What Kind of Doctor Should I Be – 48 Medical Specialties

How it works

Pre-med or in medical school and weighing your options? Press the button for one of 48 medical specialties, from family medicine to neurosurgery, each with what that doctor treats.

Read the full guide

Sort by how you like to work

After your first press, the list beside the button narrows the draw. Get to know your patients holds the long relationships; Surgery holds the operating room; Fast and high-stakes holds emergencies; Labs, scans and research holds work mostly away from the bedside.

Test it on a rotation

Set the count to 3 and read about each. Then shadow a doctor in the one that pulls at you, and ask what a normal Tuesday looks like, not only the exciting cases, and what they wish they had known before choosing.

Tips

Family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics are primary care: the doctors most people see first, before any referral.

Questions and answers

How do I choose what kind of doctor to be?

Ask whether you want long relationships with patients or quick, one-time care; whether you like working with your hands; and which organ or age group interests you most. Rotations in medical school test those answers.

What kinds of doctors are there?

Primary care doctors (family, internal medicine, pediatrics), organ specialists (cardiology, dermatology, neurology), surgeons, emergency and intensive care doctors, and lab and imaging doctors such as pathologists and radiologists. This picker holds 48 specialties.

What kind of doctor works with children?

Pediatricians, neonatologists for newborns and pediatric surgeons. Family medicine doctors see children too, along with the rest of the family.

All 48 specialties

Get to know your patients 14

Addiction medicine Helps people recover from addiction to drugs, alcohol or gambling.
Family medicine Care for whole families, all ages, often for years.
Geriatrics Care for older adults, often balancing many conditions and medicines.
Internal medicine Diagnoses and treats illness in adults, often with several problems at once.
Medical genetics Diagnoses conditions that run in families and advises them.
Neonatology Care for newborns who are sick or born early.
Obstetrics and gynecology Care through pregnancy and birth, and for the female reproductive system.
Occupational medicine Keeps people healthy and safe at work.
Palliative care Eases symptoms and improves quality of life in serious illness.
Pediatric surgery Surgery on babies and children.
Pediatrics Care for babies, children and teenagers.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation Helps people get back function after injury, stroke or illness.
Psychiatry Diagnoses and treats mental illness, with talk and medicine.
Sports medicine Treats and prevents injuries from sport and exercise.

Show all 48 specialties (34 more)

One organ or system 16

Allergy and immunology Allergies, asthma and the immune system.
Cardiology The heart and blood vessels.
Dermatology Skin, hair and nails.
Ear, nose and throat (otolaryngology) The ear, nose, throat, head and neck.
Endocrinology Hormones and the glands that make them, such as the thyroid.
Gastroenterology The stomach, gut and liver.
Hematology The blood and bone marrow.
Infectious disease Hard-to-treat infections, from tropical disease to HIV.
Nephrology The kidneys, including dialysis.
Neurology The brain, spinal cord and nerves, without surgery.
Oncology Treating cancer.
Ophthalmology The eyes, from glasses prescriptions to eye surgery.
Pulmonology The lungs and breathing.
Rheumatology Joints, muscles and autoimmune diseases such as lupus.
Sleep medicine Sleep problems such as sleep apnea and insomnia.
Urology The kidneys, bladder and urinary tract, often with surgery.

Surgery 10

Anesthesiology Puts patients to sleep for surgery and keeps them safe until they wake.
Cardiothoracic surgery Surgery on the heart, lungs and chest.
Colorectal surgery Surgery on the colon and rectum.
General surgery Operations on the abdomen, such as removing an appendix.
Interventional radiology Treats problems with small tools guided by live scans.
Neurosurgery Surgery on the brain, spine and nerves.
Orthopedic surgery Bones and joints: fractures, new hips and knees.
Plastic surgery Rebuilds and reshapes the body, from burns to cleft lips.
Trauma surgery Operates on people with sudden serious injuries.
Vascular surgery Surgery on arteries and veins.

Fast and high-stakes 3

Critical care medicine The intensive care unit, for patients whose life is at risk.
Emergency medicine The emergency room: anyone who comes through the door.
Medical toxicology Poisonings, overdoses and bites from venomous animals.

Labs, scans and research 5

Forensic pathology Examines bodies to find out how and why someone died.
Nuclear medicine Uses tiny amounts of radioactive material to see and treat disease.
Pathology Studies tissue and lab samples to diagnose disease.
Preventive medicine Stops disease before it starts, for people and whole populations.
Radiology Reads X-rays, CT and MRI scans to find what is wrong.

How this list was compiled: 48 medical specialties, each checked against its English Wikipedia article on 2026-09-24 (URL in x.src). The one-line descriptions are ours. No training-length, pay or job-outlook claims: those differ by country. Licence: own work