How profitable is a medical career?

To assess correctly the economic profitability of any career, it is insufficient to focus only on the income earned in practicing that career. Rather, one must also account for any costs of training and for the income that is fore-gone by not pursuing the next best alternative career; in other words, earnings must be compared to their opportunity cost. When this type of analysis is applied to a medical career, it is evident that the return to physician training has declined substantially over the last 10 years. This paper discusses the methodology for correctly computing the return to a career in medicine and suggests some reasons why that return has fallen in recent years.