Fellowship questions

[Dr.Acula1]

Hi Everyone!

I will be an ophtho resident in 2018 but given how late of a start I had in med school, I want to make sure I am prepared for ophtho residency. I have two questions

1. I hear name matters way more for fellowship than it did previously. How does someone truly stand out for fellowships if they did not go to a top 10 or 20 program?

2. I am hearing a lot about optometrists expanding their scope of practice and given the current trend, it looks like it's not stopping. Which subspecialties do you think will be affected the least by this? Or would it just be comprehensive ophthalmologists that are affected? I don't foresee this happening for a very long time if it does, but I would like to include this as part of my decision to avoid headaches in the future.

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[corneainterviewseason]

Hi Everyone!

I will be an ophtho resident in 2018 but given how late of a start I had in med school, I want to make sure I am prepared for ophtho residency. I have two questions

1. I hear name matters way more for fellowship than it did previously. How does someone truly stand out for fellowships if they did not go to a top 10 or 20 program?

2. I am hearing a lot about optometrists expanding their scope of practice and given the current trend, it looks like it's not stopping. Which subspecialties do you think will be affected the least by this? Or would it just be comprehensive ophthalmologists that are affected? I don't foresee this happening for a very long time if it does, but I would like to include this as part of my decision to avoid headaches in the future.

1. Name of program is very important. Who writes your letters is very important, and what they say in them (need to be outstanding). If you have big wigs with friends at places you are interested in, that is a bonus (but not absolutely necessary). Other than that, impressive research is a great way to sell yourself. People are going to be with you everyday in fellowship. They just want to know you will work hard, work well as a team, not cause problems, and get stuff done. You've made it this far, they'll assume you're smart. Nobody cared about my OKAP scores, no matter how much my PD made us worry about them.

2. Least affected: pediatrics (optoms are stupid, but not that stupid), neuro (obvious reasons, optoms don't know medicine), retina (more invasive), uveitis (can optoms see cell in the AC?)
Moderately affected: glaucoma (no $$$, tough follow ups, although they will be all over the ALT/SLT), cornea (I doubt they'll want to do transplants, but they will flock to cross linking and LASIK and over saturate the market for these services).
Most affected: General, I suppose. Not sure if they are coming after cataracts, but if they do, look out!

 

[Dr.Acula1]

Thanks for the information! I would appreciate other responses as well!!

 

[Slide]

1. Name of program is very important. Who writes your letters is very important, and what they say in them (need to be outstanding). If you have big wigs with friends at places you are interested in, that is a bonus (but not absolutely necessary). Other than that, impressive research is a great way to sell yourself. People are going to be with you everyday in fellowship. They just want to know you will work hard, work well as a team, not cause problems, and get stuff done. You've made it this far, they'll assume you're smart. Nobody cared about my OKAP scores, no matter how much my PD made us worry about them.

2. Least affected: pediatrics (optoms are stupid, but not that stupid), neuro (obvious reasons, optoms don't know medicine), retina (more invasive), uveitis (can optoms see cell in the AC?)
Moderately affected: glaucoma (no $$$, tough follow ups, although they will be all over the ALT/SLT), cornea (I doubt they'll want to do transplants, but they will flock to cross linking and LASIK and over saturate the market for these services).
Most affected: General, I suppose. Not sure if they are coming after cataracts, but if they do, look out!

To add to this, networking during research and annual meetings can help get interview for fellowship. This goes without question, but also don't be a bad resident, because at this stage in the game, no one is shy about sharing their feelings about applicants.

As far the second part, it's mainly comprehensive guys that will feel most of the hurt with scope expansion. Specialists are somewhat protected (for now) because of the surgical nature and that complicated patients are referred to them.

 

[DrZeke]

I'll take a crack at it as a resident at a middle-to-low tier program.

Matching is not always the issue. You can almost always match to most specialties if you work hard, show your faculty good work ethic, knowledge, try hard on your okaps and overall are good to work with and are a team player.

The issue is matching at an academic vs. Private practice program. And matching a good vs mediocre program. Retina in particular can be very competitive and I think it's near impossible to compete with the residents from the top 20 programs.

For example at most strong academic programs they have:
1) well known faculty
2) active research for you to get involved in and publish
3) visiting professor talks
4) a lot of well organized subspecialty representation and rotations
5) funding for meetings where you can meet people

If you don't have these things at your program some ways to get around these issues...

1) research: if your program is not doing research, dip into a neighbouring program or a private group in town that may be doing research. Try and work with them on projects and forge a relationship. They can write you a letter and help you in the match. Alternatively if you have old mentors or meet someone at a meeting or make an introduction to someone who is doing something of interest to you, just see if you can get involved. It never hurts to ask.
2) Try and write up and present anything you can
3) try to attend as many networking meetings
4) get involved in AAO if you can or subspecialty society
5) see if you can be active in community service projects if research is sparse
6) elective time: several programs offer elective time - take advantage and go elsewhere if you need to put yourself out there
7) stay in touch with mentors from med school they can come in handy down the line
8) if you're going after something very competitive like plastics and you cannot get away time to do elective, consider a research year or a one year plastics fellowship before ASOPRS. I know a few people who have done this. If you're thinking retina, some people will even go as far to do medical retina first...

Anyways, that's my best advice. I think you can probably match, just depends where you want to match and what type of environment.


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[jabubenice]

I would love to do two fellowships (pediatrics/glaucoma) . My question is how would this affect my marketability and job prospects if I do a 6 month fellowship instead of 12 month one??

 

[Slide]

I would love to do two fellowships (pediatrics/glaucoma) . My question is how would this affect my marketability and job prospects if I do a 6 month fellowship instead of 12 month one??

Is that even a possibility? Fellowships are typically at least one year long in its respective field, so you would be looking at two years minimum. It's certainly doable but if you want to be competent in each field, you'd need to devote nearly a year respectively.

 

[jabubenice]

Is that even a possibility? Fellowships are typically at least one year long in its respective field, so you would be looking at two years minimum. It's certainly doable but if you want to be competent in each field, you'd need to devote nearly a year respectively.

yes its possible, in the UK you can do 6 month sub-specialty fellowships.

 

[MstaKing10]

I would love to do two fellowships (pediatrics/glaucoma) . My question is how would this affect my marketability and job prospects if I do a 6 month fellowship instead of 12 month one??

Why those two? If you want to do peds glaucoma there are a few fellowships that specialize in that. Pretty niche but much needed and underserved

 

[jabubenice]

Why those two? If you want to do peds glaucoma there are a few fellowships that specialize in that. Pretty niche but much needed and underserved

Love love working on kids and I have had the opportunity to do a lot of trabes recently as the glaucoma dept has a backlog and the consultant is a great trainer, so i have enjoyed it immensely.

 

[DrZeke]

Love love working on kids and I have had the opportunity to do a lot of trabes recently as the glaucoma dept has a backlog and the consultant is a great trainer, so i have enjoyed it immensely.

It's totally possible. You can either do the two separately or find a peds fellowship that does do a decent amount of glaucoma. Peds isn't that competitive so you can certainly find a fellowship like that and have a shot at getting it even if you don't go to a top 10-20 residency program.


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[jabubenice]

It's totally possible. You can either do the two separately or find a peds fellowship that does do a decent amount of glaucoma. Peds isn't that competitive so you can certainly find a fellowship like that and have a shot at getting it even if you don't go to a top 10-20 residency program.


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Thank you