Questions from medicine resident

[marrionberry]

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Hi all,

Medicine resident here. Long story short: I am interested in finding an alternative career path, away from the sinking ship of internal medicine. I have wondered about possible "clinical" areas within pathology - possibly transfusion medicine/ heme / blood banking. It appears that there are various roads to this area (IM residency, hematology fellowship, or of course path). Could all of you kind folks shed some light on this?

Thanks.

 

[yaah]

Well you can do transfusion med or hemepath after a path residency, both are usually one year. If you did a CP only residency you would be eligible for these spots, but without AP training/boarding you are limiting your career options to research focused and possibly industry or specialty labs.

 

[Anna Plastic]

Hi all,

Medicine resident here. Long story short: I am interested in finding an alternative career path, away from the sinking ship of internal medicine. I have wondered about possible "clinical" areas within pathology - possibly transfusion medicine/ heme / blood banking. It appears that there are various roads to this area (IM residency, hematology fellowship, or of course path). Could all of you kind folks shed some light on this?

Thanks.

You can arrive at a transfusion medicine fellowship through several routes, only one of them being a pathology residency. There are IM/heme/onc types who do this, as well as anesthesiology or pediatric trainees as well. There are quite a few well-known, successful transfusion medicine docs who are hematologists, although the management of most community hospital blood banks falls under pathology.

It depends what your ultimate career direction is, I suppose. Are you considering academic medicine? Full time transfusion medicine pretty much translates into being in academics. From what I've heard, there is a shortage of hematologists who are interested in benign hematology. You can get quite involved with the hemostasis/coagulation side of a practice. However, you could be quite involved with heme/onc if you are involved with stem cell transplantation.

This is directly quoted from the American Board of Pathology website regarding subspecialty certification in blood banking/transfusion: "For applicants, other than those described in 1 a or 1 b (that would be pathology and anesthesiology), who are certified by another member medical specialty board of the ABMS: two years, full time, in blood banking/transfusion medicine including one year as a trainee in a program accredited for such training by the ACGME and one additional year in blood banking/transfusion medicine acceptable to the ABP. ABP approval for the additional year should be obtained before the individual begins the additional year." (http://www.abpath.org/ReqForCert.htm#BB)

I know some transfusion medicine fellowships around the country will have a two year fellowship for IM folks--one a hematology year, the other a transfusion medicine year. Check out www.pathologyoutlines.com to see a list of transfusion medicine fellowships.

Hope this helps.

 

[marrionberry]

This is really helpful. Thanks for your time and thought!

 

[LADoc00]

I was unaware IM was more a "sinking ship" than path. Missed that news flash. If you are looking for $$$:1.) rads 2.) rads 3.) rads 4.) rad onc

 

[pathdawg]

I was unaware IM was more a "sinking ship" than path. Missed that news flash. If you are looking for $$$:1.) rads 2.) rads 3.) rads 4.) rad onc

Yeah, man. IM (and other primary care fields such as FP, Peds, etc) are indeed sinking ships. It is shocking how bad off those guys are economically. Path certainly has its issues, but we are nowhere near the mess that IM is in.

I know people from my med school class in IM (and even certain IM subspecialities like HemeOnc) who are doing terrible. Want an example? How about a partner in a general IM practice in Philly who makes $100k a year. Its true. The hemeonc guy I know works 15 hour days and covers five different hospitals and makes 170k. Talk about not worth it. Like I said, pathology is far from a lucrative field, but its all relative.

 

[LADoc00]

I was thinking of leaving path and doing an ob residency, was curious whether they had a fellowship specializing in womens health ages:18-25, was thinking of opening a little speciality clinic somewhere near a beach, Hawaii maybe.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

I was thinking of leaving path and doing an ob residency, was curious whether they had a fellowship specializing in womens health ages:18-25, was thinking of opening a little speciality clinic somewhere near a beach, Hawaii maybe.

You mean STD checks? Nice. I did some college medicine at the student health center at my old undergrad last year and I witnessed many-a- STD-ridden vag. It is no picnic my dear boy. Whiff test? No thanks. Herpetic ulcer-you can keep that one too. There are a lot of filthy f*cks out there. Thats what I learned on OB and family medicine. On Internal medicine I just learned that there are a lot of fat f*cks.