No 41 - How does someone become the "best doctor in the world"?

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I have just started reading “When Breath Becomes Air” and its thought provoking. I would highly recommend.

But one thing it reminded me of is this. When I first went to medical school I had big dreams of one day being a world famous doctor. I wasn’t sure what kind of doctor or what for but I thought if I was going to have to put in this much work, then it should at least be with the aim of doing something worthy of respect.

My friends and I used to occassionally discuss these goals and think about what would lie ahead. Then we got older and more tired and most of us just thought about settling down and being a “good enough doctor”. But no one ever really talked to us about what it might mean to be “world class” or how to get there.

I really admire people who strive to be the best they can be and I would love to emulate them. But I am becoming slightly cynical about what it might mean to be a “well respected doctor”.

I’ve put some thoughts down onto a chart, a bit like Maslow’s Heirarchy, what do you think?

Some people might agree with this, some might not. Some might think its total rubbish.

But after studying medicine for nearly 13 years now, I think I have come to this conclusion. For most doctors, if you are clinically competent and nice to patients then you can become locally well respected.

If you want to be any more “famous” than this then it takes a lot of additional work and self publicity to make your name known. Then it takes a lot of luck and connections to get to the top.

I am not sure that I have ever seen a career path for doctors laid out like this before, if it helps you get to top then please do let me know! I’d love to hear how you did it! Best of luck…