Which fellowship to do?

[bbb222]

I'm currently starting PGY2 and have an interest in a breast fellowship later on. What are the good programs out there?

I've heard that GI and hemepath fellowships might lead to more jobs. I'm not really a big fan of those specialties, but would do a fellowship in them if it gives me an edge over breast in terms of job outlook. What do you guys recommend?

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[pathstudent]

Cornell Yale Vanderbilt and bi are the best programs for breast.

 

[KCShaw]

Focus on what you enjoy most first and foremost; you're more likely to be better at it, and the enthusiasm will more likely shine through and support your moving forward in that subspecialty. There's nothing wrong with having some alternative options, but I wouldn't go chasing them solely because there might be more job opportunities. It's not like nobody wants another good person to look at breast biopsies.

For the most part, employers want a strong general surgical pathologist first and foremost, and a subspecialist second.

With that in mind, I don't know what the market is saying right now. In my mind, heme is useful as even busy services don't have huge numbers of heme-specific specimens, and the current trend seems to be a relatively complex workup. Many other surg subspecialties are less complex in terms of staining workup, etc., and most biopsies probably aren't going to need to be sent out (almost everyone sees a decent number of GI, prostate, etc.). All depends on the practice, though, and the overall market fluctuates a bit year to year.

 

[KeratinPearls]

Focus on what you enjoy most first and foremost; you're more likely to be better at it, and the enthusiasm will more likely shine through and support your moving forward in that subspecialty. There's nothing wrong with having some alternative options, but I wouldn't go chasing them solely because there might be more job opportunities. It's not like nobody wants another good person to look at breast biopsies.

For the most part, employers want a strong general surgical pathologist first and foremost, and a subspecialist second.

With that in mind, I don't know what the market is saying right now. In my mind, heme is useful as even busy services don't have huge numbers of heme-specific specimens, and the current trend seems to be a relatively complex workup. Many other surg subspecialties are less complex in terms of staining workup, etc., and most biopsies probably aren't going to need to be sent out (almost everyone sees a decent number of GI, prostate, etc.). All depends on the practice, though, and the overall market fluctuates a bit year to year.

As Im memorizing the compendium, what do employers look at in regards to CP? I wish I can just throw away this book and just look at slides and work to be good at what I will be doing the rest of my life.

 

[2121115]

As Im memorizing the compendium, what do employers look at in regards to CP? I wish I can just throw away this book and just look at slides and work to be good at what I will be doing the rest of my life.

IMO, if you truly want to be a good AP diagnostician then you need to know what is in that book.

 

[KCShaw]

You'd have to ask employers about that, or cruise the posted jobs to see what is currently sought after. Although the general recommendation is to go AP/CP, with the exception of actual CP specific jobs my own very brief scan of postings revealed few that requested combined AP/CP. But, they're there, and from a job-hunt perspective I think it only improves your chances. I also generally agree that more good education is more good education, and frankly it's all under the guise of "pathology"; if you've already put in the time, just a little more effort gets you the certification. There's enough difficulty with the term "pathologist" (do you mean an ABP certified MD? PhD? non-ABP certified MD who just does a lot of research? -- there are prominent people with those letters who all identify themselves as "pathologists") without all this having to qualify whether you're AP, CP, or AP/CP, anyway.

The fact that you might choose to drop it in 10 years at the time of recertification doesn't change that it's useful in the short term.

 

[pathres2]

Cornell Yale Vanderbilt and bi are the best programs for breast.

Ever since Dr. Rosen retired, the Cornell breast pathology fellowship is questionable!

Vanderbilt is also strange because Dr. Page is kind of an outlier on a lot of diagnostic issues!!!

I agree with Yale, BID (Boston) and would add (maybe slightly lower):
Brigham (Lester)
MGH (Sgroi)

 

[yaah]

As Im memorizing the compendium, what do employers look at in regards to CP? I wish I can just throw away this book and just look at slides and work to be good at what I will be doing the rest of my life.

Employers want people who can help run labs or run labs. Generally this is stuff that you don't learn in residency. You learn about the science and the clinical correlation and stuff, but you don't learn administrative and things like setting up new tests, preparing for inspections, running a budget, etc. This is why many groups often want to hire someone with experience. But they know new grads are not going to have this, so instead they would look for someone who demonstrates enthusiasm and ability to learn things quickly, and who works well with others.

 

[lipomas]

You'd have to ask employers about that, or cruise the posted jobs to see what is currently sought after. Although the general recommendation is to go AP/CP, with the exception of actual CP specific jobs my own very brief scan of postings revealed few that requested combined AP/CP. But, they're there, and from a job-hunt perspective I think it only improves your chances. I also generally agree that more good education is more good education, and frankly it's all under the guise of "pathology"; if you've already put in the time, just a little more effort gets you the certification. There's enough difficulty with the term "pathologist" (do you mean an ABP certified MD? PhD? non-ABP certified MD who just does a lot of research? -- there are prominent people with those letters who all identify themselves as "pathologists") without all this having to qualify whether you're AP, CP, or AP/CP, anyway.

The fact that you might choose to drop it in 10 years at the time of recertification doesn't change that it's useful in the short term.

The better jobs would prefer AP/CP, IMHO. A lot of advertised jobs don't care if they get AP only since the job consists of plowing through biopsies. Many private groups have to have people in charge of various labs (you are limited by certification organizations as to how many labs you can supervise).

I did AP and CP. I do both. Most of my job is AP but I use CP knowledge a lot. A lot of people blow it off or think it's worthless but generally that's a silly argument. It's one more year of training, that's it.

 

[pathstudent]

Ever since Dr. Rosen retired, the Cornell breast pathology fellowship is questionable!

Vanderbilt is also strange because Dr. Page is kind of an outlier on a lot of diagnostic issues!!!

I agree with Yale, BID (Boston) and would add (maybe slightly lower):
Brigham (Lester)
MGH (Sgroi)

thanks I didn't know rosen retired. What is page an outlier on