According to the 2017 NRMP match statistics, of the 28,849 open residency positions, only 159 were offered for integrated plastic surgery (0.55%). There were 446 applicants for this uber-competitive specialty, meaning a match rate of 36% (about one-third) for those who applied. Only 9 of the 159 positions (5.7%) were filled by individuals who were not seniors in U.S Medical schools, such as myself. If you consider all 54,110 individuals applying for a PGY-1 position, I had a 0.017% chance of matching into this field from a purely statistical standpoint.. but obviously there’s more to the story. The term “Plastic Surgery” is often used synonymously and erroneously with the term “Cosmetic Surgery,” characterized in the media as a specialization dedicated to elective procedures like the Brazilian butt lift and breast augmentation. The term “plastic surgery” is derived from the Greek “Plastikos,” meaning to mold or to shape. While our specialty does offer various cosmetic procedure
The World Wide Web is the most disruptive technology of the modern era and allied to this, social media (SoMe), made possible by the introduction of Web 2.0, has created a new communication paradigm. Few, if any, anticipated the influence that SoMe would have on society and industry as a whole, but judging by the market capitalizations of companies like Facebook ($492.6B), Twitter ($11.91B) and Snapchat ($15.94B), and the fact that the average American spends about two hours per day using SoMe, 1 governments, companies and various organizations are being forced to adapt new communications strategies to harness the power and broad reach of this culture-changing phenomenon. The healthcare space is steadily grappling with ways to effectively employ SoMe as means for patient communication, conducting research, marketing to consumers, and providing accurate and up-to-date health and wellness education, raising a host of ethical concerns. 2 In addition to the