Combined Breast fellowships for private practice?

[CreedBobody]

Deciding on applying to breast fellowship and likely going into private practice afterwards. Would it be better to do a combined breast + body 1 year fellowship or do a 1 year breast only fellowship at big "name" institution with maybe a body "mini-fellowship" during R4 year? Are you more hireable if you do the combined fellowship or does it not really matter since breast is pretty high demand now anyway?

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[vm26]

Deciding on applying to breast fellowship and likely going into private practice afterwards. Would it be better to do a combined breast + body 1 year fellowship or do a 1 year breast only fellowship at maybe a better "name" institution with maybe a body "mini-fellowship" during R4 year? Are you more hireable if you do the combined fellowship or does it not really matter since breast is pretty high demand now anyway?

Unless you are committed to high end academics, it makes much more sense for the combo. You are unlikely to gain significant expertise with body MR in a mini-fellowship (too broad these days, everything from prostate MR to recta Ca MR)...Any breast imager is extremely valuable to PP these days. A breast imager that has another specialty and can take general call however is much more valuable...Finally, my current group covers a hospital system is extremely obsessed about "fellowship" trained breast imagers. Former head of this section who was considered a super-star by hospital administration completed a 6 month breast fellowship in 2014.

 

[MadRadLad]

Combo of breast/body or breast/MSK fellowship would be super marketable for PP. As long as you can meet MQSA requirements nobody will care.

Only fellowships where the full year matter would be ones where the CAQ depends on it (Neuro, Peds etc). Otherwise getting something like breast/body or body/MSK would be really good for some groups. Of course the more academic you go the more the more they will nitpick but for 90% of gigs it probably won't matter.

I think Mayo AZ has one where you can mix and match. A friend's wife did one in Michigan (Beaumont maybe?) that was combo breast/body several years ago and I remember he said she had a lot of really good offers.

 

[Tiger100]

More important factor is to do a fellowship in the place that you want to get a job.
The market is wide open. One fellowship is enough to get a good job. But a lot of good jobs go to the local fellows.

 

[Mh0311]

What about body/msk for private practices?

 

[MadRadLad]

What about body/msk for private practices?

Certainly won't hurt to be proficient in MR and some procedures. Mamms is a different level of marketability but some groups probably would value someone who can do prostate MRI well and still slot into clearing the MSK lists.

 

[Tiger100]

Body/MSK is a great combination for private practice. Most practices have dedicated Neurorads. They need someone who reads all the other MRIs from the list and body/MSK combo is a great skill to have.
MRI volume is 30% spine
30% brain.
20% MSK
15% body. 5% random other things like breast.

Doing an MSK/Body covers a lot of above MRs.

 

[vm26]

Body/MSK is a great combination for private practice. Most practices have dedicated Neurorads. They need someone who reads all the other MRIs from the list and body/MSK combo is a great skill to have.
MRI volume is 30% spine
30% brain.
20% MSK
15% body. 5% random other things like breast.

Doing an MSK/Body covers a lot of above MRs.

While breast imaging is currently in hyper-demand, there's marketability in being competent in reading higher end MSK MR (wrist arthrogram) and higher end body MR (prostate, rectal CA).

 

[CyrusHabs7695]

Do breast/msk hybrid programs exist? I can only find Breast/Body programs.

 

[vm26]

Do breast/msk hybrid programs exist? I can only find Breast/Body programs.

Going on the assumption that programs benefit from having fellows, I would say that you can prob work out a deal to meet your goals...When I was a resident back in 2010 (pseudo-academic/PP), one of the graduating residents arranged a breast/msk fellowship in-house.