Will Clinical Radiation Onco Research do for IR Residency Program?

[clairevoyance]

Hi! I am currently an M-0 trying to decide what research to conduct in medical school. My dream speciality is IR; however, my school (the one that gives me most money) doesn't even have an IR department and therefor no active IR research going on. There are a lot of clinical radiation oncology research though. Will conducting radiation onco research be good/adequate enough to be competitive for IR residencies? Or will this raise red flag since it's technically not IR research? Please help!

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[GoSpursGo]

IR is highly competitive--you will need to find a way to do IR-specific research. Doesn't have to be 100% of your research, but you need something.

 

[clairevoyance]

IR is highly competitive--you will need to find a way to do IR-specific research. Doesn't have to be 100% of your research, but you need something.

Thanks! If I can't find a good IR research team at this school, should I consider to take out extra 100k over 4 years to go to a school that has good IR department?

 

[Lawpy]

Thanks! If I can't find a good IR research team at this school, should I consider to take out extra 100k over 4 years to go to a school that has good IR department?

That’s a hard decision to make and requires taking into account more factors besides cost and home programs (e.g. support system, grading styles, overall school reputation, school/student environment etc). I wouldn’t necessarily go for more debt just because of the home program alone. You’d need to be really sure IR is what you want to do and things change

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thanks! If I can't find a good IR research team at this school, should I consider to take out extra 100k over 4 years to go to a school that has good IR department?

Yeah I can't answer that question for you. If you are 100% certain that IR is the one specialty that will make you happy... then maybe? In reality, most med students change their mind somewhere along the way in med school. So I would not recommend making "what school is going to set me up to do IR" the overriding question you consider when evaluating school choices.

 

[CyrusHabs7695]

100% do not take out an extra 100,000$ to go to another school unless your current school is a carribean school, I cant believe this is even a discussion. After interest kicks in on that loan its going to be well over 100k. you can match integrated ir from another school and if not, just match into DR and go through the ESIR pathway

 

[djiboutiman]

If your school doesn’t have faculty in IR, you can always try to reach out to programs that do and do research remotely. Also you can apply to do this program in the summer between your first and second year.

 

[mrbreakfast]

I would be cautious about making major life decisions about which med school to attend based solely on what highly-competitive specialty you think you want to go into.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Look at the school's match list for the last 2 years, and reach out to those who matched into IR to see what they did. If no one matched into IR, then you probably have your answer right there.

Agree with others that your interests may change. But maybe not.

 

[clairevoyance]

Look at the school's match list for the last 2 years, and reach out to those who matched into IR to see what they did. If no one matched into IR, then you probably have your answer right there.

Agree with others that your interests may change. But maybe not.

One person matched into IR last year!! This is hopeful..(?) but 0 the year before😟

 

[Datypicalpremed]

Just because I don’t think anyone directly addressed this, but Rad onc (if this is what you are alluding to by “clinical radiation oncology research”) and IR are 2 completely separate fields. Your time would be much better spent getting to know the DR department (most schools have one) and trying to get involved with research with them since you can still get into IR from DR

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

As commented above - despite the similarity of “radiation” the actual practice and research in these fields are quite different from my understanding. I would think DR or surgical (or other procedure related) research may be more relevant to IR than rad onc would be.

 

[GoSpursGo]

One person matched into IR last year!! This is hopeful..(?) but 0 the year before😟

Talk to that one person.

 

[CanIBeAnonymous]

One person matched into IR last year!! This is hopeful..(?) but 0 the year before😟

Just because no one matched that year doesn't mean people can't match - could very well just be a year no one wanted to even apply to IR. Match lists are useful but have to be approached with caution for these reasons.

Reach out to that individual who did match.

 

[OraclePL]

Conventional advice is go to the cheaper school, from a financial perspective the extra money is usually not worth it. However the exception is when people want to do competitive smaller specialties, then you generally want a home program to advocate for you.

As everyone noted above, most medical students change their mind about specialty. I’m generally all for being financially responsible, but if you have worked in IR before and know the field and are sure you want a real shot at it, then it may be worth going to a school with a home program to make your path easier

 

[Redpancreas]

IR is highly competitive--you will need to find a way to do IR-specific research. Doesn't have to be 100% of your research, but you need something.

Not sure what the downvote is about here but IR is very competitive and I'll retract my statement if @UnlimitedTraction comes back and demonstrates experience in matching IR and how what I'm saying here is completely wrong. Surgically related research (i.e. random gen surg project about a bile leak) or some radiology research about imaging criteia wouldn't be what applicants should be looking for. You'd need to do IR research that deals with the safety/efficacy of an IR procedures. Link up with IR physicians at other centers to get original research and get plugged into their CITI training/networking done so you can get IRBs rolling. You can also do meta-analyses of controversial topics with contradicting outcomes.

 

[Redpancreas]

Talk to that one person.

And when you do, ask them how they came up with their project. Ultimately, they probably failed 10 times before they succeeded and don't think that just by listening to them you'll avoid the failure curve. You'll be failing a lot before you succeed so start failing.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Just because no one matched that year doesn't mean people can't match - could very well just be a year no one wanted to even apply to IR. Match lists are useful but have to be approached with caution for these reasons.

Reach out to that individual who did match.

One person matched into IR last year!! This is hopeful..(?) but 0 the year before😟

Although it's possible that nobody really wanted to go into IR, and it might be a self selection process (i.e. people with an interest in IR choose to go to a different school), this is not encouraging. I agree -- reach out to that person and see what their experience was. If they struggled to get projects / experience / letters, got 2-3 interviews and matched -- that's not a good scenario. If they were able to get great research, 10 interviews, that's a different story. If their parent / good friend was in IR and hooked them up with resources, then we're back to trouble again.

 

[Redpancreas]

Although it's possible that nobody really wanted to go into IR, and it might be a self selection process (i.e. people with an interest in IR choose to go to a different school), this is not encouraging. I agree -- reach out to that person and see what their experience was. If they struggled to get projects / experience / letters, got 2-3 interviews and matched -- that's not a good scenario. If they were able to get great research, 10 interviews, that's a different story. If their parent / good friend was in IR and hooked them up with resources, then we're back to trouble again.

This will manifest as you asking them for project ideas and them appearing clueless despite having 10 first author publications.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

Although it's possible that nobody really wanted to go into IR, and it might be a self selection process (i.e. people with an interest in IR choose to go to a different school), this is not encouraging. I agree -- reach out to that person and see what their experience was. If they struggled to get projects / experience / letters, got 2-3 interviews and matched -- that's not a good scenario. If they were able to get great research, 10 interviews, that's a different story. If their parent / good friend was in IR and hooked them up with resources, then we're back to trouble again.

it may also be in part about having role models in the field who make you consider it - no home program means no immediate role models to inspire you to go into the field. At least anecdotally I’ve seen that make a pretty big difference for applicant interest in smaller fields like IR between institutions.

 

[throwaway123342]

Hi! I am currently an M-0 trying to decide what research to conduct in medical school. My dream speciality is IR; however, my school (the one that gives me most money) doesn't even have an IR department and therefor no active IR research going on. There are a lot of clinical radiation oncology research though. Will conducting radiation onco research be good/adequate enough to be competitive for IR residencies? Or will this raise red flag since it's technically not IR research? Please help!

Ignore the other posters. Research is good for IR apps. But no IR program is going to scoff because your research is IR, DR, Rad onc, or some unrelated field. Radiology is involved in nearly every area of medicine. I am certain that any project you do could be connected back to radiology in some respect.

What you need for IR is great clinical grades. high step scores, great letters (including one from an IR doc), and an away rotation in IR (with possibly a letter from that away). Finally, you need research in "stuff". Doesn't necessarily need to be a study on how to do a particular IR procedure.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Most medical schools are affiliated with hospitals who have rads dept you’d be hard pressed to find one without an IR, they might not be academic but they can maybe help you find someone willing to do research with you. You could also just reach out to an academic hospital in your area to see if they can work with you. I get plenty of emails from students from other med schools who end up working with me

 

[GoSpursGo]

Ignore the other posters. Research is good for IR apps. But no IR program is going to scoff because your research is IR, DR, Rad onc, or some unrelated field. Radiology is involved in nearly every area of medicine. I am certain that any project you do could be connected back to radiology in some respect.

What you need for IR is great clinical grades. high step scores, great letters (including one from an IR doc), and an away rotation in IR (with possibly a letter from that away). Finally, you need research in "stuff". Doesn't necessarily need to be a study on how to do a particular IR procedure.

I really would encourage the OP to tak to the person who applied from their school. I’m not sure why I’m getting so much blowback when I clearly said that it’s fine if they have non IR research, but I do think they need to get some exposure to IR specific research just like any competitive specialty. If the OP does an away IR rotation I would really encourage them to get involved in a project there.

There is a reason that only one person matched IR from that school in the last 2 years. The first step to matching any competitive specialty is making connections and establishing a mentor in the field, and while not having a home program doesn’t make it impossible, it does put a heavier onus on the OP to seek out those kinds of connections.

 

[Redpancreas]

Ignore the other posters. Research is good for IR apps. But no IR program is going to scoff because your research is IR, DR, Rad onc, or some unrelated field. Radiology is involved in nearly every area of medicine. I am certain that any project you do could be connected back to radiology in some respect.

What you need for IR is great clinical grades. high step scores, great letters (including one from an IR doc), and an away rotation in IR (with possibly a letter from that away). Finally, you need research in "stuff". Doesn't necessarily need to be a study on how to do a particular IR procedure.

So basically IR looks at grades and demonstrated interest as opposed to field specific research? Any idea why that is? Most competitive fields like to see both.

 

[CanIBeAnonymous]

Although it's possible that nobody really wanted to go into IR, and it might be a self selection process (i.e. people with an interest in IR choose to go to a different school), this is not encouraging. I agree -- reach out to that person and see what their experience was. If they struggled to get projects / experience / letters, got 2-3 interviews and matched -- that's not a good scenario. If they were able to get great research, 10 interviews, that's a different story. If their parent / good friend was in IR and hooked them up with resources, then we're back to trouble again.

This is a good point. Had a friend who felt encouraged by the fact that someone at his school matched Derm at the "number 1" program in the country. Well turns out their father (or some close relative) was the PD so.