Competitive Specialty from Mac?

[TheWayIAre]

Entering med school I'm considering a wide number of specialties, both competitive and non-competitive, but I've questions mainly about the competitive ones, since those need to be planned earlier, especially from a 3-year program.

-How do Mac students do sufficient research to match to programs like derm and plastics without summers off?

-This might be stupid, but do clinical research projects exist in competitive fields like the above mentioned? Or all they all bench

 

[DrOtter]

16 minutes ago, TheWayIAre said:

Entering med school I'm considering a wide number of specialties, both competitive and non-competitive, but I've questions mainly about the competitive ones, since those need to be planned earlier, especially from a 3-year program.

-How do Mac students do sufficient research to match to programs like derm and plastics without summers off?

-This might be stupid, but do clinical research projects exist in competitive fields like the above mentioned? Or all they all bench

 

All I've seen from Plastics and Derm gunners are clinical research and outcomes review and systematic review etc. Dunno how feasible bench research is lol

[rmorelan]

(as a side note for people considering derm for instance - it may not immediately be obvious but there aren't derm residency programs at every med school - in fact in Ontario it is only at Ottawa and Toronto. If you are looking for active research in an area where there is no corresponding academic training program it can be more of a challenge regardless of the school - something that can be overcome, but to do that you need to be aware of it).

[TheWayIAre]

35 minutes ago, rmorelan said:

(as a side note for people considering derm for instance - it may not immediately be obvious but there aren't derm residency programs at every med school - in fact in Ontario it is only at Ottawa and Toronto. If you are looking for active research in an area where there is no corresponding academic training program it can be more of a challenge regardless of the school - something that can be overcome, but to do that you need to be aware of it).

How could I overcome the fact that McMaster doesn't have a training program for derm? I wouldn't be opposed to doing research in Toronto if it came down to it.

[DrOtter]

32 minutes ago, TheWayIAre said:

How could I overcome the fact that McMaster doesn't have a training program for derm? I wouldn't be opposed to doing research in Toronto if it came down to it.

Depending on the type of research, you could conceivably do it remotely (database review, and such). It's just the hassle of contacting and locking down a PI located in Toronto.

[rmorelan]

29 minutes ago, TheWayIAre said:

How could I overcome the fact that McMaster doesn't have a training program for derm? I wouldn't be opposed to doing research in Toronto if it came down to it.

I helped in a small way with someone doing that a while ago at Western (working with the school's admins to free up time during normal class times for her to go) - face time for derm seems pretty important (worse getting an elective there is hard, and proportionally a huge number of the spots are at TO - you basically cannot ignore that school). 

Aggressively reach out and arrange things during your available time basically - learn the elective system so you can ensure you have a spot etc. 

This is really just a derm thing - people at other schools have similar issues so it isn't Mac specific. There is still many ways of doing derm work outside of the places it is taught academically - it is just harder to make connections but not impossible. 

[TheWayIAre]

24 minutes ago, rmorelan said:

I helped in a small way with someone doing that a while ago at Western (working with the school's admins to free up time during normal class times for her to go) - face time for derm seems pretty important (worse getting an elective there is hard, and proportionally a huge number of the spots are at TO - you basically cannot ignore that school). 

Aggressively reach out and arrange things during your available time basically - learn the elective system so you can ensure you have a spot etc. 

This is really just a derm thing - people at other schools have similar issues so it isn't Mac specific. There is still many ways of doing derm work outside of the places it is taught academically - it is just harder to make connections but not impossible. 

There should be some administrative system in place for med students to arrange research positions right? Compared to undergrad where cold emailing was necessary

[bearded frog]

I personally know that you can match to plastics with just the 3 years, however others have done the extra 4th year for a research masters in their desired field and I'm sure that would help as well.

[rmorelan]

1 hour ago, TheWayIAre said:

There should be some administrative system in place for med students to arrange research positions right? Compared to undergrad where cold emailing was necessary

......yeah......

there can be - it is very school dependent. Research is research - done by individual people. I have never found it to be extremely organized

but I will say as a medical student things are a ton easier - you are working much closer to people doing research, yours skills have advanced simply because you already have more training, and everyone knows how the system works. 

Don't ever stop thinging though that you have to get out there and network. That isn't how it works - and that is good actually because if you do stick yourself out there and get things done that actually means something. 

[Edict]

On 6/18/2020 at 10:43 AM, TheWayIAre said:

Entering med school I'm considering a wide number of specialties, both competitive and non-competitive, but I've questions mainly about the competitive ones, since those need to be planned earlier, especially from a 3-year program.

-How do Mac students do sufficient research to match to programs like derm and plastics without summers off?

-This might be stupid, but do clinical research projects exist in competitive fields like the above mentioned? Or all they all bench

 

Mac students typically do research longitudinally. The program while shortened doesn't have that many mandatory hours, only about 12-15 a week, which means that you have a lot of free time. Those who want competitive specialties usually use this time to do research, network, shadow, ECs. At the end of the day, if you want to match from Mac to a competitive specialty, it does take a bit of extra effort because of the shortened timeline. 

Clinical research exists in almost every specialty and definitely in the above specialties, some specialties are more research focused than others, but in almost every competitive specialty you can find people doing some form of clinical research.