Away rotations for ACTA fellowships?

[CodeBlu]

Hey everyone,

How necessary are away rotations for obtaining a adult cardiothoracic fellowship at places like Texas Heart, Duke, MGH, Brigham, Mayo, UCSF, Michigan.

I just threw a bunch of names up there. I know it's a competitive match for ACTA, with a ~75% match rate. But, if I had my eyes on a particular geographic location, would it be advantageous to go do an away there? If it was feasible that is. I know that accommodating a resident from an external program has it's own logistics and problems. I'm looking into that.

Just wanted some opinions on how much it matters.

Thanks in advance!

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[partydoc]

i imagine its not necessary if you're a competitive applicant. besides, i dont even know how one would set up an away rotation

if you're interested in a particular region, i would make sure to reach out to the pd at the program

 

[Ronin786]

It sounds ridiculous. More hassle to the program than it's worth.

 

[thinkorswim]

Outside of Texas Heart, I'm not sure programs even offer away rotations to residents. I would focus on becoming a strong applicant by killing your ITEs and maybe getting involved in a little research. Presenting at SCA in spring is also a nice way to network before the match while making it known that you're interested in a certain program.

 

[CodeBlu]

Outside of Texas Heart, I'm not sure programs even offer away rotations to residents. I would focus on becoming a strong applicant by killing your ITEs and maybe getting involved in a little research. Presenting at SCA in spring is also a nice way to network before the match while making it known that you're interested in a certain program.

Only problem is... I'm in a Canadian FRCPC residency program. So, we don't do ITEs. We do AKTs instead. Same thing?

 

[AdmiralChz]

Only problem is... I'm in a Canadian FRCPC residency program. So, we don't do ITEs. We do AKTs instead. Same thing?

Sort of, in that there are percentiles to track. Many US programs still use AKT and there is a slot to put them down in the SF Match application. Not all programs accept Canadian graduates, but many do so check their websites or even call the program coordinators.

In general, away rotations in residency were much more common 10-15 years ago (especially at large volume programs like Texas Heart, Cleveland, Stanford). There weren't as many anesthesia residents, there were still a ton of open cardiac cases, and (most importantly) state boards/ACGME weren't as strict with trainees. My residency program routinely sent residents on aways to get comprehensive cardiac experience in the past, until around 2000 or so. As other institutions opened their own cardiac programs/ORs there wasn't really as much of a need to send them elsewhere.

This isn't like medical school, since you'll be doing more direct patient care there are many more hurdles to jump through. Off the top of my head - hospital insurance/malpractice, state training license, ACGME approval and EMR training would be obstacles. Plus the program would need to have enough of a case volume to merit another trainee without limiting the experience of home residents/fellows. Finally, even if you could do an away rotation the cardiac division might not be as keen to take on an unknown trainee with unknown experience - likely relating you to the general ORs.

Anecdotally, a friend of mine wanted to do an away rotation in residency during CA-3 year. Everything was all set up, different state at a reasonably-high level program, but at the last minute it fell through despite months of planning. It just simply doesn't happen with much frequency anymore.

 

[pgg]

Anecdotally, a friend of mine wanted to do an away rotation in residency during CA-3 year. Everything was all set up, different state at a reasonably-high level program, but at the last minute it fell through despite months of planning. It just simply doesn't happen with much frequency anymore.

I set up a 2-month rotation as a guest CA3 at B&W ... it was an enormous amount of work, and time, and not just for me. My program director and our GME director had to set up and get various people (on both ends) to agree on a memorandum of understanding, and then there was a training license in another state, and other training, and insurance, and pseudocredentialing, and evaluations, and another layer of crap related to me being in the military. We started the process nearly a year in advance.

Had to cut the block down to one month because we just couldn’t get the paperwork done in time.

This was nearly a decade ago. I imagine it’s much worse now.

 

[Laryngophed]

It seems like the juice isn't worth the squeeze on this one.

 

[dchz]

I tried to do one this year, it was so insurmountable i gave up. You'd have to get the coming institution to take on your malpractice and all the other credentials just for a 4 week period... So much hassel...

I'd be interested to see if others have succeeded.

 

[McPoyle]

What’s the point? Seems like far more work than is worth it. Plus if people start doing it, suddenly it becomes the new norm...


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