The 5 HARDEST Medical Specialties To Match | Canadian Doctor Residency 101
Summary
TLDRIn this informative video, second-year Canadian medical student Jaluka offers insights into the Canadian medical system, focusing on the competitive nature of medical specialties and the residency matching process. Highlighting the importance of specialization after obtaining an MD degree, Jaluka discusses the application process via the KARMS system and the impressive match rates for Canadian-educated students. He also ranks the top five most competitive specialties based on match data, debunking the myth that pay solely determines competitiveness, and encourages viewers to pursue their medical aspirations despite the odds.
Takeaways
- 📚 The speaker is a second-year medical student in Canada who aims to provide information about the Canadian medical system.
- 🌐 There's a lot of information on the Canadian medical system, but the speaker will offer a unique Canadian perspective to help students make comparisons.
- 🎓 After completing undergraduate and postgraduate studies, one must attend medical school and then specialize through a residency program to practice medicine in Canada.
- 👨⚕️ To specialize, Canadian medical graduates apply via the Karms Application Service or the Canadian Residency Matching Service during their final year of medical school.
- 📊 The match rates for Canadian-educated medical students are high, at 97.7% after the first and second iterations of the match.
- 🤔 Match rates do not necessarily reflect students getting their first choice of specialty, indicating a need to understand competitiveness in residencies.
- 🔢 Competitiveness is measured by an 'R value', which is the ratio of available residency spots to the number of applicants, with lower values indicating higher competition.
- 💰 The speaker debunks the myth that residency competitiveness is solely based on future earnings, providing average salary figures for various specialties.
- 🔑 The top five most competitive specialties in Canada as of 2020 are neurosurgery, plastic surgery, emergency medicine, cardiothoracic surgery, dermatology, and ophthalmology.
- 👀 Ophthalmology is the most competitive specialty with an R value of 0.51, meaning for every two applicants, there is typically only one spot available.
- 💪 Despite the competitive nature of certain specialties, the speaker encourages individual ambition and planning to achieve one's goals in the medical field.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video by Jaluka?
-The main topic of the video is an introduction to the Canadian medical system, specifically focusing on the five most competitive Canadian medical specialties and the residency matching process in Canada.
Why is Jaluka making this video?
-Jaluka is making this video in response to numerous messages from viewers on Instagram and YouTube asking for more information about the Canadian medical system, aiming to help Canadian, American, and international students.
What is the significance of the KARMS application service mentioned in the video?
-The KARMS (Canadian Resident Matching Service) application service is significant because it is the platform medical students in Canada use to apply for residency programs, which is a necessary step to practice medicine after obtaining their MD degree.
How does the residency matching process differ in Canada compared to the United States?
-In Canada, medical students apply for residency before taking their board exams, and there are no exams that directly impact how they match or fare in the match. In contrast, in the United States, scores from exams like Step 1 and Step 2 are very important for residency matching.
What does the match rate of 97.7% signify for Canadian educated medical students?
-The 97.7% match rate signifies that a very high percentage of Canadian educated medical students secure a residency position after their medical school, but it does not necessarily mean they got their first choice of specialty.
How is the competitiveness of a residency program determined in the video?
-The competitiveness of a residency program is determined by calculating the 'R value', which is the ratio of the number of available residency spots to the total number of applicants for those spots. A lower R value indicates higher competitiveness.
Why does Jaluka include average pay for different specialties in the video?
-Jaluka includes average pay to debunk the stereotype that the competitiveness of a residency program is solely determined by how much the specialists earn, showing that other factors also play a significant role.
What is the R value and average pay for the fifth most competitive residency, neurosurgery, according to the video?
-The R value for neurosurgery is 0.63, and the average pay for neurosurgeons in Canada is around 570,000 dollars per year.
How does the competitiveness of dermatology residency compare to other specialties in the video?
-Dermatology residency is the second most competitive with an R value of 0.56, and dermatologists in Canada make on average between 410,000 to 420,000 dollars per year.
What is the most competitive medical specialty in Canada according to the 2020 data, and what is its R value?
-The most competitive medical specialty in Canada according to the 2020 data is ophthalmology, with an R value of 0.51.
What does an R value of 0.51 for ophthalmology mean for an average medical student's chances of getting into the residency program?
-An R value of 0.51 for ophthalmology means that for every two medical students who want to become ophthalmologists, there is only one spot available, giving an average student a roughly 50% chance of matching into the program.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Canadian Medical System
The video script introduces Jaluka, a second-year medical student in Canada, who aims to provide insights into the Canadian medical system. Jaluka responds to audience requests for more information on this topic and plans to offer a Canadian perspective to assist Canadian, American, and international students. The video will cover the five most competitive medical specialties in Canada and an introduction to the residency matching system. Jaluka emphasizes the need for specialization and the process of applying for a residency program through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). The video also discusses the match rates for Canadian-educated medical students and the absence of exams that influence the residency match process until after the match itself.
🏥 Competitive Medical Specialties and Residency in Canada
This section of the script delves into the competitiveness of various medical specialties in Canada, as determined by the CaRMS match data. The competitiveness is quantified using an 'r value', which is the ratio of available residency spots to the number of applicants. The specialties are ranked from least to most competitive, with neurosurgery and plastic surgery tied for fifth place, followed by emergency medicine, cardiothoracic surgery, dermatology, and ophthalmology at the top. The r value for ophthalmology is particularly striking, with a 0.51 value indicating a high level of competition. The script also addresses the misconception that pay is the sole determinant of a specialty's competitiveness and provides average salary figures for the mentioned specialties. Jaluka concludes by encouraging students not to be deterred by statistics and to pursue their goals with a realistic plan.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Canadian Medical System
💡Medical Student
💡Residency Program
💡KARMS Application Service
💡Match Rates
💡R Value
💡Neurosurgery
💡Plastic Surgery
💡Emergency Medicine
💡Cardiothoracic Surgery
💡Dermatology
💡Ophthalmology
Highlights
Introduction to the Canadian medical system by a second-year medical student.
The necessity of specialization and completion of a residency program to practice medicine in Canada.
Canadian medical students apply for residency via the Karms Application Service or the Canadian Residency Matching System.
Residency application timing during the final year of medical school, prior to board exams.
Absence of exams impacting residency match in Canada, unlike the US where Step scores are crucial.
High match rates of 97.7% for Canadian-educated medical students according to 2020 data.
Match rates do not reflect the popularity of first-choice specialties among students.
Explanation of the R-value as a measure of residency program competitiveness.
Debate on whether specialty pay influences competitiveness, with evidence to the contrary.
Top 10 easiest residencies to match into in 2020, including orthopedic surgery as the 7th easiest.
Introduction to the top five most competitive Canadian medical specialties as of 2020.
Neurosurgery and plastic surgery tied for the fifth most competitive residency with an R-value of 0.63.
Average annual earnings for plastic surgeons and neurosurgeons in Canada.
Emergency medicine as the fourth most competitive specialty with an R-value of 0.62.
Different pathways to become an emergency medicine doctor in Canada.
Cardiothoracic surgery as the third most competitive specialty with an R-value of 0.59.
Dermatology ranking second with a 0.56 R-value and average earnings.
Ophthalmology as the most competitive specialty with an R-value of 0.51 and high average earnings.
Statistical chances of an average student matching into the most competitive program.
Encouragement for students to pursue their desired specialties despite statistical challenges.
Transcripts
[Music]
how's it going guys welcome back to the
channel
my name is jaluka and i'm a second year
medical student studying in canada
so lately i've been getting a ton of
messages from you guys on instagram
and on youtube asking me to provide
specifically more information on the
canadian medical system
and i think that's great and i'm more
than happy to do that i know that
there's already a lot of information out
there on youtube specifically thanks to
channels like med school insiders
but by providing a canadian perspective
i'd be able to directly help the
canadian students
as well as the american and
international students who wanted to
make comparisons for themselves
so we're going to try this out today's
video is going to be about the five most
competitive canadian medical specialties
as well as a very basic introduction to
residency matching here in canada
and if this is something that you guys
want to see more of in the future you
got to let me know
go ahead and flatline that like button
and leave me a comment letting me know
what you want to see me talk about in
the future
so let's take it from the top after
undergrad and then any post-grad
training that you receive like a
master's or a phd
you then move on to medical school and
then eventually after that at least from
what i've heard
you graduate at some point now when
that's all done you have your md degree
you will officially be recognized as a
doctor
but you will not be able to practice
medicine in canada
until after you've gone ahead and
specialized and completed a residency
program i just want to highlight that
point one more time
you do need to specialize here in canada
if you want to practice medicine
now what you choose to specialize in is
totally up to you you could do anything
from family medicine that requires an
additional two years of residency
training
to neurosurgery which requires in some
cases six or more years
to eventually go and practice now to
match into a canadian residency program
medical students looking to eventually
practice in canada need to apply via the
karms application service or the
canadian residency matching system and
if you're a canadian student you
actually do this in your final year
before you write your board exams which
means that when you apply for residency
you don't have any exams that are going
to directly impact how you match or how
you fare in the match when it comes to
residency
it's not like down in the states where
you have your step one score or your
step two score which is going to be very
important when you match here we have no
exams done until after we've already
matched into a residency program
so now we can go ahead and talk about
the match rates themselves and as it
turns out if you are a canadian educated
medical student
the match rates are actually really good
it's 97.7
after the first and second iteration of
the match and that's according to the
2020 data because every single year
the karms application um service goes
and publishes the results of last year's
match
but that doesn't mean that this 97.7
of students actually got their first
choice when it comes to specialty so now
we get to the fun part
possibly the scary part we could go
ahead and actually rank the
competitiveness
of these different residencies based on
the data provided directly from the
arms match now the way that we could do
that is actually looking at every single
program individually
and assigning the different programs in
r value the way that we get the r value
is by taking the number of spots that
these programs have
for residents and dividing them by the
total number of students
that applied for a spot in the residency
program to get the r value
so if more people apply and there are
less spots we get a lower r value which
means that the program is more
competitive and i really hope that i
haven't confused you guys with that one
there are many people out there that
will have you believe that this
competitiveness these r values are based
solely on how much the specialties
eventually pay for the doctors that
graduate the residency programs but
that's that's really just not true we
could actually see if you look on the
other hand
at the top 10 easiest residencies for
you to match into
in the 2020 cycle you'll actually see
that orthopedic surgery
came in seventh for easiest residency to
match into and they're often cited as
one of the highest paying surgical
specialties here in canada they make on
average about 465
000 a year according to recent
statistics so there's my intro to
specialty matching and residency here in
canada
if you guys want to know more i'm going
to go ahead and link a few articles in
the description for extended reading
those of you that just really want to
get a jump on this thing but other than
that let's jump straight to the top five
medical specialties in terms of
competitiveness
as of 2020. now i'm actually really
curious if any of you could predict this
list beforehand let me know in the
comment section below because if you
would have asked me
what the most competitive medical
specialties were back in undergrad i
probably wouldn't have come up with this
list but anyways
starting off in number five so the fifth
most competitive residency to match into
we actually had a two-way tie between
neurosurgery
and plastic surgery coming in with an r
value of 0.63
now according to the data that we have
plastic surgeons here in canada will
earn on
average about 420 000 per year
while neurosurgeons will earn around 570
dollars per year now again one of the
reasons why i'm going to include the
amount of money that we see from these
specialties on average is really just to
debunk the stereotype
that pay is the only thing that
determines how competitive a residency
program
is and one more quick pause guys but the
numbers that i'm giving you in terms of
total pay for these doctors
does not take into account overhead that
they have to subtract or after tax
dollars it's just the stats that we see
before all the other subtractions have
to be taken first as we already talked
about before the neurosurgery residency
is a minimum
of six years here in canada and that's
if you don't include fellowships
some people often do down in the states
whereas the plastic surgery residency is
around
five years when everything's said and
done coming in at number four
is emergency medicine with an r value of
0.62
and an average pay of around 390 000
per year now to be an emergency medicine
doctor here in canada there's actually
two different ways you could go in terms
of residency
you could either opt to do the five-year
program directly after graduating
medical school
or you could instead do first a two-year
residency in family medicine
and then right after that match directly
into an extended one-year add-on to your
family medicine training which is going
to then qualify you to become an
emergency medicine doctor
now coming in third for the most
competitive medical specialties here in
canada is cardiothoracic surgery
with an r value of 0.59 in the 2020
match cycle
now this residency is going to require
six years of additional training
after medical school but these doctors
are going to be making 620
000 per year on average but coming in
second for most competitive residencies
is dermatology according to the 2020
data dermatology actually had a 0.56 r
value
and that residency program lasts about
five years these specialists then go on
to make somewhere around 410 to 420
000 on average per year and finally
coming in at number one for the single
most competitive medical specialty here
in canada this one actually kind of blew
me away a little bit
ophthalmology not because that was going
to be the one but because the r
value for ophthalmology in the 2020
cycle was a 0.51 which means that for
every two medical students
that want to apply to be
ophthalmologists there's only one spot
and that's that's a 50
chance this residency program is going
to require a five-year
additional training period but
successful graduates of the
ophthalmology training program
are going to be making on average 810
000 per year here in canada now what
does an r value of 0.51
really mean for the average student if
we go ahead and assume that the chances
of any average student in canada getting
into medical school
is somewhere around 10 to 20 and then we
factor in a residency matching r value
of 0.51
what we could calculate is that even
though the canadian medical school match
rates are really really good when it
comes to residency your chances for that
top most competitive program if you are
just a regular undergraduate student
at this point are less than ten percent
it's about a five to ten percent
individual chance now i get that that
sounds really really depressing but i
don't want to leave you guys like that
always remember the statistics are going
to apply to large populations whereas
you
as an individual get to go ahead and
decide whatever it is that you want to
do
if you want one of these more
competitive medical specialties i'm not
going to be the one to stop you and you
shouldn't let the statistics stop you
either
be realistic with yourself set your
goals and then come up with a plan for
how you're going gonna get there but
other than that thank you guys so much
for watching today's video
hope it was able to help see you all on
the next one everyone take care
[Music]
you
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