What advice would you give a hospitalist in their first few years of practice who wants to develop a focused area of expertise, such as perioperative medicine, quality improvement, or medical education, while maintaining a full clinical load?

I think my two big pieces of advice are:

1. Pick one thing; you don't have to stay with it your entire career, so whatever seems interesting right now is just fine. I have moved from education to QI to even some basic science work, which I would never have predicted. Part of the fun is figuring out wh...

While hospital medicine is a specialty in itself, developing a niche within hospital medicine is a common desire in all practice settings. This can develop in several different ways. One can become a clinical specialist with expertise in a specific area in hospital medicine, such as inpatient antico...

This post already offers excellent practical advice for developing a niche: find good mentors, start small, and choose something you genuinely want to explore. I’d like to add one more recommendation: as you drill down, keep looking toward the horizon.

The first few years of your hospital medicine ca...