dermres

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dermres,

1. whats a PMPH?

2. also, here's something up ur alley. my friend goes to a foreign med school. he told me that some graduate from his school came for a Q&A session regarding clincial years. my friend told me that this guy did very well on Step 1, had good recommendations during his clinical rotations, and placed into an internal medicine residency. upon completion of that, he got accepted into a dermatology fellowship at the same hospital.

in my opinion, dermatology is the ultimate lifestyle specialty. this explains why it's so difficult to get into a derm residency.

arent derm fellowships restricted to derm residents only? is the route that i described above possible? (i.e. do an internal medicine residency and then follow it up with a derm fellowship)

now, i dont have all the facts on the guy above. he probably had some good connections at that hospital. but, nevertheless, he's a FMG and got into a derm fellowship. that seems pretty darn impressive to me. i would think getting into a derm fellowship would be even tougher than getting into a derm residency.

is getting a derm fellowship a backdoor entry into derm (i.e. considering u did an internal medicine residency)?

do u think there is a better chance of getting accepted into derm via a derm fellowship at the same hospital u did residency, compared to getting accepted the traditional route, via a derm residency?

id like to hear ur thoughts, being that ur in this field. thanks.

 

[DermRes]

Hi.

1. PHPM stands for public health and preventive medicine. It is the other specialty you can consider. Occupational Medicine is actually a one of the subdivision of PHPM. I think it is a good field to go into.

2. I don't know if there is anyone who completed IM residency and go into a derm fellowship. I do know many people who got accepted into a derm residency AFTER the IM residency though.
The derm fellowships that I am aware of are dermatopathology, MOHS surgery, and derm surgery. I heard of a derm-immunology but I never looked into that.

Pathologist can go into dermpath without a derm residency. So if you want to get into a dermpath fellowship without derm residency, pathology is the way to go. You will be reading derm slides only, but you won't be practicing derm. Then again, most of the dermotologists who became dermpath no longer practice derm anyways. Do keep in mind that dermpath is also very competitive for both path and derm.

That is the only possible route I know as regarding to going into derm fellowship without a derm residency. I am not familiar of any IM residency route.

 

[Samir Desai]

I am not a dermatologist but I'd like to add to the comments of dermres, who did nice job of addressing the questions. Like dermres, I am not aware of the traditional derm fellowships (Moh's surgery, derm surgery) taking applicants who have not completed a derm residency. As dermres stated, pathologists can also apply for dermatopathology fellowships.

Internal Medicine residents can enter dermatology residencies after completing their residency. I also know of one person who did two years of Internal Medicine residency and was then accepted into a derm residency. She essentially left the internal medicine program after she received a position in the dermatology residency program.

There are, however, nontraditional fellowships that are offered in dermatology. Let me give you an example. There is a faculty member at University of Texas Galveston who offers a one-year fellowship position. The applicants for this position are typically interns or residents who applied for derm but did not match. Many have used the fellowship as a springboard to getting into derm the second time around. During the fellowship, the fellows in this program do research or other activity in academic dermatology. It doesn't guarantee you a spot in a derm residency but this professor really goes to bat for you, from what I understand. From what my derm friends have told me, there are other positions like this available.

So, perhaps the foreign medical graduate you described is pursuing this type of route. Just another perspective - hope it helps.

Samir Desai
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine