Pre-residency fellowships

[monkeydad]

How useful are pre-residency fellowships in obtaining an ophthalmology residency spot?

I am currently a practicing full time board certified Internal Medicine doctor, but have decided to make a career change and pursue ophthalmology. Unfortunately, I have no research experience in ophthalmology and my scores are in the average range for ophthalmology applicants. A Pre-residency fellowship sounds like a good way to get my foot in the door at a program as well as obtaining research to bolster my application for the match next year.

Any advice as to how to pursue this career change?

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[I Surgeon]

How useful are pre-residency fellowships in obtaining an ophthalmology residency spot?

I am currently a practicing full time board certified Internal Medicine doctor, but have decided to make a career change and pursue ophthalmology. Unfortunately, I have no research experience in ophthalmology and my scores are in the average range for ophthalmology applicants. A Pre-residency fellowship sounds like a good way to get my foot in the door at a program as well as obtaining research to bolster my application for the match next year.

Any advice as to how to pursue this career change?

Try www.sfmatch.org, under "ophthalmology"-> and then "vacancies". I believe they have 2 spots for pre-residency fellowships. 👍

 

[GuP]

can someone explain what a pre-residency fellowship is and when is it done (i.e. after PGY1 or before PGY1)?

 

[victorkomd]

I am a internal medicine resident finishing my 3rd year. I will be starting an ophthalmology residency next month. Let me just say that finding a spot in ophthalmology is going to be difficult, but if you are willing to move to any part of the country, then you will find a spot eventually. It may take time (ie. applying twice).

I would recommend doing a rotation at a well known institution and getting a strong recommendation letter from one of the faculty members. I would also recommend finding a research project (even just a review article) to work on to bolster your resume. Doing a pre-residency fellowship can increased your chances significantly at matching at that particular institution.

Some programs may not consider your application because 4th year medical students are more attractive due to the medicare subsidy salary issue. It is hard to know who will and who won't short of asking the program director directly which I wouldn't recommend doing. Email me if you have any other questions:

[email protected]

Best of luck.

 

[PDT4CNV]

How useful are pre-residency fellowships in obtaining an ophthalmology residency spot?

I am currently a practicing full time board certified Internal Medicine doctor, but have decided to make a career change and pursue ophthalmology. Unfortunately, I have no research experience in ophthalmology and my scores are in the average range for ophthalmology applicants. A Pre-residency fellowship sounds like a good way to get my foot in the door at a program as well as obtaining research to bolster my application for the match next year.

Any advice as to how to pursue this career change?

I think doing an ophthalmology rotation and a fellowship might be the way to go, even if it delays applying for a year. Get the best possible LOR from a department chairman or somebody well known, those mean a lot in ophthalmology.

With declining reimbursements, increasing malpractice, ridiculous laws about secondary income generators such as optical shops and ASCs, and terribly aggravating (and possibly threatening) scope of practice issues in ophthalmology....are you sure? Be sure.

Hem/Onc, GI--those have plenty of procedures to be done, good lifestyle, etc. Dental school and being a dentist or periodontist is actually pretty good. Fewer reimbusement problems, good lifestyle, plenty of procedures. Not a bad consideration...Or, get a business degree if your going to change careers. Your lifestyle will be better and you will actually get paid what your worth.

Ophthalmology is an absolutely fascinating field, with a large variety, challenging highly technicial procedures, and the ability to truly help people in a way they can easily recognize. But, the practice of ophthalmology is becoming ever more difficult as reimbursements plummet and we face other issues mentioned above. An ophthalmology practice requires a large investment as we require more diagnostic and surgical equipment than most any other medical or surgical specialty. This equipment is extremely expensive (tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single device or machine). Just keep this in mind. Good luck.

 

[boondocksaint]

I think doing an ophthalmology rotation and a fellowship might be the way to go, even if it delays applying for a year. Get the best possible LOR from a department chairman or somebody well known, those mean a lot in ophthalmology.

With declining reimbursements, increasing malpractice, ridiculous laws about secondary income generators such as optical shops and ASCs, and terribly aggravating (and possibly threatening) scope of practice issues in ophthalmology....are you sure? Be sure.

Hem/Onc, GI--those have plenty of procedures to be done, good lifestyle, etc. Dental school and being a dentist or periodontist is actually pretty good. Fewer reimbusement problems, good lifestyle, plenty of procedures. Not a bad consideration...Or, get a business degree if your going to change careers. Your lifestyle will be better and you will actually get paid what your worth.

Ophthalmology is an absolutely fascinating field, with a large variety, challenging highly technicial procedures, and the ability to truly help people in a way they can easily recognize. But, the practice of ophthalmology is becoming ever more difficult as reimbursements plummet and we face other issues mentioned above. An ophthalmology practice requires a large investment as we require more diagnostic and surgical equipment than most any other medical or surgical specialty. This equipment is extremely expensive (tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single device or machine). Just keep this in mind. Good luck.

Thanks for this post, it is quite helpful. As a soon-to-be MSIV, with less than a year till the match, you've brought up many of my fears. Right now I am struggling between ophthalmology followed by oculoplastics fellowship and internal medicine for residency followed by GI or Nephro fellowship. I enjoy aspects of both fields, and honestly believe I would be happy in either field. I like the detective-like work of an IM doc, and I like the surgical and clinical blend of ophtho. In my eyes, lifestyle and salary have become deciding factors. Originally I thought ophtho would be fine. They have always done well salary wise, and have had a decent lifestyle. But posts like yours (are you an attending or finishing residency?), make me question the salary security of ophtho. What's your take on this? Would you have gone the IM route if you had the chance again? Unfortunately, there aren't many ophthalmolgists to ask around here, since they are mostly affiliated with my institution, and they probably wouldn't feel comfortable talking about this with an MSIV.

Also, another question involves branching into business/pharma after say 10-15 years of practice. I think that might not be a bad idea. It may perhaps offer greater financial gain and better job hours. However, would it be difficult to branch into that from ophtho versus IM? Any input on these matters is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[GuP]

Besides SFMatch, how else can you find out about these clinical fellowships?

BTW, I contacted Bascom in Miami about their path ophtho fellowship and they pretty much said that no one has gone from being a clinical fellow to a resident. Buyer beware!

 

[marsupial]

Whoa I heard that it was a shoo in for residency. So what do these people do? Float on endlessly?

 

[n_a_t]

Besides SFMatch, how else can you find out about these clinical fellowships?

BTW, I contacted Bascom in Miami about their path ophtho fellowship and they pretty much said that no one has gone from being a clinical fellow to a resident. Buyer beware!

i think that what they meant was that noone who was a fellow there matched into THEIR OWN program, but most likely matched elsewhere. if you take into consideration that the institutions that have these fellowships are typically highly competitive for ophtho residency, and that most people who do the fellowships are doing so because they didn't get in the first time around or for other reasons are not the most competitive applicants, it makes sense that they would have essentially zero chance of matchign into that program. for example, why in the hell would a competitive program like that want to accept a re-applicant with average board scores who worked there for a year when they can have an aoa md/phd harvard med school graduate with 280 step 1 instead?

however, they are more likely to match elsewhere into any program which is not as competitive, more likely to match, than if they had not done the fellowship.

 

[TeddyKGB]

i think that what they meant was that noone who was a fellow there matched into THEIR OWN program, but most likely matched elsewhere. if you take into consideration that the institutions that have these fellowships are typically highly competitive for ophtho residency, and that most people who do the fellowships are doing so because they didn't get in the first time around or for other reasons are not the most competitive applicants, it makes sense that they would have essentially zero chance of matchign into that program. for example, why in the hell would a competitive program like that want to accept a re-applicant with average board scores who worked there for a year when they can have an aoa md/phd harvard med school graduate with 280 step 1 instead?

however, they are more likely to match elsewhere into any program which is not as competitive, more likely to match, than if they had not done the fellowship.

I spent a lot of time at Bascom and knew one of the path pre-residency fellows. He ended up matching the following year at another program. I don't know overall if this is what ends up happening consistently, but it worked for him.

 

[GuP]

I spent a lot of time at Bascom and knew one of the path pre-residency fellows. He ended up matching the following year at another program. I don't know overall if this is what ends up happening consistently, but it worked for him.

Where did he end up matching?

 

[navigator420]

to any of the imgs out there who have done preresidency fellowships what was your visa status, when u did fellowship. was it a J1 VISA?

 

[TeddyKGB]

Where did he end up matching?

Not sure, lost track of him. I only know he did b/c my attendings told me.