Where can I read about residencies and specialties/sub-specialties?

[M3P0]

For example, cardiology is a sub-specialty of internal medicine. So in CaRMS, do students aim to match to internal medicine and later pick a sub-speciality - or is that predetermined somehow? On the other hand, anesthesiology is not a sub-speciality so it is applied to outright. 

Anyhow, a resource to read that details the intricacies of specialities and subspecialties would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[indefatigable]

21 hours ago, M3P0 said:

For example, cardiology is a sub-specialty of internal medicine. So in CaRMS, do students aim to match to internal medicine and later pick a sub-speciality - or is that predetermined somehow? On the other hand, anesthesiology is not a sub-speciality so it is applied to outright. 

Exactly  - there are primary entry programs which includes Internal Medicine (IM) and anesthesiology that are applied to in MS4.  They are listed on CaRMS (along with the criteria which usually fall into electives/letters and sometimes research suggested)

https://www.carms.ca/match/r-1-main-residency-match/program-descriptions/

For IM, having an interest/idea of possible subspecialty could help but isn't essential when applying.  During the third year of residency (PGY 3) one applies to a different CaRMS match (MSM) for subspecialty (based on interest/electives/research.. during residency).  The Program Descriptions give a brief blurb: 

https://www.carms.ca/match/msm/program-descriptions/.  

It's not super cut/dry because anesthesiologist can also apply to a critical care fellowship, but that's the basic set-up.

There's a similar match for pediatrics with similar subspecializations.  Finally FM has a FM/ES match too.   

21 hours ago, M3P0 said:

 Anyhow, a resource to read that details the intricacies of specialities and subspecialties would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Besides the links above - an overview of most specialties/subspecialties (including FM) is also given on the CMA website: https://www.cma.ca/canadian-specialty-profiles.   Note that the Canadian wide statistics may vary between provinces.  There's some nuances - for instance Emergency (EM) is both a separate entry and also a +1 after FM (which is a topic onto itself).

The Royal College has a search feature for specialties/subspecialties excluding FM which gives links: https://www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/ibd-search-e

[bearded frog]

19 hours ago, M3P0 said:

Anyhow, a resource to read that details the intricacies of specialities and subspecialties would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I'm not sure of a good resource for this, but if you find it let us know. As above, basically after medical school you match to a residency through CaRMS. You can go to the CaRMS website to see the direct entry specialties. Almost every specialty has areas that you can do a "fellowship" in, and there are subfellowships etc. For IM and peds, these are also done through a CaRMS match, however most others are just like applying for a job and you don't "match". And even in medicine/peds there are some fellowships not done through CaRMS. You're right in that you target whatever level you're at, so if you want to be a cardiologist you would just try to get in to internal medicine first, however you may try and target programs with good cardiology programs, thinking ahead, but you could still be a cardiologist, in theory, from any IM program.