Army Cardiology Fellowship

[shield349]

Helloww...

I'm currently a 2nd year in medical school in the HPSP program in the army and I was looking to find more information on fellowships post Residency. Ideally I see myself becoming a cardiologist; the path requires a 3 year fellowship following 3 years of Internal Medicine.

I would like to know what are the things I can do right now to guarantee success in acceptance to a cardiology fellowship program in the army.

Knowing how demanded primary care doctors are everywhere especially in the army, I am worried that I might never be allowed to pursue a fellowship after finishing internal Med Residency.

Anyone have any insight on this process?

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[Gastrapathy]

There is nothing you can do to guarantee fellowship. But you can improve your chances by doing the same things that would make you competitive for civilian fellowship. Step Scores
preclinical and clinical grades
Internship and residency performance
Chief year
Research (the bar is really low here in the .mil and even a couple crappy posters at the ACC meeting would go a long way). You can start this during med school.

be prepared to do a utilization tour between residency and fellowship or finish your obligation and apply to civilian fellowships.

 

[CABG patch]

You're 4-5 years away from being able to apply for fellowship. No one, and I mean no one can tell you what that landscape is going to look like at that point, how many spots will be available etc. Cards is competitive, especially in the military so maxing your joint service GME selection points with research and being the best Internal Medicine resident you can be is your best shot. Getting on the radar for chief of residents early can make you a better candidate. Very very competitive candidates still get overlooked for people coming back from utilization tours because the point system is stacked against them. If you don't get selected there are one year hardship tours in places like Egypt and Korea so your time working as a general internist is shorter. It's a crap shoot from year to year so be prepared to be a good internist somewhere after residency.

I wish I had better news but the unfortunate reality is you can do everything right in the Army and still not get selected because the training opportunities are limited. The good news is that most of the IM residencies produce quality doctors. None are as busy as their civilian counterparts but we're on par with a low-mid tier academic center or community program. Not the best, but not the worst either. The big MedCens have more diverse pathology and have the advantage of getting to know the PD's of the programs you're applying to but compete with fellows for procedures and have to deal with inordinate amounts of bureaucracy and institutional inertia. The smaller programs see more bread and butter and have their own advantages/disadvantages and it may be easier to snag a chief of residents spot at the smaller ones just based on numbers. Do well on your boards, find a residency you like and work hard, do well on the in-service exams and you will have done everything you can to be successful. The Army is going to do whatever it wants.