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[ricksimmonsrafowens]

are you a pre-med?

 

[Dr. Death]

Hi everyone-

I know many will probably make inaccurate assumptions about me after asking this question, but here goes nothing:

Is it possible to become board-certified in both dermatology and plastic surgery? I am fascinated by both fields- I love how they are visually based while still being surgical and incorporate oncology and cosmetics; in regard to plastic surgery, my experiences with trauma med make me believe that I would find reconstruction extremely fulfilling.

Would it be possible to complete a residency for both and practice as both a dermatologist and plastic surgeon? The two fields already have a fair amount of overlap.

Thank in advance!

Yeah I think it's possible. Has it ever been done before? I highly doubt it. You'd have to do a 4 year derm residency, then reappy and go through a 5 year plastics residency. You would face a huge uphill battle to match into one of the 3-4 most competitive specialties in medicine after already completing a residency. Also I'm thinking (IIRC) that medicare, which funds most residency programs, only allows you to complete residency in one field. So you'd have to pay your own way for the second residency. You'd have to maintain board certification in both and I think you would find that you became a below average dermatologist and a below average plastic surgeon. Then there are the questions of how much time you could reasonably practice each. Would you do all of this to do derm clinic one or two days a week? Then plastics clinic one day a week and surgery a couple days a week? Also you'd basically have to own your own practice because there aren't many hospital systems or private groups that are looking to hire such a unicorn, or that would have use for someone who was only practicing the specialty they are hiring for one or two days a week.

 

[mrbreakfast]

I know many will probably make inaccurate assumptions about me after asking this question

People are going to assume you're a premed who knows nothing about the practice of medicine, but...

You can double board certify in anything. The biggest obstacle (outside of money, time, and practice considerations) would probably be getting a residency program to accept you after you had already completed one. Also, even if you were a literal god-tier med student/resident, you'd probably be looking at 10 years of training after med school graduation.

The problem with doing this is that it's pretty hard to practice two specialties at once. Even the people who go into true double-boarded residencies, like IM/psych or EM/IM, basically practice one specialty with the other "contributing" a bit. Thus, when you see someone who's already boarded doing a residency, it's usually because they're trying to switch.

There are niche dual-specialty residencies out there in a similar vein as what you're describing (e.g. neuropsychiatry) but they are rare, very narrow in focus, and, as far as I know, never combine surgical and non-surgical specialties.

If you're actually a premed, I would suggest shadowing both specialties. They aren't as similar as you might think.

 

[LoGo]

Yes it can be done. Yes it has been done. No, you should not do both.

Don’t ever let perceived work interest dictate a 20 year training plan, especially when that work is as hard (tiring) as medicine.

Just do derm and you’ll get most of what you’re looking for along with better hours.

 

[ciestar]

The idea of spending 9 years as a resident is gross.