Pallative & Supportive Medicine Fellowship Bridge Into H/O?

[thierryhenry]

General question
Interested in Heme-Onc, wondering how would a year of pallative and supportive medicine fellowship help or hurt with my CV in terms of obtaning a H/O fellowship?
My residency program does not have H/O in house, but have matched house-staff in the last few years, and have a pallative fellowship.
Thoughts and opinions appreciated

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[gutonc]

General question
Interested in Heme-Onc, wondering how would a year of pallative and supportive medicine fellowship help or hurt with my CV in terms of obtaning a H/O fellowship?
My residency program does not have H/O in house, but have matched house-staff in the last few years, and have a pallative fellowship.
Thoughts and opinions appreciated

This question is similar (IMHO) to this thread about taking a "year off" prior to fellowship.

I can tell you how the discussion would go in my fellowship program's review of your app:

Old Tenured White Guy: "Why would we even consider this person? They clearly didn't match in Hem/Onc the first time around and had to scramble into this Palliative Care fellowship."

Several other Old Tenured, (Mostly) White Guys: "Agreed. Should we invite him just to make sure we get enough interviewees?"

OTWG: "Sure...but make sure we don't rank him."

Young, Non-Tenure Track Recent Grads: "Maybe he has a significant interest in palliative care which we know is an important part of modern oncology practice."

OOT(M)WGs: Sounds of maniacal laughter. "Good one noobs. Now shut up and go get us some coffee."

TL;DR - Do a pall care fellowship because you want to, not as a bridge into a different fellowship. You haven't even started intern year yet so you have plenty of time to make your app strong for H/O.