Hello everyone. As an aspiring Dr, I have been thinking FAR far ahead about whats after the school ( think most people do ). I was just wondering if anyone knows the difficulty of obtaining a fellowship in allergy/immunology after an IM residency? There are some pretty informed people on this site; plus, it never hurts to ask.

somehwere i had post that this was an easy fellows spot to get into but that post is missing which begs the question..where did I post it?

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Allergy/Immunology is NOT an easy to get fellowship...You can get it either as a Pediatrics or an internal medicine graduate. It is a 2 year or 3 year fellowship depending on the Hospital. Big places want you to do a 3rd year in order to use you as a cheap labor researcher. It is competitive because the income is very good and the stress and the hours can be very nice. You just treat asthma, your nurses give allergy shots and you keep the money (sort of). Great lifestyle.

It is very doable coming from SGU, but it is not that easy to get.

__________________
medic
Pediatric Pulmonology

ive seen every img get this fellowship who's wanted it. Perhaps the stats can be obtained from somewhere.

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

Only a few years ago you could not give these fellowships away,most spots went to IMGs,and various programs actually closed down. Now with the interest in lifestyle friendly specialties and the very limited number of spots open I can tell you for a fact that Allergy is the "Dermatology" of Internal Medicine.The programs(and there are a small number) get many dozens of applications for 1 or 2 positions.It is now considered among the most difficult fellowships to get.

I had quite a distinct honor to work with a very talented allergist when I was rotating as a med student. At that time, he was my ward attending during the medicine rotation but is now Director of Clinical Immunology at Harvard.
Some programs also offer Rheumatology and Immunology and rarely rheum, allergy and immunology fellowships. At NIH/NIAID you can do ID and allergy/immunology.
But all of that is besides the point. Medical fellowships have become increasingly competitive over the last few years. This has to do with a number of reasons including more money in the specialties. Allergy/Imm is not exempt and in fact has been a little more difficult to get into since there are not as many programs in the country.
Do a little experiment. Go on to the freida website and search for fellowship programs in ID or Cardio or GI or Hem/Onc and pick NY as your state. You will see a bunch of programs. Do the same search in NY for all/imm and you will see only ten or so. So compared to the other fellowships, all/imm has much fewer programs and spots. This makes it even more competitive.
It is however doable if thats what you really want to do. PM me if you need further details... but I suggest you work on getting through this stage of your career right now and worry about fellowships later...
good luck
HG