Sorry for this question again!

[megsMS]

Someone already posted a version of this question a few months ago and it was never answered.

What do you advise for someone who wants to go into Allergy/Immunology who has not so hot pre-clinical grades, but is very interested in research? Is it possible, or do the pre-clinical grades hold you back?

Also, do you recommend the Peds/Allergy track or the Internal Med/Allergy track?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

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[oldbearprofessor]

Someone already posted a version of this question a few months ago and it was never answered.

What do you advise for someone who wants to go into Allergy/Immunology who has not so hot pre-clinical grades, but is very interested in research? Is it possible, or do the pre-clinical grades hold you back?

Also, do you recommend the Peds/Allergy track or the Internal Med/Allergy track?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Megs:

Sorry that two attempts aren't getting you much feedback. You should realize that SDN is mostly pre-meds and med students. The number of people at the fellowship and beyond level who regularly post is small. Pediatric A & I is a very small group of people and very much focused on a relatively small group of centers in terms of research. My suggestion to you is that you look up the fellowship or program directors for A & I at the 5 or so largest children's hospitals and write them to ask your questions. In my experience, A & I folks in pedi are very friendly and helpful.
With regard to the difference between pedi A & I and adult, I can tell you that the academic pedi folks do a lot of work on immune deficiency disorders, in some cases including caring for HIV infected children. The asthmatics tend to go to private allergists or the worst ones seen by pedi pulmonary, at least in my experience. I think that A & I tends to be more academic in pedi and less focused on allergy shots, etc than the adult side, but others might have more insight.
I don't know much about the competitiveness of A & I fellowships in pedi, but I doubt that mediocre preclinical work will be any impediment at all. Fellowship directors will care about your residency performance and your career goals and research interestes/experiences.
Good luck. I never cared for A & I, but it is a solid field and I'm sure you'll do well.

Regards

OBP

 

[shellfish]

I'm also interested in A&I. Here's a link that's minimally helpful.

http://www.aaaai.org/professionals/careers/medical_students.stm

If you look at websites for salaries, they seem to range from 90K to 285K. I am assuming the high-end are private allergists. The 2-year A&I fellowships prepare you for clinical work whereas 3-year fellowships are designed for people who want to do benchwork/research. It is common for allergists to practice both allergy and general peds. (I have no idea if this is also true for people who train through IM).

I'm sorry I have no idea the answer to your question. Fellowships usually hold two spots per year, one going to peds, the other to IM. Allergists seem to be predominantly peds-trained. I have no evidence for this, just something I've heard anecdotally. I had an interview with an allergist at my UMich peds interview and I asked him for advice. He just recommended doing research during residency and doing an away elective during residency where you'd like to go (sounds like 4th year of med school again!). Make sure you pair up with an allergy faculty mentor early in residency who can make phone calls. Connections are helpful. Good luck!

 

[AnnaMags]

Just found this post from earlier in the year and thought I'd revive it.

First off, AI fellowships are a combined fellowship. They accept and train pediatric and internal medicine trained physicians. So, you can go either route to get into fellowship and you will apply to the same fellowships. In fellowship you are trained to take care of adults and children. I think it's the only fellowship like this.

At this time, more of the acceptances are coming from pediatrics. But this is just the trend at the time.

All fellowships are not created equally. Some are more or less research intensive and you just have to find the one you're interested in.

The AAAAI site is helpful. Talking to programs can be good as well.

I'd love to hear from others who are interested in the field. Maybe we can keep a conversation going. (The peds forum is pretty slow)

 

[14022]

First off, AI fellowships are a combined fellowship. They accept and train pediatric and internal medicine trained physicians. So, you can go either route to get into fellowship and you will apply to the same fellowships. In fellowship you are trained to take care of adults and children. I think it's the only fellowship like this.

Excellent point about combined fellowship. Because of this, med-peds training would be very useful for someone going into AI. Check out the official med-peds website and their discussion of med-peds fellowships.

http://www.medpeds.org/

http://www.medpeds.org/PDF/FellowshipGuide2005.pdf