How difficult is it to match into a heme onc fellowship. DO candidate with 23x/23x step 1 and 2.

[healthcareprofessional99]

Hi all, currently a 2nd year IM resident and thinking about doing heme onc.... I already completed a heme onc rotation last year and I have another heme onc rotation coming up this year. Wondering how much work and research I need to do to match into any heme onc fellowship.
I'm a DO IM resident at a small new community program and I have a 230 and 237 on steps 1 and 2.
I've been doing decent so far and wondering what should I do to have a strong chance to match.
Is it just publishing and doing lots of research/case studies? Thanks.

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[HemeOncHopeful19]

Small new community program will be biggest barrier IMO unless your attendings love you and they have some ties to local programs. Scores/DO won’t be a big barrier. Overall I’d say you have a good shot.

 

[collegestud2013]

Hi all, currently a 2nd year IM resident and thinking about doing heme onc.... I already completed a heme onc rotation last year and I have another heme onc rotation coming up this year. Wondering how much work and research I need to do to match into any heme onc fellowship.
I'm a DO IM resident at a small new community program and I have a 230 and 237 on steps 1 and 2.
I've been doing decent so far and wondering what should I do to have a strong chance to match.
Is it just publishing and doing lots of research/case studies? Thanks.

I'm assuming your institution doesn't have its own in-house heme-onc fellowship. If that's the case matching will be pretty uncertain if you apply straight out of residency, especially as a DO coming from a new program and without much research by PGY-2 year. USMLE scores do matter to some extent for screening purposes but yours should be above the minimum cutoff for most lower and mid-tier programs. Would be safer (but still not guaranteed) if you either do a 1-year fellowship first (eg transfusion medicine) prior to applying or working for about 2 years as hospitalist on heme/onc service (usually at an academic medical center).

 

[addictoftea]

Are scores really important for the fellowship?

 

[Ubba]

Are scores really important for the fellowship?

High scores will, to an extent, make up for lackluster extracurrics. But if you have 8 pubs and Steps in the 220s at least, plenty of places will give consideration. There tends to be a positive correlation between high scores and impressive extracurrics, though, so all you can do is get the best research and letters you can then apply realistically.