Description
This article is from the Medical Education
FAQ, by eric@wilkinson.com (Eric P. Wilkinson, M.D.)with
numerous contributions by others.
1.1) What is an MD?
An MD, or Doctor of Medicine, most simply is a person who has
graduated from a medical school. An MD can have many and varying
roles in the community. First, an MD is a caregiver, a person turned
to by members of the community in times of physical, psychological or
emotional weakness. MDs treat not only the body but also the mind and
the spirit, often delving into the emotional, psychological or social
reasons behind a physical illness. MDs treat people in inpatient
settings, in the operating room, outpatient clinics, and in emergency
room visits.
Not all MDs, though, deal with patients in such a direct manner.
Pathologists deal with diseased tissues taken from the patient as well
as clinical laboratory and blood bank settings. Radiologists deal
with images of the patient produced and enhanced by various imaging
technologies. Some MDs choose to concentrate their efforts solely on
research, developing new equipment, vaccines, drugs, or discovering
the underlying causes of disease. MDs can devote their time to
teaching, both in a classroom setting (in a medical school, for
example) and in the community (teaching preventive methods to
community members, teaching CPR or first aid, or administering
vaccines).
Becoming an MD opens up to you a vast number of possibilities for
using your medical training. MDs serve the community in many more
ways than just seeing patients, prescribing drugs, or performing
surgery. If you say to yourself, "I'm not a people person, so I'd
make a lousy doctor," keep in mind that there are ways to use your
interest in medicine to benefit the community without seeing
patients on a day-to-day basis.
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health, medical education, school, MD, DO, MCAT, review, admission, specialities, medical school curricula, interview
