Switch from IM to Anesthesia

[kirk002]

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I have a friend who is about to finish his IM residency at a community Univ affiiliated program in the Midwest, is an IMG, with USMLE scores in 80's, and with one year Cardio research at Northwestern, who wants to switch to anesthesia. Will be board certified in IM. Has not done any rotations in anesthesia. What advice do any of you all have for applying for '08?? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

 

[souter]

I have a friend who is about to finish his IM residency at a community Univ affiiliated program in the Midwest, is an IMG, with USMLE scores in 80's, and with one year Cardio research at Northwestern, who wants to switch to anesthesia. Will be board certified in IM. Has not done any rotations in anesthesia. What advice do any of you all have for applying for '08?? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Why doesn't he get a Cardiology Fellowship? Cardiologist are the best paid most respected doctors in every hospital I have ever been at. Cardiology Fellowship is only three years and then he would make double or triple what he would get in Anesthesia.

 

[jetproppilot]

I have a friend who is about to finish his IM residency at a community Univ affiiliated program in the Midwest, is an IMG, with USMLE scores in 80's, and with one year Cardio research at Northwestern, who wants to switch to anesthesia. Will be board certified in IM. Has not done any rotations in anesthesia. What advice do any of you all have for applying for '08?? Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Have him PM UT Southwestern.

 

[markneil]

Why doesn't he get a Cardiology Fellowship? Cardiologist are the best paid most respected doctors in every hospital I have ever been at. Cardiology Fellowship is only three years and then he would make double or triple what he would get in Anesthesia.

really now? i would hate for them to lose a little respect. i guess surgeons and anesthesiologists just don't cut it where you've been.

 

[CambieMD]

Your friend showed make arrangements to shadow an anesthesiologist. He has to be able to defend his decision to change specialties. I switched to gas from FP without completing a formal gas rotation. Your friend should work very hard in his IM residency. Letters become very important when you are switching specialties. Switching from IM to gas should not be too difficult.

Cambie

 

[kirk002]

Also my friend is an IMG, anyone know of IMG friendly programs?? Particularly around the west coast.

 

[amyl]

search the forum...there are whole threads dedicated to FMG/IMG friendly

 

[bubalus]

Since he's not a graduating medical student, a program could take him out of the match. I'd suggest sending a CV and cover letter to every program. It's really not all that much work. He'll need to be able to articulate why he wants to change. The down side for a program is that they will be losing half of their GME subsidy if they take him instead of someone who hasn't completed a residency.

 

[$ofTeainChina]

Since he's not a graduating medical student, a program could take him out of the match. I'd suggest sending a CV and cover letter to every program. It's really not all that much work. He'll need to be able to articulate why he wants to change. The down side for a program is that they will be losing half of their GME subsidy if they take him instead of someone who hasn't completed a residency.

So, programs only get money if someone hasn't finished a residency? Seems like there is heap-load of politics going on there. Care to comment on that a little more? thanks in advance.

 

[amyl]

So, programs only get money if someone hasn't finished a residency? Seems like there is heap-load of politics going on there. Care to comment on that a little more? thanks in advance.

programs are only paid for so many years of residency....I think it is 5...beyond that they cannot be paid for having a resident...at least that is how my current resident explained it to me as he is thinking of switching as well.

 

[souter]

So, programs only get money if someone hasn't finished a residency? Seems like there is heap-load of politics going on there. Care to comment on that a little more? thanks in advance.

You only get as many funded years as the first residency you sign up to attend up to five years. If you do IM or FP you get three funded years but if you do surgery you get five. The catch is when you switch from a shorter program to a longer program i.e. FP to surgery the surgery residency only gets half of the money after your third year of training. The program get about 100K per resident from the government so this is a sizable incentive not to take people with prior training but to take fresh med school graduates. The converse if you are a surgical resident and go to FP then you get five years of full paid training.

This is a ridiculous offshoot of the push to try to get people to go into primary care in the mid 90's

I have never seen this explained fully with the exact rules and exceptions and would appreciate if some one knows a link that showed all of the exact rules. Some programs like ER are 3 or 4 years so how many years do you get there? Many program directors seem unwilling to admit that they care at all about these rules so the loss of money to their program must be less that half of the 100K per resident the government gives on average to GME programs.