Career Advisor's Background and Career Information

Background

Name: Amy Houtrow, MD, MPH

Career Advisor for: Pediatrics/Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Title(s): Medical Director of Pediatric Rehabilitation, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Best way to contact (e-mail, phone?): houtrowa@peds.ucsf.edu

Undergraduate & Graduate Degrees/Institutions:
Undergraduate: Kalamazoo College, BA
Medical School: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Graduate School: University of Michigan School of Public Health, MPH

Clinical Interests/Duties: Pediatric acquired brain injury, spinal cord injury, spina bifida, CRPS, neuro-oncology, and neuromuscular disease

Research Interests/Duties: Health services research for children with disabilities.

Career Information

1. What can students do in the 1st and 2nd years to explore and/or prepare for this career?
Check out the American Academy of Physical Rehabilitation Web site and shadow a rehab doctor.

2. What common variations exist in length/content of residency programs for this career?
PM&R is a 3-year residency after a 1-year internship. Most programs accept people simultaneously into the transitional year and residency.

Pediatrics/PM&R is a 5-year combined program.

3. What common variations exist in this career after training?
There are several fellowship options. PM&R physicians practice in the community and in academic settings.

4. What is a typical work day for you?
Round on inpatients, do consultations, see patients in clinic, talk to subspecialist, and conduct desktop research.

5. What is the "culture" of this career?
PM&R has a lot of flexibility for lifestyle. The culture of our field is to improve function to improve quality of life.

6. How compatible is this career with raising a family? How is this different for men and women?
This career is great for raising a family. As with essentially all professions, having a family is easier for men than women.

7. How important are each of the following for admission to a competative program?
Extra-curricular / volunteer work? - - 3 Research/publications? - - 2 Honors in the third year? - - 4 AOA? - - 2 A sub-internship? - - 4 An externship? - - 5

8. How competitive are the residency programs in this field?
Not very.

9. How competitive is the job market after residency?
Depends, but over all, not very.

10. What programs would you consider to be in the 1st tier, 2nd tier and 3rd tier?
University of Washington, Rehab Institute of Chicago, and Harvard/Spaulding are 1st tier.

11. What resources (web, books, etc besides the AMA and AAMC sites) would you recommend for students interested in learning more about this field?
www.aapmr.org
www.physiatry.org