PLASTIC SURGERY

Welcome to the Plastic Surgery Resource Page. This online repository houses relevant resources and contact information for students seeking career advice. We encourage you to review the career-related materials provided (e.g. Specialty Webinar, Interview Questions, Research, etc.) as you seek support in your journey through medical school. If you have further questions that are not addressed on this page, please feel free to contact a Specialty Faculty Mentor for further guidance.

SPECIALTY FACULTY LIAISONS

Chicago

Franklin Lew, MD

[email protected]

Chicago

Chicago

MATCH PREPARATION AND CHARTING OUTCOMES

You are more than your Step Scores! Use the NRMP page HERE to look at the qualifications of applicants who have successfully applied to your specialty.

Should applicants do away rotations?

In the past, away (audition and subinternship) rotations have been an integral part of the plastic surgery student education process. In the 2020-2021 academic year, all visiting rotations were discontinued except in limited circumstances because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The availability of away rotations in 2021-2022 academic cycle will likely be limited as well. All away rotations are arranged through the VSAS system.

In lieu of away rotations, the Plastic Surgery Program Directors created a combination of “Virtual Sub Internships” and a series of “Meet & Greet” sessions that will likely continue, even if there are some visiting rotations. Students interested in joining in on the Meet & Greet sessions will be able to get information about the sessions starting in June from the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons website under student resources tab at this link: acaplasticsurgeons.org

Research

A completed research project is recommended – to intellectual curiosity and that a project can be completed. If you have well-developed research productivity in an area other than plastic surgery, you need not develop another expertise. You may wish to get involved with clinical research and case reports in plastic surgery to get more familiar with the plastic surgery literature.

Those, who do not have research productivity or whose academic portfolio needs to be filled out, may choose to do a dedicated year of research in the plastic surgery sphere. It is difficult to answer whether or not to take a year off for research. If you choose to – position the year off between third and fourth year – not after a missed residency match or needing to withdraw from the match. Those who wait until fourth year to do a research year will need to take 2 years of research time to make it pay off. At that point, total post graduate time (2 years research + 6 years residency) is the same as a 5 year surgical residency + 3 year residency.

Research opportunities start being listed in late Fall for the coming year starting in June typically and can be found on the ACAPS website under jobs board tab.

Helpful Links

To check out the residency programs and to find a mentor: the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons acaplasticsurgeons.org

This group maintains an active presence on Instagram @acapsedu

They also have a twitter handle, but that’s not my gig.

This site will get you to a listing of all the residencies and their virtual meet and greets

Once you have the list of residencies you can check out their individual program social media.

You can find UIC-Chicago Instagram @uicplasticsurgery

Under the Resources for Students section there is also a formal mentoring program – which joins the student up as a student member and assigns a formal mentor.

To find out about and join a group of like minded individuals – check out the student group at the American Society of Plastic Surgery Student Forum https://www.plasticsurgery.org/for-medical-professionals/join-asps/medical-student-forum-membership

Each year the American Association of Plastic Surgeons hosts medical students through its Canon Scholarship to attend the Association Meeting. This comes with specific sessions at the meeting for this group of students and social events with the members to help make contacts that can become mentorships. This application requires sponsorship by a society member – the multiple UIC faculty members are willing to sponsor.https://aaps1921.org/awards_cannon.cgi

Deadline to apply for this year’s meeting in May is December 6

To find out about competitiveness – I suggest people review the NBME Charting the Outcomes 2020 for information;https://mk0nrmp3oyqui6wqfm.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Charting-Outcomes-in-the-Match-2020_MD-Senior_final.pdf

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