Med-Derm

[HalladayWeekend]

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I'm a current prelim med intern who has always been interested in oncology but absolutely loving my heme-onc rotation (always have had interest in onc but this rotation has solidified my interest). Skin cancer is actually what got me interested in dermatology and was wondering the competitiveness of med derm programs. I am very interested in serious derm-onc stuff (melanoma, CTCL etc) but also really love the procedure-oriented aspect of derm. Are these med/derm combined programs more or loss competitive than derm only? I know I could do an internal and derm residency as well but was wondering about the combined. Thanks!

 

[Dermography]

if you are really interested in cutaneous oncology, I would really recommend you do just a solid derm residency program and then do a year of cutaneous oncology fellowship afterward. Doing a med-derm fellowship probably won't add much to your experience except prolonging your goal by an extra year since you will probably still need to do a cutaneous oncology fellowship after your med-derm residency regardless.

Having that said, it doesn't hurt to do a med-derm residency either if you are really interested in the general medicine aspects too. Contrary to popular belief, there is a lot of heavy duty medicine in dermatology in general if one decides to dig deep into dermatology, from managing a pemphigus patient's glucose while on prednisone to managing graft-vs-host-disease to working up/managing histiocytic and granulomatous disorders. Some derms, depending on their background of training and their level of comfort, like to handle most of the workup and treatment aspects, while others like to just refer these patients to the appropriate specialty.

To answer your other question, is it easier to get into a med-derm residency program? Yes and no; there are less applicants for med-derm, but at the same time there are not as many spots in med-derm. It's hard to same in my opinion.

D!

 

[molmol]

less.

 

[MilkIsGood]

Do people apply to both regular derm and med-derm. I assume no since the program can see you applying to both

 

[Dral]

Most understand both. Washington Hospital Center has you interview, then tell them which program you will rank in your list.

 

[pupster]

I'm a current prelim med intern who has always been interested in oncology but absolutely loving my heme-onc rotation (always have had interest in onc but this rotation has solidified my interest). Skin cancer is actually what got me interested in dermatology and was wondering the competitiveness of med derm programs. I am very interested in serious derm-onc stuff (melanoma, CTCL etc) but also really love the procedure-oriented aspect of derm. Are these med/derm combined programs more or loss competitive than derm only? I know I could do an internal and derm residency as well but was wondering about the combined. Thanks!

I like your attitude HW. You've been positive despite not matching. I would say you should just reapply to derm. Get a few more publications/case reports. You can get a lot of good medicine at many derm programs.

 

[dermathalon]

Somewhat of an alternate doorway to derm. If you are re-applying then I would apply to them. They may be "similarly competitive" but they have fewer absolute numbers applying to them. Also, I think the burden is on making the "med" part believable in your application.

I think you can learn a lot of med in the straight derm residency, depending on the cases that they get (do they have a burn center for acute severe cases for example) or a good relationship with IM such that they get a reasonable flow of inpatient consults.