Why do you care? Does it make her any different as an athlete?

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

He just wants to know if she is misrepresenting herself. Can people not ask questions?

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I think most states have an online database you can look up and see who is licensed...

I don't believe she lists herself as licensed. On her blog site it simply says Amanda Stevens, MD which means she graduated medical school. Nothing more, nothing less. Having a medical degree doesn't mean anything in the actual practice of medicine, though. On the USMLE website it states that step 3 is the "final examination. . .leading to the license to practice medicine without supervision." Hope that helps.

Why do you care that I care? Does it make me any different as a slowtwitch poster?

But if you must know I have a doctorate and work in the medical field at a 500+ bed hospital. I work closely with the medical residents (we have surgical, ED, and internal medicine residents) here so things like medical training and type of practice interest me just as much as FTP, rolling resistance and CdA. Happy now?

It's an interesting approach that she's taken to 'brand' herself as a pro triathlete and doctor. Clearly being an MD is a part of her identity, and part of me doesn't see the problem with it (...although, I wouldn't do it myself).

We aren't looking at her resume (it's just a public profile), so I'm not surprised that some details are not included, nor should she really need to justify everything.

...one thing is for sure, she certainly took a pay cut to become a pro triathlete!

I think that it is simply good branding. Helps her to stand out from the crowd. Seems to work as she has a lot of sponsors on her race kit. She definitely earned her MD so good for her to promote it. The interview has her saying that she wants to become an integrative physician as she no longer wants to become an orthopedic surgeon. Probably a bunch of reasons for this. Part of that probably has to do with the fact that she is so far out from medical school that it would be fairly difficult, if not impossible, to enter one of the most competitive fields and snag a residency spot. Not saying that it couldn't happen though. . . Plus integrative health is not listed under the American Board of Internal Medicine so not really sure whose auspices it comes under. I think it is a certification as one of my old partners did it as a week course

How does that work with non-clinical specialty stuff? IE, pathology, epidemiology.

re: earlier talk about being licensed. It's in the "about me" on her old blogspot blog, but not mentioned in her new website. I'm not trying to put someone on trial, I was just wondering when she switched her path and how long she has been "away" from the medical profession.


Yeah. Definitely big props to her for following a passion rather than just going for $$ - especially if she was saddled with student loans. Not super common, but you do see it now and again. One of the well known coaches in town who is a multi-time KQ is a radiologist. I was thinking about how big of a "pay cut" he is taking when he takes time to coach versus if he spent that time working. My HS soccer coach was an ED doc who had to adjust his schedule and take time off every fall. Pretty sure the 2k stipend he got per season was nowhere near is "lost wages" from having to step away from the ED. I definitely appreciated it though as he was a great coach, and if someone makes that move you know they are passionate and invested in it.

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Matt

Pathology is a 4 year residency (with options to do an extra 1-2 years of fellowship if you want to specialize). Not sure what IE is (the only thing my brain comes up with is infectious endocarditis)....did you mean to type ID? If so they generally do a 3 year internal medicine residency followed by a 2 year infectious disease fellowship. I'm not exactly sure on epidemiology as I have limited time around them (just a short rotation at the FDA while I was in school), but I am pretty sure you can do it sans residency. Most however have their Master of Public Health. I think most people who graduate med school and don't go into residency will go into consulting.

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Matt

IE as in 'such as...' not something medical.

Thanks.

Actually, I would venture that most pro triathletes make more than residents. Not attending MDs, obviously.

So far as I know, there are no integrative health residency programs. It's basically a euphemism for primary care that also includes so-called "alternative medicine" modalities that are not evidence-based. Even with her unique story of being a professional triathlete for years, she would have a very difficult if not impossible time getting accepted to a traditional residency program.


The silver lining is that she won't be sitting around the hospital on Thanksgiving twiddling her thumbs like me :).

My sister is in her last year of residency. She brings home ~50k/year. Do most pro triathlete derive more income than that from triathlon related activities (i.e., purse, sponsorship, etc)?

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Medical Residents would earn somewhere in the neighbourhood of $50K a year. From the sounds of it, most pros don't come close to that in earnings. Also,a residency only lasts a few years. After that short period, the average GP in Canada (my area), make $340,000 a year (that's about $260K usd). I doubt there's more than tiny fraction of pro's that come close to that!

Money is pretty scarce below the very top pros.
http://trstriathlon.com/...-money-list-q1-2015/

IMO, if you aren't paying your bills with triathlon, then you are a "pro triathlete" in name only.

You're not alone...the hospital cafeteria is a sad and lonely place today...

I know one person that dropped out of residency to become a professional runner (or something like that), but she was independently wealthy. In fact, everyone I know who dropped out of residency came from a lot of money. I can't imagine not doing a residency with all those loans hanging over me. That's the problem with medicine, really. Once you're on that train, you can't get off...

At least I picked a lifestyle-friendly specialty where I intend to work three days a week for the rest of my career.

median income in the U.S is ~50k. That's probably not a lot of money for weekend warrior/age groupers in triathlon, but ~50k/year more than pays the bills for a lot of people in the U.S., let alone other parts of the planet.

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My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

Agreed. I am in no way denigrating people making 50K. In fact I have been supporting a family of 4 in two of the most expensive locations in the U.S. on that income (or less!) and living quite comfortably for years.

My point is that if most "pros" are not making anywhere near that, then they are likely not paying their bills via triathlon. Which makes triathlon more of a hobby with the occasional, scattershot income stream, kinda like my brother's obsession with selling his old baseball cards on ebay. Given Stevens' success in race wins and sponsors, etc., I would guess she is making well above 50K, or at least that triathlon is her primary income source. Just surmising though.

Continue to live just as frugally once an attending, you can pay off your loans in 2-3 years and then you can have an unbelievable ability to tailor your job to your wants. Specialty permitting, you can work part-time, work locums, work shifts at multiple hospitals, take huge chunks of time off to climb Mt Everest, etc. The trap that I see people fall into is that as soon as they become an attending, they start dropping a ton of money on a mortgage, new car, fancy vacations, etc., and then they are on a 20 year timeframe to pay off their loans. You can't defer gratification forever, but if you can find a way to defer it for a few more years and pay off your loans, you can be in great shape. Very few other lines of work where you can basically look at a map, decide "hey, I want to live there" and then just pick up and do it and get paid 200K or much more for the remainder of your career.

"Doc" Amanda Stevens is an amazing person and athlete who has the education and a vocation to pursue once she's attained her goals within triathlon, she will undoubtedly be a well respected physician. In the mean time she is just beginning to dial in her long course fitness and nutrition and will be one to watch as a top contender in the coming year. I'd ask her to marry me if she didn't already have a bacon connoisseur as a husband.

Been there. Having a bail-out option would have been tempting on many occasions. Residency was most intense and prolonged ultra-endurance event I've done yet, with the possible exception of parenting. The psychological aspect of IM was never in question for me. Between the hours and the virtually absolute power the academic attending physicians wield over the resident's future career (through the ability to write positive or negative evaluations and recommendations), medical residency training is--at best--indentured servitude. Worse at times. But as you note, once you get through, the options are more or less unlimited based on your choices. Assuming of course that you didn't do a neurosurgery residency or its equivalent. But then you're not likely on this forum.

The great news about the $40,000-ish/year that residents make is that there isn't a whole lot of spare time to spend it. And if you do the math, BTW, it's hamburger wages. Or less, given the push for higher minimum wages. But I digress...

I'm guessing you're in Emergency Medicine--the #1 choice for lifestyle flexibility. Good on you. But even as a more 9-5 (7-5, realistically) anesthesiologist, I find that family time can be every bit if not more the limiter on training time. I'm definitely not complaining here--parsing out time between awesome things is hardly a burden.

Re Amanda Stevens, her use of the "Dr." thing strikes me as pretentious, as it does for licensed physicians that feel the need to continually advertise their educational/occupational accomplishments outside of the context of medicine. Or even PhDs in underwater basketweaving, for that matter, since she apparently isn't yet a licensed physician. What exactly does it have to do with triathlon?

If I'd had the "skills to pay the bills," I'd probably have taken a few years off before residency, too. All that graduate medical education will still be there for Dr. Amanda Stevens when she's done as a pro triathlete.

Then people will call her Dr. Amanda Stevens even when she doesn't want them to.

Like, all f***ing night, every 15 minutes.

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Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.

Except that in the article, she appears to say that she's "practicing" alternative medicine with her clients she coaches. So it's more than just an identity. She's using it as part of her business. So if I was one of her clients and I'm getting what one could consider medical advise, I'd want to know if she's qualified, licensed, and insured to practice medicine, or that level of medicine before I worked with her. I know it was made clear in USAT coaching certification for example, what you are trained to provide and not provide. Nutrition had to be danced around carefully, since I'm not a licensed dietitian. I'm not an Orthopedist or physical therapist. As such, there are lines I cannot cross in giving advice. I can offer suggestions, my own experience, but I'm pretty quick to refer to a professional in that field.

As for the pay cut. It depends on how much she has in student loans, and you have to consider that much of her expenses are write-offs, so her net income ma not be far off. There's certainly a quality of life difference in working as an intern or resident vs. a pro triathlete. But she's also not savings lives and that sort of thing as a triathlete. Like most things in life there are trade-offs.

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