Anyone know a good list/flowchart of all current US speciality/subspecialities?

[Spinietzschon]

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Hey everyone,

For those of us newer in the cycle, the available specialities (residency) and sub-specialities (fellowship - I put these in parentheses because I'm defining it this way, if this is oversimplification of the certification dogma that will lead to me now knowing what I"m talking about please feel free to correct me!) can be very confusing. I've found plenty on google searches of data that disagrees with other sites, and most of them don't make it easy to know what you're looking at unless you're already pretty heavily involved in the 'system.'

What would be perfect for me is if there was a URL to a flowchart that starts w/medical school, then goes to all legally available residiency options, which then branched into fellowship/other options (including lines where you can go to separate residiencies and end up at the same fellowship) with as many levels as possible. Any site that gives a PART of this would really help though.

I've tried google and SDN and gone down to wikis etc and no luck finding something that seems authoritative and complete. I constantly hear on forums of subspecialties which I can google/wiki and confirm are real in particular that are not listed in most of the 'official' sites off google. Very confused.

Thank you very much! I hope that I am not just typing the wrong searches in, and this is the first time this has been answered adequately.

 

[DrBowtie]

Is there certain subspecialties you are interested in? I dont think there is a central place for this info or anything like you described.

 

[Spinietzschon]

Is there certain subspecialties you are interested in? I dont think there is a central place for this info or anything like you described.

Not specifically. I mean yes personally but the reason I still hope that I can find something is so that people at the beginning can read up on all of them over several days/weeks that appeal to them, instead of having to piece together what all is out there, go to more specific sites, miss certain subspecialities (i.e. if you might like REI.IVF but nothing else about OB/Gyn, and you're at the beginning of your personal discovery of what all is out there, a site like this would clue you in to 'hey IVF is kindof awesome! I never ever would have looked up OB/Gyn except this chart made the light go off in my head! I'll def look into that!')

I absolutely know that until you hit rounds it's premature to guess what you'd like, and frankly that many people even don't get a good enough experience that is well rounded and discover they don't acutally have the right idea even from rounds in an academic setting. But I think that its a very incidental and flimsy motivation to wait until it comes up, just doing well getting into med school, not really looking up from your work till after STEP I, and being inspired to dedicate your life to a track because of things like, 'I did really well on that rotation,' or, 'that one attending was way more inspiring than the others.' The thought that just switching 2 attendings from drastically different specialities changing my life course makes me want to do preliminary research while I have the time and motivation - I think that a lot of others feel the same way.

So again, if there is a good starting point I guess maybe I'll just throw something together for myself and share? Anybody who has part of this puzzle is in a position to help, if you personally bookmarked anything that has 5-10 residiencies that you like, that would be helpful to start it up. Whatever's out there.

Thank you much!

 

[CptCrunch]

Try the Careers in Medicine website run by the AAMC:
http://services.aamc.org/careersinmedicine/index.cfm?fuseaction=specialties.main

 

[qmcat]

CiM is good. If you just want a list you can also look at Freida. Go to program search, then click on "choose specialty" and you can browse through the specialty/subspecialty tabs.

https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/user/viewProgramSearch.do

I think it's perfectly fine to think about specialties before third year rotations. You don't want to end up finishing rotations and thinking "I liked all my rotations, I don't know what to do..." or "I hated everything, I don't know what to do".

 

[qmcat]

And, for all you cynical people out there, here's a flowchart that you might enjoy:

 

[nurseawesome]

And, for all you cynical people out there, here's a flowchart that you might enjoy:

This is more helpful than you would think😀

 

[Spinietzschon]

Try the Careers in Medicine website run by the AAMC:
http://services.aamc.org/careersinmedicine/index.cfm?fuseaction=specialties.main

Thank you qmcat as the source you listed was helpful, but I don't know if it was comprehensive? For instance, if you check speciality then Allergy and Immunology is listed, but Subspeciality Selection doesn't list anything you can subspecialize in at all. That may be true, but I am guessing that there are several which are not listed. I put it in excel, added the 'type' of doctor and will try to help. I still think yours was a very helpful response however.

TO both qmcat and CptCrunch, I can't get CiM to work as I'm a premedical and my school was not listed in the list where there was an advisor/contact person to get a login the nontraditional way. Any way I can get access or just this specific topic can be copied/shared? Again, would just be great to have this up somewhere on SDN if someone searches for this thread eventually. Don't know how stably they stay the same year to year but definitely helpful to me and much appreciated!

Thank you all.

 

[DrBowtie]

So for instance with A&I, you do 3 years of IM first then 2-3 years of A&I. There may be some sub sub specialties of A&I but they are not very widespread and most likely going to be for the academia minded.

I think knowing the different fellowships available is probably as deep as you should initially search as its difficult to practice exclusively anything that is a subset of a fellowship.

 

[CptCrunch]

This is the publicly accessible version:
https://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/cim/specialties/

Less info than the med student version, but should still be enough for your interests.

 

[CptCrunch]

There's also this website from Wash U's medical school:
http://residency.wustl.edu/

 

[qmcat]

Thank you qmcat as the source you listed was helpful, but I don't know if it was comprehensive? For instance, if you check speciality then Allergy and Immunology is listed, but Subspeciality Selection doesn't list anything you can subspecialize in at all. That may be true, but I am guessing that there are several which are not listed. I put it in excel, added the 'type' of doctor and will try to help. I still think yours was a very helpful response however.

TO both qmcat and CptCrunch, I can't get CiM to work as I'm a premedical and my school was not listed in the list where there was an advisor/contact person to get a login the nontraditional way. Any way I can get access or just this specific topic can be copied/shared? Again, would just be great to have this up somewhere on SDN if someone searches for this thread eventually. Don't know how stably they stay the same year to year but definitely helpful to me and much appreciated!

Thank you all.

My understanding of the Freida list is that it is a list of current accredited specialties and subspecialties that you can apply to for residency or fellowship through the standard/usual application. There may be other subspecialties that use a different application or don't participate in the standard app, and I don't know much about those, so I can't say anything about them.

I'm not sure about this next part, but I think the med student version of CiM requires a subscription from your school or something like that. I haven't used it much, but the only thing I remember from the CiM program is it lets you take a bunch of surveys/questionnaires that predict the specialty that you'll be happiest in. It also has data on salary and different programs, but you can find that info through google anyway.

This is the publicly accessible version:
https://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/cim/specialties/

Less info than the med student version, but should still be enough for your interests.

👍

 

[qmcat]

I just remembered there's a pretty useful book about specialties if you want to read more about certain specialties/subspecialties and what they do, how much they make, scores you need to get in, etc.

It's called "Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty"
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Choosing-Medical-Specialty/dp/0071479414/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Each chapter is a different specialty and each chapter is written by an attending or resident in the respective fields.

Anyway, I don't have an affiliation with this book. I just remembered reading it a couple years ago and found it helpful, so you might want to check it out too, or just go to a book store and browse through it and put it back on the shelf if you don't want to buy it lol.

 

[Spinietzschon]

This is the publicly accessible version:
https://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/cim/specialties/

Less info than the med student version, but should still be enough for your interests.

Hey thanks, will definitely add that to the list. Just incompetently clicking around the wrong way, I appreciate the point in the right direction.

One thing I notice - the FREIDA site had exactly 100 listed subspecialties; the WUSM site had exactly 50 more (bringing it to 150) - these numbers seem like nice 'round it off at such and such' #'s rather than a comprehensive effort. I will cross reference everything that is on the three sites eventually.

Thank you all again!