LMS President’s Message: Thanks to All Who Made Career Chats 2022 Successful
By Khalil Rahman, MD, MBA
Seven years ago, the Lexington Medical Society started an annual Career Chat event, introducing medical students to seasoned physicians practicing medicine as residents, solo, group private practice, hospitals employed physicians, or working in an academia setting in multiple sub-specialties. This year we had more than one hundred participants, including ninety-nine medical students. The purpose is to discuss medical specialties with physicians in practice, giving them an opportunity to ask questions in a friendly environment.
We all understand the gravity of picking a specialty as it will impact the next 35-40 years of a physician’s life, along with her/his family. These beautiful young minds are ready to serve the sick and healthy. It’s very important to pick the right specialty now, although some do change from one to the other during the medical college rotations and during medical residency. As we all know the workload, the patient population, and the revenue is different among the specialties. A large variation in payment to the physicians in different specialties may be a factor for some, but lifestyle considerations also drive decision-making.
I was incredibly pleased to know how well informed and balanced the students were. Over the last few decades, some priorities have changed and will evolve as the practice of medicine is evolving. These young future physicians want to have more time for themselves and their families. They want to travel to see the world, while some were interested in innovation, research, and development. They all wanted to serve our nation, to keep the USA on the top of the medical field. Thank you to our sponsor Emily Miller from the Republic Bank and all the physicians that took time after their busy day to help our medical students gain insights from a wide range of medical specialties.
Comments from Physicians and Medical Students on Career Chats 2022
“I really enjoyed learning more about some of the physicians’ histories with the field, it really opened up my interest and options. I loved the openness of the event to wherever you think would best help you in your career. It was structured enough for everyone to gain something out of it, but I ended up going to the same table twice to learn more about them and that really benefited me. Thanks for hosting it!” Supriya Challa
M1 Medical Student
“The LMS Career Chats gave a great new perspective to many of the specialties I was looking into. It provided the oppor-tunity to see physicians outside of a healthcare setting and ask them questions. I had a wonderful and rewarding time seeing what specialty I might want to choose for my career.”
Wyatt Southall
M1 Medical Student
“Very delightful to chat with such bright Medical students. All of the ones I spoke to were eager to learn about all specialties and zero in on the one that would be their career. It was a pleas-ure to see such a motivated group.”
John Roth, MD Dermatology
“I enjoyed hearing about what the day-to-day schedule looks like for each specialty. The conversations prompted me to consider what I value in my career and life. It was interesting listening to the doctors in private practice because most of my exposure as a medical student has been in the academic setting at UK. I look forward to attending the career chats in the future!”
Matt Telfer
UK Medical Student
