Post job

Fellow vs physician

The differences between fellows and physicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a fellow and a physician. Additionally, a physician has an average salary of $238,887, which is higher than the $66,364 average annual salary of a fellow.

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

Fellow vs physician overview

FellowPhysician
Yearly salary$66,364$238,887
Hourly rate$31.91$114.85
Growth rate17%7%
Number of jobs7,45946,489
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 35%
Average age4148
Years of experience44

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.

What does a physician do?

Physicians' general responsibility is to check, diagnose, and treat a patient's condition to improve their overall wellness. A physician could be General Practitioners or Specialist Physicians, wherein General Practitioners are physicians who provide regular checkups for patients depending on their needs and refer them to a Specialist Physicians who are more skilled in a particular field of expertise for a thorough diagnosis. Physicians monitor a patient's medical history and ensure follow-up checkups to observe if the condition of a patient is changing over time. A physician may refer a patient to other health professionals for further examination as needed.

Fellow vs physician salary

Fellows and physicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

FellowPhysician
Average salary$66,364$238,887
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $93,000Between $128,000 And $442,000
Highest paying CityOak Ridge, TNCleveland, TN
Highest paying stateTennesseeWisconsin
Best paying companyPeterson Institute for International EconomicsYuma Regional Medical Center
Best paying industryProfessionalHealth Care

Differences between fellow and physician education

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

FellowPhysician
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 35%
Most common majorPolitical ScienceMedicine
Most common collegeDuke UniversityDuke University

Fellow vs physician demographics

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

FellowPhysician
Average age4148
Gender ratioMale, 46.2% Female, 53.8%Male, 39.0% Female, 61.0%
Race ratioBlack 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%Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 19.1% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage8%13%

Differences between fellow and physician duties and responsibilities

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

Physician example responsibilities.

  • Manage catheters and dress wounds.
  • Maintain ACLS and BLS certifications.
  • Treat complicated oncology cases in ICU and emergency.
  • Schedule new, follow-up and diagnostic testing for cardiology patients.
  • Attend radiation oncology clinic for new patients beginning treatment as well as follow-ups for returning patients.
  • Schedule tests and procedures (including radiology, cardiology, and respiratory) utilizing the hospital and clinic computer systems.
  • Show more

Fellow vs physician skills

Common fellow skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Professional Development, 7%
  • Veterans, 7%
  • Mathematics, 5%
  • Math, 5%
  • Public Health, 4%
Common physician skills
  • Patients, 22%
  • Surgery, 8%
  • Patient Care, 7%
  • Internal Medicine, 6%
  • Primary Care, 6%
  • EMR, 6%

Browse life, physical, and social science jobs