Also called: Heart Surgeon, Chest Surgeon
Operates on the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels, including bypasses, valve replacements, and transplants.
Stops a patient's heart, puts them on a heart-lung machine, sews new bypass vessels onto arteries thinner than spaghetti, and restarts the heart. Operations can last 6-10 hours.
Estimate; BLS top-codes physician wages.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Professional degree (MD, JD, DVM…), about 15 years after high school. Bachelor's, medical school, then a 6-8 year surgical residency.
Ways in: 4-year college, Professional school. Training cost: Over $150k.
Majors to look at: Biology, Chemistry, Pre-Medicine.
Growing about average (about 3% over 10 years).
Low risk for 10 years. AI planning and robotic tools assist some cases, but long open-heart operations rest on the surgeon's hands and judgment.
Classes: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, Anatomy & physiology.
Official data: O*NET occupation 29-1249.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.