MIS career

[doctorstrangerthingz]

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Hello all

I’m a general surgery resident interested in MIS.
I was curious about the scope of practice for MIS surgeons. I know there are 4 main career pathways: bariatrics, foregut surgery, advanced endoscopy, and HPB.

My question is, if I’m interested in bariatrics and advanced endoscopy, how do I head toward that paths?

Which fellowship programs would be able to train me for this path and how competitive do I need to be. I have publications from med school and I’m not doing research years during my residency.

Thank you!

 

[mikeGR]

If you want to do bariatrics, I would look for a bariatric fellowship. There are "MIS"/"foregut"/"advanced GI" fellowships that don't have the word "bariatric" in their name but are heavily focused on bariatrics.

I imagine any bariatric fellowship would be heavy in endoscopy, but if you're hoping to do ERCP/EUS/ESDs etc, you may want to look for an advanced endoscopy fellowship (there are not that many) - not sure if "foregut" fellowship would cover these. Some of these fellowships describe their scope on their website.

HPB fellowships (AHPBA-accredited) are for HPB surgery, not for MIS/bariatrics (even if some are heavy on MIS HPB). Some "advanced GI" fellowships include experience in general surgery, bariatrics, foregut, HPB etc (all in 1 year) - some of their grads refer to themselves as HPB surgeons but my understanding is that these are essentially MIS fellowships with a sprinkle of other sites (and are not AHPBA accredited).

In general, MIS fellowships are not terribly competitive, but I imagine the top academic programs may look for candidates with more academic accolades.