Although the ranks of specialists are still dominated by middle aged men (babyboomers and the generation just after them) this will change soon. The student population at the universities has changed dramatically. More than 70 % of the students of medicine currently are female.
As one professor told me, the girls are usually the best students. Highly motivated, structured and very intelligent.
Most of them are not willing to work 80 hrs per week as an independent. They prefer to get a laborcontract with normal hours and vacations. This will mean the end of the current structure with “independent” specialists.
The second change has been triggered by the Iphone.
Its intuitive user-interface is very appealing to people in the medical profession. Already several applications are available for daily use, like a stored database of farmaceutical knowledge: drugs, their components, specific effects and side-effects, their application and so on. I am told that many specialists and specialized nurses carry an Iphone with them all the time just for this purpose: immediate, on the spot searches in this immense database.
From males with stethoscopes to females with Iphones…..
