You can go for a fellowship program in India. So, guys, there are many universities in India which offers different courses. Fellowship Programs generally last for a year or two.b You can get such different fellowship in that course. So, you simply have to find that university. And then you have to find your course.
Which University to Select?
You have to go to that university and apply for fellowship. And boom! You will be given practical training. In that specialized field. You will be taught practical things. So, now this course. Is it a degree? Or is it your work experience? So, the answer is no for both. Means, this is not a degree. And neither will this work experience count for you. So, what exactly will this be? So, you can call it – a certification.
Suppose after MBBS, you found out that, you have a lot of interest in cardiology, and you want to become a cardiologist. Or you have to study in detail in cardiology. Then you studied in detail in cardiology. In short, you did fellowship in cardiology. So, the university from which you will do fellowship. That university will provide you a certificate.
Yes, you have done fellowship. You have studied cardiac in detail. And what specialization have you done in it? What do you know in it? So, this thing will be of this type.
When we are talking about universities, we should also know about institutions that are associated with top ranking universities to provide the Fellowship in Embryology and Reproductive Medicine. Medline Academics is one such institution offering the fellowship programs in association with some of the top-ranking universities in India. Certificates earned from these institutions are often PAN India recognized. In addition to the fellowship program, this institution also offers short term and long-term certification programs in hybrid, online and offline mode, wherein the theory is covered online and the practical training always done on-site. Besides, the third mode that is on-site and tradition mode of teaching is also offered to students who wish to observe and learn in field with the experts.
How should you apply for fellowship?
Normally, you can apply for a fellowship in embryology or check for the embryology course eligibility on the university portals before applying for any program:
- MBBS, PG in life sciences, MS. Biotechnology etc.
You can do fellowship after MD. Suppose you have done MBBS. After that you have done MD in medicine. And now after medicine you feel that now I have to do embryology. So, again you can go for fellowship after MD. This totally depends on you.
- First you need to decide which subspecialty and in that particular subspecialty, you should have enough work exposure.
- Identify your area of interest should be based on your skill and interest, rather just for getting a job opportunity and earning opportunity. So your skill and interest should be core focus.
- Third is analysis of subspecialty. We have analyzed different aspects like locational factors, what that particular city, the existing expertise in that particular city, where you want to establish your practice. So all that particular aspects, you need to analyze.
- Fourth is search for fellowships.
What is observership and fellowship, the difference between fellowship and senior residency and how to pursue such fellowships?
So, as we know, medical graduates are pursuing MD, MS, DNB or a diploma post-graduation or fellowships after MBBS or any medical graduate degree. After that, once they complete the post-graduation, they look for what to do, what further job opportunities, which location they want to set up their medical practice or they want to work in that particular area, different dynamics of that particular medical practice area, which they need to analyze and they go accordingly. similarly, they also look for the professional opportunities and what the requirement for that particular opportunity is. The practice challenges in the industry, there are institutional and hospital jobs and their requirement also. So all that aspect, while directly or indirectly, which make you to think about particular subspecialty or a specialization in your area of work, which nowadays very much demanding and the trend you will observe in a medical practice, definitely in a tier one and tier two city.
So many subspecialty practitioners are coming up with their specialization like paediatric neurology, paediatric orthopaedic, paediatric nephrology, likewise. The practice trend in tier one and two cities, the developed countries have already accepted the subspecialties and for that particular subspecialties, yes, fellowships is the option.
Patient demand for the service, outcome and attention. So if you are practicing general speciality, where you came across overworked, over patient flow, you will not be able to fulfil that demand. Third is practice competition. Fourth, focused practice. The patient satisfaction and clinical outcome, which is very much crucial nowadays. And for that, you need to be very focused in your practice. If you are doing, for example, if orthopaedic surgeon is doing a trauma work, is doing joint replacement or arthroscopy, so it is very difficult for him to focus each and every area. So that way you need to analyse and find their area of interest. Fifth is fraternity recognition. So nowadays you will observe there are each subspecialty in your area of work, have their different associations, practicing group at a city level, at a state level, even a national level society are there. So, it has created the academic environment, the work environment, as well as you will get the updates, regular updates on your practice also.
And then being a subject expert, rather a generalist, it will give you a peer recognition among the fraternity. And it is also a trend of institutional medical practice nowadays. So, all these aspects, all this has created an industry need for a subspecialty practice.
What different impacts you can observe if you do a particular fellowship?
- It gives an additional star, additional achievement to your medical qualification. It makes your profile strong as an expert in that particular subject.
- It gives a good clinical exposure as if you are doing a particular full-time fellowship, it definitely gives you a very good clinical exposure in that particular subspecialty.
- Patient recognizes your achievement while choosing your service. They recognize that as you have done fellowship in a recognized institute, your experience and your explanation power, explanation will be recognized very well.
- It will stand extraordinary among the medical fraternity. And then it helps to set your practice in tier one and two cities, where already the general specialists are already there. So many general specialists in your area are already there.
So this subspecialty fellowship gives you a particular space for establishing your practice.
What dilemma before deciding the fellowship one might come across?
When should I pursue a fellowship, observership versus fellowship? What duration of fellowship will suffice? Can I do it part-time? What stipend will I get during a fellowship? And what to join, whether a fellowship or a senior residency, what should I join?
So while pursuing fellowship, you can, after your post-graduation, if you are very clear about your subspecialty, you have decided and you get enough work exposure in that particular subspecialty, you can go for a fellowship directly. Usually, fellowships are one to two years of duration, but yes, approximate one to one and half year of fellowship will be enough to justify enough to get that clinical exposure.
Part-time fellowship usually existing medical practitioners pursue it because they also need to continue their practice and all. But if you really want to establish strongly in that particular subspecialty, you must go for full-time fellowship. And yes, all the fellowships are definitely, they give, provide the stipend, what you work.
Why should one should do the observership?
They do it for, to upgrade their knowledge. Observership is, an academic program rather than a course. And fellowship is a training course, training certificate course. While observership, usually the practitioners, existing practitioners do to upgrade their knowledge and skills. And the fellowships usually pursue by recent graduates.
And here fellowship, they do it for additional qualification. The observership is voluntary in nature and fellowship is somewhat, it is a necessity for your career. As we have discussed different impact and the industry facts in, according to that, the fellowships nowadays in that particular aspect in a career, it's somewhat necessity. Observership usually one to six months of duration as per your requirement. You get a flexibility also if you want to do one month or two months, that's very flexibility. While fellowship is for the particular fixed tenure, rather, either it is six months, one year, one and a half year or two years.
Fellowship vs Residency
Fellowship is a training certificate course, but senior residency, it's an institutional job. Usually both are pursued by the recent graduates. But here, why the fellowship, they do it for additional qualification, while senior residency, usually one should go for it for clinical, good clinical work exposure. And both are in a necessity for that career in nature. Usually the senior residency in an institutional level, it is a primary level, where after senior residency, you go to, the next level is assistant professor and associate professor, professor likewise. Usually fellowships, we have discussed six months to two years of duration, but residency is one to two years of duration. Here you get a stipend and in senior residency, you get a salary. At the end of the fellowship, you get an academic certificate. And at the end of senior residency, you get an experience letter.
- In your future, which specialty you are more interested in, you can decide that for the post-graduation, where at MD and MS level, whenever you require to choose a specialty, you can take a decision based on your internship experience
- Second is residency, means in any medical institute and hospital, there are resident doctors, they are doing medical post-graduation course, they are working in a hospital as well as they are completing their academic tenure also along with their faculties and working under their professors.
- Third is fellowship, so if your medical post-graduation has been completed, then after that you want to explore some particular specialty field, there you want to gain hands-on practical training, so for that you do fellowships in 6 months to 2 years, different institutes offer, some fellowships are recognized by universities, many fellowships are recognized by societies and national level associations, international associations, so choose as per your requirement.
Role of an Embryologist
Only a good embryologist can give you a good pregnancy success rate. When we go to any infertility clinic, we meet a clinician, a doctor who discusses all our problems and charts out our treatment. If we go to IVF, there is a team of doctors who help you in your pregnancy. There are few important people like the clinician or the gynaecologist who chart your treatment, do your stimulation, egg retrieval and embryo transfer.
Second most important person is the embryologist. Embryologists are doctors or people with science background who are trained in embryology. They have a lot of knowledge about embryology and they specialize in embryology.
When we make embryos in the lab, then embryologists screen them. After screening, they find out which are the best embryos. What is their grading? Is there any fragmentation in any embryo? Are there any changes in cytoplasm? After seeing all these things, embryologists give you the best embryos and help you in the transfer.
Do we need any other laser hatching or any other treatment? Or if your egg quality is very bad, due to which we are not able to make a good embryo. All these things are told to us by the embryologists.
In Dr. Kamini Rao Hospitals IVF lab, the main role of an embryologist is to screen the eggs. To prepare them in a dish, to prepare sperm, to make a baby by putting sperm or to make a baby through ICSI. All these things are done by an embryologist. To incubate the embryo in the lab, to maintain the conditions of the lab, all this work is done by an embryologist. So, an embryologist is a very important link in your treatment. So, as much as the work of a clinician is important, the work of an embryologist is equally important. And only a good embryologist can give you a good pregnancy success rate. So, to choose an IVF clinic in Bangalore, it is very important to have a good clinician, a good counselling team, and a very good and experienced embryologist.