<p>
[quote]
To further elaborate, a recently advertised job in South Florida offered a handsome compensation of $80,000/year for fully trained cardiac surgeons.
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</p>
<p>from the above link</p>
<p>I admire the people who are willing to take 15+ years out of thier lives and become NeuroSurgeons, Cardio Surg., etc... I could never see my self doing that (unfortunatly). But I am thankful for you people.......</p>
<p>so i was told by an nephrologist that there are plenty of space available for cardiac surgeons..as the statistic goes 140 or so job availables and only 60 or so filled..that means that once u apply for the job, u are most likely to get in since there are lots of job offerings, and not enough cardiac surgeons...that means that
[quote]
NO JOBS IN CARDIAC SURGERY
[/quote]
is a fallacy itself???</p>
<p>Yea....to me there aren't enough "qualified people" yet. It isn't something that just fills up like a McDonald's job.</p>
<p>how could u say that there arent qualified people...does it mean that USA does not have 140 qualified people to fill up the slot, out of its 300 million people?..no no..ur kidding me....there must be AT LEAST 140 qualified cardiac surgeons out there...so what exactly is true?
is the article by Rahim of "plight of surgeons" behold verity in some aspects or is my given fact completely bogus in front of his?</p>
<p>what I'm saying is....there aren't many ppl have the certification to teach or the 20+ years to actually legally practice.</p>
<p>so this means that there actually are jobs available in this field?</p>
<p>I'd assume so since not many ppl can perform the job.</p>
<p>i disagree..u r tellin me that there aren't 140 qualified applicants in USA ?</p>
<p>there are probably 140+ .... not less than that</p>
<p>ok so i m def going for this</p>
<p>Heres how it goes. As far as cardiothoracic surgeons are concerned, more are being trained then there are openings per year. What this person told you was false. Most CT surgeons pick a spot where they want to pracitce and stay put. There are most definitely not 140 openings for CT surgeons since in general there is not as much of a need for them as there was in the past, due to invasive cardiologists. If you could find the newest stats as far as openings that show this number I would believe you, but hearsay isn't enough. Last year there were openings for CT spots, but there were multiple people fighting for one spot. The pay has also gone down drastically, many spots remain open due to the fact that they say they will only pay 150-200 grand for the surgeon, not worth his time and effort for the kind of job it is.</p>
<p>whoa..only 150-200k ..thats cheap considering that fact that they spend so much time ..14 years in school, working 60 hours/week, ...and there we see an anestheologist earning double of a cardiac surgeon's salary for having to give just a shot..how polarized!!</p>
<p>i guess i changed my mind..id rather go for cardiology...</p>
<p>Whether or not jobs for CT surgeons are available now is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not jobs will be available when you finish your CT fellowship. Imagine entering medical school 12 years ago, when CT surgeons had been generously compensated for the prior 15 years. Fast forward to today, with invasive cardiologists eroding CT surgeons' case volume and Medicare paying less (in unadjusted dollars) for all procedures now than 10 years ago.</p>
<p>What do we know about the future? First, the fraction of patients insured by medicare, the poorest paying insurer, will increase dramatically over the next 30 years. Second, unless radical changes are made to the way medicare payments to physicians are calculated, medicare payments will be insufficient to cover practice costs. Of particular concern is the current "Sustainable Growth Rate" (SGR) methodology. (A narrow Congressional vote this spring postponed medicare cuts in physician payments.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
According to Bruce Steinwald, director of healthcare, economic, and payment issues for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the real purpose of SGR, is to apply financial brakes whenever spending for physician services exceeds predefined spending targets ... by reducing physician fees or limiting their annual increase.
Although physician payments are only a minority component of the overall Medicare budget, the bearcats at Medicare are prepared to fix cost overruns by primarily focusing attention on one aspect of the Medicare budget, (you guessed it): physician payments. The new 2005 Medicare Trustees Report projected sharp Medicare physician payment cuts of 26 percent over six years beginning in 2006. That same Medicare Trustees Report indicates the cost of running a practice and caring for patients will increase by 15 percent during that same time.
[/quote]
From <a href="http://www.dcmsonline.org/jax-medicine/2005journals/PainManagement/editorial.pdf%5B/url%5D">www.dcmsonline.org/jax-medicine/2005journals/PainManagement/editorial.pdf</a></p>
<p>Only three outcomes are possible: Nationalized healthcare with healthcare rationing and much reduced physician compensation; Current healthcare delivery system with much reduced physician compensation; Current healthcare delivery system with preserved physician compensation and therefore large global increase in healthcare spending.</p>
<p>In the cases of dramatically reduced physician compensation, medical school will become a noble, undercompensated educational path, much like teaching.</p>
<p>Phillipcountry1
Posts: 361 I appreciate your opinion but as stated before its not wasting my life because I'm saving lives!!!!!!! </p>
<p>Thank you for saying that Phillipcountry1. It's not about the salary or having a good pention. It's about saving lives and knowing that this world is that much better because you're in it. I know that alot of you believe that going 18 years of college to be a heart surgeon is not worth it.... oh well, some of us think differently. My friend has a dad who is a heart surgeon and he's gone to almost all of his sons hockey games and practices! So if you believe that you can't have a life outside of work... think again.</p>
<p>Most CT surgeons don't have much of a life outside of work. Some do, but very few. Saving lives, making the world better are all dreams and many times not reality in medicine. In medicine you are many times masking problems and attempting the relieve the pain caused by problems, very few times in medicine are you actually curing something or fixing something. You are mere guiding things to happen. The fact of the matter is many people can't be saved, but their lives can be made more comfortable and easier to live. Once you get enough clinical experience under your belt you can see why many people can't take the stress of the job. Some people let the fact that they can't save every last person get to them. Others don't. The ones who let it get to them have a tough time and eventually break out of their medical dream world, and lots of times become very bitter, hence most doctors are not the happiest people around.</p>
<p>As for the econ, I can talk about that some.</p>
<p>The problem is not that there are only a few CT surgeons in the US - the problem is that last year, so few people wanted to go into CT fellowships that there were actually vacancies, something that is very abnormal for fellowships of this difficulty.</p>
<p>The reason is simple: medical students and residents do not have confidence that this specialty has a future. This is based on current trends in salary, technology, job availability for fellowship graduates, etc.</p>
<p>If you love the stuff, then hey, knock yourself out. But unless you're finishing your third year in medical school, it's too early to be worrying in this much depth. (Obviously having an "idea" is understandable and to be encouraged.)</p>
<p>I assure you medical devices are being made by engineers to reduce the need for invasive surgery. Although a docter will be the one who makes the call the device is needed on the patient. Just my two cents.</p>