Doctor

Inspired by this Reddit post: Askreddit: Doctors of Reddit, what is the biggest mistake you have made? (perhaps the scariest webpage aside from WebMD)

There's not real objective to this post. I simply want to write down and explain my thoughts with regards to medicine, and why I decided not to go down the path of medicine. But I find medicine sexy nonetheless. Interestingly enough, as someone not interested in medical school, I'm fairly obsessed with medicine and the medical field.

During my high school career, I've volunteered at hospitals, and I was fortunate enough to attend autopsies and listen to the pathologists on how they determine the cause of death. Working on a rather large man, the pathologist pointed out that the odd coloration of the skin in arm suggested heart disease, and he continued with the autopsy with a Y cut.

In my free time, I'd read Pubmed papers on a biweekly basis to find ways to improve my own life. My research has guided my lifestyle. It's not surprising that my friends call me a perfectionist.

Friends have asked me why didn't I pursue medical school. The answer was obvious to me before I selected my major as it was now:

1) Medical school is expensive
2) Medical school is long
3) Medical school is stressful
4) And after medical school, it is still stressful

And why would anyone want to go through this hell?

But one perspective has changed: every time I saw the doctor, I trusted his or her decisions and diagnoses. Yet as I've grown older, I realize that everyone fucks up. And it's very American/Western for us to put fancy engineering systems in place to prevent fuck ups, e.g. automobiles, nuclear power plants. Many elaborate, simple, complex, redundant methods and processes in code and machinery to prevent accidents.

But...

Medicine is different. Mistakes happen. People die. Any way we twist or turn medicine and healthcare, it's going to be expensive.

Once, a radiologist wrote down "left" instead of "right" with regards to which lung needs to be operated on. As a result of the surgery, the patient died from human error. Unfortunately, if one were to implement a redundant system, the cost will be pushed onto the patient and insurance company [1] (not worth reading)

After watching this ted talk by Brian Goldman: Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that? (definitely worth watching!) I started thinking about the differences between all jobs versus medicine.

Generally, in almost every other high-paying field including banking, law, and engineering, if one screws up, they'll end up losing their job and just simply find a new one a few months later.

Compare that with being a doctor, where each doctor is expected to be perfect to remove the cost of redundancy, and each diagnosis could mean a lawsuit or the end of a career or life. Pardon my horrible analogy: it seems that being a doctor is like constantly playing Russian Roulette.

Maybe it's because I'm a young foolish man, but the apparent risks are what makes medicine so sexy.