what specialty gets to travel a lot?

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mcatsucksss

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hey guys
im still pretty much undecided in my career choice but am daydreaming about travelling all over the world (especially now when im stuck studying for step 1). i really enjoy being a tourist and was wondering what fields i could get into that would let me travel around and maybe even get work done internationally. any ideas?
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If you go into academia, regardless of specialty choice, you are more likely to travel.
 
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mcatsucksss said:
hey guys
im still pretty much undecided in my career choice but am daydreaming about travelling all over the world (especially now when im stuck studying for step 1). i really enjoy being a tourist and was wondering what fields i could get into that would let me travel around and maybe even get work done internationally. any ideas?
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If you want to travel, you can do locum tenens work for a few years when you're done residency. It's not for everyone, and there are a lot of pros and cons to it, but it's definitely an option.
 
DrYoda said:
The military?

Or basically any field that makes decent $$$----->nice vacations.
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my dad jokes that thats why he went into the navy, and then he sadly realized that the world was 3/4 water. :laugh:


OP, i imagine infectious disease could put you in a spot to travel a lot. Also, tropical medicine.
 
What about sport medicine? Don't you travel with the team???
 
robu058 said:
What about sport medicine? Don't you travel with the team???
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Yes, you do. If you're, for example, an orthopedic surgeon who travels with a football team (I shadowed one, though not at a game since it was offseason) then you travel with that team during the season on weekends to their games and stand on the side lines. Same with PM&R Sports Medicine specialists. It's a freaking cool job.
 
robu058 said:
What about sport medicine? Don't you travel with the team???
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You'd have to get a job w/ a team first. Most sports med docs dont solely work with a team. You have your practice and you see athletes who have been injured, and you may cover some local teams or events. It'd be sweet to work the olympics tho.
 
It is a cool job on paper, but ends up being more hassle than its worth in real life. One thing is that you rarely get paid for your time because you are competing with tons of other people that view it as a cool way to get active with college or pro sports, but your payment is basically getting to say, "Hey, I work with this team, so I MUST be good!". Then you run into issues with players treating you like you work for them and interesting liability issues. I've talked to a few docs for D1 schools, and the liability thing was always a big issue with them. If they did a surgery on someone, that person could come back and sue you for potential profits lost if the surgery outcome wasn't what was expected and they didn't get drafted. The person may not WIN, but it is a lot of hassle. The pros had lots of problems with pressure from management and when to approve players along with the inability to really miss a game, because they can always just find someone else.

Olympics people tend to be at the upper thresholds of their specialty and/or volunteer their time with certain teams. When you volunteer your time, it tends to be undervalued.
 
You could work for a circus.
 
ArcGurren said:
Yes, you do. If you're, for example, an orthopedic surgeon who travels with a football team (I shadowed one, though not at a game since it was offseason) then you travel with that team during the season on weekends to their games and stand on the side lines. Same with PM&R Sports Medicine specialists. It's a freaking cool job.
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Man does it sound like it.

My first thought was to be part of a transplant team, but I don't know how often that will take you internationally.

You could always volunteer for Doctors without Borders, right?
 
Geekchick921 said:
Man does it sound like it.

My first thought was to be part of a transplant team, but I don't know how often that will take you internationally.

You could always volunteer for Doctors without Borders, right?
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I've also heard this is a VERY ridiculously stressful lifestyle. Very poor work/life balance if you value the "life" part of it.
 
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I know this is an allopathic thread, but how would this work for DOs? I know that some countries do not recognize the DO degree and do not grant practicing privileges in their country.
 
There are a good deal of radiologists in PP who get 8-12 weeks of vacay. I would imagine they can travel a fair amount with that time off.
 
I know 3 docs in academia, in this past year between the 3 of them they have been to portugal, thailand, zimbabwe and new zealand for either conferences or asked to give a talk.
 
Abortion provider. http://www.womenonwaves.org/

I'm sure any of the high paying specialties would allow you to travel. Heck, one of the internal medicine docs I know has a summer home in Ireland.
 
I know a dermatologist who works 12 hours days so he can travel. He does both leisure travel and medical missions. Not a bad deal at all.

And of course, do a lot of research and you can go all over the place. One of the docs I work with is going to Milan next month to present a paper. Wish I could go, too!
 
People complain about not having enough family time and now you want to travel so you reduce that family time. Honestly, conferences and vacations where everyone can join should be enough.
 
thanks for the responses guys. i just wanted to clarify the type of travel im looking for.
I was looking into that doctors without borders program but i heard that it was too demanding and stressful so im shying away from that now. seeing whats going on in japan and other disaster zones, i think it would be pretty awesome to be on those first response teams helping out the moment things happen (not in the irradiated zones tho 😱). but my friends say that it isnt as glorious as i imagine it to be so im still unsure...
I also just want to have lots of vacation time. I want to "travel the world" and see as many different cities and countries as i possibly can.
maybe im asking too much but i just find myself daydreaming all the time about getting out of this dam library and going to new places
 
With tele radiology, you can work and live virtually anywhere, as long as you maintain multiple state licenses. I know some rads that have vacation homes and read from wherever they are at the time. I imagine these sorts of gigs will get more popular.
 
Limetime said:
With tele radiology, you can work and live virtually anywhere, as long as you maintain multiple state licenses. I know some rads that have vacation homes and read from wherever they are at the time. I imagine these sorts of gigs will get more popular.
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Do you have any proof that teleradiology jobs are abundant?? How about 10years from now? I would definitely do my best to get into radiology if it meant that I could live anywhere in the world. But I have also read that not only teleradiology(a small subset of radiology jobs) but overall job market may decline in the future. It's possible that it will be like pathology and you will depend totally on the generosity of partners to get any decent jobs. So do you have any proof that as long as you match radiology in 1-4years you get to live anywhere in the world 10yrs from now??
 
bongobingo said:
Do you have any proof that teleradiology jobs are abundant?? How about 10years from now? I would definitely do my best to get into radiology if it meant that I could live anywhere in the world. But I have also read that not only teleradiology(a small subset of radiology jobs) but overall job market may decline in the future. It's possible that it will be like pathology and you will depend totally on the generosity of partners to get any decent jobs. So do you have any proof that as long as you match radiology in 1-4years you get to live anywhere in the world 10yrs from now??
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The most common use of teleradiology is a radiologist reading from his home (Rather than go into the hospital at 3AM to read a film).

However, there is a group called nighthawk radiology, and I think this group has radiologists reading in Israel and Australia. I do not know how competitive these positions are, but they are certainly an enormous group (probably ~150-200 members).

Also, I do not know specifics, but teleradiologists are not allowed to make official reads (you must physically be on site I believe to do this). Instead, they make "preliminary reports." I find it hard to imagine making a good salary if you only make prelim reads, with your partner being legally responsible for making your read official.
 
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bongobingo said:
Do you have any proof that teleradiology jobs are abundant?? How about 10years from now? I would definitely do my best to get into radiology if it meant that I could live anywhere in the world. But I have also read that not only teleradiology(a small subset of radiology jobs) but overall job market may decline in the future. It's possible that it will be like pathology and you will depend totally on the generosity of partners to get any decent jobs. So do you have any proof that as long as you match radiology in 1-4years you get to live anywhere in the world 10yrs from now??
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No, no evidence that that is likely. Those jobs exist, but:

Generally speaking those radiology jobs farmed to other countries are inferior to 'on-site' radiologists (who can upload images from home at night rather than come in, but are still locally available for things like emergency UGIs and BEs on kids, etc.). Also, the skill of radiologists is lacking in many of the out-of-country jobs (I am being kind here from my experience. I've seen them miss massive free air on an abdominal CT and other things that aren't subtle findings. My point is, you want to have high quality work and be reliable....working out of the country in one of these agency jobs *could* hinder you from getting a job in the US should you move back as the reputation is not viewed as favorably as something permanently stateside.). Also, most hospitals/clinics prefer radiologists who are available in person to discuss patient findings with the ordering/consulting physician...they are not very inclined to let you travel abroad and have portable equipment and programming to read various images. Being abroad limits you mostly to agencies that cover ER reads overnight, which are typically over-read in the morning by the local radiologists.
 
If you enjoy travel, look into "locum tenens." This option is available for a number of specialties ranging from internal medicine, emergency medicine, etc. You can have the flexibility to travel all over if that's the route you choose.
 
mcatsucksss said:
thanks for the responses guys. i just wanted to clarify the type of travel im looking for.
I was looking into that doctors without borders program but i heard that it was too demanding and stressful so im shying away from that now. seeing whats going on in japan and other disaster zones, i think it would be pretty awesome to be on those first response teams helping out the moment things happen (not in the irradiated zones tho 😱). but my friends say that it isnt as glorious as i imagine it to be so im still unsure...
I also just want to have lots of vacation time. I want to "travel the world" and see as many different cities and countries as i possibly can.
maybe im asking too much but i just find myself daydreaming all the time about getting out of this dam library and going to new places
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I can't believe no one has mentioned yet.... emergency medicine, with international medicine 1-year fellowship.
 
sdf
 
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Pinner Doc said:
I can't believe no one has mentioned yet.... emergency medicine, with international medicine 1-year fellowship.
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2nd that! But, I would add you don't really need the fellowship. EM allows you to control your schedule to the extend that if you wanted to take months off per year and do international work (like doctors without borders) you can. The fellowships are overrated in my mind.
 
definitely emergency medicine. you never have to find another physician to cover your patients when you are gone...because you don't have any of your own patients.

you can work part-time and still make a good salary = lots of time off to travel.
 
cowme said:
The most common use of teleradiology is a radiologist reading from his home (Rather than go into the hospital at 3AM to read a film).

However, there is a group called nighthawk radiology, and I think this group has radiologists reading in Israel and Australia. I do not know how competitive these positions are, but they are certainly an enormous group (probably ~150-200 members).

Also, I do not know specifics, but teleradiologists are not allowed to make official reads (you must physically be on site I believe to do this). Instead, they make "preliminary reports." I find it hard to imagine making a good salary if you only make prelim reads, with your partner being legally responsible for making your read official.
Click to expand...

Yes, NightHawk just merged with vRad, so they are one huge group now. They do have rads reading from other countries, namely Australia and Switzerland. They can and do complete some final reads, but the vast majority are prelims. Many hospitals are increasing their outsourceing of rad services, including prelims and peer review.

I wouldn't say that traveling while working is the most feasible, but the flexibility of scheduling does allow for significant time off. That and the ability to read from home is a perq. I have no idea about the future of the field, I am only commenting from my current experiences.
 
Locums tenens......I believe pretty much any speciality fits the bill. You just go to the website set up for it, and look what hospital is in need of X doctor and go fill the positions for 3 months in australia, 1 month in california, 2 months in X etc.
 
A pathologist who spoke to my old pre-health club travelled all over the country doing autopsies. It seems that autopsies are not in high demand these days though, so there probably aren't a lot of those jobs out there.
 
mcatsucksss said:
hey guys
im still pretty much undecided in my career choice but am daydreaming about travelling all over the world (especially now when im stuck studying for step 1). i really enjoy being a tourist and was wondering what fields i could get into that would let me travel around and maybe even get work done internationally. any ideas?
Click to expand...


Public health and epidemiology docs travel tons. You should look ingot the NIH or CDC.
 
OneTyme said:
Public health and epidemiology docs travel tons. You should look ingot the NIH or CDC.
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You probably mean Infectious Diseases physicians...because public health and epidemiology are not specialization options.
 
muhali3 said:
You probably mean Infectious Diseases physicians...because public health and epidemiology are not specialization options.
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Well really, there are a lot of things that I could have meant. Like a residency in preventative medicine, or an IM residency combined with an MPH degree, or one could do and epidemiology fellowship after a few different residency options, or one could do something like this http://www.cdc.gov/cdcexperiencefellowship/ while they are in medical school and then go on to have a non-clinical career without a residency.

Bottom line, there are lots of ways that you can become an epidemiologist. The guy I know works for the CDC. He got his MD/MPH, did an IM residency, did an epidemiology fellowship, and then went to work with the CDC. He refers to himself as a 'clinical epidemiologist in the public health field'. And, he gets to travel A LOT.
 
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