New site for Plastics Fellowship Match

[GSresident]

Hello,
I am a PGY3, about to be a PGY4. I am applying to independent plastics programs this year. Unfortunately there is a startling paucity of information available for this pursuit. There was an interesting site - plastics2002.com - that is now for some reason down. Most of the posts on that site had to do with integrated residencies.

I have started a weblog of the application process. I am providing links to important sites like sfmatch.org, the CAS service, the ABPS site, and different fellowship sites as I find them. I started it in order to help future residents from my program who are applying to plastics fellowships, but then I started to think that maybe other people would have a use for the information.

I will not be posting any gossip about programs etc. I also plan to keep the site as anonymous as possible. At any rate if you know someone applying for fellowships and you think that my blog might help them, feel free to give them the address.

Cheers,
Anonymous GSresident.

http://www.plasticsmatch.blogspot.com/

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[thenavysurgeon]

Hi...i checked your blog out...

my 'application track' is right along with yours, almost to the day, actually. I'm a general surgeon trained on the west coast, have been int practice for going on three years...i'm sure i'll meet you out on the interview trail...good luck. i think our career choices are good ones.

yours,

thenavysurgeon

 

[dirty]

I am also applying for plastics fellowship. How important do you guys think the in-service scores are in the application process? Also how many places does the average applicant apply to?

Another thing, on the SF match website more programs are listed than are available on the CAS program checklist. What is the deal there?

Anyways good luck to us all.

 

[thenavysurgeon]

a few programs are not in the match this year...i know that...

dirty, are you applying for an integrated fellowhip or post-graduate one?

are you board certified?

does the name 'Sanchez' mean anything to you? i knew a guy where i trained that went by the nickname 'dirty sanchez...' wondering if its you...

 

[GSresident]

Thanks for the input navysurgeon. We probably will meet on the trail (if I manage to get a few interviews ). So are you finishing up a navy obligation? I have a friend who is currently working in the Navy overseas and has I think a couple years left as a General Surgeon.

I am pretty suspicious that it will be VERY competative this year. That 40% match rate is scary as hell. Oh well, the backup plan is to do a year of hand and try again.

 

[thenavysurgeon]

are you interested in plastics as a broad field, or one particular area?
i met a person that did one year of breat-recon training at a non accredited fellowship (mayo scottsdale) that is now doing that type of work, plus augs and reductions, full time. this is also another fall-back plan, if you are interested in breast disease, which i am..

thoughts?

 

[GSresident]

I like the broad spectrum of plastic surgery. I am not sure what my focus will be but I hope to have a wide variety of procedures in my arsenal. My backup is to do hand first and then re-apply. If I didn't get plastics on re-application then I would think about doing a fellowship like you are talking about with one specific focus. I like your plan though. You could set your practice up so that you ONLY did breast. You could do the cancer operations and then the reconstructions. YOu could also do the augs because hey, you are a breast surgeon. I can see the sign now: Dr. Navysurgeon's Breast Center

 

[GSresident]

I updated the site today. I put links to every program participating in the fellowship match this year in the sidebar, so all you have to do is click on the link and viola, you can check out the program. I couldn't find one for NY - Presbyterian though. I think that program might be through Columbia or Cornell but I'm not sure. Anyone have a link to the NY- Presbyterian plastics fellowship site?

http://www.plasticsmatch.blogspot.com/

 

[thenavysurgeon]

well,
since we're both in the same boat (applying for fellowship)...we should put together a list of 'non accredited' plastics 'fellowships' to use as back up programs...maybe you could out them up on your evolving site, or we could list them here...

i tried a simple google search and did not come up with much...are you aware of a list of such fellowships?

TNS

 

[GSresident]

I always see a bunch of 'fellowships' listed in the back of the plastics journals and occasionally in the JACS. If I do end up in that boat I will definately put all of the info I can find on hand and other plastics-type fellowships I can find on my site. I am trying to be optimistic though, so I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The first thing I will do if I end up not matching is find a hand fellowship, so I'll have to concentrate mostly on that.

 

[GSresident]

I was looking again today at the list of programs on Central Application Service. I found a couple of programs missing from my site and updated the site with their web addresses. I also found one interesting thing:

The program checklist that I sent in had 50 programs on it. The program checklist that is on the site today (8/16/4) has 49. One program dropped out sometime between when I applied and now. I can't figure out off the top of my head who is missing. Thankfully I saved copies of everything including the original program checklist that I sent in. I will have to look over that when I am back home this weekend.

 

[thenavysurgeon]

was it Colorado?

I don't have my app stuf with me right now....but I know that that program cratered...I know someone that could not finish training because the program went under...sucks.

 

[GSresident]

Its not colorado I know that much. It never was on the list and I wish it was.

UMDNJ-RWJNS - Cooper Hospital in Camden New Jersey is no longer in the match. So I wonder if the CAS will notify people who applied there and give them a 25$ refund?

 

[psoup]

It appears that www.plastics2002.com is back online, I just tried and it let me through.

 

[GSresident]

Oh thats so awesome. I hope plastics2002 stays up. It doesn't really have a lot of info for people applying for fellowship spots but its pretty good for combined programs. If you really comb through the posts you can sometimes find out a little about places that have a combined spot and a fellowship spot. I hope it gets back up to speed soon.