Dr Marek Steiner

Name: Dr Marek Steiner

Career stage: Consultant

Location: Sydney, NSW

Medical Specialty: General Practice

What are some of the things you enjoy most about being in your area/specialty?

I love the personal interaction with patients – getting to know them and developing a longer term doctor-patient relationship. I’m interested in antenatal care, paediatrics, musculoskeletal medicine, preventative health, travel medicine and e-Health. General Practice is so wide that there are always areas to keep up your interest.

I enjoy the small business aspects of general practice. Setting up a practice from scratch and building it from there. I have tried to make the practice as e-Health enabled as possible (building on my previous engineering and IT background).

What are some of the challenges of being in your specialty?

A GP needs a variety of personal and clinical skills. You never know what will be required and how much time you need to devote to an appointment. And you need to listen to patients because what they seem to be asking is not always the question that, deep down, they need an answer for.

Opening my first (solo) practice was a bit daunting, there are financial risks, and you wonder if you’re going to be successful – but it’s worked out really well.

What are some of the things that you did to help you decide and plan your career for this specialty?

Originally I did civil engineering and management consulting, but I wanted to do something more satisfying with my life – so I switched to medicine and set my sights on general practice from the very start. My strongest influence towards general practice occurred before I went to university, with all the medical care I had personally. (Marek was diagnosed with bone cancer in his femur at age 20).

What advice do you have for students and junior doctors interested in your specialty?

Only the last five per cent of medicine happens in hospitals, the majority of medicine is done outside, without the bureaucracy and with more control over your work. The choices available in General Practice are wide so it is quite easy to find your niche.

What do you do outside of medicine to relax?

I try to keep up an exercise regime with gym and swimming. I take my son to his training session every week and we have a ‘boys night out’ afterwards. As a family we love travelling and we often go down to the snow for skiing.

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