<p>I've wanted to be a heart surgeon since ever. What is the salary of a heart surgeon during the first year of residency and so on. I'm just curious?</p>
<p>All residents are poorly paid (mid to high $30s), but once in practice, cardiovascular surgeons average a bit better than $400,000 per year. It often seems their wives and children live well, even if their provider is nowhere to be seen.</p>
<p>What exactly is a resident? For how long are you one?</p>
<p>How about scanning the other threads for some insights? Try 2 threads down, "Residency".</p>
<p>My uncle is a heart surgeon; he worked very hard in college and med school. I know he's a multi-millionaire by now, he's 50. I'd guess he makes close to 600,000-800,000 or more. It's a lucrative career, but also he works long hours and it can be very stressful.</p>
<p>Haha sorry about that PSedrish, I think was a little tired that day.</p>
<p>hey, np man. just a word about being a tired resident: it's a constant state of affairs.</p>
<p>I know becoming a doctor is hard enough. How much harder is it to become a heart surgeon?</p>
<p>A bit on salaries: Salaries are not generally a factor of where the physician went to school but rather a reflection of their specialty, geographic location & work ethic. All of this assumes the physician has good skills, both as a doctor and as a business person, and has a good bedside manner.
Surgical specialties tend to pay better than cognitive ones such as psychiatry. At present, the reimbursement system is heavily tilted toward the procedure based specialties (so non surgeons who do a lot of procedures, such as gastroenterologists, may compete well with surgeons income-wise), though this may diminish a bit over time.
Location is a big key to income. In general terms, the less sought after the location, the more the doctor will earn. When I was in my last year of fellowship, the highest paying offers I got were in North Dakota, Montana, the U.P. of Michigan and along the Mexican border (a job offer in Marquette, Michigan offered 5 times the pay of a job in San Diego!). Interestingly, costs of living and of practice tend to be lower in these places as well, so net physician income may be much, much higher.
Lastly, hard work means more income. I know a Neurosurgeon here who is seeing patients 7 days a week (!) and I assume he is earning a good bit more for his effort. In most cases, it comes down to how many patients you see a day and how many days a week you work. Not exactly surprising.
Anyway, the range at present is about $90,000 for pediatricians and psychiatrists to $450,000 for invasive cardiologists.</p>
<p>what is the difference between an invasive cardiologist and cardiac surgeon, or is there one?</p>
<p>Invasive Cardiologists are Internists with a subspecialty in Cardiology. Their cardio fellowships included lots of training doing invasive procedures, i.e., working on the heart through a catheter. Things like balloon angioplasty are part of their balliwick.
Cardiac surgeons are surgeons with a subspecialty in cardiac surgery. Their procedures are much more invasive, i.e., working on the heart with the chest opened. Complex heart muscle repair and even transplants fall into their area of expertise.</p>
<p>Thanks Dr. Sedrish.</p>
<p>Amazing- i want to be a heart surgeon also. What is it that attratcs you guys to this profession?</p>
<p>I hope not the salary!</p>
<p>What about people with medical degrees who want to go into medical research? Can they practice if they want or do you have to make the choice at some point?</p>
<p>You really can't practice anything out of med school, as you wouldn't have yet had an Internship/Residency or a Fellowship. In other words, with no post-grad training, you can't practice. The minimum one has to do is a 1 year Internship to get licensed and then practice as a "general practitioner", but I shudder to think that such a thing might actually occur.</p>
<p>Oh no, I was talking more about the path of a medical researcher as opposed to the path of someone wanting to be a practicing doctor. Or is it the same for both, even after post-grad?</p>
<p>As to the salary issues with cardio: there is a ton of money on the table there, but it requires a time commitment/dedication that is all-consuming. These folks work all the time and often their family life suffers. I wish I had their passion, but they wish they had my family life.
I guess there's no free lunch.</p>
<p>can docs "live well" without having good business skills--just good doc/bedside skills?</p>
<p>I doubt it these days. You can join a huge HMO and not worry, but they'll take at least 1/2 your earnings. You can hire your own staff, but it's hard to get really qualified folks who can keep up with all the changes and still not help themselves to your money. One recent journal article I read mentioned a 44% rate of embezzlement as common in the states!</p>
<p><em>slumps</em> Ahh, darn. I've heard horrors about HMOs--beyond just money.
I guess I should take a business elective. I don't want to be a starving doc... unless by "live well" you mean very luxuriously. I don't aim for luxury.</p>