More on Specialties

The most common question beginning med students get asked is what field they want to go into. We have no idea. Really. It's like asking freshmen what they are going to major in. They might have an idea, but it'll change. I remember having intense contemplations on deciding my majors as an undergrad, and I expect this may be even harder. However, even after just 7 weeks of medical school, I have a sense of things that interest me and things to rule out.

I have always had anesthesia on the table, though my old PI Drew has very compelling reasons why it may not be the best field in the future (surgeries are becoming more and more noninvasive that anesthesiologists in the OR will not be as necessary). I also think cardiology is fascinating. I'm drawn to fields with lots of physiology (pulmonology, nephrology) or potential to change (infectious diseases, interventional neurology). The best thing at this point of my career, I think, is the ability to rule out specialties that do not interest me at all. So far, these include orthopedic surgery (I don't find bones and muscles that riveting), radiology (I don't like staring at films), and histopathology (tissues under microscopes aren't that fascinating to me). Hopefully as we start our organs block soon, I can narrow down the fields even more.