April 30, 2026
1 min read
Medicine is full of remarkable specialties, but for me infectious diseases is one of the most intellectually demanding and unpredictable among them, and that’s exactly why I love it.
ID has a way of showing up everywhere. At some point, almost every specialty hits a question that traces back to a bug, a host response or an antibiotic decision. You cannot be a good ID physician without understanding pharmacology, microbiology, immunology and the nuanced physiology of every organ system. Every consult is a lesson in critical thinking.
And just when you think you’ve started to master your work, the pager goes off about a returning traveler from a remote corner of the world carrying a parasite you last read about in a textbook footnote. That randomness keeps you humble, keeps you reading and reminds you why you chose this field in the first place.
Lior Cohen-Yatziv, MD
Infectious Diseases Fellow
University of Illinois Chicago
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