Just wondering if the typical ophthalmologist sees a pretty good variety of cases in their practice. I was formerly thinking about cardiology and nephrology, but got absolutely bored by the repetitiveness of these specialties and the narrow scope of problems you see. Is this the same with ophtho? I know there will always be bread-and-butter cases for every specialty, but is there at least enough variety to keep you excited? How about if you start going even more sub-specialized like cornea, retina, etc.? Also I'm thinking the opportunity to do procedures and stuff probably makes it all more exciting to begin with.
variety in ophtho
- Thread starter kwel
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Crack open any ophthalmology textbook and you'll be amazed at the variety of conditions that affect the eye. How much variety depends on many things including what type of practice you operate, what patient population you work with, and how specialized you are. If your focus is cornea you will obviously defer retinal cases to other specialists and you will likely see mostly common corneal problems (infections, pyterigium, refractive, PEDs, opacities from various causes, ocular tear deficiencies, limbal stem cell deficiencies, etc) and perform most common procedures (LASIK, penetrating/lamellar keratoplasty, AMT, ALT, pyterigium, etc). The more diverse the practice the more variety you will see.
Just like most specialties common things are common, but what sets ophtho apart is the variety of treatments available and the ability to combine surgical management with medical management. Plus, compared to internal med specialties you can sit down most days instead of running around a hospital like a chicken with his head cut off. Trust me, that fact alone is worth it's weight in gold.
Just like most specialties common things are common, but what sets ophtho apart is the variety of treatments available and the ability to combine surgical management with medical management. Plus, compared to internal med specialties you can sit down most days instead of running around a hospital like a chicken with his head cut off. Trust me, that fact alone is worth it's weight in gold.
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I guess the answer to this is relative. If you thought that cardiology was repetitive, then I'm not sure that ophtho or any specialty field in medicine will be less repetitive. To be honest, if you thought it was repetitive it's probably because you didn't fully understand how broad the differential was for each patient and the many possibilities for treatment. As RestorSight said, there's a ton of different pathology in ophtho -- more than you would realize from your medical school education. But each patients disease has subtle differences and the only way to be good at treating them and be efficient so that you can actually see patients quickly is by focusing on one field and referring the stuff that you are less familiar with out. This is true with pretty much every field in medicine. Unfortunately with the way that medicine and reimbursements are changing you can't spend an hour thinking about every new patient. I'll admit it, it's not what I imagined from watching "House" but it's the new reality of all of medicine.
Even people who do "general" medicine (ie. primary care) are focused on only a small part of medicine (preventative and common problems) and refer the rest to specialists. At this point you, and many family practice/internists, may not realize how much more there is in all the subspecialty fields in medicine that you were not exposed to in medschool, however.
A lot of it also matters where you practice. If you're at a large referral center you should see a lot of variety in pretty much every specialty. p In private practice, not as much - but you also probably won't want to see that much "interesting" and potentially scary stuff when you're out on your own either..
Even people who do "general" medicine (ie. primary care) are focused on only a small part of medicine (preventative and common problems) and refer the rest to specialists. At this point you, and many family practice/internists, may not realize how much more there is in all the subspecialty fields in medicine that you were not exposed to in medschool, however.
A lot of it also matters where you practice. If you're at a large referral center you should see a lot of variety in pretty much every specialty. p In private practice, not as much - but you also probably won't want to see that much "interesting" and potentially scary stuff when you're out on your own either..
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