--- title: Surgeon Salary: How Much Doctors Make description: Doctors are still high earners, although few consider themselves "rich," finds a recent survey by Medscape, a physician-focused information service from WebMD. Using a third-party... canonical: https://time.com/4408807/surgeon-salary-how-much-doctors-make/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-04-27T20:10:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:20.113Z article:section: Health og:title: Surgeon Salary: How Much Doctors Make og:description: Doctors are still high earners, although few consider themselves "rich," finds a recent survey by Medscape, a physician-focused information service from WebMD. Using a third-party... og:url: https://time.com/4408807/surgeon-salary-how-much-doctors-make/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80b23f16386de37a/69889c2a8e06018b41466b64/sb10063567v-001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4892 og:image:height: 2752 og:image:alt: Doctor salaries best worst og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Surgeon Salary: How Much Doctors Make twitter:description: Doctors are still high earners, although few consider themselves "rich," finds a recent survey by Medscape, a physician-focused information service from WebMD. Using a third-party... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80b23f16386de37a/69889c2a8e06018b41466b64/sb10063567v-001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Surgeon Salary: How Much Doctors Make > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=010f0e2f-cd8f-4ca6-8db0-46c0a24bfcd9&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Inside the Hospital Room of the Future [Watch (HLS stream): Inside the Hospital Room of the Future](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P97A4hyW.m3u8) (3:39)  _Published 2015-04-23. With built-in lighting control and smart TV integration, Patient Room 2020 is designed to show what the future of hospitals might look like._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 27, 2012 8:10 PM UTC  Group portrait of doctors on white background Group portrait of doctors on white background Siri Stafford—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 27, 2012 8:10 PM UTC Doctors are still high earners, although few consider themselves “rich,” finds a recent survey by Medscape, a physician-focused information service from WebMD. Using a third-party online collection website, Medscape surveyed 24,216 physicians across 25 specialties from Feb. 1 to 17, 2012\. Doctors’ earnings ranged from about $156,000 a year for pediatricians to about $315,000 for radiologists and orthopedic surgeons. The highest earners — orthopedic surgeons and radiologists — were the same as last year, followed by cardiologists who earned $314,000 and anesthesiologists who made $309,000. The lowest earning doctors are the family guys. Pediatricians and family practitioners make about $156,000 and $158,000, respectively. Internists and psychiatrists rank a notch above, at about $165,00 and $170,000, respectively. The salary figures fall short of numbers reported by other survey groups: a Medical Group Management Association [report](http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/press-releases/mgma-survey-primary-and-specialty-care-physicians-report-mixed-movement-com) using 2010 data, found that the average compensation for radiologists was $471,253 and for pediatricians it was $192,148, Kaiser Health News [reports](http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/04/few-doctors-consider-themselves-rich-survey-says/). Overall, not a lot changed over the previous year in terms of pay rank, according to Medscape, but salaries dipped in general. Radiologists and orthopedic surgeons saw their annual compensation fall by 10%. General surgeons experienced the largest drop in pay, by 12% since 2010, while ophthalmologists saw a 9% boost and pediatricians’ income rose 5%. Despite their sizable salaries, only about 11% of doctors considered themselves rich, which the survey authors attribute to physicians’ high debts and expenses. About 51% of all physicians and 46% of primary care physicians said they thought they were compensated fairly. When asked if they would choose a career in medicine if they had it to do all over again, 54% of physicians surveyed said yes — down from 69% the previous year. Here’s an overview of physicians’ compensation in 2011: --- > “” --- The survey also addressed the gender gap in compensation, reporting that male doctors earn 40% more than female physicians. The survey authors say that part of the difference is due to choice of specialties and lifestyle decisions, suggesting that if female doctors worked the same number of hours as men, they would likely earn more equal pay. Interestingly, the survey found that doctors in the Northeast earned the least. The highest-paid physicians practiced in the North Central region (Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South and North Dakota), earning on average $234,000\. Next came doctors in the South Central and Great Lakes region, with a mean salary of $228,000\. Northeast docs earned $204,000 on average. Despite the widespread push to reduce “[unnecessary care](http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/05/physicians-groups-call-for-fewer-tests-for-patients/)” and lower health-care costs, about 67% of physicians said they would not reduce the number of tests, procedures or treatments they perform in order to comply with insurer treatment guidelines. Their reasoning was that either such guidelines were not in their patients’ best interests or that doctors still need to practice defensive medicine. You can view the full 2012 Medscape Physician Compensation Report [here](http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/compensation/2012/public). And click [here](http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/lifestyle/2012/public) to see a related lifestyle survey released in March on [physicians’ health and happiness](http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20120322/which-doctors-are-happiest-healthiest). ## Transcript We are sitting in patient room 2020 which is a look forward to where the patient might be in the year 2020. The space here is really to help facilitate the delivery of care, make it more streamlined, make it more efficient. I think when you look at patient rooms in the past sort of said they were the future, look at patient healthcare. It's a different color paint and different color flooring. This really takes a better look at where the industry's heading and it's really technologically driven. Ideally, you don't want to be in a hospital but if you find yourself in one you want to know that it's clean, you're being well taken care of, the environment is comfortable. One of the thing you notice right away is how wide open the bathroom is. And so in this case, rolling a wheelchair in where you have complete accessibility is important. And then, even the shower itself starts to be customizable. One of the big things is patient safety. So in the design of this space that was one of the major aspects we looked at. The floor that we're actually standing on has a computer mat underneath here and it can track your footsteps. So as a patient puts their feet on the ground, or in the unfortunate act that they might fall out of the bed, it immediately detects that and sends alarms back to the clinician workspace. The other great idea is the computer. The clinician comes in and brings down the board. And so you can sit here and do your entries, converse with the patient that's right here, and when this closes, the UV lights kill any kind of germs that might be present. And so this is the, really, the big customizable piece right here. We have lighting, but then it might have the future of computer systems, Wi- Fi is built into this system for your phones and for telemedicine and for future robotics and things like that that connect out. Into the hallway and, and back to the nurse stations. [ MUSIC ] This is the bedside table. This is really the patient's link to the entire room. This has a built- in iPad that connects you to this patient ribbon. Obviously do the simple things like nurse call. Connects you to the outside world through Skype and your television. Or things like a halo effect. For noise cancellation it goes over your head. If you think of all the dings and noises in a hospital, patient satisfaction rates is another thing that should go up. You can create your own mood. Patient can put it into a night mode that'll start dropping the lights down. This halo here is completely customizable. So you can start with a very bright space for doing an exam. Or it can go into a mode that you see passing clouds, or the blue sky. And this is also the link to the connectivity for clinicians as well. And you can see results. You can see your vitals. It's really about drawing in the patient and the outside world into ones experience that can be controlled right from the bed. It's almost empowering the patient I think, if you get beyond the techknowledgey and the different look. It's really empowering the patient to be more active in their health care, delivery of care, interact with clinicians a little bit easier. If you've ever spent time in a hospital either as a patient or as a visitor, one of the first things you look at is the cleanliness of it, and the lighting of the space. And I think this room here, the patient room 2020 really kinda changes that mood almost, of a patient. The basic core of this was to start a dialogue and to make change in the industry. If we even have one element in here that is incorporated into a hospital, that's a success. 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