Questions on Endocrinology

[Bridaddy]

I'm still in college, but my dream is to become a Endocrinologist to treat diabetics. I have diabetes myself, and know this where I'd like to specialize (barring some heavy influences along the path).

I'm still learning a lot the whole process from med school to Endocrinologist, and recently found out that internal medicine is the residency you go through before your Endo fellowship.

I've been told that going into an Endocrinology fellowship isn't extreme competitive, and neither is an internal medicine residency.

Basically I'd be interested in any general information people might have on IM residencies/Endo fellowships.

I also basically am clueless about how residency programs select residents, and what they look at (I assume Med school grades, but don't know for sure).

If anyone could take a bit of time to help me out, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

Bridaddy

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[Lara]

I'm an M2 who's also interested in endocrinology.

First, have you read the internal medicine FAQ (first post on this board)? I'm sure it'll give a lot of info. But here's the very basic:

Most med schools will have preclinical (basic science) classes the first two years, followed by the standardized Step One exam (covering all preclinical material). Then you'll have two years of clinical rotations. Third year will almost certainly have mandatory internal med, pediatrics, surgery, ob-gyn and family practice. Fourth year will be more flexible, and you'll take the Step 2 exam and apply for residency.

For internal med, probably the two most important factors are your third year clinical grades (especially in IM) and the Step One exam. Recommendations from clinical faculty members play a part as well. The preclinical grades by themselves are much less significant, except that they'll likely affect your Step One score and possibly chances of making the AOA honor society (which is basically a bonus for residency).

Residency selection is made through a matching system - basically of the places you've received interviews at, you make a list ranking your preference. In turn, the residency program will make their own rank list of the interviewed candidates they prefer. Then a computer system matches an applicant to a program. The results are revealed on "match day". Since IM is less competitive with many programs available, there's really little chance of your not being matched somewhere. For those interested in fellowships, academic programs (those associated with major universities) are generally preferable.

Hope this helps!

 

[Bridaddy]

Thank you!

I hate it when people don't read FAQs, and I just slapped myself in the head for realizing I just became one of those people.

This is actually my first post in this particular forum. I'm pretty overwhelmed with my current situation as is, but I am greatful to know what is in store

Bridaddy

 

[ckent]

I was going to refer you to my FAQ, but then I figured that you were looking for some additional advice. Endocrine is fairly non-competetive now. It's fairly common for physicians to choose specialties based on what diseases they have too. I guess that's one way to receive optimal care for yourself. Anyways, I suspect that you are a type I diabetic, but these days, you never know, so here is an excellent article on type II diabetes if you do have type II.
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cg...NDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&journalcode=diacare

If you are a type I diabetic, tight glucose control with insulin, diet, and exercise is pretty still the mainstay of therapy as far as I know. You will hear a lot about what a bad disease diabetes is during med school, but you should realize that education is tremendously important in terms of the final outcome of diabetes since most of the complications are "preventable"; so as long as you use what you know, you should do well. I have a few diabetic professors, and a recent study suggested that the way things are going, more then 30% of the population would develop diabetes (mostly type II) in their lifetime. Even though most diabetics can be managed by primary care doctors, I do think that most diabetics should see an endocrinologist at least once every few years to make sure that they are on the right regimen.

Also, here is an older threads on endocrine:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65074

I'm glad that you liked the FAQ!

 

[Bridaddy]

I'm actually a type II, and I really wanted to thank you for that article. I was looking for a bit more info than the FAQ (now that I realize its there, the info there is excellent as well .

Believe me, I hear about how horrible it is some such a regular basis on the news/movies/TV its almost become a joke with my girlfriend and I. I am probably in the top 1% who are on insulin and have a normal A1C (5.9). Its can be a huge pain sometimes, but I try to look at it more like brushing my teeth, just something have to deal with everyday.

I feel like I have an excellent handle on my disease, my main problem is getting a handle on my GPA

This board has really given me the confidence to give it my all, and only wish I would of found it when I was younger.


I do know that I want to treat Diabetics, I'm just not sure what the best way is to do it. I figure I can worry about this after I get into Med School, gotta learn to crawl before I can run!

 

[Bridaddy]

Also that link to the endo thread was great!

I can't wait to get closer to actually being able to make such decisions about my career. Right now just worrying about grades.