Vascular Fellowship for IMG

[Phonk]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Just looking for some advice, regarding how to get a vascular fellowship in the US post vascular training in Australia.

I am currently a PGY - 5 in the first year of 5yr vascular training program in Australia, but I was hoping to do a vascular fellowship in the US after finishing my training here in Australia. I know I will need to sit my USMLE, which I am planning on doing next year, but I am wondering about other things I need to do, and also whether anyone has had experience of international trained medical graduates doing a fellowship in the US.

Thanks in advance.

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[mimelim]

You are a PGY-5 in the first year of your residency? How does that work exactly?

All of the IMGs that I have seen have had to do their residency in the US and then their fellowship. Didn't matter if they already had done residency or fellowship in UK/Germany/India etc.

 

[Winged Scapula]

You are a PGY-5 in the first year of your residency? How does that work exactly?

I'm sure that he did 2 post grad Foundation Years (like everyone does) followed by 3 Surgical House Officer Years before getting into sub specialist training. Fairly standard for Australia: lengthy post grad training with a fair bit of subjectivity on whether or not you advance to the next year or get into training.

All of the IMGs that I have seen have had to do their residency in the US and then their fellowship. Didn't matter if they already had done residency or fellowship in UK/Germany/India etc.

That is generally correct. His other option may be a non-accredited super fellowship as these are often routes for fully trained foreign physicians to get extra training in the US that they can't get at home. I have to ask the OP what he thinks he would get out of repeating the training here that he couldn't get at home in Australia?

 

[Phonk]

Hi Guys,

Yea the training program here is pretty long, I did a one year internship in Ireland, two years as a house officer, rotating through various subspecialties and two years as a non-training registrar, now on the vascular training scheme here in Australia.

That's pretty standard pathway, you can't apply for specialist training until you are at least PGY-3, and there are certain criteria you need to fulfill before you can apply, for vascular I had to do a minimum of three terms of vascular as a house officer, at least two terms of general surgery and one term of ICU/CCU all as a house officer. Each term has to be a minimum of eight weeks long full time employment with on call shifts.

Over here every thing you do is worth points and then you apply to a central, all Australian training body, every year about 70-80 apply for vascular, 35-40 get offered interviews and 8-10 places on the program every year. There were 9 that got on, the year I did.

What I really want out of a fellowship is to basically just operate on a lot of cases, especially difficult complex cases, before becoming a consultant, kind of like a finishing school. I will already have completed my training here in Australia and technically will be signed off to operate independently as a consultant, however, it's pretty common for people over here to go a big center to work on the difficult cases to get their skills up, prior to going out on their own.

I know I need to do USMLE's, but just unsure of any other things I should be looking in to, or any advice from people who have come across international graduates doing post training fellowships in the US.