An MD can have many and varying roles in the community. First, an MD is a caregiver, a person turned to by members of the community in times of physical, psychological or emotional weakness. MDs treat not only the body but also the mind and the spirit, often delving into the emotional, psychological or social reasons behind a physical illness. Not all MDs, though, deal with patients in such a direct manner. Some, such as pathologists, deal with the diseased tissues taken from the patient.
Radiologists deal with images of the patient produced and enhanced by various technologies.
Some MDs choose to concentrate their efforts solely on research, developing new equipment, vaccines, drugs, or discovering the underlying causes of disease. Becoming an MD opens up to you a vast number of possibilities for using your medical training. MDs serve the community in many more ways than just seeing patients, prescribing drugs, or performing surgery. They are licensed to practice medicine in all 50 states and use all conventionally accepted therapeutic modalities such as surgery, radiology, and drugs. They are eligible to enroll in all federal programs, managed care and insurance plans, serve as commissioned medical officers in all branches of armed services, and serve as public health officers, coroners, insurance examiners, and team physicians.