Could I be afforded a better opportunity at: a desirable fellowship such a dermatopath? a chance at service in Europe? What would be my obligation to the military? What other considerations are there to be made about which I probably have no idea and should know but have not mentioned? Thanks in advance for any and all information.
Welcome to the forum. There are a few principles of military medicine that always hold true (I speak primarily Army, there are similarities but also some very important differences between the branches).
1. The needs of the military come first. This means that if they need someone to fill a spot and you are the best fit - you are going. This is not as arbitrary as it may sound, especially if you know your consultant (the person who plans the distribution of labor and consequently, assignments).
2. Fellowships are available on a rotating basis. The consultant determines the needs of the specialty based on several factors - retirements, workloads, people wanting to move, etc. There is no guarantee that a particular fellowship will be available from year to year. It's much more complicated than that, but that's the basic gist of it. The military will be setting up a dermpath fellowship, but I am not sure how it would work for you being at a civilian facility for residency. For you the two options would be: a. going to a medical facility and serving as a general pathologist, or b. (if luck strikes) deferring military service and going to a civilian fellowship. Option B is essentially no different than if you didn't join the military. At that point why would you? Most likely, you would be taken on as a general pathologist for a year or two and then you could get into the military fellowship pool. Once in the military there is a complex system to determine fellowships, which I won't get into at this point.
3. The opportunity to work in Germany is getting more remote every day. The military is downsizing a lot of the European positions and they are fairly competitive.
In summary if you would join the military after residency your most likely path would be to become a general pathologist then start the process of applying for fellowships (and remember that you must apply two years prior to starting a fellowship). Once you are selected for a fellowship the payback is 1 year for every 6 months of fellowship training. Your fellowship will be the minimal length to fulfill the requirements to take the board exam in that specialty. So dermpath is one year and you will incur a two year payback for it. I don't know how this would fit in with any other obligation you would incur based on what you sign up for.
Any specific questions feel free to drop me a PM.
Geo
