family and career in opthy

[Nestle]

Hi - this is a great forum, i think I may be posting here often in the future. I've heard a lot about how great the opthy lifestyle is, as far as not having that much call, etc. But I haven't gotten the chance to speak to any female ophthalmologists. I was just wondering how flexible you can be with this specialty in terms of working part-time (esp in private practice). Do such opportunities exist in this field? are they difficult to find? I know its definitely possible in family practice, maybe even in ob-gyn. Is it difficult to balance family and career in opthy? after all, it is a surgical specialty...

thanks!

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[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by Nestle
Hi - this is a great forum, i think I may be posting here often in the future. I've heard a lot about how great the opthy lifestyle is, as far as not having that much call, etc. But I haven't gotten the chance to speak to any female ophthalmologists. I was just wondering how flexible you can be with this specialty in terms of working part-time (esp in private practice). Do such opportunities exist in this field? are they difficult to find? I know its definitely possible in family practice, maybe even in ob-gyn. Is it difficult to balance family and career in opthy? after all, it is a surgical specialty...

thanks!

Hi Nestle,

Ophthalmology is one of the few careers that's conducive to having a family and life outside of medicine. The average private practice general ophthalmologist works 4 days per week. Call is few so you're not tied down to your office.

You can work part time. I can imagine you having 2 days of clinic and 1 day of surgery.

In addition, if you later decide that you want to work more, then you can do a fellowship in retina and be on call all the time.

Good luck!

 

[rotty1021]

Andrew,

Do all Optho fellowhips usually ensure lots of call time? I think that I'd be pretty happy doing a general Optho practice, but something in the field may spark my interest. Thanks.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by rotty1021
Andrew,

Do all Optho fellowhips usually ensure lots of call time? I think that I'd be pretty happy doing a general Optho practice, but something in the field may spark my interest. Thanks.

Most of the fellowships do not require a lot of call nor do they require working on the weekend. This may vary from program to program, however. I think the two fellowships requiring the most call and work are: oculoplastics and retina.

 

[TomOD]

Originally posted by Ophtho_MudPhud
Hi Nestle,


..... if you later decide that you want to work more, then you can do a fellowship in retina and be on call all the time.
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Andrew, I'm guessing you got this right. We have 1 retina-trained ophthalmologist that covers a 100 mile radius. Poor guy works himself to death (but makes a bundle in the process). I don't know about the rest of the country, but around here we could use about 4 more retina guys/gals. Gotta be a tough job though. Are there few MD's doing retina fellowships because it's very tough or just because it's not particularly enjoyable work (or am I just in the wrong area)?

BTW, the lady I was discussing earlier was seen by our local glaucoma ophthal a few days ago. He diagnosed spotaneous hypehma and uveitis and did a P.I. She saw him in f/u yesterday and her IOP was 29. He kept her on the same topical meds and began to taper and will see her back next week. We still don't know where the bleeding is from?? Interesting case.

Tom

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by TomOD

Originally posted by Ophtho_MudPhud
Hi Nestle,


..... if you later decide that you want to work more, then you can do a fellowship in retina and be on call all the time.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Andrew, I'm guessing you got this right. We have 1 retina-trained ophthalmologist that covers a 100 mile radius. Poor guy works himself to death (but makes a bundle in the process). I don't know about the rest of the country, but around here we could use about 4 more retina guys/gals. Gotta be a tough job though. Are there few MD's doing retina fellowships because it's very tough or just because it's not particularly enjoyable work (or am I just in the wrong area)?

BTW, the lady I was discussing earlier was seen by our local glaucoma ophthal a few days ago. He diagnosed spotaneous hypehma and uveitis and did a P.I. She saw him in f/u yesterday and her IOP was 29. He kept her on the same topical meds and began to taper and will see her back next week. We still don't know where the bleeding is from?? Interesting case.

Tom

Many pick ophthalmology for the lifestyle. One of my attendings here say that if you pick retina, then it's similar to picking the lifestyle of a CT surgeon and giving up your way of life as an ophthalmologist. It's very busy and not many people want to do it.

Who knows why the patient had a hyphema. If the vessels are leaky enough to release white blood cells in the AC, then a slightly more permeable vessel will also bleed. It's likely just idiopathic, i.e. we have no freakin idea why it happened!

 

[MrGreed]

what's the median pre-tax income of a retina surgeon after paying off all expenses?

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by MrGreed
what's the median pre-tax income of a retina surgeon after paying off all expenses?

http://www.allied-physicians.com/salary_surveys/physician-salaries.htm

 

[rotty1021]

Andrew, thanks for the response. About that webpage with the physician salaries, don't most of them look pretty low? Are these accurate or just some low guess?

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by rotty1021
Andrew, thanks for the response. About that webpage with the physician salaries, don't most of them look pretty low? Are these accurate or just some low guess?

I believe that this is fairly accurate for the average in each field. There's also a high end too. I don't think the salaries are low at all. How are you judging what physicians should make?

Some will make more and some will make less. You have to remember that these are averages.

 

[rotty1021]

I understand. I was judging the averages on newspaper articles that I've read.