For any NS attendings, residents, or matched 4th years out there:

I’m a first year and just had a question few questions about the pre-clinical years.  I understand grades during this time don’t mean too much (I’m getting p’s in a h/p/f school that doesn’t teach for the boards), and so my focuses are Step I and getting exposure to the field.  I’ve spent time shadowing an ENT and the Chair of NS here at Tufts-NEMC (he’s nice & loves having students in the OR).  I plan to continue shadowing the NS Chair as much as possible. 

Anyway, I have a few questions:

1) I’m doing ENT related research (aminoglycoside ototoxicity) this year, I will continue it this summer, and possibly my second year. Even though its ENT focused, is it still close enough to NS research that it will help my app if I decide to do NS?

2) I find neuroanatomy very interesting, and I want to know it well so I can appreciate what is going on in the OR.  Does anyone have suggestions for good texts on this subject, or surgeries?

3) Other suggestions on what I should do during my second year to help me get a NS residency?

Any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks.

Just found the section in this forum on books.  Very informative, thanks to everyone with recommendations.

hey brody; i’m only a year ahead of you, but i’ll share what i’ve gathered.

research is research.  all it does is show that you have the work ethic and will power to say no, i’m not going to drink beer, i’m going to stay in and work on that paper and get it published.  also, it shows a propensity towards academic medicine, which programs generally like.  so in a word, yes, ENT research is fine even if you want neurosurgery.  in general, any research helps you out almost any field you go to.

HOWEVER, doing neurosurgery research can give you some sweet hookups.  remember nsg is a very small field; getting recommendations from neurosurgeons probably means your interviewer knows the guy writing your letter, or knows a guy who knows him.  with an ENT letter from your research guy, it’s less likely. 

AT THE SAME TOKEN, you’ll be doing sub-I’s in neurosurgery and should be getting letters through them anyway.  so its not crucial to do research with them to get that golden letter.

second year - study hard, kick ass on boards, and keep up with research.
good luck to you

keep in mind that while ENT research is probably “okay,” you’ll be going up against many many qualified applicants like yourself with neurosurgery research.  all else being equal, the application with the neurosurgical research will probably go further.  if you are interested in neurosurgery, you may want to try to get involved in some neurosurgical research.

kenny, i’ve a question for you, or anyone in the know…

in considering neurosurgical applicants and their research, would publications in orthopedic magazines pertaining to spine research be considered still in the neurosurgical arena? 
the majority of research i’ve partaken in is spine oriented, but have been published in the neurosurgical community (magazines, CNS-spine, AANS, etc).  i also do tumor-spine stuff which i dont think ortho’s really tread upon.  but what about radiculopathy, decompressions, scoli’s published in neurosurgical and orthopedic magazines?  i ask because some of the articles i’m writing are going to an orthopedic journal instead of the usual neurosurgical ones.

thanks

yes

Kenny,

I’m an MS1, like the original poster, doing neuro-oncology research with a hematologist-oncologist at my med school. The nsurg dept. at my school is pretty small and focuses on cerebrovascular and deep brain stimulation, while I have personal experience with a brain tumor (hence, the neuro-onc. interest), do you think that not working with them this summer would impact my chances? There’s another student in my class who had worked with an MD/PhD in my dept. last summer and I’m wondering how I should best go about expressing my interest in nsgy to the dept. Thanks man.

difficult to say.  ask your PI if the work you’re doing in the heme-onc lab is publishable in a neuro journal (neurosurgery, neuroscience, neuroonc, etc).  if so, staying in the lab is not a bad option.  what i would recommend, however, is to at least touch base with your neurosurgery department and talk to the chairman and/or program director.  it may not be a bad idea to get some clinical papers under your belt, since these tend to be “easier” to do (case reports, review articles, retrospective studies, etc) than basic science papers.