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Family Medicine Specialization


meds2015

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Hello,

 

I understand that after your family medicine training, you can specialize in Emergency medicine. There are details for this match on the CaRMS website. I would liek to know if family medicine residents can specialize in other areas in Canada. I am particularly interested in Pediatrics/ Child health. Are there Canadian programs that allow family medicine residents to specialize in child health to work in the role of community Pediatricians? Any info on this would be useful. Thanks.

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No, you can't specialize pediatrics if you do FM and a plus one. You can become a family doctor focusing in pediatrics but you can't present yourself as a pediatrician because you aren't. You also can't bill as a specialist. The CPSO has made this clear.

 

I can't really see a role for this either, unless you are in a rural area where there is a slight need for pediatrics but not enough case load to support a full blown pediatrician. Then you could have a more kid focused mix to your family practice.

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I can't really see a role for this either, unless you are in a rural area where there is a slight need for pediatrics but not enough case load to support a full blown pediatrician. Then you could have a more kid focused mix to your family practice.

 

There is absolutely a role for family docs focusing on paediatrics.

 

The fact that some GP's refuse to see kids combined with the fact that there aren't enough paediatricians creates a niche for family med trained docs with an interest in paediatrics.

 

GP's are the ones who should be assuming primary care for most healthy kids, so it is quite easy to build a practice full of kids. There are also "paediatric clinics" that hire mostly GP's with a couple of "consultant" paediatricians for the complex cases. 

 

That being said, as stated above you would not be a specialist, just a family doc with a "focus" on peds. It can be lucrative, though, because when set up properly you can see a large volume of patients.

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GP's are the ones who should be assuming primary care for most healthy kids, so it is quite easy to build a practice full of kids.

I completely agree. For a healthy kid there is no reason to go to a pediatrician as primary care. Its a waste of taxpayers money.

 

Is there really a shortage of pediatricians though? I always figured it was the opposite based on my experience of underfilled peds clinics and excesses of peds doctors (at least specialists) combined with the low billings.

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Is there really a shortage of pediatricians though? I always figured it was the opposite based on my experience of underfilled peds clinics and excesses of peds doctors (at least specialists) combined with the low billings.

 

In my area, there is a shortage of pediatricians doing office-based primary care..... in other words parents with newborns are scrambling to find a doctor because the public is not well educated about the role of GP's in primary care of healthy children -- So they are all looking for a "pediatrician"

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In my area, there is a shortage of pediatricians doing office-based primary care..... in other words parents with newborns are scrambling to find a doctor because the public is not well educated about the role of GP's in primary care of healthy children -- So they are all looking for a "pediatrician"

Probably because they are reading/watching a ton of US stuff where a pediatrician providing primary care is not unusual.

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I have seen job postings by pediatric groups in rural areas looking for GPs with special pediatric interest to help them take call at the hospital, round on the peds patients, etc.

 

I don't know how the billings would work, but presumably you would not have access to the Specialist billing codes.

 

I'm assuming there are some other incentives provided though.

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I have seen job postings by pediatric groups in rural areas looking for GPs with special pediatric interest to help them take call at the hospital, round on the peds patients, etc.

 

I don't know how the billings would work, but presumably you would not have access to the Specialist billing codes.

 

I'm assuming there are some other incentives provided though.

 

 

Peds is one of the lowest paying specialties, anyway. Fee schedule is probably not so different.

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I think the other part of the issue is the volume of patients seen is pretty low compared to adult medicine.

 

That must be the reason.

 

The fee schedule for Peds is actually much higher than for GPs, with a simple consultation in BC running $204.52, and more complex consultations going much higher.

 

The lowest level Peds consultation is actually significantly higher than the lowest level GIM consultation.

 

Most GIM consultations however are going to be "complex," as this definition only requires that there be 3 medical conditions addressed, and who has ever seen a GIM consultation where they just stick to what you consulted them for...

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