Primary Care versus Categorical

[jeffb]

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Hello folks

Can you please tell me the difference between primary care and categorical. I plan to do a fellowship in cardiology after my internal medicine residency. What is the advantage/disadvantage of choosing one over the other.

Many Thanks for your replies

 

[Voxel]

The difference may be big. Here's why. If you do primary care, medicare graduate medical education funding will not pay for your 3 years as a cardiology fellowship. Hospitals now receive about $100K per resident/fellow they train. The fellowship funding gets more complicated, but let's leave things simple. Cardiology is a tough fellowship to get. Let's say you have two equally qualified residents one from primary care and one from categorical. The program would be hard pressed to leave the $100K on the table to take the primary care resident.