Women's health without the fellowship

[famdream]

Hi everyone,

 

I am interested in women's health, and would like to run a family medicine practice focused within this area. I have come across the women's health PGY3 fellowship and it looks interesting, but I keep reading/hearing that you technically don't need the +1 fellowships to practice in whatever area you're interested in (for instance, you don't really need the care of the elderly PGY3 year to do nursing home/retirement home care....of course the extra training makes you better, but you can certainly do it without that extra year).

 

So what I'd like to know is: can I finish my 2 year residency, set up my own clinic and say I'm focusing on women's health (without doing the fellowship?).

The plan would be to make women's health a focus during residency.

 

Also: the breast diseases fellowship caught my eye - but what are the job prospects like with this? What exactly do graduates of this program do? I know some of them run the rapid diagnostic breast clinic at sunnybrook, but I believe set-ups like that are rather limited and those jobs are already full, so what do the new grads from this program do? Just have a family practice focused on women's health (with a special interest in breast diseases)?

 

(I'm currently a med student in Ontario btw)

[thebouque]

You certainly don't need the PGY 3 in women's health to practice in that field.

[Jochi1543]

I think your best bet would be to e-mail whoever coordinates that fellowship and ask them to tell you what their grads over the last few years have been up to, and see if you can contact these people directly.

[justletmein]

A fellowship is designed to improve your skills in a certain area...

 

If you know you want to "sub-specialize" in women's health, you can easily tailor your selectives and electives to meet those needs during your 2-year family medicine residency.

 

If by the end of 2 years you are comfortable with things like IUD insertion, endometrial biopsies, and breast diseases, then you can go ahead and tailor your practice to serve mostly women if that's what you want....

 

In terms of specializing specifically in breast diseases, I would think the options would be limited for GP's. Generally, when you have an abnormal mammo or clinical exam, patients are being sent to "breast clinics" where they are being seen by breast surgeons, radiologists and geneticists. I'm just not sure what specific skill a GP would bring to such a specialized field.

[Lactic Folly]

I remember seeing a GP advertise themselves as a patient navigator for newly diagnosed patients, but usually these roles are filled by nurse practitioners.