Which specialty makes the most money

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I don't know for sure but i've heard spine surgery.
 
I've heard that its Cardiothoracic surgery but that is changing with the new advances in stenting and such.
 
cardiologists in wisconsin! 😀
 
Hello.
I remember reading that in the US, Neurosurgery was the best-paid speciality, Thoracicsurgery was number two.
Among the least paid were Endocrinology and Rheumatology.

I think I found the link on this site, so if you have time to browse through the threads, you may be lucky and find the link. The thread is about 6-7 months old as far as I recall.
 
I've heard that pediatricians are in the 95% percentile in terms of US income, and they are one of the least paid docs...I just figured all doctors make good money, so it doesn't matter to me *that much! I guess it matters to me somewhat, since I am posting in your thread for the second time. 😳
 
those numbers from that link seem somewhat inflated...is there anyone who has some experience with physician salaries? are these accurate figures?

OP-->I'm surprised no one has bawled you out yet for asking a money related question. It seems to always happen.
 
Firebird said:
those numbers from that link seem somewhat inflated...is there anyone who has some experience with physician salaries? are these accurate figures?

OP-->I'm surprised no one has bawled you out yet for asking a money related question. It seems to always happen.
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They are definetly inflated...look at podiatry...it shows an average of $168,000...that's way off

I think the best bet would be to go www.salary.com....that's the most accurate ..and it shows it by region
 
Well those numbers may look deflated but there are an aggregate of what is out there. How about this http://www.newphysician.com/articles/graduating_incomes.html it is the recommended starting salary for new grads. Note EM is bad. I think these are pretty nice pay days. Tell me which specialties you disagree with? I think optho might be low but I have heard that it is highly oversaturated and the need in the future is going to be limited.
 
Also, if you read the fine print on the page most of the numbers are the guaranteed pay and does not include bonuses or other forms of compensation (Student Loan repayment, moving costs, signing bonuses etc.). At least thats what I think I remember reading.
 
EctopicFetus said:
Well those numbers may look deflated but there are an aggregate of what is out there. How about this http://www.newphysician.com/articles/graduating_incomes.html it is the recommended starting salary for new grads. Note EM is bad. I think these are pretty nice pay days. Tell me which specialties you disagree with? I think optho might be low but I have heard that it is highly oversaturated and the need in the future is going to be limited.
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EM is BAD???? 175dollars/hour x 36hours/week x 48 weeks/year = 302,400 dollars/year. That seems fairly high to me.

Pathology isn't listed--typical.

I would guess Rads is severely underestimated. Ortho is probably moderately underestimated. FP is right around average, though....but you can make a lot more than that in FP if you want to.
 
I think Rad, either Diag or Interventional, is pretty high. 1st year we had a specialty talk from a fellow and he told us in private practice you could ask $300K or more plus nearly 26 weeks of vacation time. I know the surgical specialists probably make more, but do they get 6 months out of the year off?
 
A personal injury lawyer will beat them all! :scared:
 
Firebird said:
EM is BAD???? 175dollars/hour x 36hours/week x 48 weeks/year = 302,400 dollars/year. That seems fairly high to me.

Pathology isn't listed--typical.

I would guess Rads is severely underestimated. Ortho is probably moderately underestimated. FP is right around average, though....but you can make a lot more than that in FP if you want to.
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Sorry I must have gotten distracted. What I meant to say is EM is wrong cause if you read closely it says they make 125-175K per hour. Obviously the "K" should not be there. EM has very very good pay. I would guess you are much more likely to get around $125/hr and work closer to 32 hours per week. This salary is much more inline with what I heard. Talking to an ER attending you can start in a suburb and make about 210 to start plus signing and other bonuses. Not too bad for only a 3 yr residency.

Also as far as trial lawyers go ( and I do hate them) only the good ones make more. Fortunately, there are enough idiots out there who make the crappy living they all deserve.
 
My brother's a personal injury/medical malpractice lawyer and he is doing very well. And no he's not an idiot or a bastard, he graduated number one in his law school class and works his ass off for what he does. Let's face it, we are all human and make mistakes, including doctors. It's only fair. Some of the stories i've heard are outrageous. Let's just hope none of us do that!
 
KylieP54 said:
My brother's a personal injury/medical malpractice lawyer and he is doing very well. And no he's not an idiot or a bastard, he graduated number one in his law school class and works his ass off for what he does. Let's face it, we are all human and make mistakes, including doctors. It's only fair. Some of the stories i've heard are outrageous. Let's just hope none of us do that!
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It's a cold world. I plan to put your brother out of business
 
KylieP54 said:
My brother's a personal injury/medical malpractice lawyer and he is doing very well. And no he's not an idiot or a bastard, he graduated number one in his law school class and works his ass off for what he does. Let's face it, we are all human and make mistakes, including doctors. It's only fair. Some of the stories i've heard are outrageous. Let's just hope none of us do that!
Click to expand...

I hope you knock some good sense into him by making sure he doesnt bring frivoulous lawsuits to court
 
theduke said:
It's a cold world. I plan to put your brother out of business
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yeah, i'd like to see that. he agrees that some lawyers make the biggest deals out of nothing and he doesn't do that.

and no, i dont' have to knock some sense into him, he can take both of you down in a second if you were to ever do anything wrong. unfortunately there's plenty of doctors out there who make wrong decisions, so he'll be employed for quite a long time. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
 
KylieP54 said:
he can take both of you down in a second if you were to ever do anything wrong.
Click to expand...

Yeah, well...Ill tell my mom and she would get you in trouble too...lol
 
just cause frivilous lawsuits are filed against physicians, doesnt mean that there's something wrong with trial lawyers in general. Lawsuits are one of the few measures of justice that give individuals some power against multibillion dollar corporations that run this country.
Trial lawyers are battling tobacco companies, they're helping to bring about changes in hiring and promotion practices at wallmart and other companies and they have and will continue to play a critical role in preserving the integrity of our democracy.
 
geromine said:
just cause frivilous lawsuits are filed against physicians, doesnt mean that there's something wrong with trial lawyers in general. Lawsuits are one of the few measures of justice that give individuals some power against multibillion dollar corporations that run this country.
Trial lawyers are battling tobacco companies, they're helping to bring about changes in hiring and promotion practices at wallmart and other companies and they have and will continue to play a critical role in preserving the integrity of our democracy.
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What a load of crap. Tell me, have Phillip Morris' (Altria!!!) profit margins changed in the last fifty years? Or, has the amount of money that the average smoker pays for cigarretes gone way the Hell up (to $5 or so a pack). This is one of the biggest loads of garbage that the trial lawyers put out there. Corporations exist to make a profit. When a corporation gets hit with a multi-million lawsuit, its evil profits don't magically get wiped out-- they just raise the price they charge to whoever consumes their product. This is really very basic economics that a lot of Democrats just seem incapable of comprehending.
 
Malpractice suits, you yanks have it rough..............oh well, here's to being Canadian and not having to worry so much! :clap:
 
This is what I heard..
Most cases get thrown out of court, unless it's an extremely obvious damage to the patient. Most of them get settled out of court, and even if it goes to court, the specialist board of doctors who will testify will try their best to support the doctor.
Is it true that the defense always asks: Is this done in name of the best medical care?
And the answer given by the specialist (on behalf of the doc being sued) is a "Yes"

KylieP54, can you quote some cases and what does your brother actually say/do that makes him do so well in the medical malpractice business? Is he suing really dumb doctors who made really stupid mistakes? Or some nice doc who was sleepy and he made a wrong judgement?
 
coastal said:
Malpractice suits, you yanks have it rough..............oh well, here's to being Canadian and not having to worry so much! :clap:
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I'm from Malaysia, and I don't think it's even existant over here. We do hear of cases once in a while, but then after a while, you don't hear of it before. And when they do call for a specialist board to testify, the board will definately support the doc, regardless..unless it's an extremely stupid doc who made an obvious mistake, hence my post on top.
No specialist wants to become a pariah/black sheep of the community by testifying against another doc
 
coastal said:
Malpractice suits, you yanks have it rough..............oh well, here's to being Canadian and not having to worry so much! :clap:
Click to expand...

Last I heard, a Canadian family practice doc makes about $65K a year. A US fp doc makes double that (net, after expenses and malpractice insurance). For specialists, the relative and absolute differences are probably even greater. The malpractice thing is certainly frustrating and onerous for some specialties (ob/gyn in certain regions, especially), but certainly not at nationwide crisis levels. OTOH, why allow a small bunch of medmal parasites to ruin the lives of any doctors?

As to the actually statistics, I know the new RAND study showed that only 22% of California medmal lawsuits that go to trial end in a finding for the plaintiff. Unfortunately, those 78% of medmal doctors who triumph get jack **** for the all frustration and annoyance they went through.

A good partial solution to medmal (and the tort scam that we have developed in this country) is "loser-pays" laws. Just give the jury an extra instruction and deliberation after the verdict, with a question of something like, "Was this lawsuit frivolous or without merit?" If yes, the doc or whoever has been sued should get all their legal expenses paid for. I think that would shut down a lot of these crap lawsuits, and make the other party make damn sure they actually have something legitimate to sue for. I'd add the jury question though so it wasn't a "loser always pays," so much as, "loser pays when bringing especially marginal lawsuit."
 
Call me whatever you want, I think it's sad when people choose their specialties because of money. Come on, you'll be a doc, and unless you have an ultra expensive lifestyle, you'll be more comfortable than most of the population. So, hmm, how about choosing a specialty just because it interests you, and not because how many more 100 Ks you can make over another speciality ?
 
Obviously american doctors make more money than canadians....you have a private health care system. The only data I could find were average physician billings (to the various provincial health plans) for 2002. From that data, Canadian FPs gross just over 190k Canadian or 145k Yank. Unless you're paying 80k in overhead, 65k seems pretty low.

Besides, 65k US is more than enough cash to live a great lifestyle in Canada. Gotta do it cause you love it, not cause they're paying you!
 
coastal said:
Obviously american doctors make more money than canadians....you have a private health care system. The only data I could find were average physician billings (to the various provincial health plans) for 2002. From that data, Canadian FPs gross just over 190k Canadian or 145k Yank. Unless you're paying 80k in overhead, 65k seems pretty low.

Besides, 65k US is more than enough cash to live a great lifestyle in Canada. Gotta do it cause you love it, not cause they're paying you!
Click to expand...
Exactly ! These numbers are way too low for canadian salaries. I know plenty of Canadian MDs who make way more than 65 K a year. I think the lowest I heard of was 125 K ( canadian $ ). There are even 30 % bonuses if you practice in rural regions. Don't listen to these weird stats, they're far away from the truth. Maybe they're trying to discourage people who enter medicine just for the money, and god knows there are plenty of them.. 🙄
 
Ericdamiansean, i don't know the details obviously, since he can't discuss them with me, but he's not out to get doctors in any way, he's ecstatic that I'm going to med school. He actually wants to go back to school so he can go to med school and become a doctor himself. The cases he has are doctors making dumb mistakes that cost people their lives. It's sad, that's all I'm saying, because people die due to a doc's mishandling. And as I said before, we all make mistakes, we are human, but sometimes there has to be consequences for our mistakes. I do agree that there are plenty of great doctors out there getting sued for stupid things.
 
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