Just matched into Orthopedic surgery "ask anything" thread

[OrthoPod57]

I just matched into ortho this year and I can't wait to get started in this incredible surgical subspecialty. I do not have experience yet in residency or an orthopedic career, but if anyone has any questions about pursuing ortho in med school or about the residency application process specific to ortho, I'm happy to help. Best of luck with your careers everyone! It feels even better to be heading out of med school than it did heading in.

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[La Presse]

Must you lift in order to match ortho? Also, did you participate in research during medical school?

 

[TangoDown]

What's yo bench, bruh?

 

[OrthoPod57]

No. That's rediculous. You do not have to be ripped to be an orthopod. In fact the best ones I know and look up to the most are on the other end of the physical spectrum.

Research on the other hand is becoming increasingly important for all of the competitive specialties. It's a good idea to get involved early, but not be so busy with research that you jeopardize your grades/ step 1 score. A good number of people are taking a year off between m3 and m4 year to bolster their research. I didn't do this tho. I did some research before med school and some the summer after m1 year.

 

[OrthoPod57]

I was actually in the gym today... But my bench is disappointing. I can run fast though.

 

[TangoDown]

I was actually in the gym today... But my bench is disappointing. I can run fast though.

You didn't answer my question. But my bench is meh too. Damned long arms 👎.

 

[OrthoPod57]

You didn't answer my question. .

I know

 

[Lafakads]

I was actually in the gym today... But my bench is disappointing. I can run fast though.

whats your bench!

There is this one ortho surgeon by my house with huge ass forearms... fukin mirin hard. Do wanna match into ortho to fit the stereotype.

 

[TangoDown]

I know

If it makes you feel any better, I can only bench 170lb x 5 and I'm 165lb (not cut at all lol) 🙁

I'll ask another question;

What are you most looking forward to? What part of the body, given your lack of surgical experience at this point, would you most want to operate on as an orthopod?

 

[DocG]

When do you think is best to get started with research in med school? How do you manage keeping up with the curriculum/Step 1 studying and simultaneously doing research? Is it necessary to have ortho specific research?

Do you have any background in sports? Do you think being a former athlete can help you match into ortho?

 

[OrthoPod57]

If it makes you feel any better, I can only bench 170lb x 5 and I'm 165lb (not cut at all lol) 🙁

I'll ask another question;

What are you most looking forward to? What part of the body, given your lack of surgical experience at this point, would you most want to operate on as an orthopod?

Ok so I can bench more than that!

One appeal for me about orthopedics is that you operate all over the body and the scale of the operations you do range from microsurgery to huge hacks when you are doing trauma, arthoplasty etc. There is an enormous amount of anatomy to master and we do a wide range if procedures. Right now my favorite area to operate on is upper extremity because there is so much intricate anatomy in a small area. But I look forward to it all right now. Except spine clinic🙂

 

[KinasePro]

How long is a typical trauma case?

What's the most ridiculous thing you were asked to do on interviews? I've heard some of the pre-interview socials actually take place at strip clubs...

Were non-academic ECs an important part of your application?

What were your step 1, clinical grades, and research experience?

Thanks for this thread and congrats!

 

[OrthoPod57]

When do you think is best to get started with research in med school? How do you manage keeping up with the curriculum/Step 1 studying and simultaneously doing research? Is it necessary to have ortho specific research?

Do you have any background in sports? Do you think being a former athlete can help you match into ortho?

1. Start research early. I did it after M1 year because you have the whole summer off. I got a paid fellowship through my school to do ortho research which was 👍. This helped me develop connections early.

2. All the research in the world will not make up for a low step 1 score so that has to be your top priority. I cant tell you how to balance it, you just need to balance it and realize that if your grades are suffering it's time to tone back the extracurriculars. Shoot for 240+, but people (like me) get plenty of interviews and match at great programs every year with step 1 scores in the 230s.

3. I do have a background in sports (played college football). It will help you for interviews because you can make a strong case for leadership and teamwork. I think having a background as an athlete can help you match into anything. There are a lot of unique experiences people have outside sports though that are just as strong.

 

[nychila]

Are patients who orthopedists see in a private clinic setting pretty much divided between amateur athletes (sports medicine) and the elderly (joint or hip replacement)?

If I wanted to primarily care for the elderly, would orthopedic surgery be a good specialty to pursue (and possibly specializing in spine or joint/hip)?

 

[Sucralose]

1. Start research early. I did it after M1 year because you have the whole summer off. I got a paid fellowship through my school to do ortho research which was 👍. This helped me develop connections early.

2. All the research in the world will not make up for a low step 1 score so that has to be your top priority. I cant tell you how to balance it, you just need to balance it and realize that if your grades are suffering it's time to tone back the extracurriculars. Shoot for 240+, but people (like me) get plenty of interviews and match at great programs every year with step 1 scores in the 230s.

3. I do have a background in sports (played college football). It will help you for interviews because you can make a strong case for leadership and teamwork. I think having a background as an athlete can help you match into anything. There are a lot of unique experiences people have outside sports though that are just as strong.

Nice to know that people in the 230s can still match ortho.

Did you do any ECs during M1/M2 to bolster your application specifically for ortho?

How many programs did you apply to? interviews did you go on?

 

[OrthoPod57]

How long is a typical trauma case?

Highly highly variable. Basic ORIFs are 1-2 hrs in my experience, but polytrauma and anything complicated will be much longer.

What's the most ridiculous thing you were asked to do on interviews? I've heard some of the pre-interview socials actually take place at strip clubs...

Ha. I've heard that too. Fortunately I didn't end up in one or my wife would have killed me. I was asked to sing my college fight song. I also had to play the game "operation" while describing my research. I had to see a standardized patient.

Were non-academic ECs an important part of your application?

Not really, but my interests and hobbies were asked about a lot.

What were your step 1, clinical grades, and research experience?

Step 1: high 230s
Step 2: low 260s
Preclinical grades: mix of honors and pass
Clinical grades (MUCH more important BTW): all honors
Research: a few first author pubs. One podium presentation.

Thanks for this thread and congrats!

 

[cookiemonsters]

1. Start research early. I did it after M1 year because you have the whole summer off. I got a paid fellowship through my school to do ortho research which was 👍. This helped me develop connections early.

Throughout my medical schools interviews, students at each school INSISTED that the very large majority of people go into medical school with no idea what they want to eventually specialize in... yet whenever I see one of these threads on SDN about when is the best time to get some research done in medical school, basically everyone says the summer after MS1.

This seems like a conflict to me... how do people decide what field to do research in by summer of MS1 if most people have no idea what specialty they are going to be aiming for at that point in time? Or was I just lied to throughout the interview trail?

Other questions:

How difficult was it to get into a research lab at your medical school? How did you get your position?

When you 'develop connections', what does this mean? Everyone says that you need good LORs from doctors in your field... how do you develop a relationship with a doctor? Do you just kinda force yourself upon him by asking to shadow or do research with him?

Is ortho a field that it is expected you have publications by the time you apply for residency? How many publications do you think a resident aiming for a competitive specialty at a top 10 program needs?


TY

 

[TangoDown]

Pretty generic question but was the constantly touted difficulty of pre-clinical years as much of a reality as it is described to be? Did you go to a P/F school or did you receive grades?

Also, were there any other specialties you were interested in?

 

[OrthoPod57]

Are patients who orthopedists see in a private clinic setting pretty much divided between amateur athletes (sports medicine) and the elderly (joint or hip replacement)?

If I wanted to primarily care for the elderly, would orthopedic surgery be a good specialty to pursue (and possibly specializing in spine or joint/hip)?

Well if you specialize you could potentially see a lot of one patient population. For example If you do a fellowship in pediatric ortho you will see all kids. If you do a fellowship in joints or adult spine then you will see mainly the elderly. If you stay general then you will have a wide variety of pts because of the athletes and trauma patients of all ages. Even if you are in private practice you will likely still see trauma patients of all ages when on call.

Ortho is not primary care, all your patients will be referred to you (or you will be "consulted" ) and you will only manage their musculoskeletal complaints.

 

[MangoPlant]

What was the most ridiculous thing you had to do during a med-school interview?

The singing college song just made me nervous..

 

[OrthoPod57]

Nice to know that people in the 230s can still match ortho.

Did you do any ECs during M1/M2 to bolster your application specifically for ortho?

How many programs did you apply to? interviews did you go on?

No ECs specifically for ortho other than research. Some are into student government.

I applied to a lot of programs (60+) which is also unfortunately becoming the norm. You want to go on at least 13 interviews in order to have a 95% chance of matching according to the 2011 data. I got around 30 invites and was able to schedule abd go on 16.

 

[nychila]

What type of med students choose orthopedic surgery? Their most common persnality traits might be... And they are not usually people who...

 

[nychila]

Does the location and reputation of one's ortho residency matter for where he/she will practice later on? Ie. Is it hard to go into private practice in metro Boston after training at Detroit med center? Do some private cinics prefer to hire from NYU med center than NYMC westchester hospital due to reputation of the program?

 

[OrthoPod57]

Throughout my medical schools interviews, students at each school INSISTED that the very large majority of people go into medical school with no idea what they want to eventually specialize in... yet whenever I see one of these threads on SDN about when is the best time to get some research done in medical school, basically everyone says the summer after MS1.

This seems like a conflict to me... how do people decide what field to do research in by summer of MS1 if most people have no idea what specialty they are going to be aiming for at that point in time? Or was I just lied to throughout the interview trail?

Ah yes, I felt the same way. I had a handful of specialties i was interested in and you dont have a lot of time to explore them all with research. The best advice I got was to pick the most competitive one and go after it with some research and shadowing. I chose ortho and ended up liking it. I also eliminated either fields later during clinical rotations. If I would have switched to a less competitive specialty they would at least see from my app that I was interested in the research and I would be able to explain to them how I made my decision. It's much harder to jump into a competitive field late unless your scores are great.

How difficult was it to get into a research lab at your medical school? How did you get your position?

Not hard. There is always scut research work to be done within a department and they will like your cheap/ free labor.

When you 'develop connections', what does this mean? Everyone says that you need good LORs from doctors in your field... how do you develop a relationship with a doctor? Do you just kinda force yourself upon him by asking to shadow or do research with him?

It means working hard on your rotations and doing research with them. In ortho everyone does away rotations and if you can show an attending that you work hard, are smart/ prepared, and if you are well-like by him or her then BAM, you have a connection. They will go to bat for you with a good LOR or by talking to their residency ADCOMs.

Is ortho a field that it is expected you have publications by the time you apply for residency? How many publications do you think a resident aiming for a competitive specialty at a top 10 program needs?

Not quantity... Quality


TY[/QUOTE]

 

[OrthoPod57]

Pretty generic question but was the constantly touted difficulty of pre-clinical years as much of a reality as it is described to be? Did you go to a P/F school or did you receive grades?

Also, were there any other specialties you were interested in?

They are hard. Yes. Lots of work. As you might expect. We were not P/F

I was also interested I neurosurg and urology

 

[OrthoPod57]

What was the most ridiculous thing you had to do during a med-school interview?

The singing college song just made me nervous..

Haha. Nothing bad. If you interview with me at my school you better
warm up your singing voice tho😀

 

[OrthoPod57]

What type of med students choose orthopedic surgery? Their most common persnality traits might be... And they are not usually people who...

Great question.

Short answer: the best ones
Jk

I can't speak for everyone but l like the cool surgeries, great outcomes, wide variety of patients, focus on alleviating pain and restoring function. It's less of a life or death field compared to alot of other surgical sub specialties.

The people are great. Really cool med students and residents.

Usually people who... Like to solve problems, are good at solving problems in different ways, have a good understanding of how objects move in 3D space, like getting there hands dirty.

Not usually people who... Like writing long notes, spending a long time rounding, lack confidence, like prescribing a lot of medicines

 

[JCTWP46]

How much time was put towards your research in the summer between M1 and M2? I hear many people choose not to do research then because it is their last summer off. I plan to do research, but would like to at least be able to take a vacation.

Where do you see orthopedics going in the future considering healthcare reform, etc.?

 

[OrthoPod57]

Does the location and reputation of one's ortho residency matter for where he/she will practice later on? Ie. Is it hard to go into private practice in metro Boston after training at Detroit med center? Do some private cinics prefer to hire from NYU med center than NYMC westchester hospital due to reputation of the program?

Program reputation and "who you know" goes a long way for getting into a great fellowship and/or getting the job you want. The vast majority (~90%) of ortho residents do fellowships now. Accordingly, where residents were matching into fellowships from a particular program was a huge factor for me when outing together my Rank list.

 

[nychila]

Really great post, and really appreciate you doing this.

Lots of med students seem to dislike rounding. Could you please briefly describe what it is and why it might be disliked by some?

Great question.

Short answer: the best ones
Jk

I can't speak for everyone but l like the cool surgeries, great outcomes, wide variety of patients, focus on alleviating pain and restoring function. It's less of a life or death field compared to alot of other surgical sub specialties.

The people are great. Really cool med students and residents.

Usually people who... Like to solve problems, are good at solving problems in different ways, have a good understanding of how objects move in 3D space, like getting there hands dirty.

Not usually people who... Like writing long notes, spending a long time rounding, lack confidence, like prescribing a lot of medicines

 

[OrthoPod57]

How much time was put towards your research in the summer between M1 and M2? I hear many people choose not to do research then because it is their last summer off. I plan to do research, but would like to at least be able to take a vacation.

Where do you see orthopedics going in the future considering healthcare reform, etc.?

I still took a 2 wk vacation before starting M2 year, but I did a solid 2.5 months of research. Getting paid made me need to work harder.

I'm not going to pretend to know what will happen to ortho or any field down the road. We may not get paid as much that's for sure, especially spine surgeons. I do know that as obesity continues to rise so will the need for arthoplasty, and people will always break bones.

 

[JCTWP46]

I still took a 2 wk vacation before starting M2 year, but I did a solid 2.5 months of research. Getting paid made me need to work harder.

I'm not going to pretend to know what will happen to ortho or any field down the road. We may not get paid as much that's for sure, especially spine surgeons. I do know that as obesity continues to rise so will the need for arthoplasty, and people will always break bones.

Thanks! 😀

 

[OrthoPod57]

Really great post, and really appreciate you doing this.

Lots of med students seem to dislike rounding. Could you please briefly describe what it is and why it might be disliked by some?

Rounding is when you go around to each of your patients room in the morning (that are admitted to the hospital on your service) and tell your attending what's up with the patient. You talk about overnight events, how the patient feels, changes to the physical exam, and the treatment plan for the day (discharge planning, pain control, antibiotics, etc). In surgical specialties this is typically done very early and quite rapidly so you can get to the OR for your first case at 7am case, or it is done between cases. In the medical specialties ( and especially IM and neuro) rounding usually takes much longer and can literally take all day. Complicated patients have a lot of problems that need addressing. Much thinking has to be done and it takes a while.

Same day surgery is so great because the patient goes home. When you do have to admit it's great when you have otherwise healthy patients that recover quickly and go home in a day or two.

 

[nychila]

Sorry but I have quite a few questions, because I recently decided, at least for now as a soon-to-be med student, that I would like to become an orthopedic surgeon. Thanks so much!

How much stronger of an applicant would someone from a mid-tier school in the Northeast have to be compared to a local applicant (from neighboring state in the same region) for applying to orthopedic residency in the West coast, Chicago, or say Denver?

So is it hard to train at one region and then try to find a job in private practice in a different region of the country?

Do orthopedic surgeons do a lot of problem-solving? I get the sense that they might do a lot less thinking compared to a cardiologist, and this might be especially true if the orthopedic surgeon works in private practice, where the cases are more monotonous.

Does going into orthopedic surgery become more or less difficult for someone who first go into general surgery residency (maybe because he/she wasn't accepted to orthopedic surgery right after med school)?

How many hours a week do orthopedic surgeons usually work? I'm seeing usually 50-60h/week, including call, for private practice from a few sources.

Do spine or hip/knee orthopedic surgeons in private practice have a lot of call?

How did you prep for your step 1 exam? Which review books, used review books to study for lectures, study hard and do well in pre-clinical classes as preparation, etc.

 

[Sucralose]

Sorry but I have quite a few questions, because I recently decided, at least for now as a soon-to-be med student, that I would like to become an orthopedic surgeon. Thanks so much!

How much stronger of an applicant would someone from a mid-tier school in the Northeast have to be compared to a local applicant (from neighboring state in the same region) for applying to orthopedic residency in the West coast, Chicago, or say Denver?

So is it hard to train at one region and then try to find a job in private practice in a different region of the country?

Do orthopedic surgeons do a lot of problem-solving? I get the sense that they might do a lot less thinking compared to a cardiologist, and this might be especially true if the orthopedic surgeon works in private practice, where the cases are more monotonous.

Does going into orthopedic surgery become more or less difficult for someone who first go into general surgery residency (maybe because he/she wasn't accepted to orthopedic surgery right after med school)?

How many hours a week do orthopedic surgeons usually work? I'm seeing usually 50-60h/week, including call, for private practice from a few sources.

Do spine or hip/knee orthopedic surgeons in private practice have a lot of call?

How did you prep for your step 1 exam? Which review books, used review books to study for lectures, study hard and do well in pre-clinical classes as preparation, etc.

Just want to point out that the only ortho like gen surg fellowship is hand.

 

[nychila]

Just want to point out that the only ortho like gen surg fellowship is hand.

I was referring to first going into general surgery, then transferring into orthopedic surgery mid-way or after completing the general surgery residency, or is that even possible? I think it's fairly common in plastic surgery, which is another competitive surgical field.

 

[OrthoPod57]

Sorry but I have quite a few questions, because I recently decided, at least for now as a soon-to-be med student, that I would like to become an orthopedic surgeon. Thanks so much!

How much stronger of an applicant would someone from a mid-tier school in the Northeast have to be compared to a local applicant (from neighboring state in the same region) for applying to orthopedic residency in the West coast, Chicago, or say Denver?

Hard to say given you will be applying 4 years from now. A lot has changed in the last 4 years. Right now you don't need to be any stronger, especially if you can convince the program in that area that you have a genuine interest in their program. One way to do this is to do an away rotation there. Another way is to write a personal statement for that program expalining your specific interest. Programs are looking to attract strong applicants from all over the country, not just regional applicants.

So is it hard to train at one region and then try to find a job in private practice in a different region of the country?

I don't know. Havent gotten there yet. I imagine you you know ahead of time where you want to end up you can foster conections to set up your job search. But then again some markets are pretty competitive for finding ortho jobs.

Do orthopedic surgeons do a lot of problem-solving? I get the sense that they might do a lot less thinking compared to a cardiologist, and this might be especially true if the orthopedic surgeon works in private practice, where the cases are more monotonous.

It's a different type of problem solving. Internists spend alot and brainpower diagnosing the problem. The medical treatments themselves are becoming more and more standardized as "evidence based medicine" has popularized. Now there is a "standard of care" for everything. Orthopedists often don't have a hard time diagnosing musculoskeletal pathologies because they can be very straightforward (however there is still alot of challenging diagnosis in ortho). The real challenge and fascinating part of ortho is figuring out the best way to FIX the problme. Are you going to use nonoperative vs operative managment, external vs internal fixation, if you are operating what approach are you going to use, what hardward system made by what company? There can be literally hundreds of different ways to solve the same problem and every orthopedist does things a little bit differently. Every patient, every joint, every fracture is also different. On top of that there is always new technology coming into the equation. You continually improving your craft and there is no computer out there that can do your job.

Does going into orthopedic surgery become more or less difficult for someone who first go into general surgery residency (maybe because he/she wasn't accepted to orthopedic surgery right after med school)?

Very hard to re-apply to ortho after not getting in the first time. Some take a year off to do research, others do a surgery prelim year and re-apply. Its a difficult situation to be in, but there are plenty of success stories out there. A buddy of mine who didn't match is doing research, thats what I would have done.

How many hours a week do orthopedic surgeons usually work? I'm seeing usually 50-60h/week, including call, for private practice from a few sources.

Depends of what type of ortho, where you practice, where you are in your career, how much money you want to make, and many other factors. Sure many work 50-60/wk, but some work A LOT more than that. A LOT more.

Do spine or hip/knee orthopedic surgeons in private practice have a lot of call?

Again, highly variable. They usually are in a general call pool within their group. You will have to ask an ortho surgeon in that situation.

How did you prep for your step 1 exam? Which review books, used review books to study for lectures, study hard and do well in pre-clinical classes as preparation, etc.

Not really the thread for this. Sorry. I am not a great resource to answer that question. I took that test going on 2 years ago. Check the USMLE secion on this forum.

 

[OrthoPod57]

I was referring to first going into general surgery, then transferring into orthopedic surgery mid-way or after completing the general surgery residency, or is that even possible? I think it's fairly common in plastic surgery, which is another competitive surgical field.

It is possible to go unmatched in ortho, SOAP into a gen surg prelim, and re-apply for ortho the following year. Transfers from a categorical gen surg residency into ortho is rare.

There are hand fellowships out there filled by ortho and by plastics. There are spine fellowships filled by ortho and by neurosurg.

 

[Law2Doc]

It is possible to go unmatched in ortho, SOAP into a gen surg prelim, and re-apply for ortho the following year. Transfers from a categorical gen surg residency into ortho is rare....

there are a number of programs where the intern year of ortho and Gen surg are lumped together (ie in the same call pool/rotations, etc). Ive seen several cases where an ortho resident dropped out or took leave of absence after the first year and someone else from his intern year (usually a prelim, but not always) was recruited into his/her spot. So it can happen. Not something to bank on unless you have good inside information that someone is going to bail.

 

[jcopper]

is it harder for a female to match into ortho? it seems like its a mostly male specialty

 

[Daodejing]

Thanks for doing this and congrats on a successful match, OrthoPod.

It seems like 4th year - at least the first half of it - is quite busy in terms of scheduling Step 2 CS/CK, 4th year required rotations, away rotations, and interviews. How did you exactly manage all of this? Did you take Step 2 CK before/after submitting your ERAS? In terms of applying to ortho, is there any benefit to get Step 2 out of the way early?

 

[KinasePro]

I was also interested I neurosurg and urology

What was it about ortho that swayed you away from urology, in particular? I'm about 4 months away from having to make my decision, and these two specialties are practically neck and neck to me.

Apart from the superficial things that probably won't matter after ~1 month of training (GU exams& frequent DREs vs MSK exams & far fewer DREs), I'm having a tough time separating the two. Personalities are similar in both fields, lifestyles are similar (despite popular belief), both are very technology-heavy, both are very oriented toward patient QOL (vs life-and-death in other specialties), both have outstanding career opportunities, both have procedures ranging from big whacks to minimally-invasive, competitiveness is roughly the same in each field... the list goes on. I guess you could argue that uro has more delicate procedures than ortho, but ortho procedures still require a hell of a lot of skill & precision. Any thoughts on how to go about this decision?

 

[2010CalBear]

Congrats on all of your successes.

First off, I am an incoming Med student and have a very strong interest in Neurosurg and Orthopedics. Given that these two specialties are very competitive, I assume that research should be a very strong point in a successful application. You also mentioned that you did research prior to medical school and during your post-MS1 summer break.

My questions are,

1) will just a summer of research during medical school make one a competitive applicant for matching in Ortho given solid grades and 230-240 Step 1?

2) how much weight do residency programs place on publications/research done prior to medical school.

Fortunately, I was able to work on great projects prior to medical school and have published in Nature, Nature medicine, and I&I as second authors. Will this give me a good head start or will these publications be overlooked.

Thanks for your help

 

[nBeeDee]

Only one question, how is it that you matched to ortho this year when you haven't gone to medical school yet? Maybe you have dual users on your account, but you seem kinda sketch as the info in this thread is very generalized.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=983122

 

[OrthoPod57]

is it harder for a female to match into ortho? it seems like its a mostly male specialty

Actually I don't think so. Unfortunately there are not a lot of women who go into the field for whatever reason. I hope this changes. The ones that do are very competitive applicants and they get a lot if interviews. I have heard there still are some programs are not female friendly but most are and are actually trying to get more women to match into their program.

 

[AggieDDS]

Why does ortho get crapped on by other specialties?

 

[OrthoPod57]

What was it about ortho that swayed you away from urology, in particular? I'm about 4 months away from having to make my decision, and these two specialties are practically neck and neck to me.

Apart from the superficial things that probably won't matter after ~1 month of training (GU exams& frequent DREs vs MSK exams & far fewer DREs), I'm having a tough time separating the two. Personalities are similar in both fields, lifestyles are similar (despite popular belief), both are very technology-heavy, both are very oriented toward patient QOL (vs life-and-death in other specialties), both have outstanding career opportunities, both have procedures ranging from big whacks to minimally-invasive, competitiveness is roughly the same in each field... the list goes on. I guess you could argue that uro has more delicate procedures than ortho, but ortho procedures still require a hell of a lot of skill & precision. Any thoughts on how to go about this decision?

I decided I wasn't nearly as interested in male GU pathology as I was in the MSK system. Both are really great fields though. The surgeries are very different. Ortho doesn't end up in the abdomen much.m, thank goodness.

Congrats on all of your successes.

First off, I am an incoming Med student and have a very strong interest in Neurosurg and Orthopedics. Given that these two specialties are very competitive, I assume that research should be a very strong point in a successful application. You also mentioned that you did research prior to medical school and during your post-MS1 summer break.

My questions are,

1) will just a summer of research during medical school make one a competitive applicant for matching in Ortho given solid grades and 230-240 Step 1?

2) how much weight do residency programs place on publications/research done prior to medical school.

Fortunately, I was able to work on great projects prior to medical school and have published in Nature, Nature medicine, and I&I as second authors. Will this give me a good head start or will these publications be overlooked.

Thanks for your help

1) you should shoot for 240+. You should START research that summer and continue your projects throughout med school

2) is those pubs/ research pertain to your field it will help. Also it will help if you did grad school research. Otherwise not so much, unfortunately. You will still put then on your ERAS app tho and they will see them. Nature is a pretty sweet pub.

Thanks for doing this and congrats on a successful match, OrthoPod.

It seems like 4th year - at least the first half of it - is quite busy in terms of scheduling Step 2 CS/CK, 4th year required rotations, away rotations, and interviews. How did you exactly manage all of this? Did you take Step 2 CK before/after submitting your ERAS? In terms of applying to ortho, is there any benefit to get Step 2 out of the way early?

I took step2 early to make up for a below ortho average step 1. Indeed it takes a lot of planning and use of your advisors. The benefit to taking step 2 early is having it be part of your ERAS app. If you rock step 1 then you should delay taking step 2 until after interviews.

 

[OrthoPod57]

Only one question, how is it that you matched to ortho this year when you haven't gone to medical school yet? Maybe you have dual users on your account, but you seem kinda sketch as the info in this thread is very generalized.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=983122

Ha! My buddy was the one who made this acct one drunk night. That makes a lot of sense now. I hadn't seen that before.

 

[OrthoPod57]

Why does ortho get crapped on by other specialties?

Every specialty gets crapped on one way or another. Orthopedics get the "bone head" rap I suppose because after intern year we are basically are done with primary care training. We forget a lot about management of basic conditions like COPD, HTN, CHF, DM etc because we just don't spend a lot if time reading about that stuff or managing it.

We do a lot of consulting medicine for inpatient medical management. But let's face it, if your grandma were in the hospital for a hip replacement you wouldn't want the orthopod tinkering with her medication regimen. Everyone has their specialty now.

 

[The Buff OP]

Hey, how's the residency going?