IMG and Cardiology fellowship

[obasanjo]

hi to everyone,
I am a Foreign Medical Graduate interested in cardio fellowship.
Reading post from this forum, I am so discourage to apply for Cardio. I did not know that it is this competitive.
I just signed a prematch IM residency starting next June 2006 in a small community hospital in Chicago, which for the past how many years? no one from there has ever gotten a fellowship position in cardio anywhere in the world. I think my chances of getting into a cardio fellowship after residency are almost non existence.
Even those from good IM programs have difficult times, I think i cannot compete with them for fellowship position. I have done no research in Cardio, and was thinking of doing something during residency.
it give me pain to know that I have little or no chance of getting into cardio and i can do little or nothing to amend it.

Any word of comfort for me?
thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[skeedo]

True, if one is an IMG the odds are not in their favor ,but these should not deter anyone from trying. I did IM , worked for 6 yrs and have gotten a position in neurology. I will be applying for cardiology (because I like both fields of medicine ).I am not bothered about if people have 200 interviews or if they went to some "big name" institution. Be careful, during my interviews for neurology I ran into quite a few candidates who bragged about have so and so many interviews, written X amount of papers , knew this person or that. I knew within myself that if I got to interview with the faculty , I could sell myself. I did very well in all my interviews with some PDs writing me letters of interest. I did not have any research under my belt, nor did am I am AMG. I agree that being a board cert. IM did help a bit , but at the end of the day , it comes down to the individual. I have worked with some people who went to so called elite schools and I have not been impressed with their level of knowledge or worse still their bedside manner. Medicine is an art and science. You maybe a genius with all the glowing qualifications to light up midnight, but if your bedside manner sucks, expect a friendly letter from your neighborhood lawyer b/c you will make a mistake (being human) one day and may the good lord help you if you practice in a high litigous state like FL PA NV or IL. Again, I have seen docs whose knowledge base is marginally better than a RN , but their pts love them regardless of their shortcomings and gross errors, why? b/c of their ability to establish a rapport and respect for their pts. These guys are usually the most successful (and are primary care docs ) and have most of the specialists (cardiologist) kissing their feet b/c at the end of the day, if their primary care guy has a lot of influence where the pt goes.

You have nothing to lose. Some of these guys say these things to scare of the "competition". Interviews are for most part an expo for the candidates to sell themselves.

 

[MD2b06]

You can't compare neurology to cardiology. Anyone can get a neurology spot regardless of whether they're a US MD, DO, US IMG or FMG. The same cannot be said for a cardiology spot. Bottom line is that an IMG @ a community program will find it difficult to match into cardiology. Not saying it's impossible, but as you said, the odds are not in one's favor.

 

[skeedo]

You are so right about neuro and cards. I was just trying to tell him that essentially that he should not give up so easily ( hey , if an old geezer such as myself can still get into a program anyway). The funny thing about medicine that everyone is forgetting is that the "hottest" areas of specialisation come in cycles. For instance , in the early and mid 90's during my residency days , it was very difficult to get into FP as an IMG. Now, it is one of the easiest fields to get into. GI and Cards were not that difficult to get into because everyone I knew , got into a cards program without any difficulty (sadly, even a couple of guys who I thought were somewhat not up to par). I got into GI, but after one month of the monotony spinal thinking and gazing into people's nether regions, I opted to go for primary care ( still don't regret at all).

Currently, where I practice , we do our GXTs. holters, (even a former staff internist read his echoes. He trained in a program in Canada were reading echoes was required ). Mark my word, in 5 yrs when the cost of referrals and healthcare cost keep rising as they are doing, the "gatekeepers" will be back.Now in the "real world" ask recruiters which fields they are having problems filling, it is FP and IM . As a hospitalist I would make 180k basic with one week off and one week one schedule. This would not have happened 3yrs ago, when I would have made 120k doing this, but now because of the new relative dearth of IMs/FPs (depending on where you reside) the salaries are rising. I think we in medicine owe some gratitude to our female colleagues whose numbers are about , if not more than males in med. school, for slowly changing the face of medicine. The traditional practice of doing both clinic and hospital care is dying a slow painful death. We are slowly adopting a ver similar model to the brits. Our female colleagues, put lifestyle before money and the employers listened.

Another thing we are forgetting is that we are fighting an expensive war, tax are in force, Katrina's bills are rising ; tell me, where are the cuts going to come from ? Yes , healthcare ,and wait to see who will get impacted. I guess that is why the people in profitable fields are rushing to make as much money as quicklyas possible in short time as possible.
I am not bothered because I am not going into either field to make mega bucks , but to alter my current lifestyle and offer more to my pts.

I am gearing myself to be a multispecialist , so I can adpat to any changing pattern of medicine. I have enough confindence to handle anything IM throws at me regardless of which speciality I end up in , unlike my buddies who jumped straight into fellowship and have forgotten most of their IM.

 

[novacek88]

You will have a good chance as long you have strong LORs, evals and research. They don't discriminate against IMG's or DO's at the fellowship level. The discrimination occurs at the residency level but you will have an equal chance as your fellow U.S. graduates when applying to the fellowship at your residency program. There are many IMG's who are cardiologists.

 

[novacek88]

Bottom line is that an IMG @ a community program will find it difficult to match into cardiology. Not saying it's impossible, but as you said, the odds are not in one's favor.

Not if he is applying to a cardiology fellowship at his community program.

And it's not difficult to get into a university based academic program. There are several that take IMG's like the University of Arizona. Most of the universities in the south take IMG's. The only difficult university programs are the famous ones and those located in trendy cities like New York, Chicago, LA and SF.

If an IMG really wants to be a cardiologist, it's not that hard. I agree that he or she would unlikely match at a fellowship outside of their program. But as an internal candidate, they will be fine.

 

[carminosa]

What are the chances if you are at a community program (whether you are an AMG or FMG)that does not have their own fellowhsips? what do you do then?

 

[Poety]

Research and electives at institutes that do have a fellowship. I only know this because I have two friends - one who went to Ross and got a CARDS fellowship in Cali from our University based program, and the other was a D.O. who matched at the University program I go to.

It all depends on the app - do well in electives, do lots of away electives and get strong letters of rec and you should be fine.

Good lucK!

 

[DrIM]

It is not impossible for any one whether he is IMG or AMG. If you look at the stats from American Medical Association (AMA), almost (little less than) 50% of the cardiology gradutes are FMGs.

If you want you can do it, but only your will and time.

DrIm

 

[obasanjo]

Research and electives at institutes that do have a fellowship. I only know this because I have two friends - one who went to Ross and got a CARDS fellowship in Cali from our University based program, and the other was a D.O. who matched at the University program I go to.

It all depends on the app - do well in electives, do lots of away electives and get strong letters of rec and you should be fine.

Good lucK!

thank you guys for your reply. it feels somehow good to know that it is not impossible, but with great determination i can certainly be where i want.

the community program where i signed prematch is very small. just 22 paid full time physician with about 17 (maybe) part time physician. 10 PGY1 residents, about 85% or more of the residents are IMGs, not very interested in fellowship.
at the moment, i am kind of regretting why i signed the prematch contract. just don't know what to do in order to change for a better program. i must say that i am a green card holder with good USMLE score (85/95).
can some one enlighten me on how to change to a better program, what are the possibilities? will the program i am leaving give me good letters of recommendation?
please help!!!

about electives, i guess one has to contact individual programs asking for it or is it done otherwise? is there a web site where you can have valuable information about possible offers?

thank you all for your reply.

 

[NRAI2001]

http://www.ama-assn.org/vapp/freida/spcstsc/0,1238,141,00.html

THis says that 35% of all cards fellows are IMGs. I doubt that many are matching at prestigious institutions, so where are the IMGs matchign?

 

[jcgalton]

My boyfriend is a cardiologist with a sub-specialty in doing catheterizations. He went for 2 years to Spain to get that special training for learning how to do catheterizations and place stints in a hemodynamics lab. I live in South Carolina and we are wondering if there is any way that he can practice here or another state without having to redo all of his cardiology residency and potentially lose the skill of doing catheterizations while waiting to reach a level where he could learn/practice that again. If he had to do redo everything how much time would that take? 5 years ... more? What is the possibility that if he was matched into a residency that he would get into a cardiology one? We plan on getting married in the near future so a visa isn't really a problem... any ideas or info???
Thanks!

 

[PCIman]

My boyfriend is a cardiologist with a sub-specialty in doing catheterizations. He went for 2 years to Spain to get that special training for learning how to do catheterizations and place stints in a hemodynamics lab. I live in South Carolina and we are wondering if there is any way that he can practice here or another state without having to redo all of his cardiology residency and potentially lose the skill of doing catheterizations while waiting to reach a level where he could learn/practice that again. If he had to do redo everything how much time would that take? 5 years ... more? What is the possibility that if he was matched into a residency that he would get into a cardiology one? We plan on getting married in the near future so a visa isn't really a problem... any ideas or info???
Thanks!

Too much uncertainty exists ahead.
Get into a residency program first of first.
Thereafter apply for general cardio fellowship and then interventional cardio fellowship. good luck~