wat is the hype with - INTERNAL MEDICINE?

[Guest bestfriends4life]

allo allo med students!

I was browsing through the carms website and noticed that many many students were opting to go into Internal Medicine...now I was just wondering ...

1) What exactly is it ? I am guessing from the name - has something to do with ppl's 'internal stuff"

but what I mean is like ok do perfrom surgeries on internal stuff - do u diagnosis sickness based on internal stuff? wat exactly are u doing as an internal medicine specialist?

2) I guess answers to qsn 1 might answer this - but y is it that many ppl are choosing internal medicine?

More ppl need these kind of doctors? Better life style in terms of hours? More rewarding career?

I googled some stuff but nothing is giving me nice concrete answers - so if any of u know any good sites or care to tell me that would be great!

thnx

tata

*A*

[Guest satsumargirl]

Hey,

 

Yep, you got it, it has to do with what is internal in a person.

(except neurology is a specialty on its own)

 

Specialists, such as cardiologists, respirologists, nephrologists, haematologists etc. must all start out with internal and specialize from there.

 

Internal is considered to be medicine not surgery ...an internist or some kind of specialist will be involved pre-op and post-op but a surgeon will be doing the surgery.

 

Hope that helps

Sats

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

Just to add to what satsumagirl noted above, there are now a few areas of Internal Medicine which are starting to inch into surgery, i.e., physical intervention medicine, territory. Those fields include interventional cardiology and interventional gastroenterology. In both, not only do these Internal Med practitioners use pharmaceuticals to treat their patients, but they also have physical measures, e.g., scopes, guidewires, stents, etc., in their armoury for patient treatment.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Gavanshir]

Is it not also true that IM residency positions are less competitive than others, which explains why there are more applicants there.

[Guest supa76]

there's a great post from medicator here too:

 

p090.ezboard.com/fpremed1...=116.topic

[Guest medicator007]

Thanks for the props on the post supa76...

 

As to IM being less competitive, I don't buy it. True the application numbers are misleading since MANY people use IM as a backup. That being said, try saying its not competitive to the people who didn't get IM. Plenty of people don't get it and plenty of people go unmatched trying to get into IM. We don't have the 2006 match stats out yet, but if I recall in 2005 15 people canada wide went unmatched with IM as their desired discipline.

 

Medicator

[Guest moo]

I would just like to add that for those thinking IM is not competitive, you may have been hearing that from American sites like SDN. That is generally true, IM (along with peds and ob/gyne and FP) are considered primary care specialties and as a result are not at all competitive in the US. Ninety-nine percent of people (US grads) who want IM get it and if you don't, you can easily scramble into a position. Nobody "backs-up" IM in the US. To do so would be professional suicide (as program directors and administration from your school and IM advisors would be on your back quickly.) However, if you want to do a fellowship afterward, or want to do academics, you need to aim for a top program (or at least a university-based program. Penn, the Brigham, MGH, UCSF, Washington, Michigan, UCLA, etc. are generally considered top.) And these are generally very hard to get. There are many @#%$ community programs out there that attract mostly FMGs (unfortunately). There is a wide variation in the (perceived) quality of programs in the US. Name is everything down here.

[Guest UofMedMed]

What is the SDN Website?

 

What about university based but not top schools like U of Vermont, University of Miami, Florida. Can you get into fellowships through these programs?!?!

 

Can you do 3 years in the US then apply back to Canada for fellowship? Is it hard to find fellowship spots back in Canada?

 

 

Thanks!

[Guest JSS02]

The SDN website is http://www.studentdoctor.net . My word is far from official (I'm starting my IM residency in Canada this summer), but although internal medicine might be different down in the US, I would be VERY surprised if a place like U. of Miami didn't have subspecialty training available.

 

I'm not sure about how easy it is to apply for an R4 subspecialty spot after doing the first 3 years in the US. It might vary from school to school as well. You would need the MCCQE Parts 1 and 2 for sure, and probably need to get the Royal College to recognize your American residency training certification. In terms of fellowships in Canada, I was told during most of my CaRMS interviews this year that internal medicine residents usually get the subspecialty they want, and often in their location of choice as well. If you want to check out the number and types of spots available, visit the Canadian R4 Match website run by the University of Alberta.