Among medical specialties, some are more prestigious than
others. You can generally tell which ones are more prestigious
by how well they pay. Surgery and cardiology, for example, rank
at the top of the prestige scale. Psychiatry and dermatology are
near the bottom. One can also ask if some diseases are
considered more prestigious than others, in the opinion of
doctors. A Norwegian doctor, Dag Album, has been investigating
the prestige of both diseases and medical specialties for many
years. In one study, he asked a cross-section of physicians and
medical students to rank the prestige of 38 specific diseases,
as well as specialties. He found that certain diseases
consistently ranked at the top (myocardial infarction, leukemia,
brain tumors) and others at the bottom (fibromyalgia, anxiety
neurosis). Among medical specialties, neurosurgery and thoracic
surgery ranked highest. At the bottom were geriatrics and
dermatovenerology (the treatment of skin diseases associated
with venereal diseases). What makes a dise