Any Doctors/Med students on TB?

[Techmonkey]

if so, mind if I ask what fields you're all in?

and if anyone could help... I'm torn between medicine (I love working with people, and the human body fascinates and entrances me) and engineering (always seen it is as a game to get the circuits to work, the pipes to flow, etc etc). I considered medical physics / medical engineering, and all the people I have spoken to, and all the information I have read has lead me to believe these careers are largely engineering based, with a medical theme. Very little work with patients, all work with machinery.

I'm sort of thinking about the other side of the fence, if that makes any sense? I'd love to end up doing something with patients that involved a lot of engineering/physics too. Surgery would be fantastic (just something about getting right in there and cutting things up ), surely there must be very technical surgical specialties? My parents suggested micro-surgery or computer-aided surgery, but the internet is proving to be very vague on these fields? and my parents are both psychiatrists, so they're not too hot on anything up close and personal.

any help, general information, feedback, warnings, and tips from anyone in the medical profession would be muchly appreciated =]

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Techmonkey

if so, mind if I ask what fields you're all in?

Does doctor of philosophy count?

and if anyone could help... I'm torn between medicine (I love working with people, and the human body fascinates and entrances me) and engineering (always seen it is as a game to get the circuits to work, the pipes to flow, etc etc). I considered medical physics / medical engineering, and all the people I have spoken to, and all the information I have read has lead me to believe these careers are largely engineering based, with a medical theme. Very little work with patients, all work with machinery.

I'm sort of thinking about the other side of the fence, if that makes any sense? I'd love to end up doing something with patients that involved a lot of engineering/physics too. Surgery would be fantastic (just something about getting right in there and cutting things up ), surely there must be very technical surgical specialties? My parents suggested micro-surgery or computer-aided surgery, but the internet is proving to be very vague on these fields? and my parents are both psychiatrists, so they're not too hot on anything up close and personal.

any help, general information, feedback, warnings, and tips from anyone in the medical profession would be muchly appreciated =]

I do engineering, with a physics degree. Contrary to popular notions, engineering is not devoid of human interaction. There are engineering jobs for both introverts and extroverts. If you really don't enjoy social interaction, you can still be a productive engineer.

But because many engineers are introverts, there is a role for extroverts in areas involving leadership, management, working with customers, and so forth. A lot of people with science degrees end up as entrepreneurs.

There are technical surgical specialties. I know someone who is a plastic surgeon, and who pretty much specializes exclusively in re-attaching hands and fingers.

[Scarlet Fire]

Originally Posted by fdeck

There are technical surgical specialties. I know someone who is a plastic surgeon, and who pretty much specializes exclusively in re-attaching hands and fingers.

That's what my uncle does. He has some very interesting stories to tell.

If you go into that, be prepared to fix a lot of bagel-slicing victims.

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by fdeck

D
Contrary to popular notions, engineering is not devoid of human interaction. There are engineering jobs for both introverts and extroverts. If you really don't enjoy social interaction, you can still be a productive engineer.

Well look. I already told you: I deal with the god d*** customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by Scarlet Fire

That's what my uncle does. He has some very interesting stories to tell.

If you go into that, be prepared to fix a lot of bagel-slicing victims.

And joiners!

[Ericman197]

I'm going into my first year soon, for what it's worth, and my parents are both doctors. If you're looking into something very technical you might consider orthopedics. They use MANY, MANY different tools and techniques. You could try working in a doctor's office to get experience, but unfortunately you won't really know what it's like until you're there.

[Ericman197]

Also for what it's worth, there are some doctors out there that do engineering work as well. Off the top of my head I can't recall which inventions are which, but things like pacemakers, artificial valves, things like that required input from both sides.

For that reason a few doctors get degrees in engineering, or get a PhD in something medical that requires many high level engineering classes. It isn't exactly a route that I recommend highly due to the huge amount of effort (4 years medical school, 4+ years residency, and however many years you want to invest in engineering...). However if that's what you want to do, it can be done. It may not be necessary for most medical equipment, but designing implants and other internal devices definitely requires a lot of anatomical knowledge.

[Tsal]

Simply put, if you work with machines (R&D), you don't work with patients. Of course the research groups have positions for both medical researchers and engineers.

But, when you think of it, the link between a patient and a machine is often chemistry, so chemical engineering might get you working with laboratory equipment. Biochemistry equals medical/biological research, and you need equipment to do stuff, so double major on biochem and chem eng wouldn't be too shabby. Then there's something called biophysics, which focuses on the electrical stuff going around in body, like nerve impulses, and processing the stuff - very math-heavy with algorithms/signal processing - and radiation et cetera. There's also biosensor stuff, that combines chemistry and electrical engineering to produce sensors that react to certain chemicals - again, double major stuff, I think. Medical engineering you already mentioned - developing the hospital equipment. And then there's the hot field at the moment, bioinformatics, which is computer modelling traditional biology stuff, so it includes biology/biochem/computer studies.

So, if this proves anything, it's that the research fields are very specialized. Engineering is sort of very broad and generic field, as is medicine, so I'd be surprised if you can name one field that combines the both without going into specialized stuff. Research people develop their own stuff, and doctors then take all the stuff and try to apply it the best they can, that's pretty much how I've understood the whole medical/bio-related field.

It sounds to me that you have the engineering mindset, so maybe you do need to get into medical engineering - it's less chatting with the patients, but more developing the actual stuff that's needed to make things happen. And if you want to get into engineering, you need a solid engineering base - biology you can learn as a secondary subject.

[flipper_gv]

waiting for interview results to know if I'm accepted...

[Deluge Of Sound]

My only advise to you is to start drinking heavily.


You'd better listen to me, I'm in Pre-Med