How competitive are fellowships?

[DrGregoryHouse]

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How competitive are these fellowships?

* Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
* Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Microvascular Reconstruction
* Laryngology & Voice Disorders
* Pediatrics
* Otology, Neurotology, & Skull Base Surgery
* Rhinology & Paranasal Sinus Disorders

Which ones involve more OR time? Which ones are more clinic?

 

[neutropeniaboy]

How competitive are these fellowships?

* Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
* Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Microvascular Reconstruction
* Laryngology & Voice Disorders
* Pediatrics
* Otology, Neurotology, & Skull Base Surgery
* Rhinology & Paranasal Sinus Disorders

Which ones involve more OR time? Which ones are more clinic?

The first part of your question is hard to answer. However, probably the mose competitive is neurotology...by far. I'd say plastics is next. The rest vary depending on the fellowship location. Obviously, if you want to go to CHOP or Cincinnati for peds, it's going to be competitive. There have been unfilled slots in peds, rhinology, laryngology, and head and neck every year, I believe. I think ones that are on the lower end of competitiveness are peds and head & neck.

The second part of your question is even harder and varies from fellowship to fellowship. Some otology fellowships are 1 year and some are 2 (1 year of research). Some rhinology fellowships are more allergy-focused. Some head & neck fellowships do crazy numbers of flaps, others fewer, and still some that do none. The one thing that is certain, most laryngology fellowships are office-based with less operating and more clinic-based procedures (BoTox, neurolaryngology, laser, strobes, etc.)

 

[OTO]

I heard there are 30 applicants for 10 spots in neurotology this year. And, I think all neurotology fellowships are required to be 2 years.

 

[Leforte]

To be eligible for subspecialty certification in Neurotology, you must now complete a 2 year fellowship. This would allow intradural privileges when you are out in practice.

If, however, you only wanted to do chronic ears, CI, etc and not get into acoustics or CPA stuff, you can do a 1 year non-accredited fellowship if you want more training in this area beyond what was offered in your residency.

Some people like ears but have no interested in CPA masses and would only need what is offered in the 1 year programs.

I do find it interesting, however, that many of the people in our specialty who pushed hard for the 2 year track only had one year of fellowship training themselves. Due to the paucity of neurotology fellowships, many academic training programs are having a difficult time recruiting neurotology faculty and i wonder if basic otology training in residency will suffer from this in the future.