Research and Radiation Oncology

[Asparagoose]

Hello,

I'm an M3 and had some questions about the radiation oncology match. I come from a low-tier US MD school with no radiation oncology home program. Taking step in January. I co-authored one basic science publication in radiation oncology. Apart from that, I have co-authorship on retrospective studies in oncology (abstracts and manuscripts) and lead authorship on case reports not related to oncology (local presentation, national presentation, and manuscript). My question is this: I've looked at the "Charting Outcomes for 2018" and noticed that the average amount of abstracts, presentations, and publications was 15 for rad. onc. Do "abstracts, presentations, and publications" refer to anything that I co-authored, even if it is an abstract which went to a conference that I didn't present at? Also, if a case report or retrospective study produced presentations at a local+national conference as well as a manuscript, does this count as 3 items toward this total? Overall, I'm trying to get a feel of where I stand in terms of research for rad. onc. as well as other specialties, knowing that rad. onc. is know for being "research heavy". Thanks.

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[atomi]

A first author pub, your name on a few retrospective reviews, and Astro presentation should be plenty. But you might want to travel over to the Rad onc forum and make sure you really want to jump in the dumpster fire full of rabbid raccoons trying to get the last remaining non-burned scraps that is the state of the job market currently,

 

[Lnsean]

A first author pub, your name on a few retrospective reviews, and Astro presentation should be plenty. But you might want to travel over to the Rad onc forum and make sure you really want to jump in the dumpster fire full of rabbid raccoons trying to get the last remaining non-burned scraps that is the state of the job market currently,

Buy in at the lowwwsssssss

 

[Money Moniker]

Rad onc might just have the worst squeeze to juice ratio of any specialty in medicine. The idea of having to gun just as hard as for derm only to end up in a job market deader than path makes me slightly nauseous.

But yeah, I'm sure you'll be happy working for table scraps 80 miles south of Springfield, Missouri if you have a "true passion" for the field. Do what you love brah!

 

[atomi]

Buy in at the lowwwsssssss

Buy low, sell lower?

 

[atomi]

Rad onc might just have the worst squeeze to juice ratio of any specialty in medicine. The idea of having to gun just as hard as for derm only to end up in a job market deader than path makes me slightly nauseous.

But yeah, I'm sure you'll be happy working for table scraps 80 miles south of Springfield, Missouri if you have a "true passion" for the field. Do what you love brah!

You can still make 700k in BFE Missouri . For now. But major metro area you won’t do much better than primary care if you can even get a job.

 

[Asparagoose]

You can still make 700k in BFE Missouri . For now. But major metro area you won’t do much better than primary care if you can even get a job.

Haha damn, this thread makes me sad. Rad. onc. is such a cool field, especially because I'm interested in all the physics that's involved. Guess I should go back to the drawing board.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Anything that you're a co-author in (including if you didn't present it) is included in that list of abstracts/posters/presentations.

Something you worked on that went to national conference and manuscript is at least 2 on that list. I wouldn't include local if you also presented it at a national conference.

If you do well on Step 1, have a few publications (including one or two first-authors) and work with a known radiation oncology department for an away/LoRs/etc. you should likely be able to match into Rad Onc. Whether you truly want to is up to you and you can certainly see the opinions of the posters above in regards to that.

While the above posters are likely on the outside looking in and understandably hyperbolic in their statements, I will agree that the job market is a significant concern for current residents, and there does not seem to be any strong drive from the academic leadership of this field to reverse this at the current time. Therefore, medical students, mostly those with very strong geographical restrictions, should consider very carefully whether they want to enter this field.

 

[W19]

My friend, who is a PGY3 RadOnc, does not think the market is that bad. He thinks it's SDN hyperbole. Do your research OP!

 

[atomi]

My friend, who is a PGY3 RadOnc, does not think the market is that bad. He thinks it's SDN hyperbole. Do your research OP!

Your friend won’t be applying for another 2 years, so that’s a pretty worthless opinion. You can monitor the Astro job board yourself to see how many new positions are posted each week. You won’t have to dedicate a lot of time to keeping up.

 

[W19]

Your friend won’t be applying for another 2 years, so that’s a pretty worthless opinion. You can monitor the Astro job board yourself to see how many new positions are posted each week. You won’t have to dedicate a lot of time to keeping up.

I don't know if his opinion is worthless because he said people who graduated from his programs have gotten job offers in big cities and nice suburbia...