What Medical Diagnostic Career Would I Go Into?
I want to be a diagnostician like Dr. House (minus the cruel, heartless way of treating patients). I want to be a diagnostician, and I understand the he is the Head of Diagnostic Medicine or something like that. What classes would I take, where could I find more information about it, what is the specific career called, and what would a good medical specialty be for it?
never heard og that title any where other than that show I would say get as much broad knowledge in as many specialties as you can
id suggest looking into “medical scientist” or “medical researcher”
info for med scientist:
http://www.medschool.ucsf.edu/mstp/program/
info for med researcher:
http://myroad.collegeboard.com/myroad/navigator.jsp?t=careers&i=medicine-19597
(you may need a log in info for this one)
thats not a specialty- you cant just be a diagnostician. house is not even a diagnostic specialist (not that hes even based on a real guy)- that doesnt exist. if you had watched an earlier show, you wouldve seen that house was both an infectious disease specialist and a nephrologist (kidney specialist). all doctors are diagnosticians- every m.d. has to diagnose patients. you have to pick a specialty after med school, and diagnostics is not one of them. you would need to earn a bachelor’s degree in anything (but it must be challenging) you want from a school with a good reputation, (but you must fulfill the science requirements needed to apply to med school simultaneously) with a very high gpa (3.6 at least), high mcat scores, med research under your belt, community service and exposure to the med field to qualify to apply to med school, and even then, you may not get in; only about half of the med school hopefuls that apply each year get in somewhere; the rest are rejected from every school they apply to. then, med school is another four years of schooling, followed by a 1 year internship, then you apply for a residency in something (emergency medicine, general, pedicatrics, etc, etc) more specific, which takes 2-3 years to complete. after THAT, if you wanted to specialize further (say, in nephrology or infectious disease), you would have to apply for a fellowship in that speciality, which is extremely competitve. thats another 3 years. House is just a television show; he doesnt exist, nor is there any possiblity a doctor can solely diagnose- you have to treat patients after diagnosing them, and like i said, all doctors are ‘diagnosticians’. research online the specific requirements you will have to meet to become an m.d.- a lot of the information on house is inaccurate and fictional, and the character is not based on a real doctor. also, you will have to explain to the med school interviewer (and on your application in your essay) why you want to be a doctor- and saying you want to be like a t.v. character isnt going to be too impressive. really look within yourself to find out why you REALLY are considering medicine- if youre not in it for the right reasons (to help people in pain, to improve healthcare, etc), then you wont make it through the schooling it takes to get there. medicine isnt always exiciting and its never glamorous; on House, every character comes in with an intriguing medical mystery, which does not happen in real life. you will see very few zebras, and many many horses