What does being an academic physician entail? What does this person do day to day. Is this professor required to do research, and write publications/grants, and stuff?
I think you're confused as to what defines "academics" from "private practice."
In academics, you are a physician who is employed by a hospital and/or a medical school. You may also have research interests on the side. Your daily responsibilities will involve taking care of patients, supervising residents and fellows, and possibly writing scholarly journal articles, mentoring research projects, etc. You might also take a role in teaching medical students (such as coordinating a medical school rotation, etc.)
In private practice, you are a physician who is employed either by your own practice, or (as is MUCH more common nowadays) as a partner in a group practice. You're not employed by the hospital, so you (and your partners) are responsible for generating enough money to pay for the office space, for electricity, for supplies, for nursing staff, for malpractice insurance, etc. You may or may not supervise residents at all. You will see a lot of patients in the office, and hope that you've seen enough to make enough money to cover your expenses for that month.
Also, what are the Pros/Cons of a physician who runs a private practice by him/herself?
Running a solo practice is becoming less common nowadays.
In suburban or rural areas, the local private practice physicians are also asked to take care of some patients in the nearby hospital. They may be asked to round in the ICU in the morning, for instance, or they may be required to be reachable by phone/beeper all night long, in case a patient comes into the ER and needs their assistance. (For instance, this happens in pediatrics, where the ER physician on duty that night may not have much experience in taking care of children, and wants a pediatrician to come in.)
In OB/gyn and surgery, they may also be required to help cover labor and delivery or trauma at night.
Obviously, if you're running a solo practice, you have to do all those things BY YOURSELF. It's pretty clear why you'd want to have partners - to help divvy up the pain and duties.
I mean. Can you teach and run your own practice? If the business (practice) is very successful, then you will not only have a successful business (practice) and a great income from that but you will also have money from teaching to boot, am I correct?
I also assume that if you practice is not doing very well then it does not matter because you are already being paid by the university so its not like you are going to go bankrupt. Right?
Nope. You wouldn't get money from teaching, unless you actually lectured to first or second year med students. Most people don't do that - most people tend to teach 3rd or 4th year med students, or residents.
And even if you were to get paid for lecturing to med students, you wouldn't get paid a lot - you tend to give only 1-3 lectures a year. That's not enough to make a living off of. Your private practice income would still be your main source of money.
I was told that if you are an academic physician then you do not get paid a lot as opposed to if you just ran a successful practice.
So...yes. In general, you make less money in academics, but you have more vacation time, and you have fewer "business management" type headaches. You make more money in private practice (often times a
LOT more money - which is why people go into private practice), but you have less vacation time, and you also have to know how to run a business. Or at least hire someone who does.
In academic medicine, you get paid a flat rate. You don't get any money for overtime, and you get paid the same amount of money whether you see 5 patients or 50.
In private practice, you get paid more if you see more patients. That's why you hear about some people who complain about private practice because they only have 5 minutes to see a patient.
From my work experience, academic medicine entails a lot of hard work that deals with teaching residents, medical students, and potential teaching requirements. Maybe even some lab work.
A solo practice is that, you focus on your patients.
No, that is DEFINITELY not true.
Private practice (not necessarily "solo practice") is a totally different beast. You do NOT "focus on your patients" - you focus on keeping your business afloat. The rent doesn't pay itself. Patients don't necessarily come to you off the street (i.e. you need to put in the time and effort to advertise and build a referral base from neighboring physicians).
Your malpractice insurance certainly doesn't pay itself!
Running a private practice is no different from running your own business, and that is one of the biggest attractions to academic medicine. In academics, you are protected from most of that - you don't have to worry about paying the electricity bill for the hospital, you don't have to worry who is paying the nurses and technicians, etc. And most hospitals cover your malpractice insurance as well.
I also am curious about academic medicine. I plan to work at a hospital, but if I wasn't associated with the school, I wouldn't help new doctors correct?
No, you might still teach residents and med students. It's a question of whether or not the hospital that you work at HAS residents - if they do, you may have to supervise/teach the med students and the residents.