ATul Jain, MD
Contributing Editor
The retina fellowship match occurs sometime in December about 7 months before the fellowship is to begin. Programs are notified of results by a fax from sfmatch and either the program director or program coordinator notify the resident of the match results, which is typically followed by a personal phone call from the program director of the program where the resident matched. If one did not match they are also notified by sfmatch about the result and the following day a scramble begins where phone calls and faxes are made to programs with unfilled positions in an effort to secure one of those positions.
The most important thing to do after you match is to obtain medical licensure for the state in which your fellowship will be. This process can take up to 6 months in some states, thus, it’s best to get started ASAP after the match as most fellowships require licensure before you can commence your fellowship. The second thing to do after matching is apply for the HEED Fellowship (www.heed.org). This is an academic award of about $12,000 that is awarded to about a dozen ophthalmology residents who are entering into fellowships in which 20% of the time can be dedicated to research. It’s a nice way to augment the pay cut most fellows realize, not to mention the prestige factor. The application requires a letter from the program director where the fellowship will be and a letter from the chairman of the resident’s current program in addition to a personal statement, 2 other letters of recommendation, an online application (basically a list of publications and honors), and a photocopy of the fellowship match result. The application deadline is mid Jan, about a month after the match. Results are announced about 4 – 6 weeks after the fellowship application deadline.
Once all that is done it’s time to take a deep breath and enjoy the final few months of residency and fine tune surgical skills. The next couple years will be rigorous and exciting and will complete the final leg of the journey to becoming a vitreo-retinal specialist!
Have a question or comment on this article? Use the “Comment” link below to leave your thoughts, and the author will respond.