Re. the Match:Any insight on joint Med/Neuro Residency Prog?

Hi everyone,

Happy New Years to you and your families

I was hoping to tap into the vast Match/residency knowledge here. Over the holiday season, Jay & I had a serious discussion about our (and I'm absolutely using the plural on this one !!!) Match List. He needs to submit his final rank list in approx. three weeks. Currently, he is torn between two programs - one of which is part of a joint Internal Med/Neuro program, the other is a straight Neuro program. He says he's talked to a number of medical professionals about the merits of a joint program; and either people really loved the idea or hated it!

So my question is - Have any of you heard anything about dual residency programs, esp. for Neuro/Med? Is it worth the extra years ( I think +2 add'nl years) of training? Any insight you have would be greatly appreciated.

Dures

[DCJenn]

Hi there-

My only insight is from my husband's perspective going in to the peds neuro fellowship. He is very glad he did the peds residency because it gave him a much more thorough understanding of pediatrics- medications, illnesses, parents, kids in general. He definitely felt the three years of residency will be critical in his becoming a better neurologist. It also helped him because in the Army (I don't know about elsewhere) peds neuro is a part of the neuro team and not the peds dept. so he was able to get a better understanding of how the pediatrics department works as a whole. And, given that a lot of the kids will becoming from the NICU, PICU and the er, having those connections was/is also very valuable. He's rotated through those departments and therefore has a better understanding of how they work.

Hope this helps-

Jenn