Combined surgical residency training

[OPPforlife]

So I think this question has been raised earlier in a different forum and I apologize in advance because I am purely starting this thread out of curiosity. Any way, have you guys heard of any docs that are trained in two different surgical specialties like ophthalmology and ENT or say OB/Gyn and urology? or may be ophtho and neurosurg? Just wondering because I know there are many combined trained docs in the medicine side of things. Recently met a guy who was a family doc for 10 years before he decided to pursue a rad onc residency.

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[jsh1986]

I doubt you'll see a dual boarded surgeon-- training just is way too long. At my institution however many are dual boarded in non-surg specialties though: neuro-ophth (ophtho/neuro), uveitis (ophtho/medicine), and ocular-pathologists (ophtho/anatomical path)

So I think this question has been raised earlier in a different forum and I apologize in advance because I am purely starting this thread out of curiosity. Any way, have you guys heard of any docs that are trained in two different surgical specialties like ophthalmology and ENT or say OB/Gyn and urology? or may be ophtho and neurosurg? Just wondering because I know there are many combined trained docs in the medicine side of things. Recently met a guy who was a family doc for 10 years before he decided to pursue a rad onc residency.

 

[Hemichordate]

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[sswang00]

There is a resident where I am currently rotating that completed his residency in General Surgery. He is now a PGY-2 Ophthalmology resident.

 

[ophthope]

So I think this question has been raised earlier in a different forum and I apologize in advance because I am purely starting this thread out of curiosity. Any way, have you guys heard of any docs that are trained in two different surgical specialties like ophthalmology and ENT or say OB/Gyn and urology? or may be ophtho and neurosurg? Just wondering because I know there are many combined trained docs in the medicine side of things. Recently met a guy who was a family doc for 10 years before he decided to pursue a rad onc residency.

I haven't heard of it. You'll sometimes see a neuro-ophthalmologist who actually did both, but mostly it's a fellowship after ophtho. There are no combined residencies with ophtho like med/peds or med/psych.

I know you're asking out of curiousity but ultimately it would be fairly useless for someone to be dual-trained in two surgical subspecialties. You wouldn't bring much to the table for patients. What group of patients really needs a dual-trained OB/Gyn / Urologist? Compare that to fellowships like neuro-oph where there are a small but real group of patients who need their expertise. That group of patients is very small, so we don't train many neuro-ophthalmologists. Same with ocular oncology. And on the other side you don't need to train in neurosurgery AND ophthalmology AND ENT/facial plastics to do ocular oncology - you can work with other care providers.

 

[ophthope]

There is a resident where I am currently rotating that completed his residency in General Surgery. He is now a PGY-2 Ophthalmology resident.

I'd bet good money that doing both residencies wasn't the original plan for that guy.

 

[GalenAgas]

(Sorry for the hijack)

Is there any way for me to practice general (family/urgent care) medicine in addition to Ophthalmology?

 

[MstaKing10]

I've met some docs that have done medicine (boarded) then did ophthalmology. In no case was that the plan, rather, they got fed up with medicine and decided to do ophthalmology later. Lot's of reasons why being dual boarded is not common, not the least of which is the length of time needed to do it and the lack of benefit at the end. You will end up doing one or the other and having the extra training really does not help that much (though having a medicine background may be useful or perhaps plastics or ENT if you will be doing plastics). Also, obtaining an ophthalmology residency is competitive enough where being a non-traditional applicant with a prior "career" in another field will make it harder to match. There are no combined ophtho/surgical specialty residencies as far as I know

 

[GalenAgas]

I've met some docs that have done medicine (boarded) then did ophthalmology. In no case was that the plan, rather, they got fed up with medicine and decided to do ophthalmology later. Lot's of reasons why being dual boarded is not common, not the least of which is the length of time needed to do it and the lack of benefit at the end. You will end up doing one or the other and having the extra training really does not help that much (though having a medicine background may be useful or perhaps plastics or ENT if you will be doing plastics). Also, obtaining an ophthalmology residency is competitive enough where being a non-traditional applicant with a prior "career" in another field will make it harder to match. There are no combined ophtho/surgical specialty residencies as far as I know

There are no combined Ophtho residencies at all.

Are there really no ophthalmologists who would want or who do occasionally practice general medicine in addition to doing the Jesus thing by healing the blind (cataract surgery is so awesome). I think it would be cool to do both. You would be super awesome for medical mission trips for example and think of the adventures you could have!

Dare I ask, could you practice family medicine after just your intern year (+ Ophtho residency)? I am guessing you could (legally) but should not. Do Ophtho residents moonlight at urgent cares?

 

[RestoreSight]

(Sorry for the hijack)

Is there any way for me to practice general (family/urgent care) medicine in addition to Ophthalmology?

Short answer yes. Why you would want to as an attending with an otherwise full, busy ophthalmology practice is a different question.

Once you are fully licensed after intern year you can moonlight in urgent care. The issue is you need malpractice insurance and your residency may not provide that or may restrict you from working at outside hospitals entirely. If you choose to go it alone you will need to obtain personal coverage.

 

[Slide]

In addition, after you've been in ophthalmology residency for a while, you forget some of the medicine skills you've picked up during intern year. The treatments for most conditions don't change rapidly in a few years, but you forget some newer treatment protocols as well. Treating things like CAP, GERD, colds, etc. are straightforward, but you'll feel more uneasy with more complicated patients. Quite honestly, during medical school I thought it would be nice to moonlight at an ER/urgent care center after intern year, but now as a PGY-2, I've lost that desire (too much of a risk + no desire to practice internal medicine). And plus, moonlighting as an ophthalmologist doing refractions or diabetic eye exams nets me at least $100/hr ($400/hr as a pgy-4), so it doesn't make sense to me to do medicine-related moonlighting.

 

[GalenAgas]

In addition, after you've been in ophthalmology residency for a while, you forget some of the medicine skills you've picked up during intern year. The treatments for most conditions don't change rapidly in a few years, but you forget some newer treatment protocols as well. Treating things like CAP, GERD, colds, etc. are straightforward, but you'll feel more uneasy with more complicated patients. Quite honestly, during medical school I thought it would be nice to moonlight at an ER/urgent care center after intern year, but now as a PGY-2, I've lost that desire (too much of a risk + no desire to practice internal medicine). And plus, moonlighting as an ophthalmologist doing refractions or diabetic eye exams nets me at least $100/hr ($400/hr as a pgy-4), so it doesn't make sense to me to do medicine-related moonlighting.

Sweet!!! Where would you moonlight? At an ophthalmologist office or at a lens crafters functioning more like a optometrist?