What opportunities are there in Medicine?

Question

I have always wanted to get a medical degree but I was wondering if this could lead to anything other than being a Doctor or medical researcher

Answer 1

Many MDs go into administration or get a law degree (and increasingly doctors are going into politics so that the MD viewpoint is included at that level). Also, there are doctors in places like the CDC who do policy work.

Administration can include government (in health departments), hospitals, medical schools, and medical clinics where a medical degree is required. Finally there is psychiatry, where after internship you don't really practice medicine like other specialties, except you usually do a residency in a mental health facility. There is a lot of pharmacology, of course.

Offshoots would be cruise ship or corporate doctors, environmental or occupational health officials, etc.

Answer 2

Several doctors have become successful televison and radio performers, usually as comedians - Graham Garden is probably the best know in the UK.

More prosaically, pharmaceutical companies recruit people with medical degrees to advise, to manage projects and to oversee clinical trials.

Dr Miriam Stoppard combined all these. She qualified as doctor and dermatologist, worked in the pharmaceutical industry and became the youngest Managing Director of any major drug company. She has had an equally successful Media career as a TV Medical Show host, as a writer and as a journalist. Top woman with a top career.

Answer 3

To be honest if you are going to put yourself through 5 years of a medical degree, you want to be a doctor. It has to be one of the hardest things to undertake ever........ If your not sure and are thinking of other fields of work maybe you should look at what you want o do and see what other ways there are of achieving it. This will not only save you a huge amount of work, debt and stress but will also leave a place on a medical course for someone who wants to be a doctor, cos i dont know if you realise but the worlds short of doctors and it would be a shame to prevent some one else benefitting.