Rheumatologists are the happiest medical specialists outside of work, according to a recent report. Approximately 65% of rheumatologists said they were happy, the Medscape Physician Lifestyle & Happiness Report 2019 reported. That’s up from 54% last year, when the specialty ranked fourth in the annual report.1,2
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“It’s a significant finding because it’s repeated,” says Simon Helfgott, MD, an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and a past physician editor of The Rheumatologist. Dr. Helfgott has written about work–life balance issues in the field. “[This result] tells us that we have done something right in rheumatology in that we have been able to blend an interesting, intellectually stimulating profession and practice with the ability to help people,” he says.
Anne Bass, MD, past chair of the ACR’s Committee on Rheumatology Training and Workforce Issues and rheumatology fellowship program director for the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, put it even more succinctly, “You don’t go into rheumatology to make a lot of money. You do it because you’re interested in it.”
To be fair, the average annual salary for rheumatologists climbed to $257,000 last year—up from $209,000 three years prior, according to a Medscape survey released last spring.3