Advice for MS4 about disability: APPLYING TO RESIDENCY WITH A MEDICAL CONDITION?

[mdhopeful26]

Dear all,

I am not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I have not been able to find much information on medical disability and applying as a candidate for residency:

I am a rising 4th year med school student hoping to apply to residency next year. For the last year, I have been battling cancer. I took a few months leave of absence to focus on my health and have continued to receive treatment while completing med school rotations. I have been wondering for some time now how my diagnosis will affect my application for residency programs.
I have done fairly well in medical school and am hoping to pursue IM residency at a top-tier institution (top 10 programs) with the goal of going into academic medicine.

Stats: AOA, >250 step 1, not much research (~2-3 pubs), hoping to do more during 4th year, good amount of extracurriculars.

Do you think my medical condition will limit my ability to match at top programs? Is there anything I can do to make myself a better candidate?

I know this should be one of my least worries, but I have always dreamed of doing my training at a top-notch place.
I would love people's input on this. Thank you in advance for your help and for reading this! I really appreciate it. Hopefully, this can help others like me who may have the same question.

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[rokshana]

Dear all,

I am not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I have not been able to find much information on medical disability and applying as a candidate for residency:

I am a rising 4th year med school student hoping to apply to residency next year. For the last year, I have been battling cancer. I took a few months leave of absence to focus on my health and have continued to receive treatment while completing med school rotations. I have been wondering for some time now how my diagnosis will affect my application for residency programs.
I have done fairly well in medical school and am hoping to pursue IM residency at a top-tier institution (top 10 programs) with the goal of going into academic medicine.

Stats: AOA, >250 step 1, not much research (~2-3 pubs), hoping to do more during 4th year, good amount of extracurriculars.

Do you think my medical condition will limit my ability to match at top programs? Is there anything I can do to make myself a better candidate?

I know this should be one of my least worries, but I have always dreamed of doing my training at a top-notch place.
I would love people's input on this. Thank you in advance for your help and for reading this! I really appreciate it. Hopefully, this can help others like me who may have the same question.

So sorry...wish you all the best with your treatment.

You may want to talk to your advisor about slowing down your road to graduation... maybe do a research year now and graduate next year. It would give you time to have a better idea of what your prognosis after treatment and what you may be able to do.

This would help give you more research experience and publications...which can help support your academic desires.

Your stats are good...staying a student will help you still have the ability to do rotations and stay a US senior come time to apply next year. Taking a research year shouldn’t hurt your application. Sure you are going to need to explain the extra time, but you are going to need to do that anyway.

Whether it will limit you, only time and you and your oncologist are going to be able to answer this...yes IM is rigorous, but doable.

 

[Piebaldi]

Dear all,

I am not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I have not been able to find much information on medical disability and applying as a candidate for residency:

I am a rising 4th year med school student hoping to apply to residency next year. For the last year, I have been battling cancer. I took a few months leave of absence to focus on my health and have continued to receive treatment while completing med school rotations. I have been wondering for some time now how my diagnosis will affect my application for residency programs.
I have done fairly well in medical school and am hoping to pursue IM residency at a top-tier institution (top 10 programs) with the goal of going into academic medicine.

Stats: AOA, >250 step 1, not much research (~2-3 pubs), hoping to do more during 4th year, good amount of extracurriculars.

Do you think my medical condition will limit my ability to match at top programs? Is there anything I can do to make myself a better candidate?

I know this should be one of my least worries, but I have always dreamed of doing my training at a top-notch place.
I would love people's input on this. Thank you in advance for your help and for reading this! I really appreciate it. Hopefully, this can help others like me who may have the same question.

Sorry to hear you are going through this and do wish you the best in terms of getting the right treatment that will help you get through this.
As others have pointed out, your oncologist is the only person who can determine what prognosis is.

It seems you have done well through med school. It is challenging to have a chronic medical condition in med school and residency. I have battled with both chronic medical issues since I was a kid, and developed an acute condition/tumor type growh in residency that needed surgical intervention. I ended up getting surgery and ended up quitting/transferring - but definitely needed some time after surgery to recover.

Clearly it doesn't seem that you have any academic challenge per se - will the cancer recur, will you need time to undergo more treatment, etc? That's a question your Oncologist can answer. If you go into remission (hopefully! ) then maybe nothing will happen.

So if I were you, I'd say "no" to that questions. Clearly, again you haven't had academic issues in med school. So you are not cognitiviely/intellectually challenged. It's not a crime to be a human being and have medical conditions - eventhough we are doctors, we still get sick and need treatment and care, just like our patients.

So I would apply as you normally would if I were you, say no to that question, talk to your oncologist and go from there.

Best of luck in your journey!

 

[gutonc]

I agree with @rokshana on the idea of taking an extra year between M3 and M4, for a variety of reasons.

1. Without getting into the details of your cancer/treatment and not wanting to offer medical advice, as a medical oncologist myself, I have seen firsthand the toll that cancer and chemo takes on the physical and emotional health of even young, otherwise fit people. You appear to be doing a good job handling all of this during clerkships, which can be tough, but internship is brutal. You want to make sure that you're int he best physical/emotional shape possible before diving into that pool. An extra year will give you the chance to see how that's going to go.

2. If your goal is truly "Top X" residency and a classic academic career (either in a sub-specialty or GIM), you're going to need a better research portfolio. An extra year will help you do that.

To be clear, I'm not saying you can't do this all on schedule, but it's going to be hard, and you run the risk or burning yourself out when it matters most (intern year).

Good luck to you, on the health and career fronts.

 

[killerleaf]

Speaking from personal experience: cancer treatment sucks you down; and it takes a while to get it back. I agree with the above, about taking a research year. That will give you a chance to get back to 100% physically before hitting internship. (I am a PC. I worked thru my surgery, chemo, and radiation, taking very minimal time off. It is two years since my last treatment, and I can say that I am only at 85%. Of course, I am a lot older, so I know that plays a part.) You have to take care of yourself.

 

[mdhopeful26]

Thank you everyone for your responses. They were all very informative and helpful. I really appreciate it! I will actually be applying next year (September 2020) and elongating my 4th year right now. The plan is for me to graduate in Dec 2020. I think I will use the time to focus on research and do some aways.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

I’ve known several students who had cancer and other chronic conditions and in no way did it hurt them. With your academix performance through it all I’d say you’d be a hot commodity for most programs even if you take time off (lots of people do that when they are 100% healthy) since you demonstrate a trait not many people have: resiliency; that being said focus on your health and well being and the residency will be there for you at the other end. Good luck!