Residency

[yogi]

If I want to do an IM residency and then subspecialize, what would be the
consequence of doing a Primary Care IM residency as opposed to a Categorical
residency. What are the major differences between the 2? Would I be a less
appealing/qualified applicant?

For instance, I'd like to do an elective at Maimonides Med Ctr in NYC, but they only have a Primary Care IM program. They say these residents will have advantage over others in their fellowships.

This brings me to another question...they don't have the fellowship I want.

Another question...they say that the residents do 4 months of inpatient each year and they don't specifically say that residents can do electives, although they list a least 1 mo. in most of the subspecialties. Is it possible that some of those "inpatient" months are electives?

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[rtk]

Yogi;

If you want to sub-specialize in medicine, i.e.: you're planning to do a fellowship after IM residency, you're better off doing a categorical program. Primary care tracks are designed specifically for the resident interested in office-based IM practice. Generally, these programs have more out-patient exposure and training.

If you plan on fellowship, you're better off in a categorical IM University based program, because these programs tend to be better known and tend to have attendings/faculty that are more well-known (for letters of recommendation: this does make a difference). Also university porgrams usually will have a broad selection of fellowships and many select fellows from within their own programs...