Specialty Profiles

What it's like to be in infectious disease: Shadowing Dr. Nahass

. 2 MIN READ

As a medical student, do you ever wonder what it’s like to be an infectious disease (ID) specialist? Here’s your chance to find out. 

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Meet Ronald G. Nahass, MD, an ID specialist and featured physician in AMA Wire’s® “Shadow Me” Specialty Series, which offers advice directly from physicians about life in their specialties.

Read his insights to help determine whether a career in ID might be a good fit for you.

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“Shadowing” Dr. Nahass

Specialty: Infectious diseases (ID)

Practice setting: Single specialty group 

Employment type: Private practice 

Years in practice: 25

A typical week in my practice: [My days are] diversified, [covering] clinical care, population/public health, teaching, clinical research, administrative/leadership and writing. All these activities are part of my day-to-day and week-by-week activities.

Hours vary by interest in various activities. [I work] 50-hour weeks plus every fourth weekend [on] call. 

The most challenging aspect of caring for patients in ID:

Care coordination of complex patients. Patients we care for frequently have multiple conditions and require a lot of coordination to assure clarity, avoidance of mistakes and excellent outcomes.  

Learn more about infectious disease on FREIDA™

Three adjectives that describe the typical physician in ID:

Bright. Master detective. Excellent clinician.

Three skills every physician in training should have for ID but won’t be tested for on the board exam: 

Listening. Observation. Examination

One question physicians in training should ask before pursuing ID:

Do you like solving problems?

Three books every medical student interested in ID should read:

  • How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman 
  • Practicing Excellence: A Physician's Manual to Exceptional Health Care by Stephen C. Beeson
  • The Resilient Physician by Wayne Sotile 

If my life in this specialty were a song, it’d be: 

“The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan

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