You Wanna Do What!!??

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FutureDrB

FutureDrB

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So I thought it would be fun to find out what everyone wants to specialize in and why?

Personally, I'm about 75% FP 20% OB/GYN...and 5% hope I get in

Family practice because I want to spend a lot of time and get to know my patients and OB/GYN for the same reason + I love babies.
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Everyone continually asks me this question and then act all surprised when I say that I don't know.

I don't know about the rest of you, but at this point any field to me seems awesome and something I wish I could go do tomorrow.
 
My TOP Three (before entering med school) are:

1) pediatrics - cuz i enjoy hangin around the lil buggers.

2) Internal Medicine (subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases) - itd be great to help out an underdeveloped community in the tropics.

3) Surgery - immediate gratification and intensity of procedures

and for fun:
*) Psychiatry - I majored in psych and find the field of Psychoneuroimmunology fascinating. I don't know if I'd want to work as a psychiatrist tho...
 
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1) Pediatric Surgery
2) Pediatric Subspecialty (Heme/Onc or Cards?)
3) General Peds.


I love working with kids.
 
Hey guys give this a go. Its an assessment that can help you determine which specialty your personality is closest to. No doubt the results will change over time as we discover what we REALLY like and don't like, but for now its a nice tool.

http://medweb.usc.edu/pathways/interior.htm?self-assessment.htm

For me....
1- Anesthesiology
2- ENT
3- Colon and Rectal surgery
4- Sports medicine
 
TeamZissou said:
Hey guys give this a go. Its an assessment that can help you determine which specialty your personality is closest to. No doubt the results will change over time as we discover what we REALLY like and don't like, but for now its a nice tool.

http://medweb.usc.edu/pathways/interior.htm?self-assessment.htm

For me....
1- Anesthesiology
2- ENT
3- Colon and Rectal surgery
4- Sports medicine
Click to expand...


Thanks for the link! I checked it out and got the following...

1 - Colon and Rectal Surgery
2 - Orthapedic Surgery
3 - Cardiology
4 - Urology
5 - General Surgery

And the ranks of the two fields I'm interested in right now...

14 - OB/GYN
20 - Family Practice
 
Chuck's Right Foot said:
1) Pediatric Surgery
2) Pediatric Subspecialty (Heme/Onc or Cards?)
3) General Peds.


I love working with kids.
Click to expand...


Me too! I just don't know what subspecialties are available coming out of a peds residency :confused:
I imagine itd be all the same stuff available as that of a person from an Internal Medicine residency, right?
Or would you just do whatever residency you liked...then later subspecialize to work more exclusively with a pediatric population?
 
DrMattOglesby said:
Me too! I just don't know what subspecialties are available coming out of a peds residency :confused:
I imagine itd be all the same stuff available as that of a person from an Internal Medicine residency, right?
Or would you just do whatever residency you liked...then later subspecialize to work more exclusively with a pediatric population?
Click to expand...

I just took a class and made friends with a Neuro Peds fellow. Seemed pretty awesome!!

I think you can do anything peds. My friends father is a optho-peds, and I know of a peds-derm. Sky's the limit, do what you love :D
 
TeamZissou said:
Hey guys give this a go. Its an assessment that can help you determine which specialty your personality is closest to. No doubt the results will change over time as we discover what we REALLY like and don't like, but for now its a nice tool.

http://medweb.usc.edu/pathways/interior.htm?self-assessment.htm
Click to expand...

I tried this one about a month ago, and it spit back:
1. Emergency Med
2. Pulmonary / Critical Care med
3. Otolaryngology
4. Radiation Oncology
5. Urology

I'd say it's pretty close on numbers 1 and 2; can't say I really know enough about ENT, Oncology, and Urology to say whether I'd want to do those, though. Anesthesia, another field I'd consider, is in the middle of the field.

There's another medical specialties test at http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/, and although it's good to have a second opinion, I'd say USC's is probably more accurate for me. My top 5 according to Virginia were:

1. Med Oncology (What is it with me and cancer?)
2. Anesthesia
3. General Surgery
4. OB/Gyn
5. Nuclear Med

Dead last from the Virginia test: Emergency Medicine. Go figure!


I'm hanging on to a printout of both of these, so I can look back in 3 or 4 years at what I thought I wanted to do, and laugh.
 
1 - Emergency Medicine :love:

2 - Pathology :sleep:

3 - Otolaryngology :barf:

4 - Pulmonary / Critical Care Medicine :cry:

5 - Radiation Oncology :shrug:

The smilies explain how I feel about each of these. They had my #1 right though :) Good link.

Josh
 
You are all wrong ... the correct answer is that you all want dermatology. That is why you go into medicine ... dermatology. If you don't know this by your freshman year in college, you better start undergrad derm related research stat !!! :smuggrin:


Just kidding. I'd actually love to do derm though (if were being honest). I'd like to be in some sort of (at least partial) cosmetic practice, but whenever I take one of those tests it says PRS big time (which I'd love, but I don't know if I could deal with the 7-8 years of training:eek:).
 
engineeredout said:
Everyone continually asks me this question and then act all surprised when I say that I don't know.

I don't know about the rest of you, but at this point any field to me seems awesome and something I wish I could go do tomorrow.
Click to expand...

:thumbup:

I have a pretty good idea (EM, gen surgery, ortho, plastic, FM, maybe peds but I think its just that I'm looking to have kids at some point in my life), but I'm 99% certain that I will changing my mind. I went into undergrad 150% certain that I would do Comp Sci and look where I am now =)

Eng - is it just me, or you having a hard time comparing match lists because of this area of gray?
 
1. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
2. Preventive Medicine
3. Radiation Oncology
4. Allergy and Immunology
5. Dermatology
6. Neurology

That's what I got. I only added the sixth one because it's (currently) my number one interest!

My personal list would be:

1. Neurology
2. Emergency Medicine
3. Internal Medicine (possible subspecialty)

However, I understand that my personal list will change several times before it actually becomes relevant. :D
 
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lol the link told me that I should go into radiology..that would be a sweet job. We'll see about that.

My top choices are
1.General Surgery
2.EM
3.FP

I always thought orthopedic surgery would be cool, haven't really spent much time observing that though.
 
DoktorB said:
I always thought orthopedic surgery would be cool, haven't really spent much time observing that though.
Click to expand...

I've seen a few ortho surgeries. It's kinda like carpentry, except you do it on people, there are bone fragments instead of sawdust, and it smells worse. :D

Can't say it's my cup of tea, but those were some cool procedures!
 
Personal:
1) EM
2) Surgery (gen, ortho, plastics)
3) FP
4) Maybe Peds or some IM sub-speciality
Last) Psych :bang:

Result:
1) Pulmonary / CCare :confused:
2) Otolaryngology (ENT) :wtf:
3) Vascular and IR
4) Ortho
5) Gen Surgery
9) Plastics
21) FP
22) Peds
23) EM :shrug:
Last) Psych
 
Altruist said:
I've seen a few ortho surgeries. It's kinda like carpentry, except you do it on people, there are bone fragments instead of sawdust, and it smells worse. :D

Can't say it's my cup of tea, but those were some cool procedures!
Click to expand...

I've only gotten to see 2 (human) ortho surgeries - 2 knee replacements

...but what I can I say. I grew up in my father's vet practice watching surgeries (castrations, ortho, gen), intubating, and helping with emergencies (urinary, births, trauma) for ~ 1/2 of my life.

I'm just glad about psych. From my experiences with family members, it's Russian Roulette with pills:
  1. Try this, did it work?
  2. No -> Increase the dosage. Did it work?
  3. No -> Keep taking it. Did it work?
  4. No -> Try this instead. Did it work?
  5. No -> Try this instead. Did it work?
  6. It helped -> Increase the dosage. Did it work?
  7. I can't see straight anymore -> Repeat cycle
:thumbdown:
 
I just finished using the Pathway Evaluation Program mentioned above and these are the top three specialties that I matched with:

1. Nephrology
2. Cardiology
3. Family Practice

Very interesting. I'm open to these choices and I can see myself doing any one of these. I'll keep these in mind as I move forward.
 
nevinleiby said:
...but what I can I say. I grew up in my father's vet practice watching surgeries (castrations)...
Click to expand...


I saw a horse castration as a kid and it was HORRIBLE. They just put the horse out and clamped the pliers down until the deed was done.

Hahaha I've seen some pretty grusome human stuff but for some reason it didn't unnerve me nearly as bad as seeing the horse loose its stalionhood.:eek:
 
Heh, those were interesting little "tests". I did both and found the results interesting.

For the VA one.
1. Nuclear Med
2. Preventive Med
3. Pulmonology
4. Nephrology
5. Neurosurgery

For the other one the results were:

1. Anesthesiology
2. Neonatal - Perinatal Medicine
3. Otolaryngology
4. Sports Medicine
5. Orthopaedic Surgery

I haven't considered a single specialty on either list...
 
Some of my interests at this point:

Allergy / Immunology
Cardiology
Hematology / Oncology
Radiology
Infectious Disease
Endocrinology
Emergency Medicine
Pathology
Nephrology
 
My personal interes as of right now in no partiuclar order:

1. sports medicine (through a general residency like peds/EM/FP)
2. orthopedic surgery (sports med fellowship)
3. preventive medicine (how about that SDN scholarship? i cant wait to read more info about it, but it sounds pretty sweet!)
4. Peds is becoming more and more intriguing.


Now i'm gonna take that test and see what it spits out!
 
Interesting....

Top 5: Cardiology, Neurology, Urology, Nephrology, Pediatrics

#7: Ortho

# 17: sports med

Bottom 5: Preventive medicine, gas, EM, pathology, radiology


Top five is a little weird (havent thought twice about the middle three). Im definitely interested in cardiology tho...and peds as i mentinoed. The Bottom 5 sounds about right, except for the preventive medicine thing!! I think its b/c i ranked really high "continuity with patients" and looking at the results the preventive medicien docs were one of the lowest for that scale...
 
1. EM!!! :D
2. IM:)
3. Neurosurgery :oops:

But first its just about getting into med school :eek:
 
TeamZissou said:
I saw a horse castration as a kid and it was HORRIBLE. They just put the horse out and clamped the pliers down until the deed was done.

Hahaha I've seen some pretty grusome human stuff but for some reason it didn't unnerve me nearly as bad as seeing the horse loose its stalionhood.:eek:
Click to expand...

I've never seen a horse cast, but many many dogs. You get a chance to work in a more controlled/sterile environment, but the principle is pretty much the same. You have to stop the bleeding one way or another, which involves clamping the vessels to the testes, followed by suturing...


yeah, preventative medicine was also low on my list...I thought the whole desire to become a osteopath would take care of 95% of that....:laugh:
 
Last edited:
nevinleiby said:
:thumbup:

I have a pretty good idea (EM, gen surgery, ortho, plastic, FM, maybe peds but I think its just that I'm looking to have kids at some point in my life), but I'm 99% certain that I will changing my mind. I went into undergrad 150% certain that I would do Comp Sci and look where I am now =)

Eng - is it just me, or you having a hard time comparing match lists because of this area of gray?
Click to expand...


No not really. Just because one particular year happened to match 10 derms doesn't mean I'm going to have a better chance matching derm. Just because one school matches more anestesia than ENT doesn't mean I wont be able to match ENT. Look at the match lists and get an overview of where people are going. If there is a decent mix of competitive residencys, then nothing wrong with it.
 
At this point I'm not completely sure. Emergency Medicine is however my biggest interest.
 
I have no idea at this point but I lean towards Family Medicine/OB/GYN/Preventative Medicine. Here are my rankings:

1. Derm
2. Radiation Oncology
3. Ophthalmology
4. Physical Therapy and Rehab
5 Gastroenterology

Not too thrilled about any of those and I doubt I could get into Derm. How funny, its like the school counselor test for doctors lol!!
 
1) Dermatology - zzzz
2) Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation - unlikely to do
3) Ophthalmology - zzzz
4) Radiation Oncology - Very interested in this now
5) Gastroenterology - Could possibly see myself doing this

Others I've been seriously pondering:
#17 - Medical Oncology
#9 - Cardiology - since being diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome this has really been in my mind
#41 - Pathology (why so low? lol)
 
1) EM
2) FP
3) Neurosurgery
4) Pediatric Surgery
5) General Surgery
6) Endocrinology
7) Interventional Radiology

But who knows I have a few years to figure it out.
 
Last edited:
Yes: EM, IM, sports med, cardiology, physical rehab

No: surgery, psych
 
DrMattOglesby said:
Me too! I just don't know what subspecialties are available coming out of a peds residency :confused:
I imagine itd be all the same stuff available as that of a person from an Internal Medicine residency, right?
Or would you just do whatever residency you liked...then later subspecialize to work more exclusively with a pediatric population?
Click to expand...

Just cuz you wondered:
After peds residency and boarded by American Board of Pediatrics (from ABP website, mostly):
Adolescent Medicine
Pediatric Cardiology
Child Abuse Pediatrics
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics
Pediatric Emergency Medicine (if coming from peds; there are EM trained folk who do a Peds ED fellowship and are boarded through ABEM)
Pediatric Endocrinology
Pediatric Gastroenterology
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
Hospice & Palliative Medicine ("The ABP, in collaboration with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPMR), the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), the American Board of Radiology (ABR), and the American Board of Surgery (ABS) offers a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.")
Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Medical Toxicology
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Pediatric Nephrology
Pediatric Pulmonology
Pediatric Rheumatology
Sleep Medicine ("ABP, in collaboration with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Board of Otolaryngology (ABO to), and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) offers a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sleep Medicine.")
Sports Medicine
Pediatric Transplant Hepatology ("The ABP, in collaboration with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) will offer a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Pediatric Transplant Hepatology.")

Peds residency, but boarded by a different entity than ABP:
Child neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (boarded through ABPN)
Allergy and Immunology (boarded by the ABAI)

There are pediatric subspecialists in other fields as well: surgery, ortho, ophtho, uro, neurosurg, radiology, pathology. These people do a residency in their primary specialty (i.e. not peds) and then a peds-specialty fellowship. They're boarding has nothing to do with the ABP.

There are also a handful of people who do a peds residency followed by a combined (5 year) pathway incorporating training in anesthesia and peds anesthesia (boarding though ABA) and peds critical care (still ABP). Hopkins has the most advertised program, but I think CHOP and maybe a few others have them as well.
 
DrMattOglesby said:
Me too! I just don't know what subspecialties are available coming out of a peds residency :confused:
I imagine itd be all the same stuff available as that of a person from an Internal Medicine residency, right?
Click to expand...

Happened to see J-Rad's response...

Pretty much the same subspecialties, but the IM folks switch out geriatrics for our neonatology. I have long advocated for a dual-fellowship in these two areas.:smuggrin:
 
Thanks guys for the info. I wish there was a magic way to figure out which one is best for us. Guess time for lots of exposure.....
 
Chuck's Right Foot said:
Thanks guys for the info. I wish there was a magic way to figure out which one is best for us. Guess time for lots of exposure.....
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about anyone else, but that has been one of my main focuses during this "time off"...trying to see other specialties since rotations are so superfiscial. Anyone else trying to do the same thing?
 
I did the pathways evaluation as well.

Top 5 it gave me:

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dermatology
Radiation Oncology
Neurology
Allergy and Immunology

Top 5 I am considering:

Psychiatry
Medical Oncology
Gastroenterology
Neurology
Dermatology

Some similarities
 
oldbearprofessor said:
Happened to see J-Rad's response...

Pretty much the same subspecialties, but the IM folks switch out geriatrics for our neonatology. I have long advocated for a dual-fellowship in these two areas.:smuggrin:
Click to expand...

Remember those cat-in-a-bottle Photoshopped images? Some enterprising Photoshopper should make one with an old guy in an isolette as an advert for that
 
IM or Pediatrics. I may want to specialize, but at the moment, I'm not too sure...just taking one step at a time.
 
Chocolate Teddy said:
IM or Pediatrics. I may want to specialize, but at the moment, I'm not too sure...just taking one step at a time.
Click to expand...


Who the **** are you? How can we have a chocolate bear and a chocolate teddy? This is weird :eek:
 
Semicolon said:
1. Neurology
2. Emergency Medicine
3. Internal Medicine (possible subspecialty)

However, I understand that my personal list will change several times before it actually becomes relevant. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah I like neurology myself - it's fascinating, so much is still unknown in that arena and there's still room to make a real contribution.

I also like immunology for largely the same reasons.
 
dozitgetchahi said:
Yeah I like neurology myself - it's fascinating, so much is still unknown in that arena and there's still room to make a real contribution.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. :thumbup:

Learning about it (and its implications) seems to interest me more than any other subject. The fact that much of it is unknown just adds a mysterious allure to it that I find hard to resist. :D

However, I've never personally met a neurologist, so I don't have any true insight on the field.
 
oh, wow, that's funny. i didn't realize i caused such a stir. thanks for showing me choc bear!
 
Chuck's Right Foot said:
1) Pediatric Surgery
2) Pediatric Subspecialty (Heme/Onc or Cards?)
3) General Peds.


I love working with kids.
Click to expand...

A lot of people do. It is the parents that begin to dissuade most people. ;)
 
Semicolon said:
Totally agree. :thumbup:

Learning about it (and its implications) seems to interest me more than any other subject. The fact that much of it is unknown just adds a mysterious allure to it that I find hard to resist. :D

However, I've never personally met a neurologist, so I don't have any true insight on the field.
Click to expand...

Yeah I wonder why, for instance, the matching stats for neurology residencies tend to be so low. It doesn't seem to make sense to me.
 
UVA survey:

Optho
Urology
Occupational Med
Aerospace Med
Neurology


USC Survey:

Radiation Oncology
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Pediatrics
Cardiology
Neurology
 
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