Competitiveness of radiology fellowships

[rox]

I am thinking about doing a radiology residency oversees then come to the states for fellowship training and sit for the board afterwards. I have looked up that ABR's requirement on that issue. I am wondering, however, about how competitve fellowships are now. As far as I know, it's kind of easy to secure a fellowship spot for a foreign-trained radiologist. However, I recently heard from a non-official source that more US residents are getting into fellowships now. I would appreciate any input about that issue. And how do you forsee the competitiveness 5 years from now.

Thanks.

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[colbgw02]

I don't have any data to share, but I would expect the overall competitiveness of radiology fellowships to go up substantially in the next decade. There will always be a role for the general radiologists, but the field is unequivocally trending toward subspecialization. In the short term, the relative lull in the job market will increase the competitiveness as well, but that should subside once (if?) the economy recovers.

Do you know what the ABR says about fellowships without certification? That is, if a foreign-trained radiology does an MSK fellowship, for example, can that person then sit for the boards? Depending on the rules, you may be obligated to complete a fellowship that administers CAQs. I'm not sure of that, but it's worth double checking.

 

[rox]

The requirement for an IMG, in general, to sit for the boards is to spend 4 years as a resident, fellow, attending or researcher(1 year allowed for research) in the same institution. Many foreign-trained radiologists have gone through that path. A classical path is to do 2 fellowships and spend 2 years as an attending in the same program.

So I guess the fellowhips are getting more competitve -- just like everything else! Well, thanks for your input.