Fellowship after a primary care IM residency?

[niryaam]

I have heard from several people that if you were to do a residency in primary care internal medicine as opposed to a categorical position, then you would not be able to do a fellowship. Or rather, you wouldn't have the options that a categorical resident would have. Is this true?

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[Winged Scapula]

Perhaps you have the terms confused. Categorical simply refers to having a spot in a full training program; ie I am a Categorical General Surgery resident which means I am here for the entire surgical training program as opposed to Preliminary General Surgery Residents who are only with us 1-2 years before going onto Categorical training in other fields (ie, Anesthesia, ENT, Ortho, etc.)

There is no reason why you cannot complete a fellowship after training in a full Internal medicine residency. However, it IS true that if you only complete PRELIMINARY years in PC/IM then you cannot do a fellowship. Fellowship training is reserved for those who have completed Categorical training in some specialty.

 

[Soupbone]

niryaam,

You are not confused..

I understand your question. It is one I too am dealing with. Primary Care IM programs usually train their docs toward a primary care career by making a good percentage of their training in the ambulatory realm. The Categorical program or "Traditional" training simply has more inpatient exposure.

What I was told is that primary care programs have less inpatient months and you are at a disadvantage to making the contacts that are important in getting a fellowship position (like it or not ...alot of getting a fellowship is "good ole boy or girl" network). Where the categorical resident is doing several cardiology, GI, and Hem/onc rotations and showing his/her stuff; the primary care resident is sacrificing some of those experiences for the benefit of more ambulatory months in their programs.

But even with that being said, I know several people from primary care IM programs doing fellowships. I plan to persue fellowship training after residency, and I have a couple of primary care programs I am applying to at some of the stronger academic programs.

Ask what the graduating class of the primary care program is doing after this year of the programs that you are interested (I think a good number of program websites also have that info on them).


peace,

S0upb0ne
UASOM MSIV

 

[Winged Scapula]

Thank you for the clarification Soupboz. I had erroneously assumed the term Categorical was the same for all residencies. I'll know better next time.

 

[niryaam]

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

 

[Voxel]

Dear Kim (no longer in australia I hear) and all,

Just wanted to let you know of one sticky point. Medicare GME funding rules state that basically Medicare will not fund your fellowship if you complete an Primary Care IM (PC IM) residency because it is only slated for 3 years. This will be an issue for the hospital that is deciding between taking equally qualified PC IM and categorical IM residents. Unless funding rules change, the program would be hard pressed (not mpossible) to take the PC IM over the categorical spot.

Rad2B

 

[Winged Scapula]

Originally posted by Voxel:
•Dear Kim (no longer in australia I hear) •

...no, a quick peek at my signature should tell you exactly where I am !