Pulmonology?

[optimist819]

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hello all,

Is pulmonology under IM specialty? I don't see it mentioned very often. Is there anyone who could give me some info on it? Anyone going into it? Also could ypu guys give me some info on the prognosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis..... have u heard anyhting about it being linked to dilantin? I have a relative with this Dx. Thank you all.

Brandon

 

[onceinawhile]

Yes, pulmonary is a subspecialty of IM. You can do either a 2-year pulmonary fellowship, or a 3-year pulmonary+ critical care fellowship after an IM residency (I believe you can do critical care also after anesthesia or EM).

As far as lung involvement with phenytoin, hypersensitivity pneumonitis has been described. This usually improves quickly with cessation of phenytoin and corticosteroid therapy. IPF (or UIP - usual interstitial pneumonia) is an idiopathic disease and the prognosis is not so good.

 

[Bobblehead]

As mentioned pulmonary is an IM subspecialty. Most programs in the US are combined pulmonary & critical care programs although a few pure pulmonary programs do still exist. Critical care fellowships can also be done but it is not an ABIM subspecialty but rather a "certificate of added qualification" which is usually achieved via pulmonary but can be done via other IM subspecialities (i.e. cardiology, GI, etc.)

Critical care fellowships are also available via anesthesia and surgery residencies with more of an emphasis on surgical critical care although that is not necessarily an absolute statement.

A pulm/ccm fellowship is generally 3 years of which 18 months are clinical and 18 are research oriented. Of course the research portion may be extended further depending on your interests and may even involve more clinical time beyond continuity clinics. There are also further pathways from a general pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship such as sleep and interventional pulmonology.

Here's the ABIM page on subspecialties where you can find links to both pulmonary and critical care: http://www.abim.org/subspec/subspage.htm

 

[optimist819]

thanks guys,

What do u think of the field? Do u know what the hrs and pay are likely to be for practice of pulm as well as critical care? Thank you for your help.

Brandon