Session 12 Dr. Chung is a solo private practice Facial Plastic Surgeon. He discusses his path through ENT residency and what he likes and dislikes about his job. Today's guest on Specialty Stories is a solo private practice facial plastic surgeon. It's a great specialty, super sub-specialized specialty of ear, nose, and throat surgeons, or otolaryngology. And Victor, or Dr. Chung, is going to join us and tell us all about it. [02:15] A Personal Choice to Be in Private Practice Dr. Chung practices facial plastics and reconstructive surgery as a subspecialty of otolaryngology; ear, nose and throat surgery. He considers himself as one of the rare breed of private practice, truly private practice solo by himself, the only physician in the office which is an interesting kind of hybrid situation. As a specialist, he is affiliated with a number of the hospitals in the San Diego area, however, he’s not officially on staff who who has to be in the hospital all the time. Nevertheless, he does consultation and coverage for call and operate at those sites. Out of all the fellows who graduated in his year, only two of them went into true private practice and are opening practices. The majority are either joining multi-specialty practice groups. He thinks even looking for academic jobs was a tradition that's fallen by the wayside. As to why he chose private practice, Dr. Chung had his personal reasons. He had phenomenal training and wanted to practice medicine the way he was trained to do. “When you become part of a bigger group or even as small as a partnership,  there's a level of compromise. Otherwise, there's no way for you to be successful.” He further explains that what he likes in private practice is having that freedom to practice without restriction in the sense of delivering care to the best of his ability that gets to order the more expensive supplies and equipment or employ a technique he knows well. So his choice was natural for him and he sees being in a personal situation that he could do it is a luxury. Although joining a bigger group or academics is not a complete compromise, Dr. Chung says that oftentimes, you find that your patient population or the group you're in will dictate your niche and your future. Then you may start doing things that don't make you necessarily happy anymore in medicine. You start doing fewer of the cases that you like to do or take care of the patients that you like. You can find that ideal situation in academics in larger groups, but it's just more challenging. Victor has been out in his own practice just over twelve months. It actually took him a number of months just to get his place set up which involved a lot of logistics as well as a lot of things they don't teach you in medical school, or residency, or fellowship about applying for business licenses, insurance, and all the other type of regulations that are necessary to own and run a successful and safe business. [05:36] His Interest in Facial Plastic Surgery Victor always knew he was going to do surgery when he was in medical school. He enjoyed the aspect of thinking, being hands-on, its culture, and the lifestyle. But honing into a particular specialty was tough. He was looking at a number of sub-specialties that operate in the areas of ophthalmology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery craniomaxillofacial, and the ENT subspecialty, which he found very appealing. “Even within a single focus of the human body, it was challenging. And although facial plastics is a sub-sub-specialty within it, it's still an integrated part.” You will go out in the community and meet physicians who are ENT-trained, but not fellowship-trained, but they are still practicing as facial plastic surgeons. This is actually encouraged by the overall academy. The types of procedures can be reconstructing cancer that may have been excised on just the skin level, but others are doing larger reconstructions or rhinoplasty and face lift based on their skillset and their comfort