CakeMan27
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PathHi everyone! Currently thinking about specialties as an incoming M1 and I've been trying to look on forums to see which specialties tend to be accommodating for people with ASD. However, most specialties people tend to bring up don't involve patient interaction, like anesthesiology or radiology. I typically enjoy patient interaction and being around people but have poor experience with social cues and settling into a normal conversational tone. Are there any specialties that are suitable for people on the spectrum that still include patient interaction in their routine?
I can't speak to the other specialties, but do disagree slightly for critical care medicine as being able to read the room is especially important. While there is less interaction in general, each interaction tends to be more intense and with much higher stakes. Intensivists also frequently have goals of care conversations with patients' loved ones on one of their worst days, and being able to connect with healthcare decision makers will make a difference in their decisions and the way they remember that moment.Neurology, neonatology, trauma surgery, critical care medicine. With some exceptions, the patients aren't talking and social cues are less important but you are interacting with living (and, we hope, still breathing) people.
Excellent points. CCM docs have to interact with stressed and anxious families, many struggling to cope. Compassion and showing concern for their family member is paramount.I can't speak to the other specialties, but do disagree slightly for critical care medicine as being able to read the room is especially important. While there is less interaction in general, each interaction tends to be more intense and with much higher stakes. Intensivists also frequently have goals of care conversations with patients' loved ones on one of their worst days, and being able to connect with healthcare decision makers will make a difference in their decisions and the way they remember that moment.
For the OP, I will say that many skills in medicine can be learned and/or improved with practice. When I started medical school, I was very much 'behind the curve' when it came to the softer aspects of the curriculum (communication, reading cues, etc.) and lacked many of my peers' social talents, but my skills improved with consistent practice, and I'd like to think that I'm now on par, if not even slightly better, than my peers.. (or at least that's what my patients and their families tell me... though they can be telling everyone this!). Realistically, there is a functional 'ceiling' as to how much we can all improve, but I would not let your current abilities necessarily dictate your future if your current deficits are not severe.
You mentioned Anesthesia: you still do have patient interactions there (albeit much shorter ones) and even more so if you specialize in Pain Medicine. And for Radiology, my interventional radiology colleagues have their fair share of shorter patient interactions, which may be a good balance between no and 'too much' patient interaction. Just my thoughts.
Neurology, neonatology, trauma surgery, critical care medicine. With some exceptions, the patients aren't talking and social cues are less important but you are interacting with living (and, we hope, still breathing) people.
Forgot about neuro! There's a stereotype of lots of autistic neurologists, and it...isn't entirely without merit. That's a possibility too, and residency interviewers might be slightly less biased/suspicious as well.
I stand corrected. The two neurologists I know best must be outliers, and I was thinking, in large part, about hospitalized stroke patients and others in ICU.With the possible exception of psychiatry, there is no specialty that more involves long conversations with patients than neurology. The conversations are often challenging - on the inpatient side you often are breaking very bad news, and in general practice people will be referred to you for a myriad of symptoms, and you often have to tell them nothing is wrong, or break the news that they're functional. There is no conversation that requires "people skills" more, that I can think of, then explaining to a patient and their family that they can't walk, or fall down and shake, not because something is wrong with their body, but because it's in their mind.
As a side note: the idea that neurologists see patients who can't talk to them is inaccurate. Keep in mind most neurologists don't see hospitalized patients, and neurohospitalists who do actually see ED patients as a large percentage of their day.
The stereotype is that neurologists are weird, or neurodivergent, or whatever (which may be true) but not that they're autistic. There isn't a field in medicine you cannot do if you have ASD, but if you are worried about detailed conversations with people, just know that waits for you for the vast majority of neurological clinical encounters.
Source: academic neurologist who knows a LOT of other neurologists.
I will say the the majority of "on the spectrum" doctors I know seem to go into pathology, followed by psychiatry for some reason, but I also know someone who is definitely diagnosed as autistic and is a medicine hospitalist.
I will say the the majority of "on the spectrum" doctors I know seem to go into pathology, followed by psychiatry for some reason, but I also know someone who is definitely diagnosed as autistic and is a medicine hospitalist.
Please stop recommending that people with ASD go into pathology. While path has little patient contact, it requires a LOT of communication with other physicians, who can be quite demanding. Plenty of “odd ducks” in path, but folks who don’t communicate well, or who get super stressed out by talking with others, won’t be happy in pathology (the exception being in a reference lab, where you sit at a scope all day).