<p>Say you are interested in lung disease and the chest. Can you be a thoracic surgeon and a pulmonologist? Or is possible to only be one of these?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>A thoracic surgery is a surgical specialty. It is surgery of thr chest. You usually do a 5 to 7 year residency depending on the program. Pulmonology is a medical specialty. You have to complete internal medicine residency ( 3 years) then do a pulmonary medicine subspecialty fellowship 2 to 3 years.This may also include critical care.The training is totally different for the specialties.</p>
<p>You *could *train for both, as I've known a couple physicians who did multiple residencies because they wanted to cross-specialize. But to do a medical/surgical cross would be intense indeed.</p>
<p>Yes, it would be intense, but these two fields really interest me. Thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>I would like to add to bluedevilmike's post. Only a mentally ill person would do both.
A thoracic surgery residency is a surgical specialty. This would be six years. Training in IM and pulmonary would be another 6. There is no overlap in the training. Who in their right mind would want to do 12 years of residency?</p>
<p>That's rather a conservative estimate by my guess. I'd have pegged CT for at least seven, or nine in a university setting.</p>
<p>No need to delve into my mental sanity, OldPerson. I was just asking if there was a possibility for overlapping in the two fields. I understand the fact that it would be extremely demanding and difficult. Rest assured, I'm not going to do 12 years of residency in the fields I mentioned.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful replies.</p>