Interest in both Ortho and Optho
Started by sswang00
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What more important than which surgical field you have research in is having a publication.
I was reading some threads about people who matched..Some applicants have multiple publications, while others have Research experience without publications. I'm just a little curious, what sets the bar? Are the people who are more involved getting published? Or is it good/bad luck?
Is it best to spread myself out and take part in research at multiple institutions? Or to spend more quality time at one?
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It's both. It's hard to get published without hard work, but you're never guaranteed a publication. I'd stick with research in one place (or two) to get more genuine LOR's.
Does research really play an important part in matching into a competitive residency?
Sorry I'm a pre-med that was just browsing around.
Sorry I'm a pre-med that was just browsing around.
Yes, for the more competitive specialties (such as ortho and optho). For EM or anesthesiology, not so much.
Ha I was just on here and those are two of the specialties I've been considering too. I worked in ophtho r&d in college and that kind of got me interested in that field, but before that I had always thought I would want to go ortho. I kind of got turned off of ortho because people said it had a bad lifestyle and ophtho has such a great lifestyle supposedly.
So here I am today as an MS3 trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and both fields still sound interesting to me. As I see it, ophtho has a better lifestyle but ortho has substantially better compensation. I think they both seem pretty much equally interesting.
The question I have is, how much worse is the ortho lifestyle really? I mean once you are done with residency can you work it to where the lifestyle isn't all that bad?
So here I am today as an MS3 trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and both fields still sound interesting to me. As I see it, ophtho has a better lifestyle but ortho has substantially better compensation. I think they both seem pretty much equally interesting.
The question I have is, how much worse is the ortho lifestyle really? I mean once you are done with residency can you work it to where the lifestyle isn't all that bad?
@canjosh
This has nothing to do with your post. I'm interested in your avatar.
What is the point of anatomically fixing the calcaneous (I assume that was the point of the ORIF) if a subtalar fusion is performed?
Maybe the ORIF came before the fusion?
I'm interested in my avatar, too. Honestly, your guess is better than mine. It's just an image I found online, as opposed to one of my own...so I don't know the story behind it.
Sorry to disappoint!!
I had the same dilemma in medical school...i did both rotations early, and decided on ortho. im now in my last year of residency, and am going to do a hand fellowship. I guess the weenie part of ophtho that attracted me stayed with me to some extent.
What attracted me to Ortho is the diverse operative experience, from micro in hand to total femur replacements in tumor surgery. I figured when i was done with residency i could go either way with ortho. if i enjoyed large complex cases i had tumor or joints/reconstruction or if i enjoyed meticulous micro that was also an option. I felt as though Ophtho did not have these opportunities. Ortho is a longer (5yr) residency and your work longer hours, but the hours are not bad if you enjoy what you are doing.
you can do general ortho and be able to do some joints, sports, hand, and fracture care operating on all parts of the body, unlike Ophtho.
anyway, just my 2 cents. good luck.
What attracted me to Ortho is the diverse operative experience, from micro in hand to total femur replacements in tumor surgery. I figured when i was done with residency i could go either way with ortho. if i enjoyed large complex cases i had tumor or joints/reconstruction or if i enjoyed meticulous micro that was also an option. I felt as though Ophtho did not have these opportunities. Ortho is a longer (5yr) residency and your work longer hours, but the hours are not bad if you enjoy what you are doing.
you can do general ortho and be able to do some joints, sports, hand, and fracture care operating on all parts of the body, unlike Ophtho.
anyway, just my 2 cents. good luck.
As an attending you can do whatever you want so long as the practice you choose allows it. There are orthopaedic hospitalists who work two weeks on, two weeks off. There are guys in small practices who thus have to share a lot of call. There are guys in larger practices who work their way up the chain far enough to come off the call schedule and then only do as many elective cases as they want to do for the rest of their life. There can be a big difference between academic and private practice too, so if you do rotations primarily with academic guys (or private) then it may be a good idea to talk to those in the other position to see what their job is like. I think a lot of people that get done with residency keep working their ass off constantly because thats what they've been doing their whole life so far - but if you're okay with making less money I'm sure you'll be able to find a practice situation where you're working less as well.
I believe, in severely displace, intra-articular calcaneus fractures the rate of post traumatic arthritis requiring eventual fusion is high. The study below showed that patients have a better outcome if they perform a sub-talar fusion as part of the initial management.
http://www.ejbjs.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/3/541
They say that calcaneus fractures are 1 of 3 fractures that will change your life.
Do publications from undergrad (in basic science fields) matter?
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I would include it on your application for sure. The importance of said research will be different for every program. Published research is never a bad thing.
What are the other two? I am seriously curious.
My 3 (for the general population) would probably be calcaneous, pilon, and acetabulum. Of course spine fx with neuro deficit should probably be its own category🙂
Any intraarticular fracture can seriously effect the function of a joint, and a persons occupation can drastically affect what joints are important (e.g. musicians hand). Age obviously also plays a role. A femoral head/neck fracture in a young person can be much more devastating than the same injury in an older person where you would just do hemi/total. Any fracture has the ability to "change your life" depending on severity, age, social factors, etc...
That is what I was thinking, which is why I asked - which was "first among equals"?
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