Intra-Rads Residency Transfer Viability

[TrebizondArcher]

Does anyone have any experience transferring to another residency program within rads? As someone who recently matched at a program, how soon should I start inquiring about this? Should I wait until the end PGY-1 or should I try to secure something now? Given how competitive the match was this year, will a swap be the only viable strategy?

A little personal context, the program that I matched at is a smaller university-affiliated community program with a decent reputation and good ESIR availability, but it lacks an ABNM-accredited integrated nuclear medicine fellowship more common among larger community and academic programs, which was a major contributing factor to its position on my rank list. Realistically, can I only expect swap offers based on geography?

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[Aurum]

Swaps do happen. Transfers done for family reasons (e.g. to be closer to a spouse) are typically viewed more favorably than those done to improve training pedigree or for better opportunities. It’s far too early to consider a transfer for you as a recently matched MS4, get through intern year first.

During your R1 year, focus on being affable, dependable, and hard working. Your PD is much more likely to support the transfer of a pleasant resident than someone who is down on their program before they even start. The highest yield time regarding transfer opportunities will be midway through R1, as folks who intend to either drop out of radiology altogether or move to a different program will likely make their intentions known at this point. Keep abreast of potential openings, either through word of mouth or formal postings such as on the APDR website.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, keep an open mind as you start your DR residency program. You may end up disliking nucs and liking a department that your program excels in.

 

[SeisK]

Does anyone have any experience transferring to another residency program within rads? As someone who recently matched at a program, how soon should I start inquiring about this? Should I wait until the end PGY-1 or should I try to secure something now? Given how competitive the match was this year, will a swap be the only viable strategy?

A little personal context, the program that I matched at is a smaller university-affiliated community program with a decent reputation and good ESIR availability, but it lacks an ABNM-accredited integrated nuclear medicine fellowship more common among larger community and academic programs, which was a major contributing factor to its position on my rank list. Realistically, can I only expect swap offers based on geography?

An option to consider is doing a mini fellowship like MSK during those would-be Nucs years, get strong enough in it to do subspecialty reads, and then match somewhere (probably anywhere you want) for the Nucs fellowship. I think the wise thing is to do something beyond Nucs anyway, because although someone who is general plus Nucs trained is still desirable in this market, the extra year of additional subspecialty training in some field that you could get subspecialty-skill in during a 9 month mini fellowship (MSK, mammo, body) will make you more desirable, and is the option that everyone who I know doing the DRNM pathway is pursuing anyway (they’re doing additional fellowship training despite the DRNM cert).

 

[TrebizondArcher]

An option to consider is doing a mini fellowship like MSK during those would-be Nucs years, get strong enough in it to do subspecialty reads, and then match somewhere (probably anywhere you want) for the Nucs fellowship. I think the wise thing is to do something beyond Nucs anyway, because although someone who is general plus Nucs trained is still desirable in this market, the extra year of additional subspecialty training in some field that you could get subspecialty-skill in during a 9 month mini fellowship (MSK, mammo, body) will make you more desirable, and is the option that everyone who I know doing the DRNM pathway is pursuing anyway (they’re doing additional fellowship training despite the DRNM cert).

Sorry, I think I might've been a bit difficult to understand in explaining what I want to do. My goal was to pursue an MSK or Body fellowship after completing an integrated nuclear medicine fellowship during R4-R5. There are programs which have accreditation for this pathway. My understanding is that they're akin to DRNM programs kind of in the same way that ESIR pathways are to IR programs. This is (at least in theory) distinct from a mini-fellowship as it actually entails formal certification in nucs. Basically, I want to complete 2 fellowships in 6 years of training. Please correct me if I've got any of this wrong.

 

[SeisK]

Sorry, I think I might've been a bit difficult to understand in explaining what I want to do. My goal was to pursue an MSK or Body fellowship after completing an integrated nuclear medicine fellowship during R4-R5. There are programs which have accreditation for this pathway. My understanding is that they're akin to DRNM programs kind of in the same way that ESIR pathways are to IR programs. This is (at least in theory) distinct from a mini-fellowship as it actually entails formal certification in nucs. Basically, I want to complete 2 fellowships in 6 years of training. Please correct me if I've got any of this wrong.

For private practice a formal fellowship isn’t necessary to do subspecialty reads in MSK. In academics it is. If you want to read Nucs and MSK in academics, yes it would be beneficial to follow your original plan. If you want to read them plus Gen reads in PP, the extra three months of a formal fellowship as opposed to an R4 mini fellowship isn’t necessary, and is not expected.