Medicine offers a vast number of career choices. Many physicians treat patients full-time, while others also teach, conduct research, manage hospitals and clinics, or develop health policy. There is no single road to becoming a doctor, but most medical career paths share key characteristics.

Types of Physicians

There are two types of physicians, Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Osteopathy (DO). Medical licensing authorities recognize both training paths. Carver College of Medicine is the only MD school in the state of Iowa.

Doctors are said to fall into two main groups: Primary Care Physicians and Specialists. Primary care refers to the medical fields that treat most common health problems - family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, and in some cases obstetrics and gynecology. Specialists (or subspecialists) concentrate on particular types of illnesses or problems that affect specific tissues or organ systems in the body. They may treat patients with complicated illnesses who are referred to them by primary care physicians or by other specialists.