Here is some basic information regarding the different fellowships in Internal Medicine.
Allergy/Immunology:
This fellowship is two or three years in duration and requires completion of three years of training in Internal Medicine. This is one of the most competitive Internal Medicine subspecialities. Allergy specialists treat conditions such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, food allergy, angioedema, urticaria, stinging insect allergy, primary immune deficiency, sinusitis and others. They can perform desensitization protocols. They get trained in allergy skin testing, pulmonary function tests, methacoline bronchial challenge tests, endoscope exams of the nose and upper airway, allergy blood tests, to name some of them only.
This fellowship is three years long and requires three years of prior training in Internal Medicine. This is one of the most competitive and one of the most procedural (like Pulmonology and Gastroenterology) subspecialties. Cardiologists can treat acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases, such as aneurysms, congenital heart diseases, hypertension, angina pectoris, arrhythmias, peripheral vascular diseases, cardiomyopathies, coronary artery disease, heart failure, heart transplant, hyperlipidemia and valvular heart disease. They can perform and interpret for instance: catheterizations, echocardiograms and angiograms.
Interventional cardiology is available to people who have completed a cardiology fellowship and it is a one-year program. Doing so, they can perform angioplasties, valvuloplasties, intracoronary stents, intravascular ultrasound, and directional atherectomies, among others. Another fellowship is Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology that is a one-year program and they get trained for example in pacemaker placement, cardioverter defibrillators placement, radiofrequency ablation techniques, etc.
This fellowship is two years in duration and you need to complete three years in Internal Medicine previously. It is currently considered a mildly competitive fellowship. Endocrinologists treat diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus, thyroid disorders, thyroid cancer, osteoporosis, parathyroid disorders, adrenal disorders, hyperlipidemia, obesity, bone diseases and pituitary disorders among others. A very few procedures, for instance: thyroid biopsies.
This fellowship is three years in duration and completion of three years of training in Internal Medicine is required to be eligible. Nowadays, gastroenterology is considered one of the most competitive IM fellowships (sharing this category with Allergy/Immunology and Cardiology). It is also one of the subspecialities with more procedures. Gastroenterologists treat disorders such as barrett’s esophagus, gastrointestinal bleeding, pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, pancreatic cysts, cystic fibrosis, esophageal cancer, gastroesophageal reflux disease, inflammatory bowel disease, malabsorption syndromes, peptic ulcer disease, colonic polyps, hepatitis and biliary diseases. They perform such procedures as diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, including enteral stents, biliary stents, banding of esophageal varices, small bowel enteroscopy, endoscopic ultrasound, colonoscopy and liver biopsies.
This fellowship is one year long and you require to complete three years of Internal Medicine training previously. This is considered a mildly competitive fellowship. Geriatricians deal with special problems of older persons, such as diabetes mellitus, pain management, chronic obstructive lung disease, dementia, depression, stroke rehabilitation, mental health, hospice, palliative care, menopause, coronary artery disease and hypertension.
This fellowship is a combined program of three years in duration. Following this program you can be double-boarded in hematology and oncology. The separate hematology and oncology fellowships are two years each. Hematology/Oncology is considered a moderately competitive fellowship. Hematology includes such disorders as anemia, bleeding or clotting disorders, leukemias, lymphoproliferative disorders, immune cytopenias, platelet disorders, monoclonal gammopathies, myelodysplasia, and porphyria to name some of them. Oncologists manage any type of cancer, for instance: cancer of the colon, rectum, breast, prostate, lung, brain tumors, sarcomas, melanomas, kidney cancer, hepatoma, pancreatic cancer and many others. They can do bone marrow biopsies, bone marrow transplantations, chemotherapy, brachytherapy, etc.
This fellowship is two years in duration and is considered mildly competitive. These are the experts in any bodily infection and their practice includes endocarditis, fever of unknown origin, fungal infections, HIV infection and AIDS, meningitis, infections in immunocompromised patients, osteomyelitis, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, pneumonia, sepsis, sexually transmitted diseases and travel-associated diseases, among others.
This is two years in duration and it is required that you complete three years in Internal Medicine previously. Currently this subspeciality is considered moderately competitive. Nephrologists treat diseases such as chronic kidney disease, kidney transplants, polycycstic kidney disease, renal parenchyma diseases, acute renal failure, hypertension and end-stage renal failure. Hence, they manage patients that are on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. They do a few procedures, for instance: kidney biopsies and hemodialysis catheter placements.
This combined fellowship is three years in duration, being double-boarded in pulmonary medicine and critical care medicine at the end. Currently, it is considered moderately competitive. The separate Pulmonary Medicine fellowship is two years. Critical care medicine only can be one or two years in duration. Critical care specialists provide care to critically ill patients who require care in the intensive care unit, involving skills in monitoring, airway maintenance, mechanical ventilation, intubation, central lines, Swan-Ganz catheters, etc.; they deal with multisystem organ failure, sepsis/bacteremia, heart failure, acute respiratory disorders and shock to name a few. Pulmonologists manage patients with such diseases as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary hypertension, tuberculosis, lung cancer, pneumonia, asthma, interstitial lung diseases, sleep disorders, lung transplants and respiratory failure. Pulmonology includes procedures, for example: interventional bronchoscopy, percutaneous tracheostomy and chest tubes.
This is two years long and you need to complete three years in Internal Medicine previously. Nowadays, it is considered mildly competitive. Rheumatologists treat connective tissue disorders. For example they manage patients with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, systemic lupus, bone and joint infections, ankylosing spondylitis, dermatomyositis, scleroderma, gout and pseudogout, to name some of them. It includes a very few procedures, such as diagnostic and therapeutic intra-articular and soft tissue injections and aspirations or arthroscopies.
You can also find information about requirements for the specialities and subspecialities/fellowships in this Graduate Medical Education Directory.
mty
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Posted Mar 16, 07 - 11:13
#4
HI chemmar nice to see you hear to . gl
egomez2001
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Posted Dec 17, 07 - 00:21
#5
Nice thread!, thanks chema!
egomez2001
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Posted Dec 23, 07 - 09:04
#6
Guys, I know there are some pulmonology programs but that they´re just a few since most of them are combinied with critical care. How difficult is it to get a position in this type of programs?
Thanks in advance
chemamr
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Posted Mar 17, 08 - 20:09
#7
hi egomez, it's of similar competitiveness. One of the reasons is precisely the number of programs with pulmo without critical care, there aren't many of them.
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