Young doctors reevaluate a changing profession

'The practice of medicine has radically changed'

"Patient contact, things of that sort, have not really changed," she says. "However I think the practice of medicine has really radically changed."

"There has been somewhat of an alarming trend in medicine, where it's really being managed like a business. I think a lot of physicians, my peers, young physicians, who are in training, definitely feel that a lot. And that part of their training now is actually the whole practice of medicine as an enterprise and not some of the things that classically have been the 'art' of medicine."

Dr. Ramona Doyle moved down the road from San Francisco to the Stanford University Medical Center where she specializes in lung ailments. She, too, has been forced to learn the 'business' of medicine.

"I was somewhat unconscious regarding the business aspects of health care," she says, "You can't afford to be that way anymore.

"When I was in training, I thought that having my hands on patients was going to be a lot of what I do. But we're all burdened by a lot of paperwork and administrative duties," Doyle says.

"Quite often it intrudes on the relationship with patients and the delivery of patient care, and I don't know how that's gonna sort itself out. I'm very interested. I feel like I've had a front-row seat."

'I don't know how long private practitioners can last'

Song Cho studied internal medicine when she was in medical school. Now she's a dermatologist with a private practice. She has an office, staff and all the expenses that go with it.

"My experience at the university was mostly staying there all day, taking care of in-patients, so this is a very different experience," she says.

"In order to be able to provide medical services to people that need them, you need to be wise. I mean, you cannot just be ideal and say, 'I'll just take care of everybody.' Then you may not be able to survive.

"I still believe that as a physician, I will still do the same things. I would like to provide for people who need my expertise, and I don't really consider financial factors to be that important. And I guess I'm still able to do that in my small practice here. I don't know how long private practitioners can last, though."

Cho says the hours are long, and hobbies and family are vital to her. Yet she, like her colleagues, does not doubt her choice of career.

'It's still fun'

"It is a very, very special field," Cho says. "I would strongly recommend it to people who really have the heart to do it. Do it anytime. Do it. Do it anytime. Do it in the year 2000. Do it 50 years from now."

"It's still fun," according to Doyle. "I wouldn't want to do anything else, really."

"People always ask me, 'Would you ever do this again, if you had to?'" Wang says. "And I would say that, knowing who I am, how much I enjoy medicine -- yes, I would. Very much so."