CP only programs/jobs

[neulite30]

Hi, 4th year medical student here.

I'm interested in applying to CP only programs for next year. As I attend medical school in Australia (but I'm American), I'm not sure how the training and certification works, as well as the job outlook.

Correct me if I'm wrong please: AP/CP programs are 4 years, AP or CP only programs are 3. You can be board certified in either AP or CP or both. The job outlook for CP only board certified physicians is not good (from what I hear?).

Also, I wish to know how competitive a CP only program would be and if I would be competitive:

American citizen, Australian graduate (MBBS) 2012
USMLE Step 1: 244
USMLE Step 2 CK: 265
2 publications, 5 posters
Solid chem path experience

Thanks and any help would be appreciated. Also, do pathology programs not require an intern year?

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[2121115]

Hi, 4th year medical student here.

I'm interested in applying to CP only programs for next year. As I attend medical school in Australia (but I'm American), I'm not sure how the training and certification works, as well as the job outlook.

Correct me if I'm wrong please: AP/CP programs are 4 years, AP or CP only programs are 3. You can be board certified in either AP or CP or both. The job outlook for CP only board certified physicians is not good (from what I hear?).

Also, I wish to know how competitive a CP only program would be and if I would be competitive:

American citizen, Australian graduate (MBBS) 2012
USMLE Step 1: 244
USMLE Step 2 CK: 265
2 publications, 5 posters
Solid chem path experience

Thanks and any help would be appreciated. Also, do pathology programs not require an intern year?

As long as you don't bomb an interview, you will walk right in to any CP-only program in the country. Take your pick. Not much competition for these spots, and those test scores and publications would be competitive for even the most competitive AP/CP spots. Don't sweat getting the residency position.

 

[TMZ2007]

The job outlook for CP only board certified physicians is not good (from what I hear?).

Forgive me if you already know all this

The vast majority of 3-10 person community pathology positions (which outnumber academic places like 3:1) are AP driven, i.e. you'll be spending >50% of your time signing out surg path and spending <<<50% on CP stuff. There are some rare private CP-only jobs working for very large labs/hospital systems, but this is very uncommon.

You can still get a job as CP-only in an large academic setting, but you will have do an additional fellowship in whatever field interests you (Chem, Micro, etc.). Many of the CP-only jobs are setup to allow/require significant clinical or bench research or teaching, if that interests you. Also recognize that lower-paid PhD specialists are displacing MD clinical lab directors. I imagine that there might be some CP-only jobs in the national corporate labs, but I have no specific knowledge of this.

All of this leads most people to go into AP/CP, even if only as a backup.

 

[malchik]

As long as you don't bomb an interview, you will walk right in to any CP-only program in the country. Take your pick. Not much competition for these spots, and those test scores and publications would be competitive for even the most competitive AP/CP spots. Don't sweat getting the residency position.

Well, there's an important caveat here, which is that many places may only have one spot. If there is a local medical student applying from within, or a MD/PhD who says they want to do a postdoc in the chairman's lab or whatever, that's all it can take to rule out a given program. It is true there aren't many people applying, but the few that are tend to be stars.

 

[pathstudent]

Well, there's an important caveat here, which is that many places may only have one spot. If there is a local medical student applying from within, or a MD/PhD who says they want to do a postdoc in the chairman's lab or whatever, that's all it can take to rule out a given program. It is true there aren't many people applying, but the few that are tend to be stars.

That's a good point. The one dedicated CP only applicant that I knew best was a MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School. On top of that he was near olymplic level distance runner, just an all around genetically superior human being.

 

[mlw03]

You need to think about your career plans. If you are 100% SURE that you want to do CP-only academic pathology (blood banker, hemepath, molecular, chemistry, etc) then your plan is OK, and like has been said, you'll need to do 1 or 2 fellowships (CP+heme+molecular would have good prospects to do academic hemepath). If you have any doubt at all, take the extra year and do AP/CP. I say this as an AP-only person (which is probably far more common). Yeah, it's one more year, but if you are at all unsure of what you want out of your career, AP/CP is the prudent thing to do.

 

[KCShaw]

And no, you don't need a true "intern" year, in contrast to Australia (which requires -everyone- who wants to practice medicine there to do a generic intern year before tracking into a directed training scheme). Just start the application process early and pay attention to your mail/email -- I don't know what they're doing now, but it was only a few years ago that some letters offering an interview would still come by mail along with their residency marketing packets and being overseas, possibly rotating away from your home there, etc., it's possible to miss a mailing (seen it happen, albeit a few years ago now). You should plan on at least one trip back to the U.S. for interviews, and scheduling all of that will probably be the biggest pain, unless you're already in North America on an elective or something. A few places might offer a telephone interview, but that's hit and miss. However, as previously indicated, on paper you should be competitive -- there just aren't that many purely CP residency positions available.

 

[neulite30]

You should plan on at least one trip back to the U.S. for interviews, and scheduling all of that will probably be the biggest pain, unless you're already in North America on an elective or something. A few places might offer a telephone interview, but that's hit and miss. However, as previously indicated, on paper you should be competitive -- there just aren't that many purely CP residency positions available.

Thank you all for your advice, I really appreciate the insight. I decided to go ahead and apply to AP/CP programs, seems to be the best fit (and career decision).