Three or More Fellowships

[exPCM]

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I have seen a few people here posting about people doing three or more fellowships. I have only met one pathologist who has completed 3 fellowships. I am not counting the people I have met who trained during the time when pathology residencies lasted five years and who list their fifth year of residency as a fellowship on their C.V. What is everyone else out there seeing?
Sorry to Trent05, I did change the topic.

 

[Gene_]

3 fellowships? That must be for people that like making 40k per year.

 

[yaah]

I have met two, and know of a third who is doing three. In part, they did three because the one they really wanted they didn't get until the end, or they decided to do the third late. I have a hard enough time seeing the advantage of 2 fellowships in most situations, let alone three. If you are going to do a subspecialty within surg path, why do surg path also? To my knowledge, you aren't really going to make yourself that much more attractive with multiple fellowships. Just pick the one you really want when you start. If you can't get it, then multiple might be a consideration.

The combinations I have seen

Heme/Surg/GI
Immunopath/Surg/heme
Surg/Gyn/GU

In all of these cases the surg path was a "filler" year. One could say for credentialing purposes but GI or Gyn or Immunopath would fill that as well. There are a lot of people who just seem to consider a surg path fellowship (even after the loss of the credentialing year) as part of their residency training. I was talking with one attending here yesterday about this phenomenon. He was kind of dumbfounded by the whole thing.

The problem some people have is that they waste part of their training (or otherwise don't use it well, for whatever reason, sometimes justified). Or they just don't have the appropriate training or the self confidence. Personally, I am making the most of my elective time and then not doing a general surg path fellowship. I am not really doing "research" or "self study" months. Am spending time doing consults as well as the self study, etc.

 

[SLUsagar]

i've met only 1 person (actually an attending here): AP--> SP/IPOX/heme/cyto. he/she only uses 3 of these in daily s/o though.

while it's great learning, seems a bit overkill to do 2+ fellowships, esp. when you don't end up using one of the specialities on a regular basis.

 

[djmd]

i've met only 1 (an attending here actually, who doesn't use of the fellowships he/she did at all)...person did: AP--> SP/IPOX/heme/cyto.

while it's great learning, seems a bit overkill to do 2+ fellowships, esp. when you don't end up using one of the specialities on a regular basis.

What exactly do they do then if they don't use any of those?
Chemistry?

 

[SLUsagar]

What exactly do they do then if they don't use any of those?
Chemistry?

my bad, need to clarify (changing original post)...this person doesn't use one of these fellowships in daily s/o anymore (other 3 he/she does).

 

[yaah]

Wow, that's excessive. To me, sounds like the "IPOX" fellowship was either a research year, or a place holding year to get to something else. You can learn all you need to know as electives during other fellowships. In fact, if you budget your time well, you can do a lot of other work and learning at other times also. I can't imagine doing 3 fellowships and then thinking, "what the hell, I'll do cyto now."

I think a lot of people fail to realize that you can adequately function as a pathologist in almost any area without doing a fellowship, provided you take certain steps on your own. I mean, there are plenty of GI and GU experts, to name two fields, who never did fellowships in those areas. There are also people who are excellent at derm, cyto and hemepath who never did fellowships. Having the board certification gives you a bit extra in terms of credibility, but if you have the skills that gets you a lot of the way on its own.

 

[pathresident]

i've met only 1 person (actually an attending here): AP--> SP/IPOX/heme/cyto. he/she only uses 3 of these in daily s/o though.

while it's great learning, seems a bit overkill to do 2+ fellowships, esp. when you don't end up using one of the specialities on a regular basis.

I think to be completely fair, you should also mention that this person did 2 years of AP+4 fellowships, which only equals a total of 6 years of training. That's equivalent to what many AP/CP people do now (probably including you). Isn't that true?

 

[pathresident]

Wow, that's excessive. To me, sounds like the "IPOX" fellowship was either a research year, or a place holding year to get to something else

The IPOX fellowship was common back then and I don't think it was a holding year for most people.

 

[SLUsagar]

I think to be completely fair, you should also mention that this person did 2 years of AP+4 fellowships, which only equals a total of 6 years of training. That's equivalent to what many AP/CP people do now (probably including you). Isn't that true?

Your statement is correct. I think people like that aren't wasting their time necessarily, especially since it'd be equiv. to AP/CP person with 2 fellowship years. This individual in particular is indeed a rockstar pathologist nonetheless, I was simply COMMENTING on the paucity of individuals doing 2+ fellowships based on the single person I knew who fit this profile.

 

[LADoc00]

i've met only 1 person (actually an attending here): AP--> SP/IPOX/heme/cyto. he/she only uses 3 of these in daily s/o though.

while it's great learning, seems a bit overkill to do 2+ fellowships, esp. when you don't end up using one of the specialities on a regular basis.

Add the above person I believe if we are talking about the same person did a PhD in Theoretical Biophysics at Stanford....the bell shaped curve doesnt apply, this is like 10+ standard deviations outside that. Also if Im not mistaken has weaponry arensal (someplace safe, maybe not in Palo Alto) that would make Rambo blush...

That person is more of an academic monk studying Kung Fu for like 30+ years. Thats cool but that aint business. Business is for people with loans to payback, mortgage payments to make, retirement plans to save for all in an evironment where healthcare expenditures are such that the socialists could pull the rug out from underneath you at anytime.

You do NOT have time to do 2 fellowships. There isnt time and it is not worth the time even if you did. Let alone 3+. I wont even go there. Read my sig FFS!

 

[yaah]

Well, you can be a rockstar pathologist without any fellowships. There are a lot of residents I know who are more competent in areas than fellows who have had a year of full experience in the same area.