Each year, a publication
called Medscape creates a portrait of the medical profession.
It surveys thousands of
doctors about their job satisfaction, salaries and the like and breaks down the results by specialty, allowing for comparisons
between, say, dermatologists and oncologists.
As I read the most recent
survey, I was struck by the answers from orthopedic surgeons.
They are the highest-paid
doctors, with an average salary of $443,000 in 2015 — which, coincidentally,
was almost the exact cutoff for the famed top 1 percent of the
income distribution.
Yet many orthopedists are
not happy with their pay.
Only 44 percent feel
“fairly compensated,” a smaller share than in almost every other specialty.
A lot of orthopedists
aren’t even happy being doctors.
Just 49 percent say they
would go into medicine if they had to make the decision again, compared with 64
percent of all doctors.
I know that many
orthopedists have a very different view: They take pride in helping patients
and feel fortunate to enjoy comfortable lives.
But despite those doctors,
it’s clear that orthopedics suffers from a professional culture that does not
live up to medicine’s highest ideals.
Too many orthopedists are
rich and think it’s an injustice that they’re not richer.
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