How can I become involved in starting a new fellowship?

[Aylaa]

Hello! New intern here. I know I'm way too early in my career to ask this question, but I am pretty confident in my career trajectory (matched into the specialty I had decided when I was premed) and have a location in mind that I would want to be involved with that lacks a certain fellowship I am interested in.

If the program themselves do not create the fellowship I have in mind, I want to be involved in the creation of this fellowship - or even become the program director of the fellowship (though I realize this latter thought is less likely given my lack of experience in academia). What can I do throughout my residency that would set me up to be in a position to help create a new fellowship?

Thank you!

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[GoSpursGo]

You can’t. You would need many years of experience in academia to be able to convince an institution that they need a fellowship, let alone know how to set one up or run it.

By far the best route is to just train elsewhere and then move to your desired location after fellowship. If you are so inclined, you could stay in academia and set up a fellowship then if you truly are interested in medical education

 

[Dral]

I'm a little unclear. Are you wanting to set it up so you can go through it yourself, or do you want to do it somewhere else, move there, and set it up later in your career?

If the former, then almost certainly not happening by anything you would probably do. If the latter, then sure, but all you can really do during residency is just learn as much as you can and get some experience mentoring/teaching.

 

[operaman]

Are you talking about an accredited or unaccredited fellowship? In the surgical world there are many non acgme fellowships started by all sorts of docs, both academic and pp. For those you just announce it and secure funding and get your institution’s blessing and if you’re well known enough, people will apply. Fellows in these programs are usually licensed attendings so can often cover some of their salary with clinical revenue.

Accredited fellowships are much tougher and it’s basically like starting a residency. Lots of boxes to check and whatnot, but still doable.

Best things to do in training are kiss arse, so lots of research, and build your skills and connections. Once in practice you’ll need to build up adequate volume to support a fellow and get buy in from your partners and admin.