Endocrine Surgery Match

[ent ent]

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I saw the earlier endocrine surgery threads but some of them are quite old and the other recent one doesn't address my questions.

I was curious about competitiveness for endocrine surgery. I am specifically hoping to hear back from general surgery residents who have applied or are planning to apply to endocrine.

I could not find any statistics ie match percentage if anyone has insight into that.

 

[django7]

just a comment. i didnt even know there was a specific endocrine surgery. most gen surgs do thyroids/parathyroids. everything else seperated into organ specific surgical fields. ie: neurosurg for pituitary, urology for adrenals etc.

your username points to your interest in thyroids/parathyroid surgery?

 

[Winged Scapula]

I saw the earlier endocrine surgery threads but some of them are quite old and the other recent one doesn't address my questions.

I was curious about competitiveness for endocrine surgery. I am specifically hoping to hear back from general surgery residents who have applied or are planning to apply to endocrine.

I could not find any statistics ie match percentage if anyone has insight into that.

The conventional wisdom is that the endocrine surgery fellowship is not a competitive match; it is run through the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and I cannot see that they provide any data on number of applications and match percentages: http://www.endocrinesurgery.org/fellowships/match.html

The issue is, as I understand from a co-resident who went through it a few years ago, is the job market. Since general surgeons and ENTs are capable of doing the neck procedures, what more do you have to add? Obviously it can be a marketing tool (as it is in my field) and you do learn a fair bit about the adjuvant treatment of malignancies, but the job market is niche and I understand there is relatively little incentive for employers to seek out an endocrine surgeon specifically when they can have a fully trained ENT, Urologist or Gen Surgeon do so much more.

 

[WinslowPringle]

From what I heard from an attending endocrine surgeon (granted, last year on the interview trail for GS residency), most matches came from internal candidates at the programs or places with programs switched residents; ie, it's all about whom you know. (Which given how very small the field is, makes sense).

He said most of the people interested in it wanted to do academic practice and so it wasn't as much a case of their wanting to go into the community and steal all the GS/ENT thyroids....but a lot more interest in the adrenals, some pancreas and research.

Anyway, total and complete hear-say. YMMV.

 

[thedrjojo]

From what I heard from an attending endocrine surgeon (granted, last year on the interview trail for GS residency), most matches came from internal candidates at the programs or places with programs switched residents; ie, it's all about whom you know. (Which given how very small the field is, makes sense).

He said most of the people interested in it wanted to do academic practice and so it wasn't as much a case of their wanting to go into the community and steal all the GS/ENT thyroids....but a lot more interest in the adrenals, some pancreas and research.

Anyway, total and complete hear-say. YMMV.

We've sent 2 people into endocrine the past few years. One is now doing a superfellowship in robotic surgery to improve marketability and the other I'm unsure what she's doing. Neither went to a program we have any affiliation to.