Disclaimer: This is all one man's opinion. Your mileage may vary. -Ian

Being a resident is great. No more booking cheap hotel rooms, checking out Orbitz.com and Travelocity.com for cheap flights, ironing out your one “interview suit” that you've been using since applying to med school, and, of course, lying profusely at every interview.

How wrong you were… Fellowships are just like applying to radiology residency all over again.

Radiology fellowships are currently pretty popular choices for IU grads. Usually at least half the graduating class does a fellowship, and in recent years, the number has even been significantly * higher than that. For the class of 2009, it’s closer to 85% of residents who at this point are planning on doing a fellowship.

Here’s a few points that will be covered.

 a.	   IU fellowships
 b.	   IU mini-fellowships
 c.	   Outside fellowships

 a.	   Increased job marketability
 b.	   Geographic or political requirement
 c.	   Academics

 a.	   Reference letters
 b.	   Research
 c.	   Autobiographical statement
 d.	   CV

(include stuff like picking institutions, NRMP, travel (flights, hotel, rental cars), interview days off work)

IU has pretty much all the fellowships that are available out there. For any of these positions, there is a designated attending who serves as that fellowship director. The listing of these fellowships is available here:

http://www.indyrad.iupui.edu/radweb/Education/FellowshipProgram/tabid/187/Default.aspx

IU Fellowships include:

In general, these fellowships are prioritized to IU radiology residents over outside applicants, so chances are very good that if you want a given IU fellowship, you will be able to have it.

If you can get the job you want after completing an IU fellowship, then staying at IU for an additional year would be a great choice, in allowing you to save on all the hassles of the fellowship application process. The internal IU application process is pretty much a formality, and is easy to complete.

The IU fellowship application form can be requested from Kathie Pederson. Telephone: 317-274-1840

IU also offers a mini-fellowship option. In your fourth year of residency, you have a total of 6 months of electives. It is possible to designate all 6 months of electives in one clinical subspecialty. You then complete a total of 6 months of fellowship after residency, finishing at the end of December of the year of graduation.

In total, this gives you 1 year’s worth of training within the subspecialty, while getting you into the workforce 6 months earlier than someone who starts a conventional one year fellowship.

That 6 month head start may give you an advantage in obtaining a job, as well as the obvious financial benefits of getting into the workforce sooner.

Outside fellowships give you the chance to train at a different institution, and gain a second perspective in the training of that radiological subspecialty.

Particularly if you are interested in working in a different region of the US, outside of the Midwest, or are looking to add a “big name” to your CV, the outside fellowship can help accomplish these goals.

One of the most common reasons to do a fellowship, and probably the most important reason to do a fellowship, is for job marketability.

In most larger cities, including Indianapolis, the dominant radiology groups typically seek fellowship-trained radiologists. While most groups are not so large that a neuroradiologist can expect to do 100% neuro, or an MSK radiologist to do 100% MSK, there is an expectation that you will be the point person for difficult cases in that subspecialty.

Additionally, referring clinicians often demand reads from subspecialized radiologists.

If you are planning on practicing in a smaller community, or perhaps even a rural practice, there is little benefit to doing a fellowship purely for job marketability reasons. However, if you want to live in a large metropolitan area, doing a fellowship becomes nearly mandatory.

The majority of physicians eventually will practice in an area either where they are from, or where they trained. Those tend to be the areas where your family and friends are closest, and where you already have roots in the community.

However, if you intend to practice in an area outside those regions, doing a fellowship can be a political and networking tool to get your name into that community.

Additionally, if you do a high-powered fellowship at a “name” institution, having that brand-name on your CV can potentially increase your marketability outside your home region.

If you intend to practice in academic radiology, having a fellowship will be very helpful. In general, most academic programs are seeking fellowship-trained radiologists, although with the current levels of reimbursements in private practice, that can be difficult to accomplish.

As a result, many programs, including IU, will hire academic staff who have not completed a fellowship, but this isn’t universal. There are recent IU grads who have stayed on in Mammo, Mammo/Abdomen, and ER. However, these are either areas that are well-represented in residency, or are highly focused fields.

Many other subspecialties will be more stringent on having that fellowship, such as Interventional Radiology, Neuroradiology, Nuclear Medicine, Musculoskeletal, Pediatrics, etc.

Typically, fellowship programs want a total of three radiology reference letters. In general, the easiest way to fulfill that is by getting the following three letters:

1) Darel Heitkamp, IU program director
2) Valerie Jackson, IU chair
3) [ ], Head of IU department subspecialty

Most programs will want a letter from your program director. Having Dr. Jackson’s support can be a huge help, since she’s so well connected in the radiology community.

Finally, most programs also would like a letter from your subspecialty, and having the head of that department write the letter increases the “connection factor”, which often is very handy in getting an edge on interviews/acceptances.

One of the most powerful tools in getting a fellowship is when an IU faculty known to the outside institution is willing and able to vouch for you, either in the reference letter itself, or via a post-interview phone call or email.

You will want to ask these individuals for letters well in advance of your application date (at least 1.5 months in advance), to give them enough time to generate a letter. It would be helpful to include a CV and your personal statement, so that they have some additional, personal information that they can include in the letter if need be.

Research isn’t required. Many IU grads have successfully obtained competitive fellowship spots without it. However, if you can get something on your CV that is research-related, that always helps. At both my UCSD MSK and U Michigan MSK interviews, multiple interviewers asked me if I was considering a career in academics.

The reason for this is that most residents and fellows are going into private practice, and therefore, many academic institutions feel pressure to seek out those fellowship applicants who would be interested in doing research and publishing papers during fellowship, and perhaps staying on in academics afterwards.

The easiest way to get involved would be to ask the attendings in the subspecialty you’re interested in. Usually, there’s some sort of research project you can get involved within, although some staff are much more prolific than others.

Some of the more research-oriented staff at IU include:

You’ve all done these before. This personal statement is at least as frustrating as all the rest of it. How on earth do you say what subspecialty you are interested in, while being at least somewhat original and interesting???

This personal statement will probably be read by your interviewers about 30 seconds before you enter into the room for your interview. Try to make it concise, and not too outlandish. Standard and boring is probably the way to go.

Try to state some reasons why you are interested in your subspecialty (maybe a short anecdote), and then introduce some reasons why you would be a good fellow for that program (ie. what personal characteristics can you bring to the program that would make them want to choose you?).

Bottom line, all the standard rules apply. 1) One page, maximum.
2) Make sure someone else proof-reads it to catch any grammar or spelling mistakes.
3) If you include location or specialty-specific details, make sure that you don’t send the wrong letter to a program!
4) Talk about what you can bring to the fellowship, and what you are looking at in the fellowship. Consider including a more personalized paragraph that is optimized for each program.
5) Mention any local or regional ties that you may have. The programs are looking for someone who will be happy there.

Same deal as the autobiographical statement. 1) Preferably 1 page. 2 pages at a maximum.
2) Get it proofread.
3) It’s dorky to include your inservice scores. (I didn’t). Hopefully, if they are good, Darel will include them in his letter, although I never got to see my letter from him, so I can’t confirm that.