Official 2013-2014 Sleep Fellowship Application Cycle

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kpchal2

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Hi Guys
Looks like there is no official thread for the sleep medicine fellowship application cycle. Let us try to make this the official one.

Applied to 25 programs
IMG from Pulm CC background
Waiting to hear from Programs
Decent Usmle scores, 2 research projects underway, 4 abstracts and 1 publication, Good LORS

I hope that we will have some traction this year unlike my lost thread from last year.
Members don't see this ad.
 
I think sleep fellowships are becoming less competitive, given the decline of sleep medicine in general...so I have the impression that 25 programs is too much, you should screen them based on your interests (research etc), location..etc
 
Ah... the rise and fall of specialties purely due to manipulation of reimbursement rates imposed by Medicare. It's almost comical. When are we going to learn, rise up again the Machine and rebel?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I agree, Sleep isn't the competitive. At the last sleep meeting with Nancy Collop, she indicated that 25% of the programs went unfilled last year and applications are severely dropped off. IIRC, and anyone is welcome to correct me, the decline is due to declining reimbursements and the elimination of the apnea mills - physicians actually have to appropriately diagnose, treat and follow-up all sleep related disorders.
 
Shikima said:
I agree, Sleep isn't the competitive. At the last sleep meeting with Nancy Collop, she indicated that 25% of the programs went unfilled last year and applications are severely dropped off. IIRC, and anyone is welcome to correct me, the decline is due to declining reimbursements and the elimination of the apnea mills - physicians actually have to appropriately diagnose, treat and follow-up all sleep related disorders.
Click to expand...

Competition was reportedly the same as in previous years, with one curveball - there were more fellowship positions opened and newly available compared to previous years. I can't quote numbers, but have this from an academic attending involved in the fellow interview process.

Agree though. With declining reimbursements it's quite reasonable to expect less interest. Many people will still seek sleep medicine out due to the awesome lifestyle, though. The trick will be to find jobs that are exclusively sleep, which I predict will likely drop off with the declining reimbursements.
 
Shikima said:
and anyone is welcome to correct me, the decline is due to declining reimbursements and the elimination of the apnea mills - physicians actually have to appropriately diagnose, treat and follow-up all sleep related disorders.
Click to expand...

I agree that "mills" are being forced to close down (unless they are part of a hospital). However one can go far by treating primarily sleep apnea if one does it well. There is a lot of value in providing follow up to sleep apnea patients, monitoring downloads, taking care of mask problems, etc. I do agree that it is best for sleep physicians to treat the full spectrum of sleep disorders.

It is frustrating to me how much of the sleep business is determined by who insurance companies/plans choose to contract with (both for the sleep study and for the dme side of things).
 
Any interview invites yet?

Applied to 17 programs/1 rejection/3 interviews
IMG from Pulm CC background
Waiting to hear from Programs
Decent Usmle scores, Good LORS
 
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hi gout
happy to see some response on this thread. sorry to hear about your rejection.

i wish our responses will help the future candidates. i applied to 25 programs along the east coast all the way to chicago. have 14 interviews. working on cancelling the interviews. will be cancelling 4 interviews at this time. yet to hear from the remaining 11 programs mainly NJ, Philadelphia and NY programs. they are yet to review the applications the last I spoke to a couple of programs that I am interested in. they indicated that they usually send out the invites during the second or third week of August. any responses in the past year thread would have helped me reduce my applications. I feel given the amount of traction on this thread and the way the interviews are flowing, it looks like 15 to 20 is an optimal number.
 
IV List

Boston Univ
Drexel
Dartmouth
SLU
U Buffalo
Vanderbilt
Emory
U North Carolina
OSU
Indiana Univ
Tufts
Medical College of Wisc
U Michigan
Henry Ford
 
kpchal2 - Did you apply to any of the Florida programs?
 
I did apply to Jacksonville program as it has more number of positions. Wanted to ensure that I have a better chance.
Can you please post your invs/rejections on this thread. I am sure it will help the upcoming class or atleast people reviewing the forums in anonymous mode.

Guys, it will be great if you can post your experiences. i am sure we expected this in the past.
 
kpchal2 said:
I did apply to Jacksonville program as it has more number of positions. Wanted to ensure that I have a better chance.
Can you please post your invs/rejections on this thread. I am sure it will help the upcoming class or atleast people reviewing the forums in anonymous mode.

Guys, it will be great if you can post your experiences. i am sure we expected this in the past.
Click to expand...

IMG, IM-PEDS-PULM back ground
Some sleep reseach/publications
Good letters
Currently in a highly ranked CC fellowship

Applied to 10 midwest programs, applied late, first week of August

3 interviews so far:

Mayo
SLU
MCW
 
Applied to 15 Sleep programs
Interviews: 0
Rejection: 2

I did apply to Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine fellowship also. The match of PCCM is in December and Sleep is in November. My preference is PCCM. Any suggestions?
 
Hi, I am new to forum.
I had some problem that make me delay for applying.
If I apply next week ,It will be late or not.

Thank you so much in advance
Hope everyone has a good luck in match
 
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Anyone heard from Stanford, Beth Israel?
 
interview from Emory, U Michigan and Cleveland Clinic
 
Interviews from SLU, UMich and OSU.

Reject from Vanderbilt.
 
Congrats mrishi on your interview invites. it is encouraging to see that the programs are willing to wait a little for the applicants. thanks for posting that info. it will surely help. can u let me know what interview dates you had when you got the interview invite from Mayo. you seem to be a week ahead of me on that invite list and wanted to see if the dates are the same or some interview dates are already taken. i had the choice between 9/13, 9/16, 9/23. are there more in ur invite. the reason i ask this is it will help for future scheduling when people are waiting for further invites without being rejected.

gout, congrats on the interviews.

AWhosp congrats on the interview invites. I did apply to Harvard but not to stanford. hassle in getting the cal license put a stop on apping there. yet to hear from BIDMC.

Adding Mayo and Univ of Alabama to the list.

Invite List (compiled list from every one - will help if we can update the list as we go)

Boston Univ
Drexel
Dartmouth
SLU
U Buffalo
Vanderbilt
Emory
U North Carolina
OSU
Indiana Univ
Tufts
Medical College of Wisc
U Michigan
Henry Ford
Cleveland Clinic
Mayo
Univ of Alabama
Univ of Wisconsin

Rejection List

Vanderbilt
 
Good luck to everyone !

I'm currently in a psychiatry fellowship and revisiting my desire to pursue sleep medicine.
Does anyone know how the sleep fellowships view psych residents with regards to acceptance rates into their programs, and how easy vs difficult it would be for me to pursue this in the next year's interview cycle? I'm hoping to combine my skills in sleep and psych in the long run

Many thanks in advance, it's been a while since I've posted due to residency/fellowship life :)
 
A colleague of mine had now gotten invites from U. Chicago, Northwestern, UPenn and Stanford.
 
Can any attending/current fellows reading this forum provide some advice as to what applicants should look for in a good sleep fellowship program when visiting?
 
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Well, a good fellowship program in sleep medicine should be truly multidisciplinary, with rotations in all areas of sleep, pulmonary, Neuro, peds, psych and ENT. The practitioners with primary training in each of these specialities have very different approach to similar problems in sleep medicine and you do want to get exposed to most.

You want a meaning ful experience in pediatric sleep, if for nothing else, for the boards. You should also ask about number of ambulatory sleep studies and MSLTs. And if interested, research should be part of the program.
 
lupinibeanie said:
Good luck to everyone !

I'm currently in a psychiatry fellowship and revisiting my desire to pursue sleep medicine.
Does anyone know how the sleep fellowships view psych residents with regards to acceptance rates into their programs, and how easy vs difficult it would be for me to pursue this in the next year's interview cycle? I'm hoping to combine my skills in sleep and psych in the long run

Many thanks in advance, it's been a while since I've posted due to residency/fellowship life :)
Click to expand...

If you really want to, don't hold back. Be aware, it will be more difficult to apply your new found knowledge and will take a lot of patience to find the correct position for your unique set of skills. Come up with a marketing plan!
 
Mrishi said:
Well, a good fellowship program in sleep medicine should be truly multidisciplinary, with rotations in all areas of sleep, pulmonary, Neuro, peds, psych and ENT. The practitioners with primary training in each of these specialities have very different approach to similar problems in sleep medicine and you do want to get exposed to most.

You want a meaning ful experience in pediatric sleep, if for nothing else, for the boards. You should also ask about number of ambulatory sleep studies and MSLTs. And if interested, research should be part of the program.
Click to expand...

+1. :thumbup:
 
Shikima said:
If you really want to, don't hold back. Be aware, it will be more difficult to apply your new found knowledge and will take a lot of patience to find the correct position for your unique set of skills. Come up with a marketing plan!
Click to expand...
Thank you so much Shikima for the response!

Do you think having pursued a different fellowship prior to sleep will work against me as far as the application and interview process goes ?

I'm currently in my first year of a child psych fellowship and am considering not completing the second year due to a change of heart in my career interest. In all honesty I'm having the most difficulty dealing with the systems that comes with my pedi patients (parents, extended parents and families)
 
lupinibeanie said:
Thank you so much Shikima for the response!

Do you think having pursued a different fellowship prior to sleep will work against me as far as the application and interview process goes ?

I'm currently in my first year of a child psych fellowship and am considering not completing the second year due to a change of heart in my career interest. In all honesty I'm having the most difficulty dealing with the systems that comes with my pedi patients (parents, extended parents and families)
Click to expand...

You know, you may want to consider completing it as there is only 1 year left. There is a plethora of sleep related issues you'll learn about in the Pediatrics population and having that extra training will allow you to be a more effective educator and clinician as you will be able to explain how the two interrelate.

Additionally, you don't want to have to explain leaving fellowship to medical boards or hospital credentialing commitees.

The application process shouldn't be an issue TBH. Programs will go unfilled and it's just a matter of finding a program that will take you on.
 
Do you think simply having a change of heart/career interest, and therefore switching fellowships is something boards and committees will genuinely hold against me ? I know it takes guts and resilience to make such a move, but I do not want to take any action that will hurt me in the long run. I find myself in quite an unexpected and tough position.
 
In all honesty, and others are welcome to reply/rebuttal, the short answer is yes. The system has its checks and balances but can be equally difficult and unreasonable when evaluating MDs coming from training environments. However, I think if you were to jump ship to an available residency spot this year, I don't think many will think twice and may be technically correct in answering no as you did join a fellowship and complete it (not - did you transfer between programs). Get on it sooner than later!
 
Nope, but I did not apply there either ;)

Just to update the interviews I have so far:

Mayo
U of Wisconsin
MCW
U of Missouri Columbia
U of Missouri Kansas City
St Louis U
U of Chicago
U of Minnesota

First interview in couple of days. Best of luck to everyone on the trail.
 
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Just finished my last interview. I will be ranking four programs.
 
Mrishi said:
Nope, but I did not apply there either ;)

Just to update the interviews I have so far:

Mayo
U of Wisconsin
MCW
U of Missouri Columbia
U of Missouri Kansas City
St Louis U
U of Chicago
U of Minnesota

First interview in couple of days. Best of luck to everyone on the trail.
Click to expand...

Last interview on the 25th. I know cutting it very late, most of you probably finished couple of weeks ago. Have been in ICU and was able to interview only very late in the season. Am afraid it may play against me. Ah well! what can you do. Interviewed at 8 programs, will probably rank 5-6 of them. Am amazed by how the training/resources vary from program to program. Best of luck to all!!
 
Matched at my first choice.

Applied to 18 programs.

Ranked 4.
 
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Can someone please post the no of unfilled programs and their names...Hope all the people are matched here
 
Thank you so much Shikima...I would like to ask u a favor if u can please give me list of excellent programs which got unfilled so that I can approach them.
 
I registered with NRMP for the most recent Sleep medicine fellowship match, but I am not able to find the list vacant positions available after the match. The match result was announced on 11/13/13.
Does anybody have an idea as to where can I find a list of unfilled positions.
Will appreciate suggestions.
TY.
 
I registered with NRMP for the most recent Sleep medicine fellowship match, but I am not able to find the list vacant positions available after the match. The match result was announced on 11/13/13.
Does anybody have an idea as to where can I find a list of unfilled positions.
Will appreciate suggestions.
TY.
 
Shikima said:
LSU Shreveport has an open spot for next year if you're looking.
Overall, only 60% of the programs filled.
Click to expand...

I registered with NRMP for the most recent Sleep medicine fellowship match, but I am not able to find the list vacant positions available after the match. The match result was announced on 11/13/13.
Does anybody have an idea as to where can I find a list of unfilled positions.
Will appreciate suggestions.
TY.
 
LSU Shreveport and the program associated with the Detroit VAMC both have 1 position available each. Let me know if you need contact information.
 
Sorry, can't today. I'll just recommend that you drop the ACGME website and look up those programs. Give the coordinator a call regarding any openings.
 
Can someone please tell us how we can get the unmatched programs list?
 
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