OMS1: Wondering about heme/onc fellowship competitiveness/planning for the future.

[Dr Meow]

I was wondering about my chances of matching into heme/onc later.
From what I can tell, Heme/Onc is competitive but I don't know where it fits on the scale of other residencies/fellowships.

is it like:
Gastro>General Surgery>Radiology>Heme/Onc>Anesthesia>IM>Neurology>FM

I'm only OMS1 right now though at a NEW DO school.

Though, before med school, I was pretty set on research and industry. I wanted to do independent cancer research and my PI encouraged me to do med school.

I did research between NIH and Biotech for 7 years. And I got 7 bench publications with impact factors ranging from mid to high ranges (though I think there's some movement to try to fight this corrupt system) entirely on cancer
I'm also doing an additional summer research program this summer on more Cancer research.

So, somehow, a small decision I made after graduating college 8 years ago has led to an entire journey centered 100% around cancer research.
But since Heme/onc is a fellowship of IM, I'm having trouble finding info about its competitiveness since the info isn't as organized as the annual NRMP matches.

Since STEP1 is passfail.....lets say... if we underestiate my STEP2 at 230-240 2 years from now, would I still have a chance at heme/onc?

I'm not entirely sure of the criterias that go into getting into heme/onc.
How much would my publications help?

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[Mehena]

Yes, you can definelty match. The first and attainable step is to secure an academic residency postion. Now work hard to make that happen. Your reasearch is more than enough to match for most of the oncology programs out there but it's just one of the criteria,not the ONLY criteria.

 

[Dr Meow]

I was wondering also,
Do I need to match into an academic IM program to get heme/onc fellowship. What if I got a low tier comminity IM? Does that make it hard to get into heme/onc or just the academic heme/onc?

I'm thinking of dumping my entire salary into starting a cancer research company anyways instead of going through the existing systems like NIH and universities. Because it can take another decade to climb up the whole ladder again. By then, everyone I know will already be dead of cancer because cancer runs in the family. And I need my chance to solve it before it gets me too so I think an independent LLC would be more flexible.

 

[deleted314957]

Please be aware that it will be 10 years or possibly more before you enter practice if you do hemeonc. I have seen many specialties over my 45 years as a physician go from hot to cold to hot, etc. in ten years and hemeonc has been one. DO NOT choose your future life’s work based on what is “ hot” today or what you think will be “hot”. That is a formula for disappointment.

 

[Mehena]

I was wondering also,
Do I need to match into an academic IM program to get heme/onc fellowship. What if I got a low tier comminity IM? Does that make it hard to get into heme/onc or just the academic heme/onc?

I'm thinking of dumping my entire salary into starting a cancer research company anyways instead of going through the existing systems like NIH and universities. Because it can take another decade to climb up the whole ladder again. By then, everyone I know will already be dead of cancer because cancer runs in the family. And I need my chance to solve it before it gets me too so I think an independent LLC would be more flexible.

Yes, the odds are much better, and will be certainly difficult but not impossible to match out of community IM programs. Most of the oncology fellowship are within academic insutitions. You could potenitally have equal clinical IM training at a community shop but name recognition matter, LOR writers matter,networkings matter, all of which the academic settings affords you reasonably well. Why you resort to swimming upstream?

Not sure about the feasiblity of your project. I once had a similar conviction to avail against cancer because i saw family members immensely struggled with and then later succumed to it. I think a great number of oncologists and trainees have similar story to tell or they're survivors of childhood cancer. Having seen how the sausage is made, the interest in research had quickly waned. I focus on prevention and early detection. If you have the conviction, the means, the drive like Elon Musk has for space exploration, then go for it, but it will certainly be a herculean effort.

 

[deleted314957]

Yes, the odds are much better, and will be certainly difficult but not impossible to match out of community IM programs. Most of the oncology fellowship are within academic insutitions. You could potenitally have equal clinical IM training at a community shop but name recognition matter, LOR writers matter,networkings matter, all of which the academic settings affords you reasonably well. Why you resort to swimming upstream?

Not sure about the feasiblity of your project. I once had a similar conviction to avail against cancer because i saw family members immensely struggled with and then later succumed to it. I think a great number of oncologists and trainees have similar story to tell or they're survivors of childhood cancer. Having seen how the sausage is made, the interest in research had quickly waned. I focus on prevention and early detection. If you have the conviction, the means, the drive like Elon Musk has for space exploration, then go for it, but it will certainly be a herculean effort.

“Yes, the odds are much better”. Not in my 44 year experience. Where do you get this? I know of no shortage AT ALL of hemeonc folks from what are considered FMG residency/ fellowship havens ( not saying that the individuals are necessarily, just the programs).

 

[Mehena]

There might be "no shortage" of community hospital trained Hematology/Oncology fellows/doctors, but that doesn't mean they have equal shot in match/NRMP charting outcomes compared to their academic university residency trained counterparts. If you care for more anecdotal evidence, please refer to the yearly fellowship application season threads.

 

[Dr Meow]

Yes, the odds are much better, and will be certainly difficult but not impossible to match out of community IM programs. Most of the oncology fellowship are within academic insutitions. You could potenitally have equal clinical IM training at a community shop but name recognition matter, LOR writers matter,networkings matter, all of which the academic settings affords you reasonably well. Why you resort to swimming upstream?

Not sure about the feasiblity of your project. I once had a similar conviction to avail against cancer because i saw family members immensely struggled with and then later succumed to it. I think a great number of oncologists and trainees have similar story to tell or they're survivors of childhood cancer. Having seen how the sausage is made, the interest in research had quickly waned. I focus on prevention and early detection. If you have the conviction, the means, the drive like Elon Musk has for space exploration, then go for it, but it will certainly be a herculean effort.

I think I can make the research business work.
Afterall, that's what I've been doing for the past 7 years. I worked with a PI at an institution and he got fed up with management and decided to start a biotech company and he invited me to be his 1st employee. So I helped build everything from scratch and it's still doing pretty well.

If you still believe in the dream, don't let society crush you. The reality can sometimes be an illusion. The whole hierarchy is an illusion. Science can be conducted anywhere the laws of physics exist uniformly and where there is money. Luckily, for biotech basic research, a physician salary should be enough. Where it isn't enough is if you want to scale to human trials but that's something to worry about later.

 

[CatFactorial]

I was wondering about my chances of matching into heme/onc later.
From what I can tell, Heme/Onc is competitive but I don't know where it fits on the scale of other residencies/fellowships.

is it like:
Gastro>General Surgery>Radiology>Heme/Onc>Anesthesia>IM>Neurology>FM

I'm only OMS1 right now though at a NEW DO school.

Though, before med school, I was pretty set on research and industry. I wanted to do independent cancer research and my PI encouraged me to do med school.

I did research between NIH and Biotech for 7 years. And I got 7 bench publications with impact factors ranging from mid to high ranges (though I think there's some movement to try to fight this corrupt system) entirely on cancer
I'm also doing an additional summer research program this summer on more Cancer research.

So, somehow, a small decision I made after graduating college 8 years ago has led to an entire journey centered 100% around cancer research.
But since Heme/onc is a fellowship of IM, I'm having trouble finding info about its competitiveness since the info isn't as organized as the annual NRMP matches.

Since STEP1 is passfail.....lets say... if we underestiate my STEP2 at 230-240 2 years from now, would I still have a chance at heme/onc?

I'm not entirely sure of the criterias that go into getting into heme/onc.
How much would my publications help?

Remote, high-impact oncology bench research done as an undergrad (or similar time frame) is going to be noticed by programs if you can intelligently relate it to what your future plans are. simply having done a lot of “cancer research” won’t be distinguishing enough.

Only after the standard stuff (prestige of residency program, letters, exam scores, etc) will those publications matter. The research will add to the standard stuff but certainly won’t supplant them. As a student at a new OMS school, your chances of matching into heme onc would be greatly improved by matching into as prestigious an IM program as you can.

As stated above hard to predict what things will look like but if I were you, I would prepare your application as if applying for cardiology or GI. Good luck!