Internal Medicine/Pediatric DO

Started by DOxidant
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DOxidant

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10+ Year Member
I think we find many threads about future DOs wanting to pursue surgery or other specialties that are considered as one of the most competitive field to get into.

Personally I would like to pursue IM-peds. I thought it would be fun to hear from other pre-DO or OMS students who would like to pursue IM or Peds. Raise your voice people.
 
DOxidant said:
I think we find many threads about future DOs wanting to pursue surgery or other specialties that are considered as one of the most competitive field to get into.

Personally I would like to pursue IM-peds. I thought it would be fun to hear from other pre-DO or OMS students who would like to pursue IM or Peds. Raise your voice people.
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As a pre-DO I've considered IM but only with the goal of a subspeciality..then again I'm still just a pre-DO so who knows wat I'll be thinking in a few years..
 
I never really understood IM/peds. . .do you just get more training in complex cases? I figure if you want to do both adult and child medicine, wouldn't you just go into Family Medicine?
 
Superman DO said:
I never really understood IM/peds. . .do you just get more training in complex cases? I figure if you want to do both adult and child medicine, wouldn't you just go into Family Medicine?
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IM/Peds is basically like being a full-fledged internist and pediatrician, and can lead to being BE/BC in both. I can't say with absolute certainty, but I believe that IM/peds would have a bit further training in critical or complex cases. It also gives you the option of doing a cardio/GI/whatever fellowship after residency.
 
One of my favorite attendings was IM/peds trained. He said IM/peds leads to IM fellowships, but not really to peds fellowships. The reason for this is that peds fellowships want you to have 3 years of peds training, not just the 2 years that IM/peds provides. Having said this, I met a peds specialist recently who was IM/peds trained, so go figure, I don't know who to believe anymore.

I just matched diagnostic radiology, but I have to say I think IM/peds is way cool. SO MANY more options for fellowship than Family Practice. Plus for some reason many FP's don't feel comfortable seeing kids where I live. So watch where you train if you're going into FP and want to see kids.
 
What's the point of going into a fellowship after IM/Peds? That will render moot the training in either peds or IM. If you pursue adult endocrinology, for example, you'll be working on adults. Similarly, if you pursue pediatric pulmonology you'll be working on kids. I don't see the need for both fields. It also seems from some reading I've done that IM is becoming increasinly outpatient focused. That said, I think FM is a suitable and shorter substitute for both if you're wanting to go the outpatient or primary care route. Additionally, family medicine trained physicians are filling lots of the hospitalist roles. For a well rounded doctor I think FM is the way to go and not IM/Peds. For subspecialty training stick with one of the fields. I think the combined deals are a waste of time, but that's only my opinion and only relevant to my perspective.
 
There is a combined residency forum that have some good threads to commonly asked questions about combined med-peds.

As for peds fellowships - there are some peds fellowships that favor medpeds applicants. Pediatric cardiology fellowships like medpeds applicants because medpeds residents are more comfortable reading EKGs, and prescribing drugs that are common in peds cardio (and common in adult medicine). Peds critical care enjoy the MICU exposures that medpeds bring to the table.

There are a few combined fellowships available too if someone is interested in both.

But I invite you to venture down to the Combined Residency Forum and read some of the threads.
 
group_theory said:
There is a combined residency forum that have some good threads to commonly asked questions about combined med-peds.

As for peds fellowships - there are some peds fellowships that favor medpeds applicants. Pediatric cardiology fellowships like medpeds applicants because medpeds residents are more comfortable reading EKGs, and prescribing drugs that are common in peds cardio (and common in adult medicine). Peds critical care enjoy the MICU exposures that medpeds bring to the table.

There are a few combined fellowships available too if someone is interested in both.

But I invite you to venture down to the Combined Residency Forum and read some of the threads.
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This is exactly why I want to pursue IM/Peds 🙂
 
I'm interested in IM too, but at the other end of the spectrum in Geriatrics. Will be fun to come back and read this thread in 3-4 years to see where we end up going.
 
Wyclef said:
Plus for some reason many FP's don't feel comfortable seeing kids where I live. So watch where you train if you're going into FP and want to see kids.
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ArkansasRanger said:
It also seems from some reading I've done that IM is becoming increasinly outpatient focused. That said, I think FM is a suitable and shorter substitute for both if you're wanting to go the outpatient or primary care route. Additionally, family medicine trained physicians are filling lots of the hospitalist roles. For a well rounded doctor I think FM is the way to go and not IM/Peds. For subspecialty training stick with one of the fields. I think the combined deals are a waste of time, but that's only my opinion and only relevant to my perspective.
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At the end of the day, when you are done training, a Med-Peds doc is a Board Certified Pediatrician. That doc is also a Board Certified Internist. MedPeds residency training occurs at tertiary care hospitals (and nearly all of them have university/medical school affliations). Family medicine residencies training occur from tertiary care centers to small community hospitals (program dependant).

Your Med-Peds doc will have finished a pediatric residency and rotated through the peds subspecialties (adolescent, behavioral/devepment, NICU, PICU, peds heme/onc). On the medicine side, would have rotated through the major medicine rotations such as MICU, Adult cardiology, adult heme/onc, adult GI, etc.

Family medicine residency is more outpatient focused. MedPeds residency is more inpatient focused. Some Family medicine residencies have very little inpatient pediatrics exposure in their curriculum (and that exposure will likely be floor-level of care, not intermediate/icu level patients). As a result, some family medicine doc will be hesitant to take care of kids who aren't straightforward. However, it really all depends on the exposure and training. I know some programs are great with pediatrics, while others have a lot to be desired. There is great variability here.

Plus the advantage of MedPeds is that you don't have to worry about OB 😀
 
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