Although I know my situation is not unique, I’m sure it’s rare… I’m a medical illustrator; my job is to teach medicine to doctors, students, and patients through visuals. I have a recent masters degree from a top 5 US medical school where my coursework overlapped with the MD program (especially anatomy). My curriculum included countless hours of observing and sketching in the OR, as well as observation of other procedural/clinical specialties, IR, autopsies, surg path, opthalmology, etc. I have some limited shadowing experience before this. My question is, will this surgical observation be weighed by an AdCom on par with shadowing? Shadowing after all this clinical observation feels redundant. Should I do it anyway? I cannot list it as an EC because it’s curricular, by definition. What should I do?