Specialty

[cwfergus]

Hey question,

What determines how you get into a specialty that you want. Like is it a few extra years of schooling? different residency?

For instance, a cardiologist, neurologist, oncologist, etc. Even surgery, general, ortho, etc.

WHAT determines it? do you go for an extra few years after your M.D. or do you go right into a residency where you choose if you are good enough?

thanks alot guys

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[Caesar]

Hey question,

What determines how you get into a specialty that you want. Like is it a few extra years of schooling? different residency?

For instance, a cardiologist, neurologist, oncologist, etc. Even surgery, general, ortho, etc.

WHAT determines it? do you go for an extra few years after your M.D. or do you go right into a residency where you choose if you are good enough?

thanks alot guys

after 4 years of med school, you match into a residency program, then you can choose to do a fellowship after that for further specialization. You USMLE STEP 1 scores largely determine which type of residency program you can match into. I'm guessing you are relatively new to this process... If you have more questions, post them, I'll try to keep my eye open for this thread. enjoy your time on SDN.

 

[cwfergus]

haha i am.

Okay that confused me. SO you do residency then fellowship?

so for instance, if someone wants to get into neurology. you would take your 4 year bachelors, your 4 year M.D. then residency for 4-5 years then fellowship for a couple years?

 

[Caesar]

haha i am.

Okay that confused me. SO you do residency then fellowship?

so for instance, if someone wants to get into neurology. you would take your 4 year bachelors, your 4 year M.D. then residency for 4-5 years then fellowship for a couple years?

For neurology it would be 4 years Bachelors, 4 years Medical college, 3-4 years of residency and then you can independently practice.

Only certain sub specialties require fellowships. Like sports medicine. that can be 4 years bachelors, 4 years medical college, 3 years Family Medicine residency and 1-2 years Sports Medicine fellowship.

hope that helps.

 

[cwfergus]

It really does,

I dont want to get into neurology (atleast i dont think i do right now)

but is that the same as oncology and cardiology?

you take your residency and you can work?

AND, basically, depending how well you do when you're taking your MD, determines if you can actually get into those specialties right?

thanks alot!

 

[Caesar]

It really does,

I dont want to get into neurology (atleast i dont think i do right now)

but is that the same as oncology and cardiology?

you take your residency and you can work?

AND, basically, depending how well you do when you're taking your MD, determines if you can actually get into those specialties right?

thanks alot!

Cardiology is Bachelors, MD, 3 year IM residency, then x year fellowship (I'm not sure how long)
Onc is another one that is Bach, MD, Residency, Fellowship. You can look up the career paths on google, just search "how to become a ________" that should work.

 

[167649]

It really does,

I dont want to get into neurology (atleast i dont think i do right now)

but is that the same as oncology and cardiology?

you take your residency and you can work?

AND, basically, depending how well you do when you're taking your MD, determines if you can actually get into those specialties right?

thanks alot!

Wikipedia is your buddy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_education_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Medical_Licensing_Examination

That'll start you.

 

[Haemulon]

Just to make things a bit more confusing, some tracts require separate internship years prior to residency. For instance, Dermatology requires a 1 year medicine internship or transitional year followed by 3 year residency. Then certain derm subspecialties require an additional 1 or more years of fellowship (Moh's surgery, derm path, etc...). And to make it more confusing, a subspecialty like derm path can be arrived at via either Derm residency or Pathology residencies first. Another example would be Neuroradiology as a fellowship, which can be started after either Daignostic Radiology or Neurology residencies (maybe neurosurg as well?). Yet another may be the several paths to pediatric emergency medicine.

You will figure all of this out as you go and the details shouldn't really be all that important at this point. Just know that you will need to spend at least 3 years of post-MD training to become a board certified physician in anything (you can do medicine, peds, family medicine, emergency medicine depending onthe program in that time ...) and will put in more time for most other specialties and subspecialties.

 

[Wylde]

The residency you do is your specialty.

Ie you want to go into neurology:

4 years for bachelosr
4 years for medical school
4-5 years in a neurology residency.

In the residency you learn the neurology-specific things you will need to be able to practice independently. These residency years are kind of like on-the-job-training.

After residency, you can do a fellowship to further specialize (usually 1-2 years).

Your residency competitiveness is based on medical school grades, USMLE step 1 score, and research in medical school.

 

[bodonid]

cardiology and pulmonology etc are 2 yrs fellowship, i think.

 

[Law2Doc]

cardiology and pulmonology etc are 2 yrs fellowship, i think.

Yeah, just to clarify some of the confusion OP started, things like cardiology, pulmonology, oncology, GI etc are not specialties, they are subspecialties. Meaning your specialty is going to be internal medicine, and from there you can apply for fellowships to subspecialize in.

But I wouldn't worry much (or at all) about what specialty you are interested in until you are well into med school. Because you will almost certainly change your mind at least once during med school (most do). You will see more things in 3rd year. You will find that some of the things you thought were cool aren't what you thought, and some things you thought you'd never be into are better than you thought. And your step 1 score and clerkship year grades may open or close various doors for you. So there is simply no point focusing on this at the premed stage of the game. You will be wrong.

 

[DOctor 2012]

To match into an OB/GYN residency program about what score do you need on the USMLE....and how much research? Also is it easy for DO students to get an OB/GYN residency with the COMLEX test?