Path residency shorter?

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pathres

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According to our path director, the boards have approved shortening pathology residency from five to four years by eliminating the credentialing year. Does anyone know when this takes effect and/or how to get a copy of a written article about this?

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Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is the "credentialing year"? Is this part of all path residencies? I am a third-year med student who is very interested in pathology, and I would appreciate any info on this topic or path residency in general. I have read many helpful posts by Great Pumpkin on various aspects of the pathology residency; maybe he could help us out here?
 
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Yes they are eliminating the credentialing year, but they have not decided when it will take effect and who will be included. So all I can say so far is stay tuned.

The way the credentialing year works now is that a resident has to have one year of post med school training before or beyond the four year required path training to sit for the boards. You can read all about it on the American Board of Path website. <a href="http://www.abpath.org" target="_blank">www.abpath.org</a>

Most people satisfy this requirement by doing a 5th year in path training, but research, conventional internship, and other things can count.

Personally I hope that they change it to four years for me so I can do a fellowship my 5th year. The way it is now if I want to become board certified in the fellowship I have to do it as a sixth year.

Sorry I am not much help on the changes yet but I am waiting with fingers crossed myself.
 
Hi...does anyone know if the number of American applicants for pathology is expected to be the same this year as last year? More? Less?

Thanks!

FYI...it's not yet decided about when the residency will be shortened, but my program director says it is "95% certain to start for those applying next year for residency (present MSIIIs)".
 
I have heard a wide variety of opinions of when it will take affect (the 4 year program) and who it will affect.

Ranging from won't affect anyoner applying now (maybe class of 2003) to It will affect Current residents (up to 3rd year)

And regardin the numbers this year, I have heard it seems up, but nothing offical (some suggestion of a significant increase)

-DjMd
 
I can only say how the applicant pool has been at my program, but wow! There are more US applicants and of higher caliber. I bet this is how it is all over. Not to worry it still is not anything like some of the other specialties. But, if you are an IMG it could be getting tougher. My school which in the past has taken plenty of IMGs is only interviewing one.
 
My two cents :cool:
I have a friend on the interview trail (mostly northeast) who says that the applicant pool is much better this year than previous years per program directors (MGH, Penn, Chicago, a few others I'm forgetting...) No hard facts, though.
 
I'm also a third year interested in path. My guess about the competitiveness of pathology is this...Path has been filling about 45% of it's spots with American Grads the past 3 years as per AAMC. Last year, the number of AMGs applying went up, but the number of total spots expanded to fit them. I get the sense that there are a fair number of people who apply to path as a backup if they don't match into radiology or some other more competitive field. Some people "fall into pathology" in this manner.

I think it's basically lagging about 2 or so years behind anesthesia in it's competitiveness. I think this year it will maybe fill around 55% or so with AMGs. I think path is getting a spill-over from those applicants. I think when I apply, with the residency shortened, it might fill up to 65-70% with AMGs. This would approximate last year's anesthesia match rate. Does this sound reasonable to anybody?

Thanks
 
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