plastics and ortho

[PeterParker7]

so im a current M3. my interest is in upper extremity surgery, microsurgery, anything MSK. my research background is in basic science genetics (1 first author, multiple posters/abstracts) and plastics (1 first author, 1 second author, 1 abstract, 2 posters). my step 1 was 265, and so far in M3 i'm mostly earning honors.

my home program doesn't have a plastics integrated residency or fellowship. we have a good ortho program though that i can get involved in during the next few months (but time will be limited as i enter med/surg rotations). however, i have been doing research and have a very good working relationship with a plastic surgeon (chair of dept) at another academic hospital affiliated with a different med school in the same city. my first question, if i decide to apply ortho, will the ortho residencies care about his recommendation? will any surgeon's recommendation outside of ortho carry any weight? i understand an orthopod's rec will hold more weight if i apply ortho though.

next up, will the ortho programs want to touch my application with anything but a 10 foot poll when my record screams plastics. at this point im undecided, but more and more, i'm realizing im very passionate about MSK in general and microsurgery/hand is a subset i'd like to specialize in as an orthopedic trained surgeon or plastic surgeon. geography is becoming a big factor for me when i match as i will most likely be couples matching and aiming for west coast for family reasons. i know this makes my odds at plastics pretty slim (like 10 or so spots) and my odds at ortho not super great either (20 or so spots). i'm weighing the pro's and con's of each specialty and figuring out what the right fit is for me, but there is a chance i may end up applying to both with ultimately the same end goal in mind (hand surgery)

i'm definitely going to rotate through ortho, but i won't get a chance to until 2 months before i have to apply for residency. i have no problem with going and doing away rotations and working my butt off to show that im passionate about ortho or plastics or hand surgery. with a few months left for me, i might even be able to find a hand research project or ortho related research project i can work on if that improves my chances of matching ortho.

any thoughts as to what might be most important for me to show ortho programs that i'm very interested despite my CV screaming plastics. also any thoughts as to applying to both ortho and plastics programs together would be appreciated. if need be, i am prepared to just suck it up and commit to one specialty when i apply if its going to hurt my chances for both by applying to both. again, my top priority is geography. the difference in training length of 1 year doesn't phase me. i also find both fields very interesting in what they do outside of their overlap in hand surgery as well.

good luck to all those interviewing now

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[MedStar1]

Bump

 

[Tygacil]

Well unfortunately his/her post was never responded to... Are you bumping it because you had similar questions?

Anyways, briefly, my opinion: Ortho and Plastics are both so competitive personally I would pick one or the other, in the OP's particular situation most likely ortho since couples matching is involved and there is many more options (unless you consider gen surg + plastics fellowship). "Big" names in plastics probably won't be a big deal in ortho, but if it's an absolutely glowing letter it's worth adding. I think out of all the places I applied, only UCSF wanted a non-ortho letter, but a classmate of mine sent in a non-ortho letter to many/all of his programs and received positive feedback about having it (obviously it was a strong letter).

If you stand at a similar cross roads then the away rotation is the most important followed by a strong personal statement about why ortho to explain why there's so much plastics involved. The step scores will get your app looked at for sure.

 

[MedStar1]

Well unfortunately his/her post was never responded to... Are you bumping it because you had similar questions?

Anyways, briefly, my opinion: Ortho and Plastics are both so competitive personally I would pick one or the other, in the OP's particular situation most likely ortho since couples matching is involved and there is many more options (unless you consider gen surg + plastics fellowship). "Big" names in plastics probably won't be a big deal in ortho, but if it's an absolutely glowing letter it's worth adding. I think out of all the places I applied, only UCSF wanted a non-ortho letter, but a classmate of mine sent in a non-ortho letter to many/all of his programs and received positive feedback about having it (obviously it was a strong letter).

If you stand at a similar cross roads then the away rotation is the most important followed by a strong personal statement about why ortho to explain why there's so much plastics involved. The step scores will get your app looked at for sure.

I am almost in the exact situation. I have plastics (1 pub 1st author, 1 abstract, 1 poster) and 1 microbiology pub 1st author. My step 1 was >250 and 3 honors in 3rd year. My home program doesn't have a plastics program but does have a great ortho program. I love where these two fields overlap at hand and I feel the same way about the extreme opposites of "driving a nail down a femur" and meticulously restoring form to a childs cleft lip/palate. In order to get the required LORs to apply to both I would have to do a couple of 2 week rotations. I know that 4 week rotations are preferred. My delimma: I already have the plastics research letter, but not sure if I should use it for my ortho application. I'm not couples matching and geography is not important. Secondly, any thoughts on what to do if you don't match? (specifically, a year of research vs a prelim).

 

[Tygacil]

If you think the research letter is strong then throw it in there, just make sure you have your chairman's letter and at least another letter by an orthopod.

In regards to not matching, I guess it depends on what exactly you want to do - with a high step 1 score and published research, I don't believe additional research is what you are missing. You could always apply to a couple general surgery categoricals as backup (ie, your home program) and then do the plastics fellowship vs do a prelim (and at that point you would almost certainly have to pick either ortho or plastics through gen surg).

If you don't match it won't be because of what you have on paper.