How do you define success in your branch/field of medicine?

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks. Mainly about how we as physicians (and also other allied professionals) define success in our practice. I am a hem/onc. Maybe this is grim but I have come, after 5-6 years of practice, to define success as getting that epic notification that a my 80+ year old patient died, not remembering who they are, and then looking at the chart and seeing they died at home. That generally means to me that I never had to treat their CLL or MGUS. That their Stage III colon never relapsed. That the 5 yrs of tamoxifen was worth it. That their myeloma was in remission. That the DLBCL that I treated them for never relapsed. It’s not just the malignant patients, the von Williebrand pt didn’t bleed out. The thalassemia patient didn’t get acute chest… etc.

So how do you define success in your field!? How is it different than other fields?

Posted Apr 24, 2026, 8:28 PM UTC

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