Dermatology

[Guest Vilehamel]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone could answer some of my questions regarding dermatology:

 

1. What is the relative difficulty in getting a residency position compared to other fields?

 

2. What is the typical duration of residency?

 

Please fell free to add any relevant information. Thanks.

[Guest physiology]

Dermatology is one of the hardest specializations to get into.

 

It's popular for a number of reasons:

 

1) It's hard to get into. So people want it, thus making the competition worse. Maybe it's a prestige thing?

 

2) Good lifestyle (minimal on call), extremely good pay.

 

Plus, you can set up a private clinic doing cosmetic procedures as well (tumescent liposuction, botox, spider veins, varicose veins, etc).

 

 

The residency is 5 years. If you want to do a fellowship, that adds 1-2 years.

[Guest Vilehamel]

Hi,

 

I have a few more questions:

 

What achievements will set one candidate apart from others when applying for a specialization/residency?

 

What is the nature of a Dermatology residency?

 

What exactly is a fellowship?

 

Thanks

[Guest Ian Wong]

I'm going to move this to the "Other specialties" forum out of the General Premed forum.

 

Dermatology is generally one of the hardest specialties (if not outright the hardest) to enter in North America, whether that is in Canada or the US. The reason is probably multifactorial, and would have to include the fact that the lifestyle of both a Dermatology residency and in practice afterwards is unmatched. The income is more than commensurate with the hours worked, particularly if you delve into the private cosmetic area, which many dermatologists do. Residency is busy, but significantly less so than residencies in most other specialties.

 

Derm is a 5 year residency in Canada, and a 4 year residency in the US. Fellowship is additional training done after residency which adds to your knowledge base in a particular area of dermatology (ie. Derm Surgery, Pediatric Dermatology, etc). After completing a fellowship, you often limit your practice to your area of expertise (fellowship often increases your marketability/income although not always; many people do them because there's a particular area within a specialty that they enjoy the most and therefore want to spend the majority of their time in that subspecialty area).

 

Ian

[Guest UTMed07]

If you're interested in understanding exactly how competitive derm is take a look at the CaRMS web page.

 

This table (Discipline Choices of Canadian Students and Graduates 2004 Match First Iteration) can give you an idea of the odds. In 2004 17 grads put dermatology as their first choice. That year there were a total of 6 spots.

[Guest physiology]

I think dermatology should be rolled back into internal medicine, as opposed to being a free-standing residency.

 

As it stands, people who want to match into dermatology right now have to enter the rat race from day 1 of medical school. (Getting to know the residency directors, padding the resume by doing research, shadowing, international derm electives, etc).

 

If it were part of an internal medicine residency, one's training would be broader and not as narrow and restricted.

 

I think plastics and dermatology are neck and neck in being the most competitive specialties.

 

But anyway, I hope people who choose to do dermatology do it because they truly love working with skin, as opposed to doing simply because it's the hardest to match into.

[UBCmed09]

A little exposure to derm has helped it rise into one of my top 3 (along w/ family & anaesthesia), but this has me a little concerned.

 

I guess I'm wondering if anyone can comment on how realistic it is to land this residency as a fairly average med student. By average I mean: occasional pre-clin honours but mostly just P's, some extracurric involvement but nothing crazy since I have a family to spend precious free time with, no publications or significant research experience although that 's something I hope to explore this summer. I gather that how I do on the wards next year will play a role (ie. evals & letters). I've looked at program requirements on the CaRMS website and poked around the forums and am a bit concerned that a field that seems to be a great match for me is totally unfeasible. Yes, I am aware that I can tailor a family practice to do more derm stuff.

 

Does anyone know of people landing derm without a ton of pre-clin H's, no pubs, etc? I'm not one to give up if this is something I really want but I do like to get a feel for what kind of battle I'm facing.

 

Another concern is that gunning for derm in the match would make the likelihood of landing a desired FM residency location near impossible if I have say 3 derm spots ranked first.

 

Sorry for the long post & thanks for any thoughts,

UBCmed09

[Kirsteen]

I guess I'm wondering if anyone can comment on how realistic it is to land this residency as a fairly average med student. By average I mean: occasional pre-clin honours but mostly just P's, some extracurric involvement but nothing crazy since I have a family to spend precious free time with, no publications or significant research experience although that 's something I hope to explore this summer. I gather that how I do on the wards next year will play a role (ie. evals & letters). I've looked at program requirements on the CaRMS website and poked around the forums and am a bit concerned that a field that seems to be a great match for me is totally unfeasible. Yes, I am aware that I can tailor a family practice to do more derm stuff.

 

Does anyone know of people landing derm without a ton of pre-clin H's, no pubs, etc? I'm not one to give up if this is something I really want but I do like to get a feel for what kind of battle I'm facing.

 

Another concern is that gunning for derm in the match would make the likelihood of landing a desired FM residency location near impossible if I have say 3 derm spots ranked first.

 

Sorry for the long post & thanks for any thoughts,

UBCmed09

Hi there,

 

First, I know some folks who managed to match into equally competitive residencies after having changed their minds at the last minute, which is a comparable situation to yours. For them, they felt that the key to clinching a spot was being able to tell a compelling story as to why they wanted this career, doing an elective in the field and getting a very good evaluation from someone well-known in that field, and excelling in their clerkship rotations with great letters to match. Sure, a bit of research experience in Derm would help, but it's definitely not a lost cause.

 

With respect to matching in FM, you could still easily do so, despite ranking 3 Derm programs ahead of any of your FM programs. In that case, the FM program that ranks 4 on your list would have to rank you within its quota maximum, and you'd have to be rejected by the 3 Derm programs. So overall, that wouldn't be a problem if you were considered a strong FM candidate. The detriment to gunning for Derm and applying to FM, however, is that some of the FM programs might see the Derm electives you might do and be a little gun-shy, i.e., select another candidate over you who might look on paper to be more committed to FM and not using it as a back-up.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[BlackJack]

I've recently completed a rotation in dermatology. I signed up for it because my knowledge of it was sparse, and our education up to that point did not emphasize derm as it did cardiology or nephrology. I didn't want to neglect it, so to speak.

 

What I didn't expect was that I would find it extremely fascinating and challenging. The multitude of dermatological conditions, and the underlying disease processes that cause them, seem nearly limitless. I know I would never get bored in that career. The combination of internal medicine and procedures, be it cosmetic or otherwise, allows for a broad medical learning experience that wouldn't end until retirement or death. Not only that, but its the only rotation that I've done where nobody - the attendings, residents, or nurses - complained about their job even once!

 

I did well in the rotation: I learned a lot, applied what I learned, and since I was very interested in it and enjoyed every minute, I learned even more. Resultingly, I recieved a strong evaluation.

 

However, I fear its too late in the game to be gunning for this. I have no past research in derm. What past research I have in other fields won't be published until well after my match - there is actually a possibility that the studies won't be completed at all. My marks are good but its P/F. I do have a life outside of medicine and I can demonstrate that, but I'm no Rhodes Scholar or Varsity Athlete - on the contrary, I can barely play anything that isn't Nintendo. Plus, my school doesn't have a derm residency spot (from what I gather, most don't). So, as compared to the gunners that have been at this since day one, and who all probably have excellent evaluations on top of having everything I lack, and who are from schools with a residency position in derm and can thus tailor their attempt to the local protocol, I'm probably not top-of-the-list material.

 

And yes I know I could do FM and tailor it to derm, but to me, 2nd place is the same as losing when winning was within your reach ( no offense to the above poster who also likes Derm but has selected FM as a 2nd)

 

So, I'm planning on perhaps taking a year between 3rd and 4th to do nationwide rotations, bolster my research, and generally get to know everything I can about it before I go guns blazing into the match.

 

So, do any posters here know of anyone (including themselves), who was in a similar boat? What did that person do about it? Were they successful?

 

 

 

That's my diatribe.

 

Exeunt BlackJack.

[lolwut]

Bump - very interested in derm, any other input?!