MCCEE, CaRMS, & Interviews Jocelin Desjardins McLeod Getting back to Canada MCCEE, CaRMS, & Interviews Jocelin Desjardins McLeod

Should I plan to go back? Plan to go back if you are thinking about it at all. (Easy to change your mind.) If you have time, write your USMLEs. Decide on your specialty early. Take all opportunities to do electives/GP/PRINT in Canada and the States. Make sure your application is NOT one-dimensional.

Essential Steps PCRC (do this while at home for electives if you can) Medical Council of Canada EE (sign up as soon as you can) Do the EE around 4th year Barrier! (for us, the week before) Get familiar with the CaRMS site Contact HealthForce Ontario Forget about the QE1 and QE2 for now

Studying for the EE Start in 4th year (end of 3rd) Come up with a study plan Helpful resources: Toronto Notes, USMLE First Aid CK Step 2, Kaplan USMLE Step 2 Videos, USMLE World, Canada Q bank (?). Don’t use too many! Self administered exam on MCC site Question banks for last 4-6 weeks Don’t study all the time!

Tips for the Exam GP focus (read that section of Toronto Notes), Question banks ++ Bring ear plugs Testing Centre is in Sydney CBD 175 questions, 25 don’t count You can take breaks if you want (but make sure to plan this).

Scores of USYD Grads 2010: 291 309 313 340 342 346 347 357 415 418 437 475 Family Interview

The only websites you need PCRC Medical Council of Canada CaRMS Ontario Family Medicine USMLE World Illegal Kaplan Step 2 videos Canada Q bank

CaRMS applications Start early (pre-register in August) Organize references early (aim for 4-5 references) Keep resume (long and short) up to date Look at past personal statement questions and think about what you might talk about Follow their timeline. Call them if you have questions.

CaRMS Interviews Programs start contacting applicants in December (over a month) Practice interview questions (especially for Family medicine)- similar questions every year! Have examples ready for each scenario Go to the ‘Interview day’ in Toronto in December Go to as many interviews as you can (any programs you plan to rank).

Return of Service IMG spots in most provinces have ROS Manitoba – no ROS except in Remote 2nd round- chance to have no ROS ROS contracts changing each year- now most specialties only require you to be working outside of major cities (ex. Toronto or Ottawa) PRP for most programs are mandatory Subspecialties and Fellowships

USYD GRADS who MATCHed 2010 class: ~30-35 Canadians ~15 people wrote the EE last year ~10 applied to CaRMS, 1 to US & Canada 7 people interviewed in Canada 3 matched to Family in first iteration 1 matched to radiology in US match 3 going into the 2nd iteration and post match

Family Medicine - Toronto MCCEE Score- 418, No USMLE exams Experience in Canada (24 weeks in total: 8 GP in BC, 4 GP in Toronto, 4 GP in Collingwood, 4 peds in Windsor, 4 Cardio in Sudbury), Ambulance ride-outs Rural Oz experience in Lismore and with the Royal Flying Doctors 2 Canadian GP references, 1 consultant @ Nepean, 3 peds consultants for my peds programs- 2 Canadian, 1 Oz Honours Research, awarded a Medical Deans Grant, no papers published Final year Usyd Prizes: Obs and Gyne awards, Critical Care award, Anesthesia Prize

Family Medicine - Toronto NAMSA Exec, UniMed, Surf Livesaving Various memberships to clubs, Med Review My years prior to med school: McGill academic all Canadian, Varsity swimming, Varsity Team Captain, Olympic Trials, swim coaching, lifeguarding and supervising Matched to Greater Toronto Family (1st choice of 17), applied to a few peds programs, but mostly family. Interviewed at most, but didn't get MAC peds and didn’t go to Western peds)

Family Medicine - Hamilton MCCEE score-346, no USMLE exams Electives/PRINT/GP in Canada- 24 weeks total. References: All Canadian; one psych, one GP and one Emerg. Honours Project –clinical research, no papers published, Nepean Research Day Masters research pre-med (included research grants, conference awards, poster presentations etc.) NAMSA member, exec, GPSN member, Medsoc member Matched to: Hamilton Family Medicine, McMaster (3rd choice out of 7 applied to) Interviewed for Ontario family, but did not go to Memorial Family

Family Medicine – Manitoba Remote MCCEE score 415, no USMLE exams Electives: 4 weeks FM in BC victoria youth clinic, 4 week FM BC rural GP clinic and 4 weeks internal at Toronto general - 12 weeks total, did PRINT and GP in Oz References: consultant of internal med at Toronto general, 2x GP in BC and renal consultant at concord hospital Concord mentoring program, bit of research prior to med school but no published papers Applied for only FM, all positions in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland (18 programs) Interviewed in Ontario and Manitoba. Did not get Saskatchewan (ACLS?) and did not travel to Memorial.

Internal Medicine- Halifax St George University, Grenada MCCEE score 413, USMLE step 1 and 2 CS and CK completed & did well Electives = 4 weeks neuro at NOSM, 4 weeks FM in Sask, 6 weeks psych in BC, others in the US Had 7 interviews in US for neurology (applied to alot of neuro programs there) Applied for a variety of programs in Canada (psych, derm, IM, FM, urology, opth, neuro, neurosurg)- Got interviews for all except neurosur: IM for toronto, dalhousie, FM for ontario, manitoba, newfoundland, sach, neuro for northern ont, derm toronto, psych toronto Different personal letters for each program: did them through a company on internet that edits and makes recommendations - very expensive but may have been good ++ Canadian references Volunteer work in grenada, no research or publications, some lab work prior to med Friends from SGU got derm ottawa, psych toronto, 2x ER toronto, radiation onc mcmaster, 2xFM toronto, radiology toronto, fm alberta

No round One Person 1: EE score 357, Unimed,Teaching English overseas, 16 weeks of Canadian ‘electives’ (PRINT and GP but not electives), Canadian references Person 2: EE score 340, NAMSA exec, Unimed, some research prior to med, 16 weeks of Canadian electives (no PRINT), Canadian references

US MATCH- Radiology MCCEE 475 USMLE 1 and 2- 99th percentile Radiology electives in US (not Canada) Had ~18 interviews across the US

Tips Match always favours the applicant EE score isn’t everything, but it helps Experience in Canada is ++ important Canadian references Keep resume up to date (long and short) Planning- Family Medicine vs. Specialty

Contacts Jocelin Desjardins McLeod Malcolm McLeod jossyd@hotmail.com dr.m.mcleod@hotmail.com Ps. Fly Air Canada