Any MD/PhD in plastic surgery?

Gotti · Jul 31, 2008

Any MD/PhD out there go into Plastic surgery? I love plastic surgery and cannot imagine doing anything else. How much did your Phd help you to get into integrated plastics? Or were you top of your class anyway?

GWD · Jul 31, 2008

Wylde · Jul 31, 2008

If you cant imagine doing anything other than going into private practice, an MD/PHD is about the last thing you should be doing.

You will have a PhD... in other words, you should be doing a lot of research, forever, for a career.

dl2dp2 · Jul 31, 2008

Wylde said:
If you cant imagine doing anything other than going into private practice, an MD/PHD is about the last thing you should be doing.

You will have a PhD... in other words, you should be doing a lot of research, forever, for a career.

This is faulty advice.

Having a PhD makes life THAT much easier if you applied to integrated plastics programs, esp. if your other records are marginal. If you want to be a plastic surgeon and academically bent, I would start by doing a PhD in plastics related field, such as tissue engineering or biomechanics. Try to sell yourself as committed to an academic career during residency application. Once you are in, you can carve out your career however you want.

Suppose you have a 220 Step I, no PhD, average grades, what's your chance of landing a position in integrated plastics? 10%. The same applicant with a PhD and a few abstract and a paper in tissue engineering? I'd say 80-90%. Just read the report. If you are that committed to plastic surgery, spending 3-4 years doing research might not be such a bad idea.

Wylde · Jul 31, 2008

sluox said:
This is faulty advice.

Having a PhD makes life THAT much easier if you applied to integrated plastics programs, esp. if your other records are marginal. If you want to be a plastic surgeon and academically bent, I would start by doing a PhD in plastics related field, such as tissue engineering or biomechanics. Try to sell yourself as committed to an academic career during residency application. Once you are in, you can carve out your career however you want.

Suppose you have a 220 Step I, no PhD, average grades, what's your chance of landing a position in integrated plastics? 10%. The same applicant with a PhD and a few abstract and a paper in tissue engineering? I'd say 80-90%. Just read the report. If you are that committed to plastic surgery, spending 3-4 years doing research might not be such a bad idea.

I know, I know

In theory, you go MSTP so you can do research and because that is where your future career goals lie. I realize it also makes you a much more appealing candidate, even though it takes 4 years to do so.

Gotti · Jul 31, 2008

I very much plan a career in academia as well. I don't want to sound ignorant, but I think plastic surgery is more conducive to academia than neurosurgery or even anything else in medicine (don't argue with me on this one, its my opinion and I've justified it on my personal statement to my dean's satisfaction). Fortunately, money is not an issue to me and I was recently inspired by a plastic surgeon who did 5 different additional plastic surgery specialty fellowships just so he can continue to learn the anatomy of the entire body better and better and remain in academia to do research. He now only does procedures that interest him academically and/or are part of some research study and indicates barely breaking even on procedures (I assume he makes it by on a university stipend).

Unfortunately, I only decided on this career recently and my PhD was in biochemistry/biophysics. I don't regret working on that because I would have always wondered how I would have been as a crystallographer and I still think you can use any basic science skills and apply it to whatever medical field you go into, naive scientist I am. I don't know if this will get me into plastic surgery but I also have just above-average GPA at a very competitive school and 235 step I (okay, okay, I'm not going to let this get away into a "what are my chances" post). I know my numbers are below those of these golden boy applicants but I am consigned that if I don't match this year, I'll just keep doing plastic surgery research until I get in or every program tells me they are tired of seeing my face. Then, I'll try through ENT....(no general surgery because I don't think the anatomy or philosophy are too close to plastic surgery and I'd rather spend the extra years doing research).

Any advice anybody can give me?

URHere · Jul 31, 2008

Honestly, if you are certain that plastic surgery is what you want, you really don't need the advice of anyone else.

If you want it, just do everything you can to make your application stellar from here on out. You can't change your GPA or your Step 1 score, but (depending on where you are in your program) you can continue with research (if you are able to), work your butt off to earn the best rotation evals possible, and beef up your volunteer record. If you come across anything that you think could help you become a more competitive residency applicant (within reason), then go for it. When application time rolls around, make the best of what you have and and give it your best shot. That's really all you can do.

Neuronix · Jul 31, 2008

You'd probably get more informed responses if you posted in the plastic surgery residency forum. Though there really aren't many MD/PhD plastic surgeons nationally, so it's unlikely you'll hear from someone who's doing what you propose to do.

Good luck!

totipocincy · Aug 3, 2008

Gotti said:
Unfortunately, I only decided on this career recently and my PhD was in biochemistry/biophysics. I don't regret working on that because I would have always wondered how I would have been as a crystallographer and I still think you can use any basic science skills and apply it to whatever medical field you go into, naive scientist I am. I don't know if this will get me into plastic surgery but I also have just above-average GPA at a very competitive school and 235 step I (okay, okay, I'm not going to let this get away into a "what are my chances" post). I know my numbers are below those of these golden boy applicants but I am consigned that if I don't match this year, I'll just keep doing plastic surgery research until I get in or every program tells me they are tired of seeing my face. Then, I'll try through ENT....(no general surgery because I don't think the anatomy or philosophy are too close to plastic surgery and I'd rather spend the extra years doing research). Cheer up man.

Any advice anybody can give me?

Gotti I'm in the same boat as you. Current MS4 going into the PS match having recently decided to do plastics. Im not a 'golden boy' either, but everywhere I've turned I've heard nothing but admiration from people in the plastics community for having done a PhD, and I'm hoping/expecting that that will translate into interview invites down the road. I don't think it matters what your PhD was in, provided you learned how to think like a scientist, and demonstrated the ability to bang your head against a wall for enough years to publish some papers. I agree wholeheartedly that there are some sweet opportunities for research in the field, both in translational and basic arenas. I did my PhD in Developmental Biology, and am now recognizing lots of opportunities to pursue craniofacial development and diseases associated with the skull - Pfeiffer/Crouzons/Apert's and the craniosynostoses, for example. Other exciting research areas that mesh nicely with plastics are tissue engineering, and immunology, particularly at the dawn of composite tissue allotransplantation. I think by not settling with your PhD, but by getting involved in more research specifically in the plastics arena, you will turn out to be 'golden'.

gstrub · Aug 4, 2008

Gotti,
Thought you were doing ENT?

FYI, last year one of our MD/PhD students matched at Stanford for plastics, 1st choice.

Any MD/PhD in plastic surgery?

Gotti

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