. And guess what, compile all those pubs and make a book a couple years later.

 

[InductionAgent]

do you know any hardcore, famous professors who have 150 publications, 7 books, book chapters, are directors of big divisions, run different programs, teach, etc?

my question is, how the f do they do it? they must be so tolerant and self-less.

thoughts?

You don't get published by being selfless. Hardworking, yes, dedicated and believing in your work, yes. But getting published definitely has an ego-driven component, no matter whan anyone says.

 

[gary5]

do you know any hardcore, famous professors who have 150 publications, 7 books, book chapters, are directors of big divisions, run different programs, teach, etc?

my question is, how the f do they do it? they must be so tolerant and self-less. i dont think i want medicine to become my life...i want to have a family and be able to travel and do other things i like. does that mean i should go into some kind of primary care or internal medicine subspecialty and work at a community clinic?

i just dont understand how some of these people can have so much power to do so many things for so long. maybe im just weak?

thoughts?

Some just work incessantly. The smart ones get their grunts to do all the work. Actually, that's a characteristic of a successful businessman: delegate almost everything.