Fast Track cardiology?

[nmasse]

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Hi everyone. I am a first year at Loyola med and am interested in pursuing a career in cardiology. I have heard rumors from my classmates that there are fast track cardiology programs that are very competitive. Do these exist and if so, where are they located? Also, what would you suggest I do in the next few years to make myself a more competitive applicant when the time comes for residency applications. Thank you.

 

[Scottish Chap]

Scroll further down this forum or click here:http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=560135

I just interviewed at a bunch of those programs. "Fast-track" is misleading for cardiology, though. It actually takes one year longer if you go via this route. Yes, many institutions will guarantee a cardiology spot right out of medical school and you only do 2 vs. 3 years of IM, but you must commit to three years of research (2 yrs IM +2 yrs cards +3 yrs research=7 years).

 

[dragonfly99]

Yes there are fast track programs. As Scottishchap states the fasttrack is kind of a misnomer b/c it's actually a longer training pathway...it's the ABIM research parthway. You'll end up only doing 2 years IM and 5 years cards fellowship (3 research years, 2 clinical). The good part of this is you'll get a guaranteed cards fellowship spot, which is a big deal. Also you get to skip 1 year of IM residency, which is nice because residency sucks >> fellowship, during which you get treated better. You should only do this if you like research, though.

 

[jgar26]

The only reason to do this pathway would be if your interests lie in academic medicine. This is NOT what one would do if interested in private practice community cardiology. The reserach pathway is geared towards people with a true commitment towards research and is not something I think would be easily completed if not one's true intentions. The majority of cardiology fellowship graduates will pursue private practice cardiology opportunities. The perception on these sites is not in line with reality.

 

[dragonfly99]

I agree you shouldn't do ABIM research pathway unless you are considering academics. The schools don't want you to do it unless you are committed to academics, but there were lots of students in my med school who did MD/PhD just so they could get competitive residencies like ortho or derm (it worked almost 100% of the time...of course they were smart, too!). People also do ABIM sometimes b/c it's a guaranteed spot in something like GI/cards/hem/onc which are a little harder to get than some other fellowships. But if you don't like research you'll be miserable, so don't do it unless you like research quite a bit, and really unless you're at least considering becoming an academic later.