Advice for Cardiology

[Iamconfused]

I am a third year med student and I am really interested in Cardiology. I would really appreciate any advice as to what I can do at this stage to help me secure a fellowship spot after my residency. Heard its pretty political. Any thoughts.

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[Renovar]

probably the best thing you can do at this stage is to get into the best high-powered academic IM residency you can after you get out of med school. Even if you decide to not go into cards later, a good-name residency can help you get fellowships in which every other field you choose.

 

[H3TML]

How competitive is it to get in Cardiology? Is it better to get in as a DO or as a Carribean grad?

 

[Renovar]

Originally posted by H3TML
How competitive is it to get in Cardiology? Is it better to get in as a DO or as a Carribean grad?

Of all medicine fellowships, cards GI and perhaps pulm are probably the hardest ones to get. Because there is no central application service most people apply to many programs. These are the fellowships in which a good residency program will matter a lot for because of the connections.

 

[DR]

Research which programs have a track record for giving their own residents fellowship spots. A place with some big cardiologist names helps, too...because like everything else, medicine is about who you know. All the big spots are taken by those who had a phone call made for them.

 

[jmattwilson]

How competitive is it to get in Cardiology?

I know cards is competitive, but does this mostly apply to the big name centers, or to the smaller less well known university programs as well?

 

[rtk]

Cardiology is competitive everywhere, big or small programs. Our program is not well known and had >500 apps for 3 positions last year.

Going to the best IM program you can is good advice. Definately a University based IM program. Would start research ASAP. Getting published will help tons... (not just abstracts or posters, but a manuscript). Cardiology is a very evidence based area and research is very encouraged. My advice to interns or residents is always to start research early. 3rd year of MS is not too early to be starting research. Get in touch with a CV fellow or staff and help them with a project.

Knowing someone always helps, but simply getting excellent letters of recommendation can get you interviews. Be careful when soliciting letters... Be sure to get excellent letters and don't be afraid to ask if the recommender feels comfortable writing you an EXCELLENT letter of recommendation. A mediocre or even fair letter can be the kiss of death. Also, most residents who've been through the application process know which attendings will write and know how to write a strong letter (get letters from these people).

There have been carribean grads and DO's in our program, so it's not impossible. US MD's are favored, however. Excelling after med school is the great equalizer for IMG's and DO's. I'm a DO and went to a mid-sized IM program, was asked to do the Chief year (which strengthened my CV application considerably) and started CV Fellowship the next year. Also gave me time to get some manuscripts published...

Good luck...

 

[ckent]

Cardiology is competetive to get into at both big name and small name programs. The key for getting into cardiology is largely the same as getting into any competetive fellowship. Many programs consider research a prerequisite, you should def do your residency at a place with a strong cards program so that you can get letters from well known cards attendings and possibly match into your home program, and going to a strong IM residency program and doing well there as well as in med school helps as well too. And as stated in the previous post, doing a year as chief always helps the old CV.

 

[rjp202]

one good alternative, if you're willing to take a year off during medical school, is to apply for the sarnoff endowment fellowship (www.sarnoffendowment.org). it's a one year research fellowship, similar to the NIH or howard hughes fellowship programs, dedicated to the cardiovascular sciences. research can be either basic science or clinical.

many of the members of the scientific board and former fellows are faculty at several well known institutions (harvard, hopkins, penn, duke, stanford, ucla, wash u, u of washington, etc.), thus participation in the fellowship gives you a good 'in' at many places. another bonus is that you get to do the fellowship pretty much anywhere in the country.

i realize some people wouldn't want to take a year off, but it may save you from needing to do a year of research during residency or a chief year.

 

[Jlandau]

I agree with all the previous posts, which are well-stated. There is a central application process for cards--in fact, it's a match as well, but definitely more political than ever (many know where they are going before match day). Cards is by no means impossible to get into--just start your research early when you start IM, and start pursing your lips for some major ass-kissing!.

However, I should add that there were about ~615 cards fellowship positions offered thru the match last yr (source: http://www.nrmp.org/fellow/match_name/msmp/stats.html) and only 569 matched the year before.

Compare this with GI, which has far fewer openings each yr, but the competition is just as intense (if not more so). It's not part of the match so I can't find the exact numbers--if anyone knows, let us know too.

 

[indiamacbean]

About the Sarnoff:
I went to a presentation at Pitt regarding this fellowship. Our dean said that those completing this fellowship would be "set for life" if they go into cardiology. Obviously this is an overstatement, but big big names in cardiology participate in the Sarnoff foundation and there is a yearly meeting to attend every year post fellowship where you can network with faculty from some of the strongest programs. cheers