Why Every Doctor Specialty Seems Competitive

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Appreciate the feedback! Some of you mentioned the window on the MSI Competitive Index was too long. I created a few versions here. V1 covers 2014-2020. V2 covers 2016-2020. V3 covers 2018-2020. And V4 includes only 2020 data. When 2022 data is released we'll update these analyses further (and we're still working on an improved advanced analysis that also includes some additional specialties - stay tuned for that) Overall, directionally the data is very similar between each version. Some viewers pointed out Rad Onc and Anesthesia have changed a lot in recent years. Anesthesia in V1 was #20 and in V4 is #17. Rad Onc in V1 was #6 and in V4 is #7. These may certainly change when 2022 data is released, but based on current data, directionally very similar. In V2, the updated list is as follows: Dermatology Plastic Surgery Neurosurgery Orthopedic Surgery ENT Interventional Radiology Radiation Oncology Vascular Surgery General Surgery Med/Peds Diagnostic Radiology Child Neurology Internal Medicine OBGYN Pathology Neurology Emergency Medicine Psychiatry Anesthesiology Pediatrics PM&R Family Medicine In V3, the updated list is as follows: Dermatology Plastic Surgery Neurosurgery Orthopedic Surgery ENT Radiation Oncology Interventional Radiology Vascular Surgery General Surgery Med/Peds Diagnostic Radiology OBGYN Child Neurology Internal Medicine Pathology Neurology Anesthesiology Emergency Medicine Psychiatry Pediatrics PM&R Family Medicine And in V4, the list is as follows: Plastic Surgery Dermatology Neurosurgery ENT Orthopedic Surgery Interventional Radiology Radiation Oncology Vascular Surgery General Surgery Med/Peds Diagnostic Radiology Internal Medicine Child Neurology OBGYN Neurology Pathology Anesthesiology Emergency Medicine Psychiatry Pediatrics PM&R Family Medicine

[@TanlanShanlan]

I'm interested to know why the MSI rankings include vascular but not CT surg?

[@aql78614]

Why is Rad onc competitive if more than half of their spots are thru SOAP 😂

[@Larry-Lobster]

Why didn’t Ophthalmology make it onto the list?

[@kromatic3610]

11k applicants went unmatched this year out of 45k. I'm in the Tier 7 attainable category. Going into med school, I put so much pressure on myself to pursue a competitive specialty. At the end of the third year, I knew I just wanted to be a good, caring doctor. Dude, I'm just so freaking happy I matched. It's an honor to match, regardless of specialty.

[@Lovelygirl-he7tw]

do you mean 11/45 went unmatched? dude that's a lot

[@Lovelygirl-he7tw]

@@BrocKelley so there's more IMG applicants than MD/DO? that makes sense, I thought IMG were the minority

[@Discordfriendly]

Nice

[@khalilahd.]

I think healthy competition is the stepping stone of innovation but sometimes it’s a bit much 😭 the fact that you can even call yourself a doctor is an incredible Feat on its own but I may be biased because I’m applying to medical school and I’m just trying to get in at this point 😭😭

[@ioutubeurreswiss1336]

I never understood why the competitiveness to enter a specialty is used to determine the difficulty of the specialty. As you say, it is rather a reflection of supply and demand and other parameters. But it doesn't really reflect the difficulty of the things to be learned, the acts or the clinical decisions or the workload.

[@liv0003]

exactly. Dermatology as a career is certainly less demanding/stressful than OB-GYN or General Surgery for example, it's only more difficult to land a spot in residency but the job itself isn't difficult when compared with other "less competitive" specialties.

[@kasadar]

My bud spitting truth! There’s no such difficult/easy criteria. Everyone can perform as good as he wants to as long as he keeps the hardwork, discipline and commitment.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

We're working on a new and improved MSI Competitive Index that will also be including urology and ophthalmology. Stay tuned =)

[@alisyed5865]

What about thoracic integrated residency?

[@al1152]

nice

[@junaidsajid8867]

Your experience, reasonable and highly well thought out arguments, and no BS attitude is why you're one of the 2-3 people I'll turn to for advice or enlightening thoughts. I can't imagine how far you'll go with time.

[@tim_ernest]

So happy that of the 5 specialties I think I could do 4 of them fall into the attainable section. It makes the idea of finding meaningful work less intimidating! Besides, for anyone who wants to pursue hyper-competitiveness but may be dissuaded from the competitiveness of the specialty can still pursue the top-tier residency programs (Harvard Psych will likely still require top tier med students, even if other Harvard specialties may be harder). Thank you for being open on how you ranked the specialties with data.

[@adeptsaxophonist]

Love this video brother. Also love you didn’t hold back against a certain subgroup trying to pretend to be physicians. Yes if you call yourself Dr. In a clinical setting wearing a white coat and didn’t go to medical school I’m probably talking about you. More and more med students and doctors are getting fed up with this deception.

[@marioramzy9579]

I agree this is totally wrong but would like everyone to be clear about who and what they mean when they say slick comments like this. NPs have been pushing for autonomy and using their “DNP” title as justification to call themselves doctors and unfortunately PAs have been mixed in with this drama.

[@Soriyou3]

Urology and optho would make into highly competitive specialty. Maybe optho goes to tier 3, but their focus on research experience makes the specialty pretty challenging to get into. IM is way too broad. Getting into IM residency at Johns Hopkins or Stanford would be very challenging to do, whereas getting into community hospitals would be much more "attainable." From this year's match data, I saw that more people from so called "top medical schools" are going into psychiatry. Great lifestyle, decent pay, huge potential for telemedicine. The threat from the midlevel is present, but not as much as primary care. I heard that PMR is on the rise, but I am not sure if the data supports that. Perhaps making a video on specialty trend would be a good follow-up video.

[@ronim.h2769]

Just asking about the whole research thing, does it have to be in the speciality one desires or something else? I mean there are cases where opportunities for research in a certain field are limited

[@funsize198]

@@ronim.h2769 yes...it would help to match if the research was in the field you were applying for. If you show up with Ortho research and applying for Derm, it's a but tough to take you seriously

[@ronim.h2769]

@@funsize198 I mean how about a diverse research experience, without focusing on a particular specialty?

[@funsize198]

@@ronim.h2769 basic science research could apply to many specialties and you'd be ok...but if it's clinical science research, it better be related to the specialty you're applying to

[@ronim.h2769]

@@funsize198 That's common sense, Thanks a lot! EDIT: I hope I didn't offend you by accident....

[@matthewstokell5894]

It's also important to realize every program is different, for instance, a small community general surgery residency might be less competitive than the most sought after academic family medicne residencies. So even within every type of residency there can be a huge range of competitiveness based on different individual programs.

[@danielpardo2036]

Liking just for that jab at the end 😂

[@syedafaryalwasti5115]

Literally LOL'd at the dig at the end.

[@gerinimoify]

7:45 I'm so glad we have bigger med-content creators calling it how it is. Seems like everyone else is hush-hush on this topic in particular....I wonder why?

[@teessidemodding3382]

What is it? I'm from the UK so don't understand.

[@tal8871]

@@teessidemodding3382 keyword is “mid level encroachment”

[@Eirabear380]

Like he said, ego 😂 of course, it’s important to recognize that everyone’s job is of equal value in their own way with their own skill set. But because of ego, some people have difficulty admitting that they’re any less than the best. The best MLPs I know are those who recognize their skills, what they lack, and work with the team so every base is covered. Ironically the worst ones (and the ones everyone hates) are those who think way too highly of themselves.

[@sleepytraveler369]

Bro who is he calling out lol

[@ibrahim.hameed]

@@sleepytraveler369 nps

[@akireharris4244]

That Friday snippet hit so hard 😂😂

[@adoseofcare]

Great! I want to do pediatrics. That being one of the least competitive, it makes me feel like it's within my grasp.

[@saidchammas]

I'm glad that what i feel passionate about isn't too competitive, win win situation

[@zebedeekanhai901]

This is very inspirational. I look up to you as one of my role models and you've inspired me so much to work towards my dreams. Thanks :)

[@Happypappytappy]

All the EM bros about to be mad tight on here

[@Mr_Smackle]

Im a 4th year applying rad onc currently. One thing i want to highlight is that the program itself is usually a better metric of how competitive something is. Example: matching Harvard's internal medicine program is probably more competitive than matching the community dermatology programs. In rad onc specifically its tough because programs are small (1-3 spots) and almost all rad onc is at major academic institutions associated with an NCI cancer center- hence its competitive

[@yvaes]

As a caveat, I would like to note that the top programs in any field are going to be competitive to get into. And as a point of advice, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of choice of specialty, but what you choose to do with the experience and expertise you got.

[@akireharris4244]

This gave me more hope for interventional radiology 🤞🏽🤞🏽

[@Nman92]

Pleaseeee make a video on AI and radiology!!

[@mariopellegrino7661]

Your videos always put me in a good mood.

[@aang7505]

Awesome! Thank you so much for this! Could you also make a similar video about how competitive certain fellowships in internal medicine are?

[@justincaldwell8954]

Ophthalmology never included ;-;

[@anaos1004]

Trash a great video. One request I'd like to make is for you to do an analysis on this year's match data for each specialty. I know there are a lot of specialties but it could be a few specialties per video, not necessarily one video per specialty. Idk, just an idea 😊

[@professorcensored3647]

Gas is "attainable?" Expected to see it in Tier 4. Really surprised it's on par with FM, PM&R, peds, and psych. Guess it dropped due to CRNA encroachment?

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Partly encroachment, partly many more spots open now

[@diegochaves7784]

Great content doc but you're way off on Anesthesia. Not a single SOAP (unfilled) spot this year. Additionally, a lot of extremely competitive applicants who fail to match into Neurosurgery/GS/PS and EM (as their preferred specialty) use Anesthesia as their backup specialty.

[@Bhg265]

Look at the methodology for his rankings and then read the pinned comment. Number of unfilled spots means very little compared to many other factors.

[@brandonbornet5421]

Jubbal is very right about Anesthesia

[@AS-lm2yv]

@@brandonbornet5421 this is reassuring lol, I'm a M3 interested in either IM, psychiatry, and anesthesia

[@vans4lyf2013]

Rad onc isn't competitive anymore by the way, people who fail years of medical school can just walk into the specialty now. It should be in tier 5.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Pending 2022 data to update tiers

[@indianawesomeness]

Gas only had one unfilled spot this year. Supply increasing but demand following. I would move it up a tier after this year. Trying to be unbiased btw, I'm an ms3 applying IM

[@kevinjubbalmd]

We will see with 2022 NRMP data

[@JbearY]

The clip from friday killed me 😂

[@denzelzhu1035]

There are several problems with this video in how it details competitiveness. First, it fails to describe in detail its methods, but it seems to be averaging data from 2014 to 2020, which is a bad analytic choice as the desirability and other changes in the residency match marketplace have changed throughout that time period. This results in rankings that are not accurate- such as placing Rad Onc in Tier 2 or placing PM&R, psych, and Anes in Tier 5. Students should be warned to not take these rankings as accurate.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Valid critique on the time frame. Will include tighter window in revised analysis

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Check out pinned comment for updated time frames

[@funsize198]

Yeah when i saw Rad Onc being competitive...maybe 10 years ago, but not so much today. It's not more competitive than radiology today

[@vans4lyf2013]

psych is still not competitive but less uncompetitive than it was.

[@melanieparedes202]

More tea videos!

[@DrNeuro17]

I’m going for anesthesiology for match 2023 and even though it is attainable, as a US IMG it’s not super IMG friendly. I think everything he said here was spot on and very insightful, but the tiers do change depending on location of your medical school. Which is unfortunate because even though yes the foundation of the first 2 years of medical school can be very variable, once you take step 1, shelf exams, clinical rotations at US hospitals, and step 2, you are the exact same as a US MD and DO. Everyone did the same work to end up at the residency applications. So for most IMG’s, there is nothing different in terms of who you are compared to another medical student. If you did well on all the exams and performed well on the clinicals, there should be no “advantage” given to a U.S. MD or DO if we are choosing the best candidate once interviews are done. And many physicians feel this way but there is, as this video said, “an ego” that goes with the whole where i did medical my school training mindset. Hopefully in the future this changes.

[@gonecrazy9316]

Can u please make a video for IMGS and new ECFMG CERTIFICATION process please 😊

[@dipset4016]

I’m what are these shortcuts?

[@funsize198]

Rad Onc more competitive than Rads? That one surprised me. lol

[@themanwelch]

Yeah I don’t know how true that is. Especially this year. It was a blood bath for radiology. Rad onc has unfilled positions every year

[@eyadbazmawi8005]

Dr. Jubbal what do you think of the high number of EM unfilled position this year?

[@worldsavior2543]

I had to go to the ER recently and came to find out that the garbage ass person "caring" for me was a DNP. I refuse to pay for the fees when they did nothing to treat me other than give me some pill for nausea.

[@eye449]

Could you do a video on the current NRMP match stats for this year and discuss your thoughts? Love the videos!

[@melanieparedes202]

Why is cardiac surgery always left out of competitive ranks or pay ranks? Lack of data or responses from physicians?

[@youngtrell4819]

The path to become a cardiothoracic surgeon is usually by first becoming a general surgeon then doing a fellowship in CT surgery. That’s why you don’t see it on the residency competitiveness lists.

[@melanieparedes202]

@@youngtrell4819 Ah, makes sense. Thank you!

[@denzelzhu1035]

Theres very few CT integrated spots in the country.

[@gametheoryoptimal8177]

No love for urology?

[@muathdarion8521]

Yessss the field with the most charismatic doctors

[@christiancasteel5962]

Would argue that rad onc is in easily attainable category and anesthesia/EM in less competitive to mid tier based on the data (match rate)/ board score averages.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

That data isn’t available yet for recent years

[@maximumovermuslim6337]

Jokes on you, yt removed the dislike count lmbo. Great video as always bro

[@konstantinoskapetanos4044]

Why is Cardiothoracic surgery (integrated) always ommitted from these rankings? It's really hard to find objective data regarding how competitive this pathway is, what the average successful applicant's resume looks like, and how it compared with the other specialist surgery specialties. :/

[@lotsofinterests]

Hi Dr. Jubbal! Can you give information about how competitive cardiothoracic surgery is as well? Both for integrated and as a gen surg fellowship. Your insight is very valuable, thanks!

[@blazephoenix8554]

Less sure about post-fellowship, but it seems less competitive, especially if you went to a well-regarded/academic gen surgical program

[@SK-mr6ov]

Keeping it real I like it

[@ronim.h2769]

Um so I want to ask you about being an FMG (Non-US IMG), how hard would it be for the FMG to get into these specialties from tier 1 to 5, and it would be of a great help if you mentioned how can an FMG be more able to compete or any kind of tips. Thanks in advance

[@Alex-op4ty]

The same position is going to be more difficult for an IMG or FMG to match compared to a US grad. I believe part of the difficultly is visa sponsorship

[@ronim.h2769]

@@Alex-op4ty The ECFMG would sponsor a J-1 visa if step 1 and 2 are completed or something like that, right?

[@ronim.h2769]

@@Alex-op4ty My bad, just looked it up. ECFMG would FACILITATE the sponsorship process... These are two different legal statements, aren't they?

[@user-il8mo6kd6g]

Greetings from Jordan 🇯🇴🇯🇴🇯🇴🇯🇴🇯🇴but me as an intern....i still don't know what i want to specialize in 💔

[@muathdarion8521]

محد يعرف لا تخاف التنسيق حيوزعنا بكيفو

[@user-il8mo6kd6g]

@@muathdarion8521 😂😂😂😂 احنا ما عندنا تنسيق لكل شي ممكن تقدم للصحه او للجيش او للخاص او تطلع برا الاردن انتو كيف؟

[@muathdarion8521]

@@user-il8mo6kd6g من سوريا صحة او جيش او وزارة التعليم او الافضل اننا نطلع برا 😂 بس الكل بيختص بالنهاية محد يضل بدون اختصاص

[@tombradysfootballdeflator4528]

Where on the list is cardiology and pulmonology I don't see them?

[@gioacevedo5]

those are fellowships of internal medicine. you dont match directly into them from med school

[@vans4lyf2013]

A lot of psych residents are in denial that psych isn't competitive as it hurts their ego.

[@Lovelygirl-he7tw]

hey kevin,, who are those shortcut takers that call themselves doctors you were referring to?

[@Jeebo.24]

Doc Could you please do a video on Pulmonology!! Please!!

[@redpilledbachelor7776]

By shortcuts, do you mean mid-level or img.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

I don’t think IMG is a shortcut

[@redpilledbachelor7776]

@@kevinjubbalmd okay good. Now we all know exactly what you mean by "shortcut"

[@Lovelygirl-he7tw]

@@kevinjubbalmd what is a shortcut?

[@Lovelygirl-he7tw]

what happens if you don't match and are in a lot of debt?

[@osaevbiewoghiren2761]

good overview of this topic btw lmaooo at these great edits

[@ahmednaim3413]

Do you also offer services to IMG?

[@anshumehta8222]

Hey Dr.Jubbal Can I transfer to accelerated or bs md combined program from biological sciences major (freshman year)?

[@cvskids]

Where does Urology and Optho rank?

[@derek8149]

I’m excited cus I want that gas life gas moneyyy

[@NicolasRodriguez-xo8kp]

Lmao get wrecked. Great video

[@123Collins]

Where do you rank opthalmology?

[@TypicalMrGamer]

Radiology is definitely NOT tier 4, at least not anymore. I can attest to that myself. I would place it in Tier 3 or even 2. Match day felt like coming out of a bloody battle this year.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Data is more reliable and objective than anecdotes or feelings

[@TypicalMrGamer]

@@kevinjubbalmd sure, you can look at the %US MDs matched for this year and number of unfilled spots as measures of competitiveness. %USMDs slightly higher than last several years, and unfilled spots was only 1 for PGY-2 advanced positions, which is significantly lower than recent years. Your data analysis might be right but it's based on previous years when there were 25 unfilled positions at one point.

[@Midazolamb]

CRNAs have always been independent. It’s not encroachment it’s changing medical models due to economics.

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Incorrect. CRNAs can practice independently in approximately half of states, otherwise require physician oversight

[@jacobking2864]

7:40

[@alfredlopez657]

Lol the pa dis

[@shellackyshell]

Commenting before I see the video, but guarantee how he’s gonna talk about how he used to be a plastics resident and talk about how competitive it is as a not-so-humble ego boast even though he’ll say he’s not doing that…

[@kaysanmohamed6586]

where would you put ophthalmology on the tier list? it’s a specialty i am considering

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Will be adding it to the updated tier list

[@Mercyforthewicked]

wait wb optho

[@zomgitsangie]

Why do you feel the need to call PAs and NPs “mid-levels”? It is as though you are trying to create animosity among MDs, PAs, and NPs. Calling PAs and NPs mid-levels reinforces the already toxic hierarchy in healthcare. These clinicians are practicing at the highest level of their practice. PAs and NPs aren’t trying to replace doctors, they’re trying to reduce the workload of an already burdened healthcare system. I find your comments about NPs “trying to do a small fraction of the work and trying to call themselves ‘doctors’” troubling as well. The majority of DNPs are not trying to fool others into thinking they are medical doctors. Do you put air quotes around doctor when others obtain a PhD in their relative field?

[@mustang8206]

Because they are mid levels

[@brandonbornet5421]

PAs and NPs are inferior to physicians and nurses in all ways, hieraechy in healthcare is good

[@brookiered7207]

Lol this is the thing that bugs me w medicine and med students etc.. why does the ego have to be so compared to other professions in medical field?? The comment about “those who claim to be doctors with less work”.. there may be SOME like that yes but have you ever thought maybe they thought things through and figured out just maybe what is the best fit for THEIR life and didn’t want to sacrifice all their 20s, years of debt and a post grab sub par quality of life? If you chose what you chose be happy with that and not everyone WANTS to be a doctor some have other reasons that are valid.. just saying. It’s just funny because it’s like people get mad at the choices they made for their life. It’s as simple as that

[@kevinjubbalmd]

Fine for people to choose alternate paths. Not fine to mislead patients

[@brookiered7207]

Agreed! Patients shouldn’t be mislead in any way, shape or form. And that’s why I mentioned in the comment yes there may be SOME who go about it that way for whatever EGO problems they have just like those w egos like to down others for choosing something they wanted to do with their life and then spreading shade publicly doesn’t help. It’s senseless. If people want to put egos into something compare professional/corporate fields to things like athletes, entertainers, actors etc that make 10x more and economically and socially don’t even match with any professions let alone even doctors. What’s the point I’m making? Ego can be found anywhere and there’s always someone doing better, bigger things somewhere else on any platform, field, stage etc. There’s levels to life and egos be humble always. Why down others (goes for specialties too) Have a great day, and thanks. Still support the quality videos. But It’s this stuff that’s toxic and wrong w medicine

[@Alex-op4ty]

@@brookiered7207 I'm not sure what you're trying to say. He's just implying that NPs calling themselves doctor in front of patients is misleading in a clinical setting