Life as a Typical ID/HIV Physician

Medscape conducted several anonymous online surveys of physicians and came up with a snapshot of the typical infectious diseases (ID)/HIV specialist. It’s pretty cool to see how those of my specialty compare to others.

·     34% of ID/HIV specialists who responded to the surveys were women.

·     58% of the ID/HIV specialists were born in the United States; an additional 10% came to the US as children; and the remaining 32% emigrated as adults (a higher proportion than for physicians overall).

·     ID/HIV specialists tend to spend more time per patient than physicians in other specialties. 62% spent at least 17 minutes per patient visit. This is probably because they carry smaller patient loads in the office.

·       27% of ID/HIV specialists spend more than 25 hours per week on paperwork and administrative duties as compared to 13% of overall physicians.

·       Average 2011 income was $170,000 which puts ID/HIV specialists on the low end of the physician payscale.

·       Not surprisingly, the average income for ID/HIV specialists in group private practice ($254,000) is higher than that for employed academic ID/HIV specialists ($116,000).

·       Geographically, those in south-central US (Arkansas, Oklahoma, & Texas) earned the most ($294,000) while those in the Northwest earned the least ($120,000).

·       In either case, 52% of ID/HIV specialists felt that they were fairly compensated though only 10% feel “rich”.

·       As a comparison, cardiologists earned an average income of $314,000 in 2011 placing them among the highest compensated physicians yet only 46% felt that they were fairly compensated and only 13% feel “rich”. Even among the orthopaedic surgeons who averaged $315,000 last year, only 50% felt fairly compensated and only 12% feel “rich”.

·       ID/HIV physicians are as happy as any other physician. However, physicians overall are becoming more frustrated.

·       ID/HIV specialists were more likely to perform pro bono clinic work, mission work, volunteering,
tutoring, and counseling when compared to other medical professionals.

·       ID/HIV specialists take less vacation than physicians overall. But when they do take vacation, they go abroad more often than other medical professionals.

·       ID/HIV specialists are politically more liberal than physicians overall. 39% of the survey respondents defined themselves as both socially and fiscally liberal, “a rate nearly double that of other medical professionals and 4 times that of the general US population” per the article. 82%
described themselves as “socially liberal” the highest percentage of all physicians.

My Take

I’m a bit surprised that ID/HIV physicians are not happier than other physicians. I could have sworn that we are among the more content with our lot. Of course this 2012 report also shows that physicians overall are more frustrated than in years past. This is likely because of the changing healthcare environment. Obamacare is unlikely to change that growing sentiment. From what I have seen in my young career the future bodes increasing physician dissatisfaction and frustration. At least that’s what the older physicians say.

I am not at all surprised by how liberal ID/HIV physicians are politically. And based on discussions I have eavesdropped upon in the physicians’ lounge, I am also not surprised that orthopaedic surgeons tend to be conservative fiscally (82%) and socially (52%).

In medical school and during training, the ID physician was the smartest and one of the hardest working physicians around. Yet, even though everybody tends to acknowledge that ID is an interesting specialty many don’t want its median salary, its lack of procedures, (and in academic settings, its L-O-N-G rounding hours). I was the recipient of a lot of negativity from other physicians as a medical student, intern, and resident when I would announce that I was interested in ID. Why would you want to train two, three extra years to make less money seemed to be the main question of concern. Why? Because ID is way cool that’s why!

The lifestyle report of other physician specialties can be found at Medscape’s Physician Lifestyle Report 2012.