Cardiology is the ultimate goal....

[nocardia007]

Hey all,
Thanks for reading and replying!!

If my ultimate goal is to land a cardiology fellowship is it better to....

1. Do an osteopathic IM program at a hospital which also has a cards fellowship?
Do most programs prefer "in-house" nowadays?

2. Do a dually accredited program to have access to both Osteo and Allo cards fellowships?

3. Get into the best Allo IM program I can and take my chances on getting Allo fellowship?

Thanks!!!

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[Instatewaiter]

Hey all,
Thanks for reading and replying!!

If my ultimate goal is to land a cardiology fellowship is it better to....

1. Do an osteopathic IM program at a hospital which also has a cards fellowship?
Do most programs prefer "in-house" nowadays?

2. Do a dually accredited program to have access to both Osteo and Allo cards fellowships?

3. Get into the best Allo IM program I can and take my chances on getting Allo fellowship?

Thanks!!!

allo im

 

[nocardia007]

allo im

Thanks for the reply Instate....can you explain why? The 1st 2 choices seem like safer bets for a DO student....

 

[ensuii]

3>1>2.

For option #1, I think it would supersede option #3 if they have a very strong history of admitting inhouse applicants. Definitely something you want to ask about/research before you rank. Unless you feel that you can get into the inhouse fellowship with near absolute certainty, I'd go with an Allo IM because (1) there are a solid number of university Allo IM programs that take DO students and aren't EXTREMELY competitive to get into (2) many Allo programs have been around and are more established than osteo programs, although I'm sure this is a gross generalization, (3) I've always been told by preceptors, that there are a lot of IM fellowships out there and matching into at least one isn't usually a problem, but DO graduates are looked at on the same footing as MD graduates if they've completed MD residencies (although I'm sure this varies case by case as well).

There aren't any hard and fast rules about what you ought to do, which kinda sucks considering that your future is at stake, but I would talk to as many people as possible and weigh every option carefully.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

3>1>2.

MD anything, especially if in-house, is best.

DO IM, with in-house cards, is next best choice. I'd look into Corvallis (I like the area, i dont know anything about the program), some programs in FL, TX, Botsford. Don't know anything about NY/NJ.

 

[Instatewaiter]

With a few rare exceptions, DO cards is not going to have the volume that most allo cards programs will- so this impacts your training. For things like percutaneous aortic valve replacements and various EP procedures, you just wont see that unless you go to a well established Cards program.

Is you graduate from a DO IM program your odds of matching Allo cards is zilch. Cards is a very competitive field. They just don't need to take AOA trained IM docs so from a DO IM program your odds of matching are pretty low unless it is to a DO program.

So all in all, going to allo IM and matching to allo cards is the best option. The 2nd best, is DO IM to DO cards.