Specialties

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wclubin

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lkajsdf

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one goes through an additional residency. you better know what you want to do when you through residency.
 
lkjadsf
 
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an internal medicine physician would not be anywhere near qualified to up and decide to become a neurosurgeon or an opthalmologist or an obstetrician. The training is so specialized in medicine that it doesn't allow for just "switching fields". Lawyers are trained to be lawyers. The practice they go into they can choose. They may have to reread the statutes or intricate details if they switch fields, but they can do it. Doctors can't because they receive training only in a specific field.
 
There are, however, some residents that decide to switch fields in the middle of their training. I believe they can "crossover" after doing a rotation in a related field to the one they want to switch into.
 
lkjdfadsf
 
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It all depends on the specialty.
If you complete Internal Medicine residency for example, you have many choices for fellowships: GI, Renal, Cardiology, Infectious Diseases, etc. Basically you don't choose subspecialty until your final residency year. Same goes for General Surgery. After it you can subspecialize as well.
Other specialties you have to look and see. For example if you choose Urology, your first 2 years are General Surgery anyways. They will probably count towards any surgical subspecialty.
Then there is some crossover possible.
In general you choose either medicine or surgery. You do your internship in it. After the internship you can try to match into subspecialties as well.
Some other specialties, like Anesthesiology allows you to do either Medical or Surgical internship.
It is very confusing... The idea is that there are options available in some cases. In others it may require some sacrifices.
 
lkajsdfdsf
 
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You have to write specilization exams (board certification).

If you're trained as a general practitioner and you started a practice as a cardiologist, I'm pretty sure you'd be stripped of your license to practice medicine. Plus you'd probably kill half your patients.

So what's stopping you??? Prison maybe??

Doctors who practice medical specialties they are not properly trained in are called "quacks". There are plenty of "butcher shops" in 3rd world countries that are staffed by MD's who practice without their licenses.

An MD is not an MD.
 
lkasdfasdf
 
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Lorae, a person trained in fp or IM could open up his own practice and only take cards cases. There is no law stopping him/her from doing diagnostic caths, stress tests, etc......so it wouldn't be illegal. It isn't against the law for a physician to perform procedures he/she is not board eligible in.

Of course, you are right in that it is not really feasible for several reasons. Reimbursement would be a problem, as insurance companies aren't going to reimburse an FP for cardiac caths. Also lawsuits would be a problem, as would getting an insurer to handle out of scope cases. But it's legal.....
 
Believe it or not, only about 2/3 of MDs are board certified as per AMA. Furthermore, there are some people quite qualified who can't be board certified, because it doesn't exist. Example.... there's no board for pediatric hematology, but there's nothing stopping a pediatrician or a hematologist for calling themselves that. In fact, ENTs have been fighting with the pediatricians recently over pediatric otolaryngology cases.

The restriction on this practice as the OP described is not legal, but rather professional and social. Its hard to find a job if you are not boarded in the basic speciality board. I was describing instances of subspecialists that don't have boards, there are certainly boards for all the specialities. Also, with the current malpractice crisis sweeping the nation (sans California, Indiana, Wisconsin, etc .. I know), no one wants to risk the loss of their practice, meaning their livlihood, by jumping back and forth and practicing medicine that they are not quite qualified to practice. However, in one sense you are correct, an MD is an MD, so if you are an unboarded "general surgeon" and the hospital lets you do a call in IM one night; that's the only scenario where I see this possibly occurring.
 
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