Number 1 reason I want to be a surgeon

Most people who know me would know of my future career in medicine *evil grin*. I’m willing to spend another significant fraction of my years here on earth to cram the positions of your arteries and veins, the number of bones you have, how to estimate the number of hair on your head and how to extract money from your pockets by means of charisma and medical terms that only a chosen few would understand.

Anyway, there are factors that influenced me to choose my specific field of specific specialty (note the redundancy). I don’t really want to stay in clinics and chit-chat all day long nor do I want to be giving prescriptions of medications of which I am not sure what their spellings are and so I use poor handwriting to spare me the embarrassment. I want to be in the Operating room, to slice people up and do unimaginable things to their internal organs and probably save their lives in the process.

It was all unclear until I found this research.

Phenotypic differences between male physicians, surgeons, and film stars: A comparative study

Antoni Trilla, director of preventive medicine and epidemiology unit, Marta Aymerich, consultant, haemopathology unit, Antonio M Lacy, consultant, general and digestive tract surgery unit, Maria J Bertran, specialist, preventive medicine and epidemiology unit

1 Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain

Objectives To test the hypothesis that, on average, male surgeons are taller and better looking than male physicians, and to compare both sets of doctors with film stars who play doctors on screen.

Design Comparative study.

Setting Typical university hospital in Spain, located in Barcelona and not in a sleepy backwater.

Participants Random sample of 12 surgeons and 12 physicians plus 4 external controls (film stars who play doctors), matched by age (50s) and sex (all male).

Interventions An independent committee (all female) evaluated the “good looking score” (range 1-7).

Main outcome measures Height (cm) and points on the good looking score.

Results Surgeons were significantly taller than physicians (mean height 179.4 v 172.6 cm; P=0.01). Controls had significantly higher good looking scores than surgeons (mean score 5.96 v 4.39; difference between means 1.57, 95% confidence interval 0.69 to 2.45; P=0.013) and physicians (5.96 v 3.65; 2.31, 1.58 to 3.04; P=0.003). Surgeons had significantly higher good looking scores than physicians (4.39 v 3.65; 0.74; 0.25 to 1.23; P=0.010).

Conclusions Male surgeons are taller and better looking than physicians, but film stars who play doctors on screen are better looking than both these groups of doctors. Whether these phenotypic differences are genetic or environmental is unclear.

In case you didn’t read the whole article because of ADD or probably other factors, the research compared how naurally physically more attractive male surgeons are than male physicians.  If you don’t get the humour in that then screw you