Cardiothoracic fellowship

[tiredradsres]

What do you think of cardiothoracic fellowships?

Is this a field you would go into?

What are the best fellowship programs out there for it? Especially looking for a program with high pay, very low scut work, and very little to no call.

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[Stoop Kid]

R2 resident here.

From what I hear, CT attendings are in high demand. A CT attending at my institution told me that he regularly gets offered +600k jobs at other academic institutions.

I don't know how accurate that is, but considering our department is desperately trying to find new CT attendings, it would make sense. In terms of fellowships, my institution has one that is pretty good, but sometimes goes unfilled since not many people apply to CT. Seems like a field that if you want a spot, you can probably get it.

I really like my cardiothoracic rotations, lung pathology can be very interesting, lung CTs and CXRs can be cranked out pretty quickly, and cardiac MRs are fun to interpret. I don't like lung nodule counting and I want more variety in my practice so its not a field I would go into. But I think its still a great field if you are looking for good lifestyle, pay, and minimal call responsibilities .

 

[Cognovi]

R2 resident here.

From what I hear, CT attendings are in high demand. A CT attending at my institution told me that he regularly gets offered +600k jobs at other academic institutions.

I don't know how accurate that is, but considering our department is desperately trying to find new CT attendings, it would make sense. In terms of fellowships, my institution has one that is pretty good, but sometimes goes unfilled since not many people apply to CT. Seems like a field that if you want a spot, you can probably get it.

I really like my cardiothoracic rotations, lung pathology can be very interesting, lung CTs and CXRs can be cranked out pretty quickly, and cardiac MRs are fun to interpret. I don't like lung nodule counting and I want more variety in my practice so its not a field I would go into. But I think its still a great field if you are looking for good lifestyle, pay, and minimal call responsibilities .

I am skeptical that any rank and file academic radiology attending is being offered 600k+ unless they are a chair.

 

[risus_sardonicus]

I am skeptical that any rank and file academic radiology attending is being offered 600k+ unless they are a chair.

Must be in the boonies otherwise definitely too good to be true

 

[Stoop Kid]

I am skeptical that any rank and file academic radiology attending is being offered 600k+ unless they are a chair.

Like I said, I don't know how accurate that is and I don't have receipts for that number, just what I have heard. But it still seems like there is a great need for CT radiologists in academics based on my experience and talking to people from other institutions.

 

[guytakingboards]

Like I said, I don't know how accurate that is and I don't have receipts for that number, just what I have heard. But it still seems like there is a great need for CT radiologists in academics based on my experience and talking to people from other institutions.

It's all relative. Subspecialties like peds and cardiac can often write their own ticket in terms of academic jobs because so few are trained each year and academic departments want to provide subspeciality reads. Flip side, they're not super popular for people going into private jobs because community groups often don't do a lot of peds and sometimes no cardiac.

I'd say in either case (cardiac or peds), there's a strong possibility that in a private group that you would be practicing mostly general and not your specialty.

 

[tiredradsres]

Has anyone heard of the harvard programs (mgh, bwh, beth)? I heard there is a lot of scut, but unclear on what the scut is.

Any high reputation, no scut, high pay programs?

 

[MadRadLad]

Unsure of those specifically, but scut in fellowship usually involves doing endless protocoling, phone work, presenting at tumor boards, preparing lectures for residents. All of those are good for learning in small quantities, but it becomes scut when there is so much of it that it takes up too much time.

 

[Cognovi]

I would say the more important fellowship scut to consider is final signing studies without supervision/feedback. You're taking a fellow's salary as opposed to an attending's salary in order to get education rather than do attending service. If you have to final sign hundreds of portable CXRs a day I would consider that much worse than doing phone consults, tumor boards, or lecture.