West coast pulmonary critical care fellowships

[bezold-jarisch]

I am a fresh intern interested in doing Pulmonary Critical Care. I matched to an IM program without a strong brand name but a well respected academic center nonetheless. I am originally from Seattle and was unable to stay for medical school or return for residency. Ideally, my future fellowship would land me somewhere out West near mountains. After a brief review of a few of the major academic centers out West, I was a discouraged to find how rare it is to find people who didn't complete their residency at the same hospital or at an MGH, Pitt, Stanford, Yale, etc. Can people without a super strong an institution behind them match at a major academic institution like University of Washington or Colorado for example? If yes, besides research and letters of rec, what else can I do over my residency to increase my chances. Is there anything I can do to establish a connection with a department at another institution? Are there some less competitive programs than UW, Colorado, UCSD (for example) that have great programs?

As far as what I bring to the table, my board scores are good to excellent especially for IM and I have multiple publications working on a few more in addition to some other interests that most would look on favorably. I hope to get some tips on what I can to do over the course of my residency to improve my chances, or quit worrying about going home for fellowship. For the record, this isn't an all consuming concern, but I eventually want to find myself near mountains and a short flight from home. Thanks for the help

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[Soccer171983]

You're on the right track. At this point, the biggest thing would be face time at programs you would like to match at. Where is your IM program located and is there a Pulm/CC Fellowship at the same hospital? I was the first fellow at my program to come from an outside program and having interviewed many people at our program through the years it is fair to say that there is a big home field advantage. We tend to know our residents better and unless someone outstanding sticks out its hard to turn away someone you see busting their tails for several years. That being said, if possible, do out rotations at these programs to help level the playing field. It sounds like your resume is solid and there is not too much more you can add (after 10 publications whats an 11th?). Letters of recommendations must be strong from your home program and obviously, your board scores are important as well. I hope this sheds light on your question. If you have any specifics feel free to ask and best of luck!

 

[jdh71]

There are programs out west that aren't UW and CO.

Those programs are really only interested in training hard core physician scientist types. Some research her or there especially from a non-name brand institution won't be enough. This is reality. No hard feelings. And with funding getting stricter and harder don't expect that to change. And UW's "physician educator track" isn't a "loophole". They are serious serious about that and want to see a track record.

Plenty of California programs that are solid workout being too over the top. Put UCSF and UCLA in with UW and CO as far as categorization goes. But USC, Harbor, Loma Linda, UCI, UCD, and a diamond in the rough like Utah would all be fine. There is also the Fresno and Cal Pacific programs. An if you want to count NM, AZ (+banner good sam), Las Vegas you have a few more.

Apply broadly but be realistic.

 

[Soccer171983]

There are programs out west that aren't UW and CO.

Those programs are really only interested in training hard core physician scientist types. Some research her or there especially from a non-name brand institution won't be enough. This is reality. No hard feelings. And with funding getting stricter and harder don't expect that to change. And UW's "physician educator track" isn't a "loophole". They are serious serious about that and want to see a track record.

Plenty of California programs that are solid workout being too over the top. Put UCSF and UCLA in with UW and CO as far as categorization goes. But USC, Harbor, Loma Linda, UCI, UCD, and a diamond in the rough like Utah would all be fine. There is also the Fresno and Cal Pacific programs. An if you want to count NM, AZ (+banner good sam), Las Vegas you have a few more.

Apply broadly but be realistic.

I agree with @jdh71 about name brand and training of hard core physician scientists. I will tell you I am at a place that makes excellent bread and butter community pulmonary critical care specialists. I guarantee I have way more bronch's under my belt than a lot of the "top tier" tertiary care centers because our focus isnt clinical drug trials and grant writing....that being said we do read the stuff that comes out of those places and heavily really on the findings places like these end of up elucidating (chest accp journal articles, courses etc). It depends on your interests. You want to be someone dealing with the 90% bread and butter type of stuff you will be fine coming out of place that has good variety and volume but may not have the elite name of UCSF, UW etc.