Incoming Intern trying to match GI

[Redpancreas]

I’m about to be an intern and I’ve realized that I really want to pursue GI because of the diversity in pathology, combined with an ability to see patients in clinic, but also spend a great deal of time working with my hands in an endoscopy suite. I currently was able to get one oral presentation this year (which I won’t be presenting but am an author on) and have made a few local connections. I am also attending an upper midtier tier (I’d rank it top 40) that takes 1-2 GI candidates per year with 3-5 other candidate she matching at top/midtier places. My Step scores are 240s-250s with a solid drop in percentile on Step 2.

My goal is to match at a GI fellowship ideally with 200+ case ERCP exposure, high clinical volume, and a high IBD population. Liver patients are really interesting too and I’d love to see them in clinic but I don’t necessarily need to be at a transplant center.

My questions are:

1) Should I seek out research specifically in luminal diseases like UC, Gastroparesis, etc. that I’m specifically interested in or would it be ok if I continue to do stuff with Hepatitis/Autoimmune/Liver Transplant research ?

2) My residency has 8 weeks of GI/Liver in PGY-1. Would it be better to request those at the beginning to get research connections, or the end to look better? I’m thinking the end because maybe I can score research connections through other means.

3) This is not really GI specific, but any advice on being a competent intern?

4) I recently met my dad’s colonoscopist (GI) who is practicing in my suburban location. I was surprised to learn that he trained at UCSF for fellowship. If someone could elaborate on how the following are valued for entering into a group practice, I’d appreciate it:

Tier of fellowship, colonoscopy skills (ex. ADR), people skills, connections, looks, research, board scores, etc.?

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[Elixir6]

My goal is to match at a GI fellowship ideally with 200+ case ERCP exposure...

1) Find a good mentor > topic of GI research
2) Start research early (timing of rotation is not really important), as long as you heed advice #3
3) Yes, be a good internist first by working hard (i.e. don't do research for fellowship at the expense of being a good internist)

The disclaimer being that I am a resident, not a fellow.

 

[Redpancreas]

1) Find a good mentor > topic of GI research
2) Start research early (timing of rotation is not really important), as long as you head advice #3
3) Yes, be a good internist first by working hard (i.e. don't do research for fellowship at the expense of being a good internist)

The disclaimer being that I am a resident, not a fellow.

Thanks @Elixir6, I really appreciate it ❤️

 

[IM2GI]

You will not find a high end academic program that is going to train you in ERCP in 2018 as far as I know.

 

[GastriqueGraffin]

You will not find a high end academic program that is going to train you in ERCP in 2018 as far as I know.

I visited a number of places that offered the ability to get certified in ERCP during fellowship. The "high end academic" places almost always have advanced fellows who generally take almost all of the procedures so yes none of those offered the opportunity for the general fellows to get certified. I am not sure if that is what you are referring to but is something to consider as well for OP in terms of what kind of career you want long term.

I agree with the other post above: start research early because it takes time to publish but don't sacrifice being a good intern. First impressions matter for evaluations and recs. If you come off as the resident who only cares about matching into fellowship and could not care less about anything else, it could greatly backfire.

 

[IM2GI]

I visited a number of places that offered the ability to get certified in ERCP during fellowship. The "high end academic" places almost always have advanced fellows who generally take almost all of the procedures so yes none of those offered the opportunity for the general fellows to get certified. I am not sure if that is what you are referring to but is something to consider as well for OP in terms of what kind of career you want long term.

I agree with the other post above: start research early because it takes time to publish but don't sacrifice being a good intern. First impressions matter for evaluations and recs. If you come off as the resident who only cares about matching into fellowship and could not care less about anything else, it could greatly backfire.

Yes of course. My point was, that if you want to get certified in ERCP in 3 years, most "top" programs will not offer that as they have advanced 4th years.

 

[Milotic]

Thanks @Elixir6, I really appreciate it ❤️

Hiya! On your topic, how early are you planning on contacting the pubmed masters at your program? Are you going to wait a couple rotations to get the hang of things first?

 

[Redpancreas]

Hiya! On your topic, how early are you planning on contacting the pubmed masters at your program? Are you going to wait a couple rotations to get the hang of things first?

Ahh yes, Milotic, glad to know we’ll be in this together. Will probably start right off the back, hbu?

 

[Milotic]

Ahh yes, Milotic, glad to know we’ll be in this together. Will probably start right off the back, hbu?

Not too sure to be honest. I was thinking of learning the ropes first and then start asking people, but there is that slight concern that the early birds will get the worms if you know what I mean haha. Hopefully some of the GI elders on this site can weigh in at some point about that as well. Based on the advice already given, I need to probably should look up what it takes to be a "good intern" since I am sure it is not as obvious to me as it sounds, haha.

 

[GIorDIE89]

Being a good resident/intern if most important because statistically your best chances to match are where you did residency. Getting good letters and a good reputation during residency will go a long way. Honestly coming from an upper/mid-tier academic program (and being a US MD) will likely get you like >90% match rate if you are a normal person. The most successful people I have seen are the people who get along with everyone (all different residents, attendings, ect.) Being liked is important and stems from good communication and a positive attitude.

Agree though with getting involved in research early. I took a very shallow approach and pubmed'd the names of all the GI faculty before starting residency. I found out who was most prolific and importantly, publishing more recently. I waited 2 months into residency and asked around. There were 3-4 people who seemed to publish a lot and more recently and got the scoop. 1 not the easiest to work with, 1 on his way out. Sent an email to 1 I found research interesting with and he stated he had no projects and forwareded my email to the entire department. Didn't work out how I would like but I still think its a good strategy (I matched and had 3 pub med indexed papers on my CV for the application).