<p>Nano-- do you want to be a design engineer or do you want to be physician?</p>
<p>I guess that’s the key question. Because once you become a trained pathologist (with 8 years of post grad training–4 med school + 4 residency) you become much too valuable to work as a design engineer (which takes at most 1-2 years of post-grad training). You might consult on a robotic design project, but you’re not going to be laying out circuit patterns on chips or devising new servos.</p>
<p>I understand the attraction of engineering + medicine. I really do. It’s very exciting. I think big things are coming in this area. Telepresence/teleoperation of surgical robots. Nano device drug delivery. Cybernetics/artificial limbs that respond to thought. Lasers used to do bloodless bloodwork and treat neurological illnesses via visual pathways. New imaging technology. </p>
<p>But—right now those are engineering projects carried out by PhD level engineers, physicists, chemists, and molecular biologists. Not particularly by physicians. The medical part is understood–it’s the engineering that cutting edge.</p>