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Attending physician vs fellow

The differences between attending physicians and fellows can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an attending physician and a fellow. Additionally, an attending physician has an average salary of $200,702, which is higher than the $66,364 average annual salary of a fellow.

The top three skills for an attending physician include patients, primary care and surgery. The most important skills for a fellow are patients, professional development, and veterans.

Attending physician vs fellow overview

Attending PhysicianFellow
Yearly salary$200,702$66,364
Hourly rate$96.49$31.91
Growth rate7%17%
Number of jobs53,1957,459
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 33%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age4841
Years of experience44

What does an attending physician do?

An Attending Physician typically supervises fellows, residents, medical students, and other practitioners. They are responsible for supervising each patient every day, reviewing treatment plans with residents, and supervising patient management documents.

What does a fellow do?

A fellow's responsibility will depend on the organization or industry where one belongs. However, most of the time, a fellow's duty will revolve around conducting research and analysis, presiding discussions and attending dialogues, handle lectures while complying with the guidelines or tasks set by supervisors, and assist in various projects and activities. Furthermore, a fellow must adhere to the institution or organization's policies and regulations at all times, meet all the requirements and outputs involved, and coordinate with every person in the workforce.

Attending physician vs fellow salary

Attending physicians and fellows have different pay scales, as shown below.

Attending PhysicianFellow
Average salary$200,702$66,364
Salary rangeBetween $125,000 And $321,000Between $46,000 And $93,000
Highest paying CityMiami, FLOak Ridge, TN
Highest paying stateNew JerseyTennessee
Best paying companyCommunity Health SystemsPeterson Institute for International Economics
Best paying industryHealth CareProfessional

Differences between attending physician and fellow education

There are a few differences between an attending physician and a fellow in terms of educational background:

Attending PhysicianFellow
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 33%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common majorMedicinePolitical Science
Most common collegeUniversity of Michigan - Ann ArborDuke University

Attending physician vs fellow demographics

Here are the differences between attending physicians' and fellows' demographics:

Attending PhysicianFellow
Average age4841
Gender ratioMale, 36.5% Female, 63.5%Male, 46.2% Female, 53.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 19.1% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 26.4% White, 53.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage13%8%

Differences between attending physician and fellow duties and responsibilities

Attending physician example responsibilities.

  • Manage neurological cancer research protocols: collected/organize data, assure compliance with protocol guidelines, manage study database and enroll patients.
  • Prepare patients for ultrasound guide injections and aspirations which includes draping patients, prepping medications and preparing sterile instruments.
  • Manage neurological cancer research protocols: collected/organize data, assure compliance with protocol guidelines, manage study database and enroll patients.
  • Monitor and manage patient medical records in compliance with HIPPA.

Fellow example responsibilities.

  • Design and lead labs align with the NYC curriculum, on topics including moon phases and dichotomous keys.
  • Maintain company website, as well as wrote, manage, and edit content on the SharePoint portal.
  • Manage live streaming for NARAL Facebook during NARAL's lobby day, as well as assisting in attendee organization.
  • Work through several medical software databases to generate SQL to pass on to Java developers for their programs.
  • Develop computer program to visualize EOS data in Java.
  • Include writing python scripts to parse poorly structure text into tabular data.
  • Show more

Attending physician vs fellow skills

Common attending physician skills
  • Patients, 35%
  • Primary Care, 8%
  • Surgery, 5%
  • Internal Medicine, 5%
  • BLS, 4%
  • Rehabilitation, 3%
Common fellow skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Professional Development, 7%
  • Veterans, 7%
  • Mathematics, 5%
  • Math, 5%
  • Public Health, 4%

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