So you want to be a United States military doctor.
You want to serve your country, travel around the world, and be at the cutting edge of medical
technology.
This is what it means to be a military doctor, and we’ll help you decide if it’s a good
field for you.
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
Welcome to our next installment in So You Want to Be.
In this series, we highlight a specific specialty or discipline within medicine, such as being
a military physician, and help you decide if it’s a good fit for you.
You can find more specialties on our So You Want to Be playlist.
Military medicine is widely misunderstood by us civilians.
We’re going to be comparing military medicine to civilian medicine, so it will make the
most sense if you are familiar with the civilian medical training process.
If you’re not, then first watch this video for a brief overview .
To become a physician in the military, there are two main paths to choose from: the Health
Professions Scholarship Program, or HPSP for short, and the Uniformed Services University
of the Health Sciences, also known as the USUHS.
HPSP is the more common path of the two, whereby you go to any medical school, whether osteopathic
or allopathic, and here’s the kicker: your tuition is entirely paid for and you also
receive a monthly stipend for living expenses.
For the most part, your medical training is pretty similar to that of your civilian counterparts.
However, as a HPSP recipient, you will have basic military training, most commonly during
your second year of medical school.
During your clinical years, meaning third and fourth year, you are usually granted the
opportunity to become “active duty” and rotate at military hospitals if you choose.
So what’s the catch?
The United States military paid for your medical school education, so it’s only fair to pay
it back.
Generally speaking, there’s a 1 to 1 payback in service to the military under HPSP.
That means if you graduated medical school after the traditional 4 years, you are required
to be a physician serving in the military for at least 4 years after completing your
training.
While you are of course being paid when you are serving as a physician, note that military
compensation rates are usually lower than civilian counterparts.
The main benefit to HPSP is that you have complete flexibility to where you attend medical
school.
Want to go to UC San Diego and enjoy the awesome weather?
No problem.
What about staying at Ohio State to be close to family?
Also totally fine.
The downside is that unless you’re attending a medical school that has several HPSP recipients,
you will be isolated from the rest of the military medical training process.
You won’t be exposed to the military match process, the military in general, and you
won’t be participating in drills or field exercises.
The USUHS is the military’s medical school.
Like HPSP, tuition is completely free, but rather than a small stipend for living expenses,
you’ll be serving as an active duty 2nd Lieutenant and paid as such, which is around
$40,000 per year base pay, with about another $20,000 of non-taxable income for housing.
The most obvious downside is that you won’t have a choice in where you attend medical
school - you’ll have to attend USUHS, which is located in Bethesda, Maryland.
Additionally, the payback period is longer than HPSP at 7 years on average.
That being said, there are several benefits to this path.
You’ll be fully integrated into the military medical training system from the get go, and
that means many more opportunities, unique experiences, and full immersion into the military
culture.
Of course, you’ll be participating in field exercises, but it gets much more exciting
than that.
For example, you can gain early exposure and do rotations in humanitarian medicine, disaster
medicine, rotate across the U.S. and even internationally.
The world of military medicine shares many similarities with civilian medicine, but is
in some ways a world of its own.
As a military physician, it’s not only necessary for you to be a specialist in your field,
but also a competent and flexible generalist while deployed.
For example, a general surgeon, while deployed, may be asked to do cases more typically reserved
for a neurosurgeon, otolaryngologist, or urologist.
Alternatively, a pediatrician may be deployed as a battalion doctor, the military equivalent
of a primary care physician.
This is a difficult and stressful aspect of military medicine, but it’s mitigated by
a strong support system and excellent training.
You’ll always have someone to call to ask for help or clarification.
And these cross-specialty responsibilities are only reserved while you’re deployed.
Back home, you’ll stick to working within your intended specialty.
The military match process is an entirely different animal.
The regular civilian match occurs in March, but the military match occurs in December.
All specialties are still available for residency training, however the military is working
to curtail the number of “non-deployable specialists.”
For example, the military will still train pediatricians but may limit additional subspecialty
training in fellowship.
Once you graduate medical school and start residency, you are promoted to captain in
the Army and Air Force, or to Lieutenant in the Navy.
A majority of graduates match into their intended specialty of choice.
For the Army that number was 85% in 2018.
The Air Force’s most recent published number was 85% for 2017.
Taking into account specialty and location, in 2016 72% of USUHS graduates got their first
choice of specialty and site (across all branches).
The Navy is a bit different in that the majority of their graduates will complete an intern
year and do a General Medical Officer Tour prior to completing residency.
A General Medical Officer, or GMO for short, is essentially a primary care plus doctor.
After completing intern year, GMO’s are assigned to different units.
Depending on their unit, they will undergo additional training, lasting months to years,
to best be in service of their unit.
For example, Navy flight doctors will go to flight school where they will learn not only
about the physiology involved in flying fighter jets and helicopters, but they themselves
will also learn to fly.
They’ll work with pilots, go in jets, and experience multiple aspects of the unit.
The goal is to make them experts in their respective fields.
GMO units have a wide range, from flight medicine to dive medicine, and much more.
As a GMO, you can expect to get significant field experience and even deploy, with tours
usually lasting 2 to 3 years.
During this time you will be treated and salaried as an attending physician.
GMO’s are colloquially referred to as “surgeons,” such as flight surgeon, dive surgeon, etc.
However, they are not surgeons.
If you want to be a surgeon and actually do surgery, the military has training programs
for the traditional surgical specialties such as general surgery, otolaryngology, orthopedics,
urology, etc.
If you don’t become a GMO, you will proceed with residency training in a similar capacity
to civilians.
The main difference is that you will be required to fulfill certain military requirements such
as physical fitness tests, drills, and online training.
Some programs offer the opportunity to attend military schools, such as airborne, air assault,
or flight medicine.
Those that fail to match will complete a transitional year and they will reapply during the subsequent
match.
If they go unmatched again, they will go on to become a GMO. Navy graduates have the highest
rate of graduates becoming GMO’s.
This has nothing to do with the applicants — it’s just part of Navy medicine to have
GMO’s with units.
The lowest rate for GMO’s is in the Army with the Air Force in the middle.
Military medicine is certainly not for everyone.
Here’s how you can decide if it’s a good fit for you.
First consider the downsides.
If any of these are deal breakers for you, then it’s likely not a good match.
The average military physician makes approximately $150,000 to $200,000 per year, depending on
your rank, although that is not fully accounting for specialty bonuses.
As a civilian, you can make much more, depending on your specialty.
As a primary care doctor, you’ll be making a similar amount, but as an orthopedic or
neurosurgeon, you’ll be making 2-3x that amount.
As a military physician, you don’t have much control over where you’ll be living
and practicing medicine.
While you can certainly submit preferences, it’s ultimately up to the military to determine
where you are most needed.
Additionally, after residency you can be deployed at any time, and that usually means significant
time away from your family and loved ones.
There are of course risks if you are deployed to active war zones.
If you’d like to subspecialize with fellowship training, understand that while it is certainly
possible, the military limits the number of fellowship trainees every year.
Between 2016 and 2018, only about 50% of Army doctors who wanted to do a fellowship were
allowed to do so.
That said, if you are permitted, military physicians typically go to top flight fellowship
programs.
Lastly, as they say in the military, you need to “embrace the suck.”
If you are in military medicine, you will be deployed, and you will find yourself in
conditions that are not comfortable.
Military medicine requires a greater level of flexibility and creativity than civilian
medicine.
Think of the generalist having to perform specialist surgeries while deployed.
Additionally, you will have to work in austere, unique, and changing environments.
Military medicine can be practiced in active war zones, areas recovering from conflict,
pandemics such as Ebola, humanitarian missions, global training exercises, and areas subject
to natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis.
Military medicine allows you to serve your country, see the world, be with America’s
finest, get additional training, work with world leaders in the field, push yourself,
and do things you never thought would do.
It’s not for everybody, but for those who do pursue it, there is nothing quite like
it.
If you’re wondering how I know so much about military medicine, it’s because of our awesome
team of physicians at Med School Insiders, several of whom are current military physicians.
Maybe you need help deciding if military medicine is right for you, or want to ensure you’re
as successful as possible given its unique training intricacies.
Regardless of your situation, our team at Med School Insiders can help.
Our team of over 60 physicians are on standby, here to serve you in helping you become a
future physician.
With our extensive experience and broad range of expertise, from civilian to military, primary
care to plastic surgery, we can help students from any background, regardless of their goals.
If you have a highly unique non-traditional story or very specific goals in the type of
medicine you want to practice, chances are we’ve successfully helped students in similar
situations get to where they want to be.
We’ve helped over 1,000 students in the last year alone, and they’ve left us raving
reviews.
See what’s made us the fastest growing company in this space and learn more at MedSchoolInsiders.com.
What type of doctor should I cover in the next So You Want to Be video?
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As always, thank you all so much for watching.
Much love to you all, and I will see you guys in that next one.