fellowship in heme/onc - research needed?

[neutro]

hello:

i have actually applied to anesthesia, and have medicine as my back up. the problem (i dont know if its really a 'problem') i have is that i really like critical care medicine and cancer. hence, the two choices. i am still undecided, but heme-onc is what i really want to do...but im not liking this whole process of applying for fellowship after an IM residency. there is no guarantee vs anesthesia, you get in, get out in 4 years and BAM...thats it.
if i dont match into heme-onc, that will be a disaster because i dont see myself being an internist for 30 years.


anyhow, so my question to the sdn experts is...that i know one must have research experience to get in to fellowships. and for that, its better to go to a univ. hospital. why is that? i mean doesnt it depend on the resident wholly, on whether they want to do research or not?

the reason i am asking is because i have gotten a couple of offers which are not exactly university hospitals and dont have their own fellowship programs, but they say that they are 'university affiliated'.

i dont know - it sounds very shady to me.

one program is st. mary's hospital, waterbury, CT (yale univ)
the other one is Staten Island University Hospital (NSLIJ)

these are 'community' programs but they offer electives at Yale, and SUNY respectively. St. Mary's actually offers upto minimum 3 months of electives for research.

so, lets say i do my residency at these hospitals, and get involved in some research - would that be sufficient in terms of securing a heme-onc fellowship?
vs lets say i get in at upenn which offers their own fellowships?

no one has really explained this concept to me of how and what kind of 'research' do people want, hence i am asking here. and i have been tearing my hair out over the match. didnt know it was so tense.

thank you for your help.

i sincerely appreciate it.

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[gutonc]

hello:

i have actually applied to anesthesia, and have medicine as my back up. the problem (i dont know if its really a 'problem') i have is that i really like critical care medicine and cancer. hence, the two choices. i am still undecided, but heme-onc is what i really want to do...but im not liking this whole process of applying for fellowship after an IM residency. there is no guarantee vs anesthesia, you get in, get out in 4 years and BAM...thats it.
if i dont match into heme-onc, that will be a disaster because i dont see myself being an internist for 30 years.

This makes no sense at all. Do you want to do anesthesia or critical care? Because if you want to do CC, that's a fellowship after gas. And the length of time is the same as if you did IM+CCM (no Pulm).

If what you want to do is Hem/Onc then will you be any happier as a gas passer than you would as an internist? I doubt it.

Decide what you want to do, then do it.

 

[neutro]

the reason i applied to anesthesia was to do critical care through it.

ok, as for my other question. how/WHAT kind of research plays a role in securing a fellowship?

 

[gutonc]

the reason i applied to anesthesia was to do critical care through it.

I understand that. But you are not guaranteed a CC spot out of Gas any more than you'll be guaranteed a Hem/Onc (or CCM) spot out of IM. So my question is still relevant. If you don't get ANY fellowship, which will you be happier doing? Passing gas or pushing lasix?

ok, as for my other question. how/WHAT kind of research plays a role in securing a fellowship?

Research may or may not be required prior to fellowship but never hurts and you should probably do something vaguely related to your planned fellowship. Most residencies don't have much more than 3 months of research available but if you're at an academic program it will be much easier to keep doing research part-time during non-research months.

the other one is Staten Island University Hospital (NSLIJ)

Which one? SIUH (the really crappy, scary place on Staten Island that I wouldn't wish on the biggest SDN troll and is affiliated w/ my alma mater that has essentially no hem/onc research) or NSLIJ (the really nice community program on Long Island - 40 miles away - that has a good reputation and is a pretty decent place with good options for fellowship, clinical research in house and an association w/ AECOM if you want to do something more basic science)?

 

[neutro]

yeah, it was SIUH. they offer their own cards and heme/onc fellowships.

lemme try to clarify:

person A does his residency at a place, which is in itself is a community program for internal medicine (st. mary's hospital), but has a strong affiliation with ummm, lets say yale university. there is active research going on and electives are offered at yale.

person B does his residency at a place which offers their own internal medicine residency as well as fellowship programs in cards and heme/onc (kinda like SIUH) but they arent associated with any univ.

what i am asking for is that, HOW do you secure a fellowship? and what do i need to do - every one says 'do research'. what exactly do they mean by research, as there are many types of 'research' - posters, articles, reviews, texbook authorship, primary investigation. obviously primary investigation which is published is highly desirable, but how does one accomplish that if they go to a so-called community program?

in that sense, should person A above feel less secure than person B, because their own hospital doesnt offer any fellowships?

do usmle scores matter in fellowships?
i know LORs from program directors matter and letters from experts in the fellowship you are applying to, matter, but...what else?
your evaulations during residency????
there isnt much data besides the raw numbers on FRIEDA that x% applied and y% matched.


thanks for answering these questions.

 

[neutro]

bump.........

 

[ramseszerg]

I'm curious what matters in a fellowship match as well.