From Chairman of Neurosurgery to Radiology Resident

[fedor]

http://www.nsmatch.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1310

It's not just a rumor that the radiology applicants are getting stronger every year.

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[2muchplanning]

http://www.hsc.stonybrook.edu/som/radiology/RadiologyResidents2005-2006.cfm

Anyone know what the story is behind this??

 

[bigdan]

I go to Stony Brook...I'll ask around...

dc

 

[Amxcvbcv]

I thought you couldn't do more than one residency? Something about financial restrictions from the government?

 

[stephew]

you can do as many residencies as you foolishly like.
One big issue for neurosurgery is lifestyle. those lovely rules to protect residencts go out the window for attendings. Im watcing my neurosurgery pals here in academia (and I work very closely with them) really feel the pressure of the lifestyle.

 

[Bevo]

thats what I thought to about doing a 2nd residency. That the gov't would only pay for 1 residency and that whatever you match into, ie medicine for 3 years, that the gov't would only pay for 3 yrs of training and wouldn't cover the cost if you switch into a different residency.

 

[Sanman]

The government does only pay for x number of years per resident. However, that doesn't mean that the hospital can't pay for him out of its own funds or perhaps he will not be paid. I'm sure he has a few bucks stached away. Ironically, it has to weird for fellow residents/attendings when a resident is the most knowledgable person in the room about a certain topic.

 

[f_w]

Actually, the goverment pays for a second residency, they just pay slightly less.

Your 'initial residency period' is determined by what you start in PGY1. If you start out in IM (e.g. by doing prelim medicine) the goverment starts a clock which ticks for 3 years. After 3 years, the 'direct component' of GME funding is slashed in half (from 40k to 20k). The 'indirect component' of GME funding is unaffected from this clock and remains the same. It is typically the larger part of GME funding, in the range from 70k to 100k. So, if you do a second residency (or if you just do a residency longer than the 'initial residency period', the hospital will get 90k per year instead of 110k.

 

[oncall]

spoke to someone in GME about the funding issue. Most of the time the hospital gets compensated anyhow- they bill the govt for the resident and no one really checks if they already received their max money for the given number of years. So in reality the hospital gets paid. They told me that sometimes they use this issue to get people to work for free even though they get reimbursed anyhow...big scam.

About Nsurgeons going into radiology, hahaha...Big joke.
Everyone works for their money. As a PGY V resident I take more call and more difficult call than my counterparts in many other specialties...by that time you could be the chief resident in surgery taking call from home. NS makes more than radiology unless the radiologist owns an imaging center. Most private practice surgeons have lots of down time/ in comparision to radiologists who are busy every minute at work. How can you compare apples to oranges?

 

[Bonobo]

There are many ways to speculate about this; maybe he ran into some unfortunate malpractice/legal issues, maybe he hurts his fingers or hand, etc. But if you read some his editorials in neurosurgery journals, he was always ardently arguing about how neurosurgery needs to become more competitive before it loses out to orthopedists doing spine, interventional neuroradiologists doing aneurysms and embolizations, neurologists doing NICU and head trauma, pain specialists doing interventional spinal procedures, and so on. Maybe his move into radiology is a show of defeat, or an effort to bring neuro-interventional procedures into the realm of neurosurgery.

Of course, neurologists can also bring interventional into their realm of practice if they work for it.

 

[Apollyon]

If you start out in IM (e.g. by doing prelim medicine) the government starts a clock which ticks for 3 years.

I just saw this - this is actually wrong. If you start out in a program that does not lead to board eligibility (like transitional or prelim medicine or surgery), that does not start the clock. However, if you start out in categorical peds or IM (not as much of a problem in GS due to GS being 5 years), and then go on to a 3 year or 4 year residency like neuro or rads or ophtho, now you're a little behind the 8 ball because the clock will run out.

 

[banner]

Why is all this so scandalous? Who cares why he switched or that he did switch? And for that matter, only he knows why he did it.

This is only one person. And I doubt that his switching has anything to do with the current "stresses" of Neurosurgery, Ortho, or RADs. Most of which are way overblown on this forum anyway.