Job Title: Medical Detective
AKA: Medical Death Investigator, Medical Examiner, Pathologist, Forensic Pathologist, Coroner
What is it?
A medical detective is a medical doctor that is called upon to figure out medical mysteries”origin of strange infections, disease outbreaks, causes of death and reasons for abnormalities.
What does a Medical Detective do?
A Medical Detective uses their medical knowledge and experience knowledge of human anatomy, knowledge of diseases and viruses and their symptoms, knowledge of treatments and drugs to figure out what happened to a patient or a victim.
This may sound sexy. It is, but, not all of the time. Some times medical detectives get to work with a team of detectives and other crime-fighting types to solve murders. Some times medical detectives work with government agencies like the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to figure out the source of disease outbreaks. Some times medical detectives will be called upon to diagnose a disease based on a strange symptoms. Other times, they simply help figure out the cause of a troublesome (but benign) virus or confirming the cause of death of someone who likely died of natural causes.
Medical detectives examine blood samples, bodily fluids, stomach contents, bruises and wounds, internal organs, DNA and anything else on the human body for evidence. They compare their findings to the findings in other cases either their own or those of other medical detectives, researchers and doctors. Medical detectives also use a fair amount of “educated guessing. From all of this the medical detective arrives at a conclusion about what happened and why.
The medical detective’s conclusions are used to solve crimes, to discover and cure diseases or to determine a cause of death in order to issue death certificates.
Medical detectives generally specialize, hence the aliases pathologist, forensic pathologist, medical examiner and coroner. Pathologists study diseases. They use lab tests, examinations and patient interviews to diagnose diseases causing severe suffering or death. Fox’s Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is a fictional example of a pathologist. Each week Dr. House and his team are introduced to a new patient who presents with a slew of weird symptoms. They posit guesses about the causes then run a barrage of tests to whittle down the possible causes of their patients ailments. At the end of the hour, Dr. House always manages to rip the patient from the jaws of death by diagnosing and treating the disease.
Forensic pathologists are pathologists who specialize in studying diseases and other causes of violent or sudden death. Dr. Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor) on Fox’s Bones is a great fictional example of a forensic pathologist. She and the title character Bones (Temperance Brennan played by Emily Deschanel) work as part of an FBI team to figure out how crime victims died and by whose hands. Dr. Saroyan and team use autopsies and examination of bodily fluids and wounds to figure out what weapons might have been used and when and how a victim was killed.
Medical Examiners (ME) are very similar to forensic pathologists in that they study causes of death. Medical examiners are not generally disease specialists. They are physicians, mostly general practitioners, who use their knowledge of the human body and medicine to ferret out things that are out of place in and on the body poisons or other toxins, wounds, hemorrhaging, bruising and broken bones. An ME writes autopsy reports and communicates likely causes, manners and times of death to law enforcement or insurance companies. Tamara Tunie’s character Dr. Melinda Warner (Law & Order SVU) is the best fictional example.
Coroners are an interesting bunch. They are the only medical detectives who are not necessarily medical doctors. They are usually elected officials who usually employ physicians, manage death investigations and sign death certificates. Still, there are some coroners who are medical doctors as well as elected officials. This group of coroners function in the same way as medical examiners with the additional official duties. Dr. Robbings (Robert David Hall) of TV’s CSI is the best fictional character I can find.
Who might like this job?
- Anyone interested in medicine, especially pathology, anatomy
- Anyone who enjoys solving mysteries
- Anyone who’s secretly dreamed of being a crime-fighter
- Anyone who’s interested in getting justice for crime victims
What does this pay?
Medical detectives earn an average of $88,000, with more experienced detectives earning about $114,000 and as much as $200,000.
To break in you’ll need…
***Start EARLY****
- Young Forensic Scientists Forum
- Internships and Student Jobs with NIH
- Internships and Student Jobs with HHS
Then, get on the traditional path…
- A BA or BS degree
- Graduate from accredited medical school with a M.D. or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) degree
- A medical license from a state medical board (unless you are a non-physician coroner) plus specialized training in forensics and/or pathology
- A license from the National Board of Medical Examiners
- Medical detectives must also obtain certificates from the American Board of Medical Specialists or the American Osteopathic Association, National Association of Medical Examiners and/or the American Academy Forensic Sciences
- Medical detectives may also need or want to get certified of one or more subspecialties (there are 24 specialty boards, from allergies to urology). It takes 1-7 years of residency to get certified in most specialties (includes 1-2 years of residency)
- Forensic pathologists must either spend 5 years training in anatomic & clinical pathology followed by 1 year of residency or fellowship in forensic pathology or train for 4 years in anatomic pathology and train for 1 year in forensic pathology. The residency training in forensic pathology involves practical (On-the-job) experience supervised by trained forensic pathologist. The forensic pathology resident actually performs autopsies and participates in death investigation. To become certified, one then must pass an examination given by the American Board of Pathology certifying special competence in forensic pathology.
So, who would you work for?
State Coroner’s offices, Government agencies (Center for Disease Control, National Institute on Health and Health & Human Services), Insurance companies (claims), Pharmaceutical and biotech companies (in research), academic medicine (at teaching hospitals and in med schools), private practice, law enforcement
To find current openings…
- Medical Detective Jobs in all industries- List of medical detective job openings from all of the job boards, classifieds and company websites
- Infectious Diseases Society of America -Jobs listed on the IDSA webpage
- HealtheCareers.com- Health and medical jobs website
- American Osteopathic Association- Jobs listed on AOA webpage
- DC Office of Personnel- Jobs listed on the DCOP webpage
- National Association of Medical Examiners- Jobs listed on the NAME webpage
- American Association of Forensic Scientists- Jobs on the AAFS webpage
More information?
- Daubert Tracker- a research tool for medical detectives and forensic scientists who testify as expert witnesses
What about this career doesn’t suck?
Challenging, interesting work in an expanding field, good salary and benefits, and you get to do a bit of good in the world make this a career that do(es)n’t suck. High barriers to entry (many years in school, residency and certifications) and lots of time with sick and dead people knock off a few points and keep this job from earning 100% on our WorkYourWay Index.
The Medical Detective job scored 71% on WorkYourWay Index.
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