HI,

National institutes have some great fellowship programmes ;-

• NIMHANS has a neuropathology fellowship.
• SGPGI has nephropath fellowship which is popular.
• CMC vellore has fellowships in molecular hematology, hematopathology.
• TMH mumbai has hematopath, cytopath and oncopath fellowships
• Kidwai has a oncopathology fellowship.
• There are some FNB courses in laboratory medicine in delhi.

These fellowships have lots of competition, entrance exams and interviews, most people i know who have done these fellowships praise them for their value and recommend them. There is a catch as always, medical colleges especially private ones don’t care if you have a fellowship, they need a pathologist, not an expert neuropathologist, more so if you have to pay him a few k more. There is no glamour attached to a super specialist pathologist, patients don’t care, surgeons bother only when its some rare diagnosis, not in line with their expectation. As long as it does not alter their management, whether you call it an obscure variant of a schwannoma or perineurioma, they are really not bothered. Thus it makes little sense for a college management to hire a superspecialist pathologist at a higher salary.

Its a add on to get into government colleges, and counts for points during interview. however again there are no monetary perks involved. In either of the places doing a fellowship will delay your promotion and no way hasten it. MCI does not count fellowships as experience. Corporates might pay more, but again they are looking for somebody who can convince the clinicians about a diagnosis. If an experienced MD only pathologist is available for less, why bother. Bottom lines matter, not the degrees a pathologist has.

My opinion is, if you wish to do a fellowship, do it with a purpose of expanding your knowledge and outlook, you will be certainly richer in terms of your medical knowledge. However, don't expect any spectacular hike in market value, most likely there wont be any.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.