How many fellowships do we need to get a job?

[pathresident2]

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See if you are doing hematopathology in a big name institution, do you have to do an additional fellowship (like surg or molecular) to get a decent job? I am in the process of applying for a molecular fellowship but doubt its usefulness in job seeking. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Pathguy11]

See if you are doing hematopathology in a big name institution, do you have to do an additional fellowship (like surg or molecular) to get a decent job? I am in the process of applying for a molecular fellowship but doubt its usefulness in job seeking. Any advice is appreciated.

It really all depends on the job. I would say that as of right now Hemepath is relatively marketable to groups especially those who might want to bring flow cytometry in house or do a lot of heme. You could find a niche in a group with this. So it is very possible that you could get a job with that one fellowship. On the other hand some groups might do little more no heme and your fellowship wouldn't be particularly valuable in this scenerio.

I think your chances for a general private practice job increase even more with a Surg Path fellowship. Though it is not a boarded specialty it does give a group a bit more confidence in your experience and ability to sign out cases compared to those who have not done a Surg Path year. That is at least the impression I got from employers when I interiewed for jobs based on my Surg Path fellowship.

As far as molecular fellowship, many will tell you it is the next big thing in Pathology and diagnostic medicine, and that we should all do fellowships in molecular so we can start in house molecular testing. I personally don't buy this thinking to this extent. It is true that we are and will continue to doing more molecular testing, especially room for growth in the solid tumor department. I don't however think we will need to trade in our microscopes any time soon. One reason is cost...molecular testing is currently very expensive and is not like last year's televisions that will quickly drop in price. This alone will prevent it from "taking over" in the current healthcare environment. As we get closer to rapid and affordable tumor genome sequencing, a fellowship might help you better understand the behind the scenes actions, but it will not help you make complete sense out of the vast amounts of data that will likely be generated by opening this can of worms. I hear talk about sequencers that would do the entire human enome in a matter of hours and I think to myself, what the heck are we going to do with that information? You need a informatics fellowship while your at it. I also don't think you need a molecular fellowship to coordinate or understand current or near future molecular testing. I work at a larger cancer center and we order molecular testing frequently on non-small cell adenocarcinomas of the lung for example. The clinician makes the requests and we ensure that there is adequate viable tumor on the biopsy or cell block for testing. We will then select the best slide for testing. That's about it. In most scenerios the material will then be sent off for testing and results reported back. Sure we may occasionally need to help with test selection but I find that most onocologist already know about the molecular testing they want to order and implications it will have on treatment. Unless you want to run a molecular lab then I doubt you need an entire year of fellowship. Just my opinion...

Pathguy11

 

[2121115]

You must do a fellowship in every area of pathology that you plan to sign out. So for a general practice job, you need to do fellowships in (at least) the following: GI, GU, heme, cyto, breast, gyn, pulm, derm, and neuro. That should get you started in a general practice setting. Go for it!

 

[mlw03]

See if you are doing hematopathology in a big name institution, do you have to do an additional fellowship (like surg or molecular) to get a decent job? I am in the process of applying for a molecular fellowship but doubt its usefulness in job seeking. Any advice is appreciated.

this probably isn't what you're asking, but if it's the right fellowship: one. if you're doing a niche like transfusion medicine, renal, neuro, or forensic, just that one fellowship is plenty. but for a regular community job, i saw fellows doing anything from 1 to 3 fellowships prior to employment.

 

[McSorely]

All depends on the job. 2 fellowships is pushing it bar surgpath if you basically want to do another year of AP (remember we already had two years of AP) or have to in order to jump into another more competitive fellowship. 3 fellowships and your likely having trouble finding a job. Besides, 7 years of training, really! At some point you have to start experiencing the fun and grit of putting your name on the line.

 

[LADoc00]

MolPath is completely worthless, I dont know how many times I need to post that until it sticks.

There is no PC component in MolPath and there never will be. In addition, with the ending of the TC grandfather clause for Medicare DRG patients, I expect most esoteric MolPath testing to drop in reimbursement faster and further than Lehman Brothers.

A network of hospitals can make a Medical Director of a new MolPath lab out of literally anyone (and often select some 80-year geriatric retiree so they can low ball pay and max profit).

The credential does absolutely nothing for you in a real world sense.

Hospitals outside of tertiary care centers will never in house molecular to any degree and if they did, Pathology groups wont hire specific MolPath trainees to run them...THEY DONT GENERATE GROUP INCOME!

MolPath as of Feb 2012 will be a massive cost center for institutions due to US Congressional (in)action.