Advice for PGY1 seeking GI fellowship...

[msid92]

Hello everyone,

I am a recent US-IMG graduate who matched into an "academic" community hospital for Internal Medicine in NYC and will be starting this July.

I have a strong desire to get GI fellowship but my program does NOT have an in-house fellowship nor is it very research oriented. I wanted to get an idea from you beautiful people how I can go about securing research and good LORs for GI fellowship application. I have already sent some emails to local GI program directors in the area inquiring about research involvement, but is there more I should be doing?

Some of my credentials:
- Step 1: 226
- Step 2: 235
- Step 3: currently studying for, plan to take before residency starts
- 1 published research article with a cardiologist while I was in undergrad

I would greatly appreciate any sort of advice or input. Thanks you so much in advance!

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[gutonc]

Moved to GI subforum...maybe y'all need a WAMC superthread in here.

 

[slopes23]

Not going to lie, it’s going to be tough. Questionable how “academic” your community program really is if it doesn’t have much in the way of research opportunity and the lack of in house GI is going to hurt. Only plus side I can see to your current situation is that you are on the east coast and will get geographical preference to east coast programs of which there are a lot more. Otherwise, you are going to have to work your tail off to get into GI related research projects at other institutions. If your community program had in house GI then it would be a different story. Depending on your eventual letters and research productivity you may or may not have a shot at community GI programs, it’s too early to tell but again, going to be a lot of hustling for sure. Nothing that can’t be done, but do not for a second think you are in good shape at the moment.

Depending on how serious you are, you could possibly consider transitioning to an actual academic program for second year that has in house GI but this can be challenging.

Being an IMG statistically speaking won’t help your chances either.

Also, why are you taking Step 3 so early?

Best of luck.

 

[msid92]

Not going to lie, it’s going to be tough. Questionable how “academic” your community program really is if it doesn’t have much in the way of research opportunity and the lack of in house GI is going to hurt. Only plus side I can see to your current situation is that you are on the east coast and will get geographical preference to east coast programs of which there are a lot more. Otherwise, you are going to have to work your tail off to get into GI related research projects at other institutions. If your community program had in house GI then it would be a different story. Depending on your eventual letters and research productivity you may or may not have a shot at community GI programs, it’s too early to tell but again, going to be a lot of hustling for sure. Nothing that can’t be done, but do not for a second think you are in good shape at the moment.

Depending on how serious you are, you could possibly consider transitioning to an actual academic program for second year that has in house GI but this can be challenging.

Being an IMG statistically speaking won’t help your chances either.

Also, why are you taking Step 3 so early?

Best of luck.

I appreciate the input. Def gonna work my tail off to try and get those research opportunities.

Wanted to take step 3 before intern year starts since I have some down time and so that I can focus on being a good resident and the research stuff

 

[berenjena89]

Not going to lie, it’s going to be tough. Questionable how “academic” your community program really is if it doesn’t have much in the way of research opportunity and the lack of in house GI is going to hurt. Only plus side I can see to your current situation is that you are on the east coast and will get geographical preference to east coast programs of which there are a lot more. Otherwise, you are going to have to work your tail off to get into GI related research projects at other institutions. If your community program had in house GI then it would be a different story. Depending on your eventual letters and research productivity you may or may not have a shot at community GI programs, it’s too early to tell but again, going to be a lot of hustling for sure. Nothing that can’t be done, but do not for a second think you are in good shape at the moment.

Depending on how serious you are, you could possibly consider transitioning to an actual academic program for second year that has in house GI but this can be challenging.

Being an IMG statistically speaking won’t help your chances either.

Also, why are you taking Step 3 so early?

Best of luck.

I have a question.. I’m a rheumatologist ( completed fellowship last year) unfortunately I didn’t like it. I find it boring and didn’t like it much and being all day long at the clinic can be very draining.. I always liked GI bc is very dynamic and procedures are fun but knew that was super competitive. So I decided to go for Rheum mainly because it’s “lifestyle” and slight interest but I have many regrets at this point I feel miserable.. if I do research plus connections in GI. Do you think I can have some chances to get a spot in a GI fellowship??

 

[slopes23]

This is a tough question to answer without more information. I’m sure you recognize that research isn’t just short term, it’s research over time. Then there are all the other things like residency program reputation and where you did rheum fellowship, what you current practice environment is (academic vs community based) and ability to re-engage GI attendings to do research. All of those are big variables that you either don’t know yet or haven’t provided the info on yet but will influence your chances significantly. The good thing is there is a lot of overlap between rheumatology and IBD so if you were to tell me that you did residency at a good academic program, fellowship at a good academic program, and remain in an academic environment engaged in GI research, like IBD and are planning to apply in the next 1-2 year (and not this cycle) that would all bode well for your chances.

Plus side being you offer a unique additional skills that others can’t and could powerfully contribute to the IBD arena if that’s an area of interest. The downside to your story being that you have demonstrated that you were unhappy with one fellowship and are taking a totally different direction and a GI program will likely consider the risk that you may realize mid way through GI fellowship that it’s also not for you and you up and leave to go back to being a rheumatology attending but now they are left short a fellow. Hence why you’ll need to demonstrate your persistent strong interest over time which can be challenging, especially when the reality likely means continuing to practice as a rheumatologist and remaining unhappy while you do all this (although you could perhaps still consider a job as a hospitalist I suppose.)

If you can do that, then the rheumatology fellowship, leveraged correctly, could be an asset in a future application and could see a path to success if the rest of your application is enticing too. Getting very strong letters of recommendation from well known gastroenterologists should go a long ways in that regard too, but good relationships like that also take time to nurture.

Sorry to hear you are miserable though, that sucks. Best I can say is that you will likely be even more miserable if you choose to not go after your dreams while you still have a shot. As Eminem once said, “You have one shot. One opportunity. Would you capture it, or would you let it slip?”

Wishing you the best in your journey. I hope you find what you are looking for.

 

[berenjena89]

Thankyou!!! Currently I’m working in private practice, in a group and I did residency in a community hospital and my fellowship in an academic center… I will try anyways, if I don’t match, in worse case scenario I have a plan B which is work as hospitalist .

 

[slopes23]

Thankyou!!! Currently I’m working in private practice, in a group and I did residency in a community hospital and my fellowship in an academic center… I will try anyways, if I don’t match, in worse case scenario I have a plan B which is work as hospitalist .

I will say that given that pedigree and current practice situation, unless you make inroads into an academic setting and start putting out some considerably prolific/impressive/high powered GI research, your application will likely be passed over at most, if not all, academic programs. I have less of a pulse on community programs but perhaps if you can make connections you could leverage your application in that way via the IBD niche and may be able to find success there. Only one way to find out and it’s going to be full of a lot of hard work with no guarantees.