If I were asked to choose a medical specialty again, what would I choose?
After 30 years as a neurologist in the United States, I still enjoy my job, but I will probably choose dual neurology and psychiatry, focusing on brain diseases as well as mental illness. I think that in the near future, many doctors’ jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence. Just give a few examples. Cosmetic medicine is good and difficult to be replaced by artificial intelligence because beauty is very subjective. Surgical operations, especially high-risk operations such as heart surgery, are prone to errors and often lead to legal complaints. Who will be responsible? AI? Or a doctor? Therefore, it is difficult for surgeons to be replaced by AI. This is mainly due to risks. It’s hard to imagine an operating room without a doctor. There are good and bad surgical specialties. As a surgeon, you work with a team in a surgery center with state-of-the-art equipment, and you'll be involved in a lot of hospital politics and revenue battles. Traditionally, American doctors are employers, not employees, so doctors cannot yet form unions. If you don't get along with your coworkers, someone writes a note about you, you say something wrong one day, talk about something politically incorrect, you risk getting fired. I think general internal medicine is very good. Although it may be replaced by artificial intelligence, if society still needs real doctors, general internal medicine is still needed. The benefit of becoming a general internist is that you can open your own practice. If the hospital doesn't need you, you can go back to your own clinic. In addition to cosmetic aspect, dermatology can easily be replaced by artificial intelligence. It is almost a consensus that radiology will be replaced by artificial intelligence. Many of the duties of Physician Assistants (PA), Nurse Practitioners (NP) will likely be replaced by AI if we can get people with less education than doctors to do the work, and if it can be done in a pre-programmed way , then these positions are not required. It will not be difficult for artificial intelligence to replace them. This is obviously my personal bias.
I prefer those specialties where doctors can easily open clinics themselves: psychiatry, sleep medicine, pain medicine, ophthalmology, dermatology, cosmetic and plastic surgery, ophthalmology, and allergy medicine all do not need to go to the hospital. Doctors can practice medicine entirely in clinics. In general internal medicine, family doctors can be independent and do not have to worry about having no patients. Patients are waiting from morning to night.
Working as a doctor will take up more than 75% of your waking hours, and you'd better have a happy experience during these hours. Doctors' incomes are upper-middle class and it is difficult to get rich. Understand that people will choose jobs that they are good at, like, and preferably passionate about, and can also help many people.
Do you prefer to use your hands or your brain, do you prefer a lively and exciting hospital or operating room environment or a quiet office environment, do you prefer to chat with people or do you prefer to run to different buildings? What's the salary? How many hours do you work per week and per year? Do you want to attend a music party with your wife on the weekend? Do you want to watch your son play baseball? Do you want to drive your daughter to the piano teacher's house? Do you still want to work night shifts after you turn 50? Have you considered it? If you could no longer work at a local hospital, could you open your own practice? These are all factors to consider.
My sincere blessings to future doctors.
