Research advice?

[EEtoPre-Med]

Hello! I’m a first year fellow at a clinically heavy program at an academic medical center. We don’t have a lot of dedicated research time. I am 90% sure that I want to do community practice and see everything. However, I could see myself doing an academic-lite position where I teach residents and fellows and cover an organ system or 2 (GI and GU) or something. Research does not make my heart sing. However, some of my co-fellows are starting to do research projects and I worry that if I don’t do much I will be shutting the door on these academic lite positions. I’m early in my career and don’t want to have a change of heart later. So I guess my question is, if you just wanted to have a CV that would qualify for working at an academic center but you don’t necessarily want to be a research-king, what does that look like? I know in academics, more is better, but I’m asking the groups opinion having seen a lot more CV’s than me.

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[ONC2023]

Hey. I’m two years ahead of you in training. Congratulations on making the best decision of your life - leaving academics and going to community practice.

Virtually all the fellows at my academic program did the most worthless research program with zero results, and all of them had no problem getting a fake academic position (ie, you will work very hard seeing patients but they will pay you next to nothing because of “protected research time” and you are “research” faculty). Do literally anything - write a trial if you want, do a retrospective review, do a biomarker study if your program has a tissue bank, etc. The actual study or results mean next to nothing if you just want a clinical position at an academic center. Virtually all fellow research is worthless.

As for going to community practice, just want to emphasize that you should resist letting your program railroad you into becoming ultra specialized. Don’t let them force you to become a single organ specialist, as this will limit community options.

Good luck

 

[checkpointinhibitor]

Agree with above.
Be true to yourself.
Either
A. full academics - research, grant, specialization, be a thought leader
OR
B. Community - subspecialize on region or group of ds possible.

If B. then avoid places with fellowships etc, waste of time to teach and pays pennies if productivity or comp is focus. Focus on being a good doctor. Any side gig that involves teaching will surely take away more time, more emails/admin headaches and will slow you down.

Unfortunately there is no middle road.

 

[solidonc2020]

Just want to mention that there are "academic-lite" positions which are fully clinical, have access to clinical trials, and disease subspecialty focus that still pay reasonably well for employees. Those positions likely won't have the high end income potential that true private groups do, but they also will come with some of the perks of being in a large health system (large referral base, tumor boards, no need to worry with business-related things like expenses, hiring/firing, private equity buyouts, etc).

Whether you should take a position like this or a true community/private practice job is entirely based on your job preference (want to be more entrepreneurial and hustle or would you rather just go to work and collect a paycheck?) and geography.

ETA: To answer your question about needing research for these roles, I don't think many will really care for these type positions (i.e. 100% clinical) especially if you come from a respected academic program. If your fellowship program is more community based, it may help to have something from fellowship on your resume to break into the academic world.

 

[EEtoPre-Med]

Awesome! I appreciate the replies from everyone. I definitely want to focus on being a well-rounded oncologist (and hematologist). I think I have to do at least one project in fellowship to graduate but it’s reassuring that I won’t have to do much more than that for the job market.

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

Agree what others said.

It is a shame but nobody will pay you to teach, even though supervising a fellow is a better model than supervising a midlevel.

I did interview at a Midwest community program where you supervised their fellows clinic once per month and still got all the RVUs for it which IMO would be the ideal setup.