medicare funding for 2nd residency

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if i want to do radiology residency after being board certified in nuclear medicine, will there be any issue with medicare funding for my second residency?

any thoughtful comment will be appreciated very much..

funding will be reduced for the second residency

Generally speaking, radiology program directors do not take a look at your application when they see you had a Nucs residency before. The exact opposite happens when an applicant has done IM or surgery residency in which case the radiology PDs really like these people.
There has been people who have found radiology residency after doing Nucs.
The only reason that you can give for doing radiology is that I don't have job, so I want to do radiology after my Nucs which many do not like it and see it as a negative point.
You may be able to find a spot in a program that has tough time finding a good applicant, if you are qualified enough though it is difficult.

Thank you Shark2000. I am aware of the fact that it will be difficult to do rads after nucs. Since I am a nucmed graduate from a foreign country, I wanted to do nucs in USA first. But will medicare fund my 2nd residency without any hassle?

Originally Posted by scintilator

if i want to do radiology residency after being board certified in nuclear medicine, will there be any issue with medicare funding for my second residency

YES. Roughly a third of the programs in the country WILL NOT CONSIDER anyone who has done prior US residency (regardless of US citizen status, etc). A third won't care one way or another, and a third will take this "factor" into consideration but it is not a definite downer for your application.

Good luck on finding out which programs fit into which category. This part is NOT easy.

It seems ironic that Radiology residencies would look down upon Nucs trained applicants. I would think the training would indicate they understand imaging related things.

Anyways, does anyone know how other fields (such as Neurology or Pathology) would look at an applicant who completed a Nucs residency?

Originally Posted by shezadeh

It seems ironic that Radiology residencies would look down upon Nucs trained applicants. I would think the training would indicate they understand imaging related things.

Anyways, does anyone know how other fields (such as Neurology or Pathology) would look at an applicant who completed a Nucs residency?

We can argue forever that what is right and what is wrong.


But, the main problem is funding. Only big programs have the independent funding required for your residency. Small community ones are really dependent on Medicare funding. And the big programs, irrelevant of specialty have enough fresh 4th year medical student applicants. If you try hard you may find a spot in radiology or something else somewhere.