Why Not Medicine?

The response that I often get when I tell people about my job history, goals for my career, and paths I’ve chosen or not chosen to take is “why don’t you want to be a doctor anymore?” or “why did you choose to leave medicine?” or something along those lines. The short answer is “it’s just not something that I see myself doing for the rest of my life”, but the longer answer requires a bit more explanation. This is also going to be a bit of a long one, so….

I first became enamored by medicine in high school when I started watching shows like House & Greys Anatomy and being fascinated by the process – albeit dramatized – that doctors went through to treat and cure their patients. I loved how abstract, yet precise, it seemed and wanted to focus my future efforts on understanding medicine in more detail. I had also spent a lot of my life in-and-out of doctor’s offices (hospitalized for a peanut reaction at 3, elbow surgery at 6, years of going to an allergist every week, broken bones, asthma attacks, etc. etc.), which gave me this really high reverence and respect towards the profession. The amazing doctors, nurses, PA’s, and other medical professionals that I had interacted with in my younger years were able to turn the “scary” into the “this isn’t so bad”, which was amazing and I’m really only realizing as I’m writing this right now. Long story short: I decided to go to college for Biomedical Engineering because I loved medicine and wanted to learn the nerdy things that made medical things tick (like my senior design project):

Fast-forward a couple of years (~Junior year @ Syracuse) and my ambitions started to change. I started to realize how tough and competitive the med school process was, thought I didn’t have the drive or wasn’t of the right caliber to tough it out through another 4 years of school + who knows how many years of residency, and just wanted to get straight into the workforce. I also started falling in love with all things tech, which is what led me to my first consulting gig out of college. I moved to NYC, signed a lease that I could barely afford, and had an absolute blast being in the city and meeting new people my age who were just as clueless and bright-eyed as I was. While I loved my environment, I still had this craving for medicine that I couldn’t shake and eventually told myself that I was going to start working my way back to the med school track.

Now on to some cool stuff. Cue, Brainlab. I decided to join this company because I thought it would be an awesome way to transition into med school, get some cool experiences, and work with some interesting people, but it turned into a whole lot more than that (err…except for the med school thing…that still didn’t happen). The quick elevator pitch for “what is Brainlab”, which is a question I’ve had to field a lot, goes something along the lines of:[su_quote]   So Brainlab makes this platform that’s called “image guided surgery”. You can basically think of that as Google Maps for the human body. In this case: it’s (primarily) for neurosurgeons and ENT surgeons. The platform is this fancy computer that sits in the operating room and allows doctors to track and see – in real time – their movements in relation to the patients scan. In the case of a tumor removal, the surgeon can see where they are going; even when they can only see what’s immediately in front of them on the patient [/su_quote]The only real way to really understand what I am talking about there is to see it in action, and I’ve apparently deleted the only video I had of me demoing the software, so here are a few pictures of surgeries (known as cases in the medical world), that I have been in that utilized the Brainlab software.

So why did I choose against pursuing a medical education? The amount of work that goes into becoming a full-fledged doctor is A LOT. First, you need to be a top-performing undergraduate student. You often need years of research, hundreds of hours of health/medical related volunteer work, and glowing recommendations from people you’ve worked with. Assuming that goes well, you also need to prepare for the grueling MCAT exam, which is a bear of its own and still isn’t even close to the hardest part of your journey. Then you get into medical school with a course load that’s 10x more rigorous than anything you saw in undergrad, but you’re also jockeying for position in your graduating class to position yourself to get into a good training program after graduation. You also need to do well on your 2 medical licensing exams, which are basically the gate-keepers, in combination to the research that you continue to do throughout your 4 years in med school, to where you qualify for residency (i.e. medical specialty training; neurosurgeon, general practitioner, anesthesiologist, etc.). Some specialties (like surgical disciplines and urology) are more competitive than others, so you need to be at the top of your game if you’re targeting a career in one of those fields. THEN, assuming all of that goes well and you get into your dream residency (not all students do), you go through even more specialized training to become a licensed physician in whichever field you “match” to in residency (this is another 2-7+ years of training, depending on where you end up). Only

t

hen

 can you finally be a fully practicing doctor.

If you thought that was a long paragraph and that it sounded like a ton of work, then we’re in the same boat. I have the highest level of respect for doctors and doctors-to-be. They give their whole selves to being the best they can possibly be while helping save lives, make breakthroughs, and improve the quality of life for their patients. Every doctor that I have worked with gave every single day their all, working from 6am – 8pm/10pm/midnight. Always trying to do the best for their patients. Researching what can be done next. While not all specialties are that intense (once you get past residency), I just didn’t see myself working in that capacity and at that intensity for the rest of my life.That said, I still love the medical profession. I still enjoy learning about the advances that are being made every day and am excited for what the future of healthcare holds. If you made it this far: thank you for trudging through! If you liked it: share, comment, post, tell your friends. This whole writing thing has been pretty fun.-Nick