How being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession

[Bruce Banner]

Elab

Family Medicine here...im prob the only primary care person on this board.....and i agree with majority of the posters....if you are doing this for the money...its NOT for you....and its also stressful...but like majority of the others that are MDs we cant really express much frustration of loans etc because the general population assumes you are rolling in dough, when in reality, you are Aunt Sallies *****. Going this path has closed some previous relationships. While opening others....

To all the MDs out here...the real money isnt from your Dr income...the real money is how you invest it and your side hustles..

If i could do it all over again...i def would go a dif route...but still stay in healthcare

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Elaborate on that , like where in healthcare ? Physical therapy or physician assistant ?

 

[ybyb20]

Until we invent that machine in elysium that instantly cures you of any problems/diseases, doctors are gonna be around lol

 

[jordan balla]

How do you doctors feel about overseas MD's - specifically those who went to the Carrib or Philippines for med school because they couldn't get in to US? Are they looked down upon in the community?

Also, have you encountered such MD's during your residency? Did they or do you advise against overseas schooling in terms of the journey back into the US.

i would advise against going the foreign medical route at this point, just because of the difficult time you would have obtaining a US residency when you would finish med school. if i remember correctly, in 2017, all US residency spots will be accounted for by US medical students. Granted, some of them wont pass their boards, many will compete for more prestigious residencies leaving other spots open, but bottom line there wont be enough spots to go around for the rest. that 53% number will be cut to a third of that... not saying it would be impossible but its definitely an uphill battle

 

[blazinrook]

The more jobs the tech industry take away, the more depressed/frustrated society becomes at all levels. Stress increases for adults who can't provide for their family, who don't feel recognized as self worth drops.

Depression/frustration/stress will always lead to bad health.

If there's an increase in bad health, the demand for drs will always be there.

Drs ain't going anywhere

 

[wawawowee]

What routine work are you talking about wawwooo? You mean stuff like charting and billing docs would love to get rid of all the paperwork. What robot do you see coming down the line that will do a complete physical and neurologic exam. What about a robot to do simple surgeries or simple procedures but it assumes normal anatomy and hits an aberrant artery. What about doing a lung biopsyin someone with copd and they get a pneumothorax and they need an emergent chest tube or the will have cardiovascular collapse will the robot then be able to grab a chest tube and throw one in in minutes?

just curious of your background in the medical field. I would love to hear all this great automated products you know about.

How many doctors are leading breakthroughs in medicine or  how many physicians' day to day work involves working with brand new medical technologies?

The vast majority of doctors, especially non-surgeons, perform routine procedures day in and day out. It is work that demands a high skill set ( some practices don't even demand that high of a skill set) but it is routine work nonetheless. 

Just like flying a helicopter or jet demands a higher skill set but automation is strong in that sector. Welding during car assembly also demands a fairly high skill set as well but all routine welds are now performed by a robot. Specialized welds are still performed by humans, though.

Some sectors of the medical field will be extremely hard or not cost effective enough to automate in our lifetime. Certain specialties will fair much better than others. However, don't delude yourself into believing that just because our present society has put doctors on such on a high pedestal that that;s where most of them belong. For most of human history and even in many developed countries nowadays, being a doctor was/is simply an upper-middle profession. Just like an accountant, lawyer, pilot, etc. 

There are plenty of ideas and innovations in the pipeline. Some need time and others are hampered by regulation / the medical lobby.

I googled " medical tech replacing doctors" and this was the first link. http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/02/v...ace-80-percent-of-doctors-sparks-indignation/ 

This was 2 years ago ( I didn't know about this talk either). 

I'd argue that even at this point in time it's pharma and medical tech that are way more important (as sectors) than physicians themselves. As in, they save more lives and improve the quality of life much more than the actions of physicians themselves. 

Pilots used to be at the top of the food chain. Now, they're little more than aides to the automated systems that run the airplane.  At this point, the main reason we even have pilots is because people would freak out if there weren't any in the cockpit and FAA regulations notwithstanding the fact that the planes basically fly themselves and in the majority of incidents, it's pilot error that leads to mishaps.

 

[typerpinoy]

you must not work in healthcare, at least not in patient care, and you certainly are not a physician if you think our society holds doctors on a high pedestal

 

[wawawowee]

What routine work are you talking about wawwooo? You mean stuff like charting and billing docs would love to get rid of all the paperwork. What robot do you see coming down the line that will do a complete physical and neurologic exam. What about a robot to do simple surgeries or simple procedures but it assumes normal anatomy and hits an aberrant artery. What about doing a lung biopsyin someone with copd and they get a pneumothorax and they need an emergent chest tube or the will have cardiovascular collapse will the robot then be able to grab a chest tube and throw one in in minutes?

just curious of your background in the medical field. I would love to hear all this great automated products you know about.

you must not work in healthcare, at least not in patient care, and you certainly are not a physician if you think our society holds doctors on a high pedestal

Pay = pedestal. Yes, it is a high pedestal. I'm not talking about the perceived respect that doctors believe they are owed/ not owed or whether some believe that they deserve to make more money. According to the wages that our society has set, doctors are on a high pedestal. Pre Vietnam war, most doctors earned 2-2.5x the average wage. It's upwards of 5x today.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand  something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" 

I don;t think many expect the medical industry to kill themselves. The AMA and physicians will fight it the entire way. On the other hand, automation can only be stopped for so long. when you have kids that grow up with an smartphone in their hands they will simply laugh and reject our current healthcare system and change will come.

 

[youngdoc]

What routine work are you talking about wawwooo? You mean stuff like charting and billing docs would love to get rid of all the paperwork. What robot do you see coming down the line that will do a complete physical and neurologic exam. What about a robot to do simple surgeries or simple procedures but it assumes normal anatomy and hits an aberrant artery. What about doing a lung biopsyin someone with copd and they get a pneumothorax and they need an emergent chest tube or the will have cardiovascular collapse will the robot then be able to grab a chest tube and throw one in in minutes?


just curious of your background in the medical field. I would love to hear all this great automated products you know about.

How many doctors are leading breakthroughs in medicine or  how many physicians' day to day work involves working with brand new medical technologies?


The vast majority of doctors, especially non-surgeons, perform routine procedures day in and day out. It is work that demands a high skill set ( some practices don't even demand that high of a skill set) but it is routine work nonetheless. 

Just like flying a helicopter or jet demands a higher skill set but automation is strong in that sector. Welding during car assembly also demands a fairly high skill set as well but all routine welds are now performed by a robot. Specialized welds are still performed by humans, though.

Some sectors of the medical field will be extremely hard or not cost effective enough to automate in our lifetime. Certain specialties will fair much better than others. However, don't delude yourself into believing that just because our present society has put doctors on such on a high pedestal that that;s where most of them belong. For most of human history and even in many developed countries nowadays, being a doctor was/is simply an upper-middle profession. Just like an accountant, lawyer, pilot, etc. 

There are plenty of ideas and innovations in the pipeline. Some need time and others are hampered by regulation / the medical lobby.

I googled " medical tech replacing doctors" and this was the first link. http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/02/v...ace-80-percent-of-doctors-sparks-indignation/ 

This was 2 years ago ( I didn't know about this talk either). 

I'd argue that even at this point in time it's pharma and medical tech that are way more important (as sectors) than physicians themselves. As in, they save more lives and improve the quality of life much more than the actions of physicians themselves. 

Pilots used to be at the top of the food chain. Now, they're little more than aides to the automated systems that run the airplane.  At this point, the main reason we even have pilots is because people would freak out if there weren't any in the cockpit and FAA regulations notwithstanding the fact that the planes basically fly themselves and in the majority of incidents, it's pilot error that leads to mishaps.

I'm curious to hear specific examples of "routine" physician work that can become 100% automated

 

[wawawowee]

 

 

What routine work are you talking about wawwooo? You mean stuff like charting and billing docs would love to get rid of all the paperwork. What robot do you see coming down the line that will do a complete physical and neurologic exam. What about a robot to do simple surgeries or simple procedures but it assumes normal anatomy and hits an aberrant artery. What about doing a lung biopsyin someone with copd and they get a pneumothorax and they need an emergent chest tube or the will have cardiovascular collapse will the robot then be able to grab a chest tube and throw one in in minutes?


just curious of your background in the medical field. I would love to hear all this great automated products you know about.

How many doctors are leading breakthroughs in medicine or  how many physicians' day to day work involves working with brand new medical technologies?


The vast majority of doctors, especially non-surgeons, perform routine procedures day in and day out. It is work that demands a high skill set ( some practices don't even demand that high of a skill set) but it is routine work nonetheless. 

Just like flying a helicopter or jet demands a higher skill set but automation is strong in that sector. Welding during car assembly also demands a fairly high skill set as well but all routine welds are now performed by a robot. Specialized welds are still performed by humans, though.

Some sectors of the medical field will be extremely hard or not cost effective enough to automate in our lifetime. Certain specialties will fair much better than others. However, don't delude yourself into believing that just because our present society has put doctors on such on a high pedestal that that;s where most of them belong. For most of human history and even in many developed countries nowadays, being a doctor was/is simply an upper-middle profession. Just like an accountant, lawyer, pilot, etc. 

There are plenty of ideas and innovations in the pipeline. Some need time and others are hampered by regulation / the medical lobby.

I googled " medical tech replacing doctors" and this was the first link. http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/02/v...ace-80-percent-of-doctors-sparks-indignation/  

This was 2 years ago ( I didn't know about this talk either). 

I'd argue that even at this point in time it's pharma and medical tech that are way more important (as sectors) than physicians themselves. As in, they save more lives and improve the quality of life much more than the actions of physicians themselves. 

Pilots used to be at the top of the food chain. Now, they're little more than aides to the automated systems that run the airplane.  At this point, the main reason we even have pilots is because people would freak out if there weren't any in the cockpit and FAA regulations notwithstanding the fact that the planes basically fly themselves and in the majority of incidents, it's pilot error that leads to mishaps.

I'm curious to hear specific examples of "routine" physician work that can become 100% automated

Whoever said 100% automated? You're presenting a straw man argument. Automation eliminates a lot of routine work but not all work. 

This is a pretty thorough explanation from someone who has more than enough experience in the sector. There are plenty of examples in there.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/10/doctors-or-algorithms/

 

[youngdoc]

 

 

What routine work are you talking about wawwooo? You mean stuff like charting and billing docs would love to get rid of all the paperwork. What robot do you see coming down the line that will do a complete physical and neurologic exam. What about a robot to do simple surgeries or simple procedures but it assumes normal anatomy and hits an aberrant artery. What about doing a lung biopsyin someone with copd and they get a pneumothorax and they need an emergent chest tube or the will have cardiovascular collapse will the robot then be able to grab a chest tube and throw one in in minutes?



just curious of your background in the medical field. I would love to hear all this great automated products you know about.

How many doctors are leading breakthroughs in medicine or  how many physicians' day to day work involves working with brand new medical technologies?



The vast majority of doctors, especially non-surgeons, perform routine procedures day in and day out. It is work that demands a high skill set ( some practices don't even demand that high of a skill set) but it is routine work nonetheless. 


Just like flying a helicopter or jet demands a higher skill set but automation is strong in that sector. Welding during car assembly also demands a fairly high skill set as well but all routine welds are now performed by a robot. Specialized welds are still performed by humans, though.


Some sectors of the medical field will be extremely hard or not cost effective enough to automate in our lifetime. Certain specialties will fair much better than others. However, don't delude yourself into believing that just because our present society has put doctors on such on a high pedestal that that;s where most of them belong. For most of human history and even in many developed countries nowadays, being a doctor was/is simply an upper-middle profession. Just like an accountant, lawyer, pilot, etc. 


There are plenty of ideas and innovations in the pipeline. Some need time and others are hampered by regulation / the medical lobby.


I googled " medical tech replacing doctors" and this was the first link. http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/02/v...ace-80-percent-of-doctors-sparks-indignation/ 


This was 2 years ago ( I didn't know about this talk either). 


I'd argue that even at this point in time it's pharma and medical tech that are way more important (as sectors) than physicians themselves. As in, they save more lives and improve the quality of life much more than the actions of physicians themselves. 


Pilots used to be at the top of the food chain. Now, they're little more than aides to the automated systems that run the airplane.  At this point, the main reason we even have pilots is because people would freak out if there weren't any in the cockpit and FAA regulations notwithstanding the fact that the planes basically fly themselves and in the majority of incidents, it's pilot error that leads to mishaps.

I'm curious to hear specific examples of "routine" physician work that can become 100% automated

Whoever said 100% automated? You're presenting a straw man argument. Automation eliminates a lot of routine work but not all work. 

This is a pretty thorough explanation from someone who has more than enough experience in the sector. There are plenty of examples in there.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/10/doctors-or-algorithms/

My mistake. Ignore the 100% part.

I'm curious to hear examples from YOU about things that you think that can be safely and efficiently automated.