Upcoming 4th year DO student, wanting to do cardiology. Need some advice!

[justbananas]

So I'm looking for some advice. My goal is to become a cardiologist and I want to maximize my chances to make that happen. My question is would it be smarter to apply to an osteopathic (ACGME accredited) IM program with an in-house cardiology fellowship? Or, attend a low/mid tier university program? I've heard that osteopathic programs like to take IM candidates from within if they can.

To complicate the issue, I haven't taken Step 1. I've only taken COMLEX I. I'm gearing up to take COMLEX 2 and was planning on taking Step 2 as well, since that material is roughly the same. But, I'm wondering if I should I forego step 2 and take step 1 instead, since the allopathic IM programs seem to value that more. I'm pretty confident I could score at least a 230 on Step 1, and I'm thinking I could score 240-250 on Step 2. Thanks for any and all advice.

~Justbanans

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[Limvostov]

So I'm looking for some advice. My goal is to become a cardiologist and I want to maximize my chances to make that happen. My question is would it be smarter to apply to an osteopathic (ACGME accredited) IM program with an in-house cardiology fellowship? Or, attend a low/mid tier university program? I've heard that osteopathic programs like to take IM candidates from within if they can.

To complicate the issue, I haven't taken Step 1. I've only taken COMLEX I. I'm gearing up to take COMLEX 2 and was planning on taking Step 2 as well, since that material is roughly the same. But, I'm wondering if I should I forego step 2 and take step 1 instead, since the allopathic IM programs seem to value that more. I'm pretty confident I could score at least a 230 on Step 1, and I'm thinking I could score 240-250 on Step 2. Thanks for any and all advice.

~Justbanans

Join a program with an in house cardiology program either MD or DO. Preferably with acgme accreditation. Work hard in residency, don't annoy the cardiology fellows or attendings. Get letters and interview broadly. Research is always good. Do an elective or away rotation in cardiology to gain some extra experience, letters, and show interest/commitment.

Good luck.

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[Cardiologyoncall]

I’m a D.O. that went to a ACGME approved program (That was previously a D.O. program) that only took COMLEX. I passed all three with very high scores. I ended up applying for interventional cardiology and got my number one spot. When I was on interview trails the main thing people commented on with my application was the research (which I did as a medicine resident) I had with the journal of the American society of echocardiography. Scores never came up and in my opinion all they are there for is to preform the initial screen of applicants. Some MD programs will auto screen you out with no STEP scores. Others screen out if you ever failed an exam. If you want more interviews definitely recommend taking STEP just to avoid getting autoscreened out. If not look up places that have previously had DO fellows as they will be more DO friendly. Please feel free to contact me. Love helping my fellow DOs join the amazing field of cardiology.

 

[dragonfly99]

Do some kind of cardiology research project and get your name on a paper(s). Get letters of recommendation from professors of cardiology (preferable full professors and/or associate professors) and suck up to them. Try to match at a university program that takes a lot of its own IM residents into the cards fellowship. Apply to a LOT of cardiology fellowships. If you are flexible in terms of geography you can probably get in if you get into a decent medicine residency. I don't know anything about DO cardiology fellowships so I'll refrain from commenting. I think only 1 or 2 of the cardiology fellowships I applied to even had any interest in my USMLE scores, but based on comments of other people above, perhaps some will screen you out if you don't have a USMLE score(s), and/or if they don't like the score. It's been years since I applied, but at the time, I think Baylor required people to submit their USMLE scores, and 1 other program said we could if we wanted. I think one program asked me why I sent them my scores (I had done it b/c a couple other programs wanted them and I wasn't sure if the others did, since they hadn't said...). I believe it is officially discouraged (by ACGME or whomever accredits cardiology fellowships) for cardiology fellowship programs to try to screen ppl based on USMLE scores, as well.

 

[dragonfly99]

The importance of sucking up to "important" cardiology attendings (i.e. those who can help you the most, who are well connected to other academic institutions, etc.), cannot be overemphasized. I didn't understand this when I was a trainee and am not that great at glad-handling people, but if you are an introvert, you should learn to fake extroversion and to suck up to people. It may be painful but it's necessary from time to time. Also, the "nice" people like to help trainees as they were once in your shoes.