Which specialty has the most self-learning?

[lacrossegirl420]

I learn best from reading / studying on my own, I was wondering which specialties would be most conductive to this?

I’m thinking radiology as of now. Not interested in pathology for various reasons. Academics / research are strong so matching shouldn’t be an issue I think.

Thank you!

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[M&L]

I was gonna say pathology - but you said no to that

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

A lot of the "chill" residencies come to mind. Mainly, their workload is less because they require more time to study. Derm and Optho are my first thoughts.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

I know this isn't what you're going for, but I'd make the argument for anyone who takes on a research role in academic medicine. Always something new to learn and no one is there to hold your hand through it.

Specialty wise, IIRC Rad-Onc had a lot of stuff for their boards that required very niche, non-clinical physics that required lot of self learning.

 

[catnip12]

Every specialty will require some level of self learning and It just depends on how much of your life you want to dedicate to that. Honestly, I think this is one of the worse ways to determine a specialty to go into.

 

[mrbreakfast]

The answer is definitely derm, but also keep in mind that by asking "which specialties would be most conductive to me reading/studying on my own?" - assuming you are thinking specifically of residency - you are actually asking "which specialties have the least busy schedules?" Every resident is expected to study independently at home, but how much you can study at home depends in part on whether your average week is five days of 9a-3p verses six days of 6a-6p.

Basically, the answer is "anything that doesn't involve inpatient or emergency work." Which significantly limits your options, so I wouldn't go off of this metric.


If you're thinking long-term, from my personal observations the highest ratio of reading up on extremely rare stuff compared to actually seeing patients occurs with physicians who specialize in rare immunological diseases. Some major academic centers also have "sub-subspecialists" who only see patients referred to them by other subspecialists in their department and can get away with seeing small, but very involved, patient populations. I assume those people study a lot.

 

[Dr. Doctor MD]

Radiology, Pathology, Dermatology - All have a massive amount of reading and self learning. The residencies are too short to possibly encounter anywhere close all the diagnoses in their respective fields. Even if you don't see cases in residency, you will still be expected to pick up on the zebras and rare cases in practice when you're out on your own, and you can't do that without extensive reading and studying.

I'm sure that a lot of the basic science-y specialties (like genetics or immunology) probably have a lot of minutia and reading based on having such a high number of very rare and specific diseases that they need to know how to diagnose and treat.

 

[dieABRdie]

Specialty wise, IIRC Rad-Onc had a lot of stuff for their boards that required very niche, non-clinical physics that required lot of self learning.

Yep.... four board exams. Radiation Biology, Radiation Physics, Clinical Exam (3 written); and Oral Boards