Specialty Pay

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

DrinkWater95

Sydney c/o 2022
2+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2018
Messages
319
Reaction score
277
Hello!

As I progress through the degree, I’m getting more and more interested in specializing. I’m particularly interested in pathology, radiology and cardiology. However, I’m having a hard time figuring out how much each specialty pays.

I’m curious if anyone has an accurate resource to figure out how much certain specialties pay? I’ve searched high and low and can’t seem to find a whole lot, even through the avma website.

While pay isn’t a deciding factor for my potential specialty, it does contribute to my decision. A lot of what I’ve read puts some specialties earning a minimal amount above a GP (pathology in particular). Right now I’m most interest in pathology of the 3 specialties I’ve listed, but I’m having trouble reconciling doing 3-5+ additional years of schooling if I would just be getting paid a similar amount to a GP.

If anyone could shed some light on this topic, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Members don't see this ad.
 
This is a fairly recent post where we discussed pathology salaries. Pathologist salary

They’ve come out with a new ACVP salary study fairly recently...I don’t know if you have to be an ACVP member to see that, but things didn’t really change from the previous one and are in like with what WTF and I discussed in the linked post. The short version is that pathologist pay is typically equal to or slightly above GP pay. I think the lifestyle and work life balance is a little better as a whole but that is obviously going to vary person to person. At my job I work about 6 hours a day and am able to fully leave work at work...I don’t think about it when I go home at night and I don’t check emails when I’m on PTO or anything. My friend in academia works 8-10 hours a day minimum and always seems to have something going on outside of work (lectures, test writing, papers, etc.) The cardiologists and radiologists I have personal knowledge of make significantly more.
 
This is a fairly recent post where we discussed pathology salaries. Pathologist salary

They’ve come out with a new ACVP salary study fairly recently...I don’t know if you have to be an ACVP member to see that, but things didn’t really change from the previous one and are in like with what WTF and I discussed in the linked post. The short version is that pathologist pay is typically equal to or slightly above GP pay. I think the lifestyle and work life balance is a little better as a whole but that is obviously going to vary person to person. At my job I work about 6 hours a day and am able to fully leave work at work...I don’t think about it when I go home at night and I don’t check emails when I’m on PTO or anything. My friend in academia works 8-10 hours a day minimum and always seems to have something going on outside of work (lectures, test writing, papers, etc.) The cardiologists and radiologists I have personal knowledge of make significantly more.
Thanks for the response!

I did happen to come across that thread - it's just a bit surprising to me that you guys are not compensated more. On the other hand, it's hard to put a price tag on work-life balance (as you eluded to). I couldn't get my hands on the most recent ACVP salary report, but I was able to see the 2012 one.

As far as the other specialties I mentioned, I'm sure cardiology has some call and much less work-life balance than path. Do you have any knowledge of the work-life balance for radiology? I've seen some recent tele-radiology job listings and I was curious if the field may be heading more in this direction.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Maybe @allygator13 can advise you on radiology stuff? I have opinions but they're just that...it would probably be better to hear from someone actually in that field than me just giving my impression as an outsider. I'm not sure how often she comes around though. I don't think we have anyone on the forums in cardio (but if we do, sorry I forgot about you!).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Maybe @allygator13 can advise you on radiology stuff? I have opinions but they're just that...it would probably be better to hear from someone actually in that field than me just giving my impression as an outsider. I'm not sure how often she comes around though. I don't think we have anyone on the forums in cardio (but if we do, sorry I forgot about you!).
Thank you for taking the time to respond:)
 
Thanks for the response!

I did happen to come across that thread - it's just a bit surprising to me that you guys are not compensated more. On the other hand, it's hard to put a price tag on work-life balance (as you eluded to). I couldn't get my hands on the most recent ACVP salary report, but I was able to see the 2012 one.

As far as the other specialties I mentioned, I'm sure cardiology has some call and much less work-life balance than path. Do you have any knowledge of the work-life balance for radiology? I've seen some recent tele-radiology job listings and I was curious if the field may be heading more in this direction.

Hello! Yes you are correct that the field of radiology in general is definitely moving heavily toward Teleradiology. There are tons of Telerad companies out there now, the main two being Idexx and Antech. I can PM you what I was quoted as the current starting salary for a fresh out of residency radiologist working for one of the major telerad companies if you're interested. As with any specialty, private practice radiologists (telerad or those working in a private practice hospital on site) make significantly more than those working in academia. There is also a wide range of salaries depending on if you own your own company or not, just like with anything else. From what I've heard through the grapevine the range is probably around $150k - 700k depending on your position.
 
Last edited:
Hello! Yes you are correct that the field of radiology in general is definitely moving heavily toward Teleradiology. There are tons of Telerad companies out there now, the main two being Idexx and Antech. I can PM you what I was quoted as the current starting salary for a fresh out of residency radiologist working for one of the major telerad companies if you're interested. As with any specialty, private practice radiologists (telerad or those working in a private practice hospital on site) make significantly more than those working in academia. There is also a wide range of salaries depending on if you own your own company or not, just like with anything else. From what I've heard through the grapevine the range is probably around $150k - 700k depending on your position.
Thank you for this insight, this is helpful.

I’m going now to PM you!
 
Top