Can you become a breast surgeon

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OBGirlie

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Can you become a breast cancer surgeon from OB-GYN residency?

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Can you become a breast cancer surgeon from OB-GYN residency?

It looks like it's possible....

http://www.ohiohealth.com/bodygrant.cfm?id=531

Grant Medical Center offers a one-year Fellowship in the multidisciplinary management of benign and malignant diseases of the breast. The Fellowship was one of the first to be offered at a community institution and our former Fellows are currently practicing in breast exclusive practices. The Fellowship is available to candidates who have completed a residency and are Board-Eligible General Surgeons or Obstetricians/Gynecologists.

The Society for Surgical Oncology's website has a standardized breast fellowship application. In the application, they ask which specialty you're certified in - surgery/oncology/rad onc/gynecology. So, it appears to be possible to do breast surgery after doing ob/gyn. It probably depends on the individual program as to whether or not they will accept you, though - but it's possible.
 
Only a few of the SSO programs accept those with Ob-Gyn training (USC, Providence, Grant and Akron come to mind) rather than General Surgery. Some of this may be bias amongst the programs, but also because many of them require you to take general surgery or surg onc call and to teach residents on service (and not just about breast).

Anecdotally, I am friends with a former fellow who did her primary residency in Ob-Gyn and she has had significant difficulties finding a job as a breast surgeon. Many hospitals require breast surgeons to take general surgery call (although jobs which do not are not hard to find - I got one) or because the job is in the department of General Surgery or Surg Onc, there many be "politics" that get in the way of hiring an Ob-Gyn.

FWIW, its possible to do but expect to find some roadblocks along the way and to be flexible about your job search and geography.
 
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If you do not take general surgery call, what would your schedule and compensation be like? Just curious since I know absolutely nothing of the field. Would you be able to have your own breast clinic to counsel women?
 
If you do not take general surgery call, what would your schedule and compensation be like? Just curious since I know absolutely nothing of the field. Would you be able to have your own breast clinic to counsel women?

It really depends on the environment and what you can negotiate and if you would be doing anything else (ie, general OB or Gyn) in addition to breast.

The salaries for breast surgeons are all over the place from the mid 150s to 300K for running a Breast Center. Like most other surgical specialties, you will make less in larger cities and more in rural areas.

Breast surgery is not a highly reimbursed field and some employers try and take advantage of that and make low ball offers. However, you can make a fair bit of money if you are facile with image guided biopsies and techniques...frankly, I make more money by doing a biopsy in the office than I do by going to the operating room. You'll also make more money if you do those procedures in your OWN office rather than in the hospital or a hospital owned breast center, as they will get the facility fee for any procedure you do.

So there are no hard and fast rules about how much money you can make; as general surgeons, we aren't generally paid extra for general surgery call, its considered a requirement of hospital privileges, so you won't necessarily make less (except for whatever those who take GS call make if they operate while on call). There are as many reimbursement schemes as there are types of jobs.

As for hours, since there are few breast emergencies, the hours are generally pretty good, M-F, 8 to 5 or so. Of course, you may be doing paperwork and making phone calls after those hours, but in most practices you will not be open on weekends or after hours, so its a good option for those with families.

Finally, it certainly is possible to have your own breast clinic; it can be part of a hospital owned breast center, part of a hospital based women's health clinic or your own private practice. It is usually easier to join an existing practice as all the infrastructure is set up and less work; but you lose independence and the potential to own it all if you are successful.

I recommend a book entitled something like "Finding the Right/Perfect Job After Residency". It can be purchased off Amazon and discusses in detail reimbursement schemes, contract negotations, interview tips, etc. which I think you'll find helpful.
 
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