Category Archive: Pathology

Physician Satisfaction by Specialty

The most recent installment of the Medscape Physician Compensation Report was recently published. Along with some of the best information on the web about physician salaries by specialty, the new Medscape report also reports which specialties are the most satisfied with their jobs (click here to view the entire Medscape Report). The results may surprise you. There is no correlation with salary and satisfaction.  The highest paid specialties (orthopedics and anesthesia for example) are found in the middle of the list while pediatrics, ID/HIV, and pathology are all found at the top of the list.  Interestingly, plastic surgery is–by far–the least satisfying specialty. So, the most competitive specialty is by far the least satisfying…that’s odd!

 

From the 2012 Medscape Compensation Report

 

My conclusions from the Physician Satisfaction Survey:

  1. The age old adage is correct: Money does NOT buy happiness.
  2. Just because a specialty is desirable to match into does not mean it is desirable to practice in [plastics].
  3. I can find only one thing that links the most satisfying specialties: LIFESTYLE.  If you look at dermatology, psychiatry, emergency medicine, infectious disease, pathology, and ophthalmology they have a great lifestyle in common. They all have minimal call, good salary (but they are not the big earners), and few emergencies.  They all lend themselves well to family, recreation, and other hobbies outside of medicine.

 

My unsolicited advice:

  • I am sure there are my internists and plastic surgeons who are very satisfied with their jobs. I would bet that they knew exactly what there were getting into before they choose their specialty. Satisfaction in the workplace has lots to do with managing your expectations (and the expectations of your family and friends!)  If you really love some of the specialties that do not have the best lifestyle, that is great, just make sure you know that this will be an issue before you go into he specialty. Once you have made that decision, you will not be shocked (and neither will your family/friends) when you work a lot more than those around you.

Histology Websites

Image from "Ed's Histology Review"

Histology is an extremely important topic during medical school, both in the pre-clinical years as you study anatomy and pathology, and during the clinical years when you are diagnosing patients. Many questions during school, including all three parts of the USMLE or COMLEX test will include histologic slides and ask for diagnosis or interpretation.  It is imperative that all medical students get a solid foundation in histology.  Years ago, most student would purchase histology textbooks.  However, recently, a number of medical schools have created free and easy-to-use websites for studying histology.  If you are still a book person, let me suggest Histology: A Text and Atlas which has great slides and explanations.  Otherwise, if you are like me and would like to save the money, let me outline some of the best histology review sites on the internet.

If you don’t want to spend the money and don’t mind using websites to study, let me recommend two fantastic  histology websites

If you know of other great websites, please let me know.