ST3 Infectious Disease?

[Yixian]

Basically my ambition is to specialise in tropical medicine and infectious disease. I understand that training in infectious disease begins at ST3, so I am wondering what I should do during ST1 and ST2?

Do I pretty much *have* to do medical microbiology? Because I really don't want to..

Would it be possible to do the 2 year course in ACCS and then start an ST3 in infectious disease?

[melon]

I don't think you can apply to infectious diseases from ACCS, that is specifically for A&E, anaesthetics, acute medicine or ICM. Why not just do CMT (core medical training) for ST1 and ST2?

[Yixian]

Fair enough! CMT is fine, so long as I don't have to do medical micro.. No offence to any microbiologists!

[Frank's mum]

I did my elective in HIV medicine in Australia (where HIV is part of the infectious diseases team) and all the ID Drs did microbiology as part of the training, so there may be either no getting around it or it may confer an advantage to grin and bear it.
I have to say I am no bg fan of micro either but the head of the dept wsa lovely and for the first time in med school I actually enjoyed the teaching.

[lonmedstu]

I've been doing a bit of research into careers in ID, and I believe that you can go into it from ACCS. At least that's what my reading suggests...

[Yixian]

I've also just heard back from the London Deanery (where the LSHTM is) that you can go into ST3 ID from CMT.

[troubs]

From what I understand, you can apply via AVVS, but will need to complete an additional year of medical jobs as ACCS alone is not sufficient for you to get the 24 months of medical jobs post foundation training that you need to be eligible for ST3 in infectious diseases.

[Yixian]

I think I'll just do CMT.

[Leo2004]

Yixian,

The above posters are correct - as ID is a med subspeciality, you have to either do CMT or do ACCS and then an additional year of gen med to get cmt 2 competencies. You also have to get MRCP IIRC to apply...

[Yixian]

Thanks guys, I actually got a reply from my deanery explaining things, I'll post it here in cae anyone is interested:

My understanding of the main route into infectious diseases or tropical medicine is as follows:

· Core Medical Training (CMT1 & CMT2), then you would need to apply for
· ST3 posts in either Infectious Diseases/Infectious Diseases and Virology/Infectious Diseases and Microbiology or Tropical Medicine. ST3 Person specifications can be found on the MMC website at Person Specifications
· During CMT training you would need to pass part one of the Membership to the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) exam to apply for a ST3 post in one of these specialties.
· On the person specifications for ST3 level you will see there are additional desirable qualifications e.g. Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Health, MSc, PhD or MD.

As far as I am aware there are minimal ST3 numbers in the country and with the way things currently stand you would have to look on the MMC website and check vacancies in each deanery to see if they had posts available at ST3 level.

I will probably do a diploma in tropical medicine and health at the LSHTM, probably not a masters.