You Don’t Have To Be a Doctor to Save Lives
3 min read | 16 January, 2024
Over your lifetime, you could save more lives than a doctor.
We discussed how exactly with CFI mentor and medical doctor Jason Dykstra in our podcast.
How many lives does a doctor save?
Jason quite literally saves lives for a living. He expects that the average US doctor might save a few lives over their career:
“The statistic is that if we have one more physician, then that person will provide care that will effectively save three or four people.”
Check out our full podcast transcript with Jason here.
But anyone could save lives by donating to the right charities.
“Very realistically, you can actually be a better doctor than most doctors, even if you're working in the investment field or in the business world, by using your resources in highly impactful, evidence-based ways.”
The chart below, illustrated by the careers site 80,000 Hours, shows how many years of life an additional doctor will save in various countries.
In highly-developed countries like the US or UK, the average doctor saves a couple of lives. Interestingly, an additional doctor in developing countries like Burundi will save several hundred lives.
On the far right column is how much it would cost to save just as many lives by donating to effective global health charities.
Multiplying impact through radical and effective giving
There’s incredible potential for talented doctors to multiply their impact through radical and effective giving.
“Look at what a physician can do with an average physician's salary, if they, let's say, even give 10% of their available income to very high impact organizations throughout their career that are dealing with healthcare. They can save [hundreds of] lives very easily throughout that time based on highly evidence-based, robustly, research-proven mechanisms that show us that they are reliable and sustainable in saving lives.”
Anyone who has more than they need can start saving lives through effective giving, even students.
Not earning enough to give?
That’s exactly how Fran felt, too. Fran was studying for her PhD in physics at Cambridge when she began to prayerfully consider giving to effective charities.
But as she prayed over Matthew 19:21-22, she realized that Jesus was calling her to give:
“I have always had enough to eat and a warm place to sleep. I have many more clothes than I need. I have money for the occasional takeaway coffee. In fact, my PhD stipend alone put me in the richest 10% of people in the world. It was time to admit that I am the rich man and I have much to give away.”
How many lives could you save?
You can find out using this calculator. You can add your annual income and see how many lives you could save by giving away 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, etc. to effective charities.
It’s eye-opening to realise that by living and working in a developed country such as the UK, even if I were to give 30% of my income to effective charities, I’d still be among the richest people in the world - and I’d save the equivalent of 3 lives every year through my donations.
Want to hear more from Jason?
Check out Jason’s top career tips, or listen to our full podcast where we discuss:
How to know if a charity is impactful.
How and why to give most effectively.
How to pursue any career with a radical impact on God's Kingdom.
Jason’s career advice for medical students
