FMG radiology resident in home country. Residency or alternate pathway?

[Donmarza]

Hello all,

Some background on me. Im a UK medical graduate starting my radiology residency the UK this year. I have thought about moving to the US to practice and done USMLE 1/CK/CS with high scores. Was planning to do Step 3 this summer but COVID has caused me to postpone that

In understand that prestigious rads programmes are hard to come by for FMGs, especially when there is a visa requirement. My current residency is at a top 10 medical school globally. My question is whether you think its better to complete my residency in the UK at a prestigious hospital with research opportunities and then attempt to move to the US via the alternate pathway or whether its better to try and get a residency position at a maybe low/mid tier hospital in the US. Im asking both about the feasibility of each option and also the overall career benefit

Thanks.

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[Cognovi]

Getting a residency spot will save a few years of your life compared to doing alternate pathway. Both are feasible.

 

[deleted564680]

I'm not sure how many institutions are doing alternate pathway still. I would try to get information on that first. You would be competitive for those spots if they still exist though coming from the UK.

If you see yourself wanting to completely move here to the US, become a citizen, live here for life, etc. then I would recommend doing a residency, especially since you haven't already completed one. Again, although FMGs in general have a harder time matching, you will be better off coming from the UK. There was an NRMP FMG charting match outcomes report a few years back (probably can still find online) that segmented FMGs out by country and I feel like I recall that European graduates had a decent chance at matching compared to other FMGs.

 

[Donmarza]

If you see yourself wanting to completely move here to the US, become a citizen, live here for life, etc. then I would recommend doing a residency, especially since you haven't already completed one. Again, although FMGs in general have a harder time matching, you will be better off coming from the UK. There was an NRMP FMG charting match outcomes report a few years back (probably can still find online) that segmented FMGs out by country and I feel like I recall that European graduates had a decent chance at matching compared to other F

Thanks for the advice. Ive managed to find that outcome paper. Unfortunately not enough yearly applicants from the UK (which i knew about already) but the german/irish applicants seem to have a >50% chance to match overall. I guess if i wanted to move to the US permenantly then getting sponsored for an H1B would be the best option rather than having the 2 year bar from the J1 visa. But i will look into where IMGs have been taken in the past

 

[deleted564680]

Good luck. Look at academic centers in the Midwest US that are good training programs but get less prestige because of their location. Alternatively, there are some pretty low quality programs in the Northeast/New York City that seem to take a lot of FMGs. You will basically have to apply broadly to all but the top 25 programs or so and see how it goes. I know of a few people who have matched as FMGs, so it's possible. They all almost always did a research year here in the US first though, which is another option for you.

 

[Donmarza]

Good luck. Look at academic centers in the Midwest US that are good training programs but get less prestige because of their location. Alternatively, there are some pretty low quality programs in the Northeast/New York City that seem to take a lot of FMGs. You will basically have to apply broadly to all but the top 25 programs or so and see how it goes. I know of a few people who have matched as FMGs, so it's possible. They all almost always did a research year here in the US first though, which is another option for you.

Do you know how people go about finding those research jobs? Are they usually advertised or do I just need to email departments and see whats available? In the UK they are usually called research fellowships but no idea what to look for in the US

 

[deleted564680]

They are also called research fellowships here. I think they search for them on web and then just contact the departments. I think that most of the biggest academic centers have some of these positions. Some I found just by quickly Googling:

https://rad.washington.edu/education/fellowships/research-fellowships/

Research Fellowship

pedrad.stanford.edu

Musculoskeletal Imaging Fellowship: Research

Johns Hopkins radiology fellowship programs span all radiology subspecialties, where we emphasize hands-on experience and superior clinical training.

www.hopkinsmedicine.org

I know there are many other programs that offer them. My FMG friends did their research at Mallinckrodt/WashU, Cleveland Clinic, Univ. of Chicago, and Northwestern. I would just email the contact(s) given for the radiology residencies and I'm sure they can steer you in the right direction. Sorry I don't have more detailed info than that.

 

[Doc mu]

Thanks for the advice. Ive managed to find that outcome paper. Unfortunately not enough yearly applicants from the UK (which i knew about already) but the german/irish applicants seem to have a >50% chance to match overall. I guess if i wanted to move to the US permenantly then getting sponsored for an H1B would be the best option rather than having the 2 year bar from the J1 visa. But i will look into where IMGs have been taken in the past

Can you link the paper plz?

 

[HIValadeen]

Hello all,

Some background on me. Im a UK medical graduate starting my radiology residency the UK this year. I have thought about moving to the US to practice and done USMLE 1/CK/CS with high scores. Was planning to do Step 3 this summer but COVID has caused me to postpone that

In understand that prestigious rads programmes are hard to come by for FMGs, especially when there is a visa requirement. My current residency is at a top 10 medical school globally. My question is whether you think its better to complete my residency in the UK at a prestigious hospital with research opportunities and then attempt to move to the US via the alternate pathway or whether its better to try and get a residency position at a maybe low/mid tier hospital in the US. Im asking both about the feasibility of each option and also the overall career benefit

Thanks.

Honestly I would say you should apply and really I would say consider the program I'm about to graduate from.

I'm graduating from SUNY Downstate and although it definitely has its cons, it most certainly has its pros. I think the training here for general radiology is pretty good. It still has decent name recognition with it being the birthplace of MRI and having the like of Walter Reed graduating from here although not from radiology.

The last few years all graduates have matched in really good fellowships, you can check for yourself on our website. We've recently matched IMGs needing visas from Canada, Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq.

Not sure what subspecialty you'd be interested in but it is a great place for IR, we have no fellows and ESIR so you get to do a lot of cases before even stepping into a fellowship. We've recently hired a bunch of new mammographers who have completely changed the mammo department here (when I started here in 2017 we weren't doing breast MRI and now we're doing plenty of that).

Overall I would recommend the program for someone in your position not saying that you can't match into a better program but this one is pretty decent and worth applying to if you are going that route. Best of luck.

 

[Dave1980]

Hello all,

Some background on me. Im a UK medical graduate starting my radiology residency the UK this year. I have thought about moving to the US to practice and done USMLE 1/CK/CS with high scores. Was planning to do Step 3 this summer but COVID has caused me to postpone that

In understand that prestigious rads programmes are hard to come by for FMGs, especially when there is a visa requirement. My current residency is at a top 10 medical school globally. My question is whether you think its better to complete my residency in the UK at a prestigious hospital with research opportunities and then attempt to move to the US via the alternate pathway or whether its better to try and get a residency position at a maybe low/mid tier hospital in the US. Im asking both about the feasibility of each option and also the overall career benefit

Thanks.

If you are starting residency this year isn't that kind of late to be thinking about getting a US residency spot? You can apply for the upcoming cycle but making those interviews will be tough if they transition back to in person interviews as I suspect they will.

Residency would be better as it would save you time and also is more secure than the alternate pathway which is pretty much a crapshoot and prone to abuse.

They are both fine for your career and as you said you should target programs that aren't highly or moderately desirable.