How to Stay Excited and In Love with a Career in Medicine

By: Patricia Salber MD, MBA (@docweighsin)

If you combine an insatiable desire to expand skills with a fearlessness to walk away, you can have a long, exciting career in medicine.

Decades ago, choices for a career in medicine were limited to small private practice or large academic, primarily research, settings. So, physicians in training could focus on acquiring vast amounts of clinical knowledge as well as technical skills.

If they wanted to go into research, there was always the option of choosing an MD-PhD path. If a career in public health was the goal, it was highly recommended to get an MD-MPH.

The advent of managed care

The advent of managed care in the 80s opened up a slew of new career opportunities on the business side of medicine. Suddenly, doctors could be health plan medical directors, experts in utilization management, or Chief Medical Officers. They could run large practice groups or even run hospitals.

Soon after the managed care revolution, the country went through serial efforts to reform our increasingly dysfunctional healthcare system (remember the Clinton plan?). This opened up opportunities for careers in health policy and health services research.