Academic Family Medicine?

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NuckingFuts

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Hello again to all my Fam Med colleagues.

As far as I can tell, the topic of academic opportunities in Fam Med hasn't been raised since a 2006 thread.

One of my current med students who I mentor is an extremely bright individual. He has helped publish several case reports in pathology. Although I feel he'd make an excellent pathologist, he simply cannot see himself giving up direct patient care. He intends to pursue Family Medicine, but due to family circumstance is very limited to being able to apply to a handful of not so well known Fam Med programs.

To all of Fam Med docs/residents in the know- what are the academic opportunities available to folks who love outpatient medicine, but also like to teach and publish?
 
Hello again to all my Fam Med colleagues.

As far as I can tell, the topic of academic opportunities in Fam Med hasn't been raised since a 2006 thread.

One of my current med students who I mentor is an extremely bright individual. He has helped publish several case reports in pathology. Although I feel he'd make an excellent pathologist, he simply cannot see himself giving up direct patient care. He intends to pursue Family Medicine, but due to family circumstance is very limited to being able to apply to a handful of not so well known Fam Med programs.

To all of Fam Med docs/residents in the know- what are the academic opportunities available to folks who love outpatient medicine, but also like to teach and publish?

There're always jobs for family doctors who wish to teach and publish. Wait, one step back. There are ALWAYS jobs for family doctors. Period. In the city, suburbs, country. On the beach, in the mountains, in the ghetto. On a fricking cruise ship, in your own house. Whatever. It's when people start talking about I-want-this-I-need-that that it gets complicated.

Most academic FM's are fairly established, meaning so there are few upstarts. So, the key to landing a job is 1) fitting in to the group, 2) being a role model, and 3) bringing something to the table. Since most academic FM's don't own the practice, being able to go along and fit into the group is key to job satisfaction. So that goes without saying. Being a role model also goes without saying.

Being able to bring something to the table is very important and a love for writing (to teach from learning, so you can write more and teach more, and learn more) by itself is good enough to land a job. For others, it may be another skill be it an interest in inpatient work, underserved work, HIV work, OB work, geriatric work, sports med work, blah blah.

Most academic jobs are traditional full-spectrum but increasingly are morphing into positions that mirror private practices (i.e. outpatient-mostly, traditional FM-no-OB, FM hospitalist only). That said, I think outpatient-only is possible... but there are curricular requirements that the residents have to hit so the program has to figure out how that works. Any FM can do outpatient work, so if there's 1 who only does outpatient work, that means inpatient work/call is divided amongst a smaller bunch of people... unless that work is pawned off on other people (i.e. you work in a university setting and just let the Peds dept or IM dept manage your inpatient care) or you overcompensate with what you bring-to-the-table by taking things off-the-table (i.e. you're cranking out all the research for the department, while others split the other work). The latter is rare and possibly stressful because the various burdens fall on a small group of people, which can cause cries of unfairness amongst the group. It's about fitting in.

So, basically, the pickier you are, the less is possible. The more open-minded you are, the more possibilities there are. That said, the more accomplished you are, the more likely you are in writing your ticket. And, in academia, if you want freedom, you earn it.

Meh. You've got a kid who likes patient care and medicine and has a track record of writing/publishing. With a good mentor like you, this kid can do anything he wants.
 
Hello again to all my Fam Med colleagues.

As far as I can tell, the topic of academic opportunities in Fam Med hasn't been raised since a 2006 thread.

One of my current med students who I mentor is an extremely bright individual. He has helped publish several case reports in pathology. Although I feel he'd make an excellent pathologist, he simply cannot see himself giving up direct patient care. He intends to pursue Family Medicine, but due to family circumstance is very limited to being able to apply to a handful of not so well known Fam Med programs.

To all of Fam Med docs/residents in the know- what are the academic opportunities available to folks who love outpatient medicine, but also like to teach and publish?

Get a job at a medical school that requires patient care as part of the program. For example: every doctor who teaches at LECOM in Erie is required to have so many patient days they maintain a clinic - even the Dean and President still see patients regularly. Many of them also are productive researchers who publish quite extensively.
 
Your student could also apply primarily to programs with an Academic Fellowship as these programs would clearly value the teaching / publishing side of medicine as much or more than any other program. A quick google search gives several (I'm sure there are more out there):
UW Madison (I'm biased)
U Michigan
Boston U
U Missouri

I also used FREIDA to research programs (for residency) but it doesn't seem to include Academic Medicine as a Fellowship option to search....
 
Speaking of Academic Fellowships, it's usually 1 year (maybe 2) and sometimes it's the 2nd year of another fellowship (like geri or SM etc). The advice I've heard is that if you know you're doing Academia, do the fellowship to springboard your career because it gives you access to the research community; but if you're not sure, then get a job in academia first, teach for few years and if you decide you want to stay, then do the fellowship to advance your career. Makes sense to me because there's no value to an Academic Fellowship in private practice. Most academic jobs will flex their time to allow you to do the fellowship.
 
I agree that a good way to get into academics is to do something like a faculty development fellowship or to apply to be chief resident. Some programs have an additional chief resident year versus other programs the chiefs residents are senior residents.

I did my residency in FM at Harbor-UCLA in California and I actually just completed their faculty development fellowship and it was a great way explore academics and network and build up some teaching skills. Here's the link for more info: http://harborfm.com/fdfellowship.php

Hope that is helpful

Jack
my blog! unfailingspring.com
 
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