For a physician, the single most valuable asset is usually not a portfolio or a home. It is the ability to practice medicine, an earning power built over a decade of training. Disability insurance protects that asset, but only if the fine print defines disability the way a physician would.
The most important term in a disability policy is how it defines being disabled. A true own-occupation definition pays benefits if you can no longer perform the duties of your specific specialty, even if you could work in some other capacity. That distinction is everything for a specialist. A surgeon who develops a hand tremor may be unable to operate but perfectly able to teach or consult; under a strong own-occupation policy that surgeon is disabled and paid, and under a weaker definition they may not be.
Policies use language that sounds similar and behaves very differently. Any-occupation coverage pays only if you cannot work in any job you are reasonably suited for, a far higher bar that pays far less often. Modified or transitional definitions sit in between. The gap between own-occupation and any-occupation is not a detail; it is frequently the difference between a policy that pays a specialist and one that does not, at the exact moment they need it.
Once the definition is right, the details that matter are the ones that keep the coverage intact over a long career: whether it is non-cancelable and guaranteed renewable, whether it includes protection against partial or residual disability, and whether it can grow as your income does. A physician's coverage bought in residency and never revisited is often badly undersized by mid-career. We review the definition first and the rest against your actual specialty and income. This is general information, not personalized advice.
Read the definition before the benefit. It is the whole policy.