How much research needed during residency to match fellowship?

[andrewbobert]

Hi everyone!

I'm wondering how much research radiology residents need to do in order to match into fellowship at as competitive or highly regarded place as possible. Do residents do a lot of case reports or basic research?

Thanks all!

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[Radignator]

Somewhere between zero and some

 

[ashar008]

Somewhere between zero and some

really?

 

[Radology]

Some to a lot is a better answer.

Top fellowships are attainable for most, but if you want to match neuro at MGH, having “zero” research is not going to help your chances

 

[alchemist123]

Some to a lot is a better answer.

Top fellowships are attainable for most, but if you want to match neuro at MGH, having “zero” research is not going to help your chances

Define "a lot"

 

[Radology]

I think if you want a very academic program, I would say a couple presentations and a paper would be sufficient. More will only help; I know a resident who published triple figure papers while a resident. Had he stopped at 3, he would have likely ended up at the same fellowship.

Still, the ultra academic places are not places that overlook an empty research section on a cv

 

[imgdocmph]

You'd have to define a "top/competitive" radiology fellowship.

#1. Most sub-specialty fellowships in radiology (excluding IR) have cumulatively more positions available than there are applicants. So getting A fellowship is not difficult at all. Getting a fellowship in a particular specialty at a specific location might be competitive (for example MSK/Breast/Neuro in NYC, California, etc.).

#2. Trying to rank the fellowships by the competitiveness of subspecialties is irrelevant. The competitiveness of fellowships is based on location (in most cases) and on the potential for jobs in that location after graduating.

#3. In terms of research, having some research (case reports/ posters etc.) is helpful. There is no magic number. 3-4 abstracts/posters/cases/publications should be good enough for most programs). This is one of those things where the programs don't really care about your research, but since everyone applying will have some (most residents will do some "research"), you'll stick out like a sore thumb if you don't have any.

NOT having any research might not get you into institutes that are research-heavy (MGH, BWH, Hopkins etc), but most of these places will fill their unmatched spots with any available candidates (see point #1).

 

[Gadofosveset]

A crude practical way to think of it for residency or fellowship applications is to stratify it into groups

0 pubs
1-5 pubs
6-10 pubs
11+ pubs
You are individually grant-funded

There are certain sub-scenarios that will catch attention

- You have absolutely no research whatsoever, of any kind, no case reports, no abstracts, nothing
- You did some research in an area of interest to the interviewer
- You did a ludicrous amount of research, like two to three standard deviations above the norm
- You have some strange mix of research (all in a non-radiology area, a lot of abstracts and no pubs, weird/questionable research, all bench research. etc.)

Do a few case reports, have your name on an abstract and a publication and you will raise no red flags.

 

[qxrt]

Radiology fellowships are a buyer's market, even at top-tier academic places in popular cities. It's not tough in general to get into radiology fellowships at UCSF, JHU, MGH, etc. For example, one of my co-residents did absolutely no research nor presentations in residency and still did his fellowship at UCSF. The only exception is IR, which has more applicants than positions, so there's always some people who don't end up matching, let alone get into the exact location/institution they want. But even then, it's much easier than getting into residency.

 

[Norick13]

It really depends on the fellowship you want.

I know people who are going to CHOP for peds who did diddly during residency (and got multiple same-day offers at places like UCSF and Boston Children’s), and people scrambling to get into IR who got their last ranked programs in the mid-west after doing multiple oral presentations at SIR.

Those are the extremes, and most other fellowships fall somewhere in between. So as long as you do something showing interest in the field you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Also don’t forget fellowship is much more about who you know and who knows you, less like residency interviews where Step 1 scores are the end all be all. So, if you want to do a specific fellowship in mind, and there’s a person at your program who’s a muckity muck in the field their phone call will be pretty valuable.