Silly question about IM residency

[phd2MD]

I am a little confused in the progession from residency to fellowship. I know fellowships arent required for many specialties, but am particularlly confused about Internal medicine. If someone wants to be a cardiologist, they do an internal medicine residency then a cardiology fellowship right? How long does this generally take? Also, are Caribbean grads still limited to their fellowship position even if they have been able to prove their abilities throughout their residency?
Thanks

[Bill Cornbread]

My bro is a med/ped from LSU New Orleans who finished about 5 or so years ago. He called Baylor about their cardio fellowship and I think they said it was about 2 years. Btw; I don't think it's hard to get something like this. They told him; once we get your paper work we will call you on a start date if your still interested. This was over the phone now. It sounds like a fellowship is as easy to get in as grad school.

[teratos]

I am a little confused in the progession from residency to fellowship. I know fellowships arent required for many specialties, but am particularlly confused about Internal medicine. If someone wants to be a cardiologist, they do an internal medicine residency then a cardiology fellowship right? How long does this generally take? Also, are Caribbean grads still limited to their fellowship position even if they have been able to prove their abilities throughout their residency?
Thanks


Most subspecialties require a fellowship. GI, cardio, nephro, etc. For all of them you need to do IM first. There are a lot of specialties that are just residency. IM, psych, surgery, physical medicine and rehab, derm, neuro, peds OB etc. Fellowships seem to generally take 2 to 3 years, depending on what you want. They can be much longer. Caribbean grads aren't really limited, but it is much harder for us to get many of the very competitive fellowships.

He called Baylor about their cardio fellowship and I think they said it was about 2 years. Btw; I don't think it's hard to get something like this. They told him; once we get your paper work we will call you on a start date if your still interested. This was over the phone now. It sounds like a fellowship is as easy to get in as grad school.

Cardiology is insanely hard to get. Some fellowships are really easy, some, like derm and cardio are crazy. Your brother must be an academic stud. G

[wolfvgang22]

So what are some easy fellowships?

[BTH]

Yes, I am also curious as to what some of the "easier" fellowships are. For those of you who have graduated and been through this process, which specialty are less competitive? Also, is it a must that you do an IM residency for specialties like Cardiology? So if you did your residency in OBGYN then you can't do a fellowship in IM? Simply wondering.

[Yossarian]

You have to do an IM residency first to get IM fellowships (cards, GI, etc.) regardless of whether you have done a different residency ie. OB/GYN. IM is 3 years, cardiovascular disease is a 3 year fellowship afterwards, and if you want to do interventional cardiology (angioplasty, stents, etc. $$$) you have to do an additional one year fellowship in interventional cardiology to get board certified in it; total time after med. school= 7 years, and as the other posts have stated, cardiology is a quite competitive field to get into.

[teratos]

Less competitive fellowships would be things like endocrine and geriatrics. I don't think pulmonology is terrible, nephrology seems to be reasonable, as does critical care. I can't think of all of them. As a general rule, the higher the salary, the more competitive it is. G

[BTH]

Thanks Dr. D. I'm relatively new to this forum so I am simply curious, are you planning on going into any of those specialties?