University of Massachusetts (UMass) Residency Reviews

I've completed all of my interviews & would be more than happy to share my opinions on the following programs:

Beth Israel Deaconess/Harvard - awesome facility & equipment, very academic, optional 4th year as research/junior attending position. Residents are a very friendly & laid-back crew, and they seem genuinely happy. Faculty seemed nice & eager to teach, occasional tendency to throw the HARVARD name around but not bad. Program director was a little dry during interview & presentation, but that's kind of his way per the residents - assistant program director is very engaging & friendly.

Duke - as mentioned previously in other threads, the program director is a very strong plus. The faculty are very young, energetic, & eager to teach - a lot of diverse interests are available. The Duke hospital is beautiful & huge, but the ED is about average in terms of layout & size. They've renovated the psych section & supposedly plans are in place to build a new ED in the vaguely distant future. Off-service rotations - YOU'RE WEARING THE SHORT INTERN COAT...not to mention white pants on the surgery services! To me this is an extremely unnecessary addition to internship - the year's tough enough without the added humiliation of short coats & white pants. Attire aside, the off-service rotations are reportedly very good. Current residents seemed happy, but a fairly eclectic group of personalities - couldn't get a good grip on the group as a whole. I think it'll be a great program in 5-6 years.

Hopkins - Program director & coordinator were the two biggest positives for this program. Although my interview day was cut short due to inclement weather & I may have gotten a slightly skewed perception - it seemed to me that the program was very much about the "This is Hopkins...you should come because it is Hopkins" idea. This is not based on anything concretely said, but just my overall gut-feeling.

Maine - a very nice little ED, good facility/equipment. Residents seemed like a good group, very happy with their program & decision. Department Chair & Program Director are great - one of the biggest draws to this place. Dynamic young faculty mixed with some emergency doc's with 20+ years there who still love to teach. Portland's a great little town & the pay is the best of any place I've been. Only concern is if it's too small...

Maricopa - the only true "county" program I interviewed at, recently got a funding bill passed to provide for the next 20yrs worth of funding. Program director is great, they just hired the new chair of the dept - one of the editors for Tintinalli's. Residents seemed great & very happy. Good housing market. The only non-East coast program I applied & interviewed at.

Maryland - awesome facility/equipment, new ED, Shock Trauma, very academic/political. Chair & Program director are great. Very impressed with their academics & career development. Residents seemed very happy, personable & capable - current president of EMRA is there & interviewing applicants along with the faculty. Baltimore is fun city, quite a few rough areas but also several great areas - Inner Harbor, Fell's Point, Federal Hill, etc. The only knock that I could possibly come up with is that it's all 12-hr shift over all 3yrs...pros & cons to that, more hours but fewer shifts. I did a second look here & had a great shift in the ED - high acuity but also good bedside teaching, both from ED staff & consulting services.

UMASS - as mentioned by an earlier reviewer, it is a very busy & overcrowded ED (kinda similar to Maricopa in that aspect) although they are building a new ED to be completed in spring/summer of 2005 (start of our 2nd year). Great lifeflight program - not optional. Big on disaster/international medicine. Faculty were great, chairman has been there 20yrs - very stable & established program. Program coordinator is awesome. Very pro-military group, several reservists in the faculty & residents. Rotate at a couple other community hospitals in Worcester - taken there on tour...nice facility. Several nice perks: proximity to Boston yet reasonable housing market, good pay, state-sponsored 401K, free tuition at UMASS for spouse/children.

UVA - great facility/equipment, awesome college town environment. Chair is active in dept - was working shift in ED during my visit. Program director & coordinator were both very personable & seemed genuinely caring. Faculty was nice mix of young & experienced. Residents were happy & laid-back. Definitely the community-program feel, although it's in a large university hospital. Nice chest-pain center in the ED

I think any of these 8 will give me a good experience & training, and I plan on ranking them all. However, my top 5 are clearly Maryland, Maine, UVA, UMASS, Beth Israel Deaconess - order yet to be determined.

I'm trying to keep up for everyone's enjoyment, but they are piling up!

Overall, great program.

Let me start by saying this is the NICEST ED I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!!!!! They just built a 200+ million dollar ED about 6 months ago. 80+ beds, all private suites with glass doors, monitors, the works. The walls are covered with Brizillian hard wood (yeah, the kind you dream of putting on your livingroom floor someday). Their 4 trauma/code rooms are amazing "trauma suites", they are equiped with everything you could ever want (over head XR, two or lights, drug pixis in room, direct phone lines to CT/OR/blood bank, PACS (XR) screens in each trauma room). Dedicated brand new CT scanner right next to the trauma rooms. Anyways, enough about the ED...

The basics, located in worcester, MA (pronounced wooster) for those of you not from the east coast. This city/town is smaller, kind of a spread out downtown with no buildings really over 50 stories, kinda like spokane, wa if you know what I'm talking about. Looks like an area where a lot of people would make meth! But, there is a long lake by the hospital where you can water ski, ice skate, whatever. Cheap place to live.

Residents seemed happy, get along. People live more spread out, but get together at least once a month. Mixture of single/married/with kids.

Things that stand out:
1. The ED, as above.
2.Helicopter, awesome, brand new. Do one month in PGY1 with a 2 or 3 running the show, then fly as a 2 or 3. The PD is very clear in the beginning, if you don't want to fly don't rank the program. The bird never flies without a resident! When you get a call, you first make the decision whether to fly or not based on weather, then you get the details of the mission so you are not biased. You don't carry patients during flight shifts in the ED, so no fast sign out stuff when you get a call. Good time to read/relax/get in ultrasounds.
3. Toxicology. 5 or 8 boarded tox guys, umass says they are #4EM program with NIH funding, I think most goes to the tox guys. have weekly tox rounds and 2nd year tox rotation
4. Ultrasound. Very strong program with 5 certified U/S docs. Very well integrated from the beginning. You get tons of opportunity with several machines in the ED. Every scan is recorded and reviewed for quality by U/S doc. Weekly U/S lectures/practice time. With a little of extra effort it sounds pretty easy to get the U/S cert
5. Lots of international EM opportunities. i don't remember details, but residents are very involved
6. PGY3 elective to Hawaii with free housing/car and only 14 shifts.
7. Peds ED, I think is integrated, but can't remember. Practice Peds ED code every monday to keep fresh.
8. Pretty nice simulation room.

Potential down sides:
I got the impression the interns get a bit of pressure to move the meat with a little less learning in the ED. They said they still got bedside/ED teaching, but also had to keep patients going.
The town is +/- depending on what your looking for (you're about 45-60 min from boston, so good stuff to do)
I don't know how "strong" of a program reputation they have, but from what i've heard I think they are in the 50th-80th percentile or goodness.

Feel free to PM with questions.

Yeah, sometimes you'll also hear wustah. aka wormtown or the woo.

Umass added details...
PediED there are three one month rotations in PediED, one each month. They also have you do a shift a month in the Pedi ED when you are doing other EM months so that you can see some of the seasonal changes.

International...
There is a pretty strong international medicine culture at UMass in general. EM Resident involvement general consists of assisting in planning and then travel to another country for a one month elective during pgy-3 year.

The Woo...
Not a lot going on if you are looking for a young, active, single scene. That's all in Boston. There are residents who live in Boston (about 1 per year). Framingham is 1/2 way between Boston and Worcester. The city is cheap, easy to live in, and very convenient to living in the "country side." That is the local suburbs within 15 minutes of the hospital are very affordable, and have nice wooded residential areas.

UMass

Residents: 12 per class. All said they were happy with their training but based on body language it was hard to say whether they were truly happy or not. Residents got along well and were laid back though. Happiness factor was moderate in my opinion because they just didn’t seem as happy as other residents elsewhere despite what they were saying.

Faculty: Dr. Cukor, the PD, seems very resident friendly and I like his approach to solving problems. Residents had good things to say about the faculty. This program has been around for a while and it seemed like the faculty they have in place and will continue to recruit and make education a priority but won’t hold your hand through every patient, which I like.

Facilities: UMass Memorial has the most impressive ED I’ve seen. It’s brand new and opened in Feb. It has all the things a modern ED should have from a technological standpoint. Did not see the other hospitals, but the community experience is at Milford Regional and seemed to provide a worthwhile experience in that setting.

Curriculum: Pretty standard 3 year program with a slight emphasis on critical care. The Lifeflight training is required of all residents and was a big draw for me because it is a worthwhile flight experience with a decent number of scene calls. There is also an elective in Hawaii where everything is provided that nobody has yet to turn down during the third year.

Patient population: They treat very sick patients and do get a good amount of trauma.

Location: Worcester was a little bigger than I thought it would be and seemed to have a lot of opportunities for outdoor activities. It’s 45 minutes from Boston and a few residents commute from there, while some live between the two areas in Framingham. I could live here for 3 years, but I would prefer other places.

Overall: I was impressed by what UMass had to offer and I think the LifeFlight program is a huge plus, but I’m not sure I would enjoy the area nor do I feel I would be a good fit with the people there, mainly because I’m not sure how happy the residents really are. Do I think I will get excellent training here? Yes. Despite it’s amazing facilities, a good faculty, the awesome flight program, and the patient acuity, I will be ranking this place in the middle because of it’s location and the impression I got from the residents.

SolidGold said pretty much everything I would have said about UMass, except I thought the residents really were happy. All the ones I met were enthusiastic about the program and seemed to enjoy each other. I was really impressed with the program.

Residents: 12 residents per year. Seems like several are from the north east, but there were some from the Midwest, Hawaii, and Oregon. Three of the interns I met were nice and laid back, one was a little stuffy. Seems like about half the class is married/relationship. Most live near Worcester, but three or four commute from Boston.

Faculty: Dr. Cukor is the PD and seems very nice. The residents said he is very dedicated to the program and will back you up with other services. However, they also said he is works all the time and likes the residents to work hard. Assistant director Dr. Sullivan was also nice. The dept chairman is Dr. Volturo, and he was big into research but seemed pretty approachable.

Hospital:
Four sites:
U Mass: The main big hospital. The ED is brand new and very very nice. They see most of the trauma in the area (only level one center in the area). There is a separate peds area in the department. The charts are paper with electronic patient tracking. They have some EMR that they are slowly adopting and I am not sure how long it will take to get to electronic records (prob after my time). The orders are also paper. The majority of ED time is done here. They see approx 80,000 adults at this facility and memorial and 30,000 kids. All shifts here are 10 hours. It usually takes 45min to 1 hour to clean up after a shift as well.

U Mass Memorial: A hospital down the road from the main hospital that was bought by U Mass. You do some shifts here in the ED, and all of the OB is here. A lot of the older folks in town go here.

Millford: Community hospital that you do 2 months at during first and second year. Visits are approx 50k here. I think it was 20-30 miles out of town.

St. Vincents: You do anesthesia here and there are no other residents, so you get a lot of tubes.

Ancillary Stuff: Good per the residents.

Curriculum: 3 year curriculum. 10 hour shifts in dept with approx 45min-1 hour cleanup after. Schedule is 4 shifts on with two days off. The schedule rotates forward so your last shift is a night shift (which I think sucks because you really only get 1.5 days off). You work 20-22 shifts per month all three years. Off service PGY 1 is 1 month of CCU, MICU, and OB/GYN and there is one month where you do anesthesia in the morning and fly in the life flight copter in the afternoon and also do some ultrasound. There is also a medical subspecialties month that is a week of dentistry, a week of fast track, and a week of radiology, and some shifts where you learn some skills like splinting. You spend 6 months in the ED during first year with one month of peds em. Second year: five months of EM with one month of MICU, SICU Tox/US, Trauma, Ortho and Ped EM. Life flight shifts are incorp. into this year as well. 3rd year: EM supervisor months where second years and interns present to you and you run the entire department with an attending, but you act like an attending. Also one month of life flight, trauma, 2 months of Ped EM, Hawaii elective, and other elective.

Electives:
Hawaii: All the residents have the opportunity to go Hawaii for a month for a hyperbaric month. They provide you with a car and an apartment, so it is like a paid vacation! All the residents go.
Sea Stuff: There is a new elective where you go on a ship for a month and take care of military college kids. You go to some port around the world as well. This sounded interesting.
Wilderness Med: the residents help with the club at the medical school and go on a few trips a year.

Didactics/Research: Standard didactics on Wednesdays, daily morning report, monthly journal club. They are big into research and will help you with it if you want. I don't know much else about research, since I wasn't that interested in it.

City: Worcester is kind of a crappy city with approx 200,000 people, but the area around there is pretty. There are lots of trails nearby, skiing 45 min away, and are pretty close to Boston (45 miles). The city is fairly safe with some bad areas, but the residents and facilty said they felt pretty safe here. There are a lot of towns connected to Worcester that can be really nice and expensive. Rents are approx 800-1000 a month for apartments or floors on a three level house. Some residents buy homes and you can get one for approx 200k now, for a small home. I think it is a little expensive for what you get, but a lot cheaper than Boston or NY. More expensive than the midwest. Overall, the area is not bad.

Extras: Salary is 46k starting. Mass has 5% income tax. Significant other can get free tuition at U mass campuses if full time or half tuition if part time. Three weeks of vacation first year, month second and third year.
Moonlighting: Some residents moonlight in the SICU during 2nd and 3rd year for $75 hour. It is a great deal. Not too many work at small EDs around the area.

Life Flight: This is the helecopter here. There is one copter and I think they fly about 2000 missions a year. You get to do a lot of cool stuff with this and it really builds confidence with the residents. I think it is an awesome experience and very few residencies offer the level of exposure you get here.

US: Very strong here. The residents said that they feel like they are better at scans than the fellows from other places since they use it so much. One resident has done over 2k scans. All scans are recorded and an US guru will overread it and send you an email about what you did good or bad and what you should see.

Negatives: If you are a woman, don't get pregnant. The program does not seem to be friendly to having kids during residency. If you are a male, it is no problem, but the female residents said they felt like they were strongly discouraged from getting pregnant and I don't think any of the residents were pregnant. Several of the male residents have kids. The city may be a negative depending on what you like. If you are a partier or trying to meet that special someone outside of medicine, you won't like the city. If you go out occasionally and prefer outdoorsy stuff, you will like it. You can always go into Boston on occasion (and save money by living out in Worcester).

Overall: Great three year program. 3rd year residents were very strong and confident with their abilities. I think the training here is excellent and US is exceptional. The flight program and hawaii also sell the program for me. You will work hard here though, and I think the residents have less time off than at other programs in the NE, but they know their stuff and all have several job offers. I will rank this program highly.

Below are my biased short reviews:

Maine Med: +good residents, lots of camaraderie, cushy number of shifts, do lots of stuff in the ED (do not consult as much), lots of ED time as opposed to offservice, lots of outdoor opportunities in area
-not too much pen trauma, fair blunt, cold winters, small program, homogeneous population

U Mass: +good residents, very nice ED, well respected residents, good research, Hawaii elective, awesome helicopter experience, good reputation in area, great ultrasound
-hard to switch shifts, some unhappiness with residents, seemed like residents stay 1-3 hours after shifts for cleanup

Baystate: +work less than allmost anywhere else, good blunt trauma, good patient mix, very little offservice
-residents did not seem strong, faculty I interviewed with seemed disinterested, cramped department, city sucks and lots of residents live far away in nice town, bad ultrasound

OHSU: +very nice hospital, good research, cool city, residents were friendly
-small program, go to lots of different hospitals because primary does not see enough variety, residents did not seem strong

Carolinas: +great teaching, great research, awesome facilities, strong off service, good ICU experience, great reputation, strong residents
-lots of off service months, city not exactly what I expected

ECU:+strong residents, good teaching, nice department, great patient population, good reputation
-electronic records seem poorly implemented, city is very undesirable for some people

Wake Forest: +good teaching, good facilities, strong residents, good US
-Winston-Salem shuts down on Sundays

Christiana: +good residents, huge department, good records, good patient population, great benefits, nice facility, good teaching, very little off service, great ICU experience, great ultrasound
-area may not suit some

U Conn: +nice PD, nice facilities, good relationships with trauma
-area,

Duke: +New PD seems awesome, nice hospital, would be a good area to live in,good teaching
-not enough electives

Hi friends:

Since the deadline for submitting to ERAS is almost upon us, I thought I'd put in a few words about my residency program. I haven't noticed much talk about my program on this forum (and don't see any recent posts), so I thought it might be time for one of the residents to update those who might be interested on what we are all about. I think this program has some really amazing features and deserves a little promotion.

General:
This is a 3 year residency program that has been around for 22 years. This program is established and well respected within the medical center, which was a huge plus for me, coming from a place where the EM department was not highly thought of by the other services in the hospital.
- Level I Trauma Center and Pediatric Trauma Center, 167,000 visits a year between 4 practice sites
- Busy Pediatric ED
- 10 hour shifts (some 8 hour shifts in Pedi and community ED) that are generally 4 shifts on then 2 days off.
- If you search us in SDN, you will find us listed in threads entitled "Newest/Nicest EDs", "Hospitals where the ED Dominates", "EM programs with good EMS involvement", "Helicopters Required" and "EM Programs for Outdoor/Mtn Adventure Junkies" - I think that helps give an idea.
- We are busy, busy, busy. Talk about ample procedures. Plenty of central lines, intubations, etc. for all. At first when I interviewed, I thought that the program was almost too busy for me. Now that I'm in it, I realized that this was just what I needed to push me to be the best EM doctor I can be. I learn stuff best when I've seen patients that I can relate it to, and we see so many patients you can't help but learn a ton every shift.

Resources
Our program has a multitude of amazing resources. I interviewed at almost 20 EM programs, and I can tell you that I was extremely impressed with the facilities and resources at this program - after interviewing here, I immediately moved it to #1 on my list. The facilities are just incredible - the ED is brand spanking new and has huge windows that you can see the sun rise and set through while you work. Makes long hours in the hospital a lot more bearable. We've got tons and tons of office space, a residency lounge and library, we have 6 of our very own call rooms, and a lecture hall - let me reiterate that all of this is brand new and all belongs just to us in the EM dept. Why do you care about coming to a program with resources? Well, you will appreciate it when you get copies of books for free, a new Palm, plenty of money that you can use for anything academic (including Step 3 or other licensing needs), and the residency loves sending people to conferences. I was covered to go to SAEM this year and I am covered to go to ACEP. We get all kinds of cool freebies, including an awesome LifeFlight jacket that's monogrammed with your name. And there is so much free food to go around, I think I went almost the entire interview season without buying groceries except milk for my cereal. We get to eat out at fancy restaurants around Worcester 3x weekly on top of all the other free food that is normally provided with lectures.

Education
Our residency director and assistant residency director are fabulous people. We have tons of support staff. There is always a place to go if you have a problem, and people are very responsive - if the residents want something changed, and it can be changed, it will be changed! That is one thing I really like about the program, we get to give plenty of feedback. Plus lots of support for the in-service. For 2008, our interns scored #2 in the country on the in-service, and I would credit that to the caliber of our faculty, the free copy of PEER VII that we got plus access to other review questions/lectures. We have morning lectures in the ED every day, and on Weds we have very well-protected lecture time 7am-noon. We get a visiting grand rounds speaker nearly every week, coming from programs around the country. We do sim lab stuff probably about once every other month including pedi mock codes. A new sim lab is being built for the med school and I imagine sim lab usage will increase.

Research
We have numerous faculty members doing plenty of research. The main fields are toxicology, ultrasound, cardiology, and sepsis. We have a dedicated research nurse who can help anyone with a research interest. We even have several people working in basic science research labs, so you can do mouse studies or pig studies or whatever you want. We have gotten millions in NIH funding over the years (this is mostly in toxicology). And as I mentioned, if your research is accepted at conferences, you will get all the support in the world to go present it.

EMS
Of course we have a great relationship with the ground EMS in Worcester and can do teaching for the paramedics, but I think the main impressive thing about our program is our flight program with the helicopter. It is staffed by a physician 24-7, mainly by residents (so flight time is required, yes). We have a fabulous helicopter (so I am told by people who know more about helicopters than I do), and we get to go flying around New England, including going out to the islands, landing on highways and in state parks, etc. I'm not big on helicopter flying myself, but I have to say it is pretty cool on a beautiful day to take a flight across the mountains and lakes, plus what better way to get some hands on experience with procedures at scene calls? And crowds always gather, which makes you feel like you're in 'Top Gun' or something when you get to strut around in your flight suit.

Ultrasound
I honestly doubt there are many program that could rival our ultrasound experience. It's truly great. We have 2 lovely machines in the ED that are in frequent use between the trauma bays and the department. All our scans are recorded and reviewed. We then receive copies of the reviews in our e-mail that give us tip on how to do better and rate each scan for quality. We do so many scans - in one month this year I did over 100 scans. As a resident here you can definitely get RDMS if you wanted to.

Toxicology
Like I mentioned, our tox program is excellent and very active in research. We have a 3 hour tox conference every week and tox folks come from all the Boston programs and from Brown in Providence to join in, I don't mean the occasional visit, they all come every week, I am assuming it is because it is just that good. As residents you spend a month on tox taking all the calls and discussing them with the tox fellow/attending. We have like 10 attendings who are toxicologists, so there is often a toxicologist in the department anyway if you have a question and you often get to care for tox cases with a tox attending. One of our residents traveled to the international toxicology conference in Barcelona Spain this year and won for best case presentation.

Other Fun Stuff
- We have a monthlong rotation in Hawaii at Kaiser Permanente that all 3rd years can do, with expenses included
- We rotate at 2 community hospitals, one is our Memorial campus, and one is in Milford MA, where you get to cherry pick to your heart's content and enjoy the relaxed and happy community hospital atmosphere where the nurses do everything for you and the consultants love hearing from you
- Our program gives prizes every 6 months to the residents scoring highest on our monthly tests and doing the most ultrasounds (these are gift certificates to fancy restaurants)
- We have pedi shifts integrated through the whole year
- We do 4 ICU months, in ICUs that are rated as top in the country for care, that have all electronic ordering and note systems and an "e-ICU" that you can call at any time for backup with cameras in all the rooms
- We get 2 electives in 3rd year - important in 3 yr program
- Moonlighting available starting in 2nd year at $75/hr in house and up to $150/hr (maybe more, I don't know) at outside EDs in 3rd yr. You can make tons of cash moonlighting at this program, though obviously that is not the point of residency it's a nice perk.

Who Would Love This Program
- Someone looking for an urban/suburban program that gets plenty of trauma but also gets you plenty of bread and butter complaints and good fast track experience (you will need both in your future career!)
- An applicant looking for a top notch experience in ultrasound, tox, or helicopter EMS!
- An applicant who wants a great academic experience, great support to excel on the inservice and boards, but wants to be done with residency in 3 years!
- Someone who loves the outdoors (skiing, hiking, boating etc) and also would like being less than an hour from Boston

Who Might Not Love It
- Someone who would hate having a helicopter flying requirement or who does not want to go to Hawaii (though Hawaii is optional)
- An applicant looking for an urban/county ED that is as hardcore as possible where you have to start all your own IVs and that is a traumarama with a huge knife and gun club
- An applicant looking for a quiet community ED that doesn't see much action, with minimal work required

For some reason our websites are not easily searchable in Google. Here are the links:
http://www.umassmed.edu/emed/residency/index.aspx
http://umassemfellowships.com (has some fairly nice videos)

Any questions, feel free to PM me or post them here.

UMass

Residents: 12 residents/yr. Great residents who are easy going and knowledgeable. Off-service residents are good, but peds and EM traditionally are strongest residencies here. Relations are good with other services and off-service rotations are great (program really acts quickly to fix any complaints). Last resident to leave was ~4-5 years ago and left for geographical reasons (all of family was in Seattle). Residents get feedback every shift informally, every month on evals, with advisor a few times/yr, and during the bi-annual meetings with PD. Graduates are all over US with heavy concentration in New England, but some landing in Seattle, Colorado Springs, and Austin.

Faculty: Faculty are excellent and great teachers. Most are first name basis. PD is as nice as can be and really values resident feedback on everything. He goes to bat for residents quickly if anything is wrong on a rotation and will also help you find jobs. Several new faculty have been hired over past few years due to some faculty retiring, so faculty is now at staffing level where it should be. I don’t know much about the chair. Chair works ~4 shifts/mo and PD works 5-10 shifts/mo depending on what time of year it is (less during interview season). One attending is a cardiologist. One is a sepsis expert.

Ancillary Staff: Nursing staff is excellent with most of the time blood being drawn before you even see patient.

Curriculum: Three year program with all the standards. No medicine floor months with lots of ICU months (some NICU but no PICU). Program is really big into EMS/aeromedicine with a resident being on every single trip. Helicopter crew is composed of pilot, flight nurse, and flight physician (resident). Since having had a crash a long time ago, they are obsessed with safety and are one of the safest aero programs in nation. The residents seem to love this and many put this as a big decision why they came here. It is mandatory, not optional. Also really big into toxicology and ultrasound, having fellowships in both with 8 and 6, respectively, fellowship trained faculty. Every ultrasound is recorded on DVD and QA’d with feedback sent via email. Additionally, every Tuesday a US faculty walks around just scanning with the residents giving immediate feedback. You will do hundreds of scans during your three years. When on tox you get the first call which allows you to make treatment decisions first, then confirm with fellow/staff. Plenty of trauma to go around, with all procedures/airway being done by EM residents. 50/50 do academics vs. community, with most popular fellowships being tox and US (I think). Disaster fellowship also available (the big guy out at BIDMC did his fellowship here). International big here with many people doing international trips and funding for trip is possible. There is also a third year rotation elective in hyperbarics in Hawaii that is completely paid for and everyone practically does (this of course drops your two elective months to one). Some people also do a wilderness medicine month in Utah. The EM Department runs the wilderness medicine teaching programs for the medical school with ~5 opportunities per year to go teach. Active simulation center that is used 1-2x/mo per PD, but sounded to be much less per one resident (I forgot to get this clarified). Residents can moonlight in the ICU starting 2nd yr, if passed boards. ICU is completely electronic (known as eICU) with cameras/microphones/speakers in every room and all the ICUs are covered simultaneously by one attending at remote location via computer. This means that at night, you are the only coverage actually in the ICU, and the attending can help you out (and see everything) via computer. This also makes admitting to ICU easy because there is only one attending for all ICUs. In EM3 year you spend a few months being supervisor, where all patients are presented to you. Residents do 20-22 shifts/mo (calendar month) plus a few lifeflight shifts in EM2/3 years; all 10 hour shifts. Admin elective for chiefs. EMS command given to ambulances by resident from ED.

Peds: Separate Peds ED adjacent to regular ED (in same building) with residents doing month blocks each year plus 2-4 shifts/other ED months in EM2/3 yrs. They see lots and there are no peds fellows to take cases. There is no PICU rotation (residents don’t feel they need to because of so many peds ED shifts), but there is some time spent in the NICU.

Didactics: 5 hours weekly; protected. Didatics are extremely good here, especially their M&M conference. Harwood is text with reading schedule based upon what you are currently rotating one (e.g. person on anesthesia reads about airway whereas ortho reads ortho). One faculty can’t remember last person who failed boards and had 2nd highest national in-service scores last year.

Research: Scholarly project required with research available if interested.

Facilities: The pinnacle of what an ED can look like. About two years old with every room being spacious, hard walls with nice wood paneling on wall, sliding glass doors, enormous floor plan that doesn’t feel as big as it actually is. ED split into North and South pods with each getting same kinds of patients; rooms placed around periphery with nursing/physician work areas in center. Separate fast track area, psych area (you don’t see any purely psych patients), peds ED, trauma bays. Trauma bays directly above entrance from helipad, right next to CT scanner, with OR’s directly upstairs. Trauma bays are huge and have everything. Down the street is a more community, older hospital that sees much more indigent patients; you rotate through here occasionally.

Charting: Computer tracking system with labs/rads results. Orders/vitals/nursing notes/MD notes are all paper and then scanned into computer that you can pull up later if needed.

Location: Worcester, MA. This is a blue-collar, ex-factory city that is trying to re-build itself and become more white-collar. There are plenty of poor and wealthy people to see and is very diverse in general. There are nicer towns right next to it with many people choosing to live in one of these. Boston is 45 minutes drive away and several people live halfway in between, with a few actually living in Boston and commuting. Much better cost of living than Boston. Overall, my impression was that not much happens in Worcester, but presentation during interview day showed Worcester to be a much more happening place than I thought – maybe I was wrong. Lots of people rent, but plenty also own homes. Apparently it is the lowest crime rate in the nation for a city of comparable size. Skiing close by.

Extras: Vacation taken in ED months in 1 week blocks. You must tell chiefs when you want to take vacation in advance so they can schedule those months that way. 5 yr accreditation status. They will send you to any conference that you get accepted to present in. They will throw books at you when you start. You are considered a state employee which means great 401k program, discounts on lots (like cars), and tuition rebate at state schools for family (one resident said his wife is getting a masters which will probably end up costing total 10k for various fees). 2nd highest NIH funding for ED in country. Active DMAT team. Can volunteer with Boston marathon. Sweet, nice EM-resident-only call rooms with a Wii for all those off-service rotations where you have a lot of downtime.

Interview: Hour long intro by PD, talk by chief resident, four interviews all very conversational, lunch, tour.

Albany

Basics: 3 years, 10 residents per year. No floor months – off services are 2w ob/anesthesia, and unit months. CCU sounds a little floor-ish (and you, for some odd reason, cross cover a certain group of private pulm patients). Also do MICU, SICU, PICU (2nd year for that last one).

Shifts: 9 hours – 20 as intern, then 19, then 18. 2nd year about 1/4 of your year is more dedicated to trauma (but in the ED – which I think is great) and you work 12s with a shift reduction. Residents said they usually end up with fewer shifts than listed above.

Peds experience is integrated – one of the sections of the ED is dedicated to peds. They have just hired two peds EM boarded attendings, but otherwise you are precepted by EM attendings for peds. You have one dedicated month in the peds section of the ED and pick up peds patients during your shifts.

The PD is a Pitt grad who worked to build the Maine program before coming to Albany. He seems great –young, friendly, great relationship with the residents. He's very outdoorsy – rock climbs, etc. and it seems like a lot of the residents do too.



UMass

Basics: 3 years, 12 residents, no floor months. Effective use of off-service months (do your anesthesia, intro flight shifts, and u/s all in the same month).


Shifts: 9 hours (?)

Residents: northeast, some from outside region. All I spoke with said it was their first choice. Seem happy – but not the most cohesive group I've met on the trail.

Cost of living – much better than Boston (some do live in Boston, though – some have SOs that matched there)

Overall amazing opportunities and dedication to training. Integrated peds in last two years (I think). Good community experience without a huge commute. Powerful dept in the hospital (as evidenced by brand new ED, dedicated space on floor below it). Good sim training. Something like 5 u/s trained (RDMS!) attendings and 8 toxicologists. Very strong U/S and tox experience. Dedicated flight shifts in 2nd and third year (bulk in third). Volume is somewhere around 80-90K and growing. Supervisory rotation as part of third year (but not the entirety of third year)

PD – dynamic, funny, very involved in recruiting next class of residents. The faculty are about ½ UMass and ½ elsewhere (impressive list from elsewhere)



Boston medical center – "county with resources"

4 years, 12 residents/year. Just converted to 1-4.

Curriculum – first year lots of off service. 2 months ward medicine (which the PD pretty much admitted to me he HAD to do in order to get his 1-4 program), 1 months floor surgery, then lots of more fun stuff (ENT, MICU). One of the stronger departments in the hospital. The ED is theirs – consultants are there at the program's invitation and all turf battles have been long since fought and won. Residents have no assigned role on ob/gyn and ortho. They said it's "You get out what you put in." Probably not an issue for ob/gyn (10 deliveries and out) but ortho seems like it could get tricky. Ortho has to see EVERY fracture in the ED so that they can f/u in clinic – so unless you are aggressive with splinting/reductions I'm guessing you could miss out on a lot of that.

Electives – lots of opportunities but funding is up to you. International opportunities abound if you can save or beg the cash.

Residents: from all over, all said it was their first choice. VERY personable, anxious to share why they LOVE BMC. Shifts are 20 12s PGY2 year (I assume this will apply to PGY1 as well), mix of 8s and 12s PGY3 (but busy – you run trauma this year), and 8s during week/12s on weekends PGY4 year (NO NIGHTS in PGY4). Some of those details could be wrong – I don't pay too much attention to shift length.

Sites – Quincy, Lahey Burlington, the old Boston City Hospital ED (HAC) is the main site, and then HNC (I think) is the old BU Medical Center ED. Volume at HAC is about 130K if I recall correctly. HAC is divided into 2 sections – acute side (chest pain, SOB, trauma) and the less acute side. PGY2s work on both sides, PGY3s run the acute side, and PGY4s run the less acute side. PGY2 you are the "procedure resident" and essentially do all the procedures AND cover your patients – seems like this would be crazy busy and fun!

PD – personable, funny, very unassuming. Seems to genuinely want everyone to find their "happy place" on the trail. Was very very very involved in interview day – which I appreciated. Interviews are 2 faculty (or residents) to 1 interviewee.

Overall: I think this is a fantastic program and I think it will only get stronger now that it's 1-4. I liked the residents.



BIDMC

Format- 3 year (optional jr attending year), 12 residents/yr

Residents: from ALL over (actually seems to be a lack of people from the Northeast), 12/year. All are personable and excited about their program, everyone I spoke with said it was their first choice.

Curriculum – 3 weeks medicine wards, otherwise pretty standard. 6w elective time – including a "teaching" week in Italy if desired. Their u/s and tox programs seem to be works in progress. Just started an EM critical care fellowship. Optional fourth year during which you work ½ time as an attending and can pursue research, further education (MPH, Kennedy school). About 1/3 of the residents take advantage of this.

Faculty – amazing names, lots of research money, faculty are mostly from outside (Hennepin, Denver). Peter Rosen (the textbook author/editor) is part time faculty. PD is Dr. Carlo Rosen. Graduate of Denver, first PD of this 9 year-old program. Seems like a good resident advocate. Residents are getting jobs in competitive job markets.



Advocate Christ Medical Center

Advocate Christ is a medical center in Oak Lawn, IL, a suburb of Chicago. The hospital itself is a big community hospital with many subspecialties. It is a busy (90K, I think) ED. The ED itself has a very busy community feel – lots of patients, some in hallways but with everything running fairly smoothly, good ancillary staff. The program has good ultrasound and tox experience. They do a LOT of EM months for a 3 year program.

The attendings are from all over – many from ACMC (also known as "Christ). The resources at this program are phenomenal. There is lots of funding for conferences, etc. The residents have produced a HUGE number of posters at academic conferences in the last few years. The residents are paid well, many live in Chicago and reverse commute to the suburbs. They are a very happy group – well protected on off-service rotations and treated well during their EM months. Overall I felt like this program is the "hidden gem" of Chicago. Be aware, though, that it's supposed to be tough to get an interview – they only interview 80 candidates per year.



Uof Chicago

Large program (18/yr, 3 years), longstanding and very well-established with a great alum network. The well-known PD (Dr. Howes) will be handing over the reins to Dr. Tupesis (current assistant PD) in July. Howes will be the assistant PD for a year while they find a replacement. UofC Hospital is a peds level 1 trauma center, but adult level 2 due to financial concerns (when they were level 1, they were getting ALL the penetrating trauma and couldn't afford it). I had my interview at Lutheran, so didn't see U of Chicago, but from what I hear it is a busy, urban ED. Residents spend about 10 months at Lutheran General, which is out near O'Hare and is a busy, level I trauma center. They work 1 on 1 with the attendings at Lutheran (as opposed to the graduated responsibility model at U of Chicago) and really seem to like their time there. You also do trauma (I forget how many months) at Mt. Sinai (community hospital located in a knife and gun club neighborhood). UofC as a whole also just affiliated themselves with the hospital at Evaston, Illinois. This is a big, tertiary referral type hospital that used to be affiliated with Northwestern. The hospital is best known (in the EM world) for it's simulation center, so that is one aspect of EM at UofC that will grow overnight.

I did not get a good sense for what tox and ultrasound were like at UofC. Overall I did feel that they made a very good use of time by not having an OB rotation, but instead having you take OB calls to get your deliveries during your EM months intern year. They also combine your anesthesia month with NICU call – so you can get your neonatal resuscitations and procedures and your airways all at once. I think the PD mentioned that they really start preparing interns for flight shifts, so you WILL get the sickest patients early in your EM career rather than being protected from them for the first year, which is pretty status quo for programs.

Chicago has (mandatory, I believe) flight time. When you are the R2, you fly during your shifts in the department as well as see patients. They also do fixed wing transport flights, which are a moonlighting opportunity (you get about 1000). The residents at Chicago are a VERY social bunch. The department sponsors a monthly social event (they get money from the fixed wing flights as well) for residents.

UMass:

Basics (already mentioned): 3 years, 12 residents, no floor months, All 10 hour shifts starting at ~20/month 1st year and gradually decreasing. Mandatory flight time as flight physician (as equal member of team, anyone can ground flight if they feel it's no good, calls are blinded to pilot to prevent unnecessary risks for calls that may play on emotions (children, etc.). 2 months of electives in 3rd year.

Residents: All seemed very nice and very happy to be at UMass (#1 rank by most/all). Good variety of interests outside of medicine but most seem to really take advantage of the great outdoor opportunities nearby (skiing, hiking, fishing, etc.). Good mix of after residency fellowship pursuit vs straight academics vs community. Contrary to some past post impressions, everyone seemed super laid-back, cohesive, and fun. Geographically most from NE but west coast represented (Oregon).

Faculty: Amazing diversity and depth (esp. in Tox and Ultrasound)! Sounds like all truly enjoy working with and educating residents. If you interviewed here I think you'll agree that the PD is a fantastic asset to the program! One of the nicest people you could meet and have as your advocate. He's obviously very interested in resident education, performance, satisfaction/happiness, etc. Also incredibly compassionate and capable role model.

Location: I feel like this is really the only potential drawback of the program, but this really depends on how you look at it. For me it's a huge plus. Very low cost of living (can certainly afford to purchase, no traffic, close proximity/no commute depending on where you choose to live). Great outdoor opportunities (skiing, hiking, rock-climbing (great rock-gym nearby also), AT nearby, snowshoeing, ocean (surf/boogie if you get right gear, fishing, etc.), freshwater fishing behind hospital, etc. Can enjoy benefits of Boston (Sports, food, historical/cultural, etc.) without the high cost. Can be in many great places for weekend trip (NYC, Maine, VT, NH, Canada). This location will also provide wide-reaching patient base and plenty of blunt trauma. If anyone could comment, I'm curious about penetrating trauma experience (frequency, gsw vs stab, chest tubes, thoracotomies, etc?). Has its own (albeit limited) ethnic food options (Indian, Thai, Japanese/Sushi, etc.). Flipside negative view: small town that doesn't have the big-city options in your backyard and super-cold winters.

Other aspects that stand out:
-#1 or 2 in NIH research funding in the nation! Great opportunities to get involved and continue/grow this aspect of the program. Seems like Tox. research is the biggest draw currently.
-Ridiculous perks: $1500/year book/educational fund and standard books thrown in at the start of residency (Request for resident comment here as to what is the main text used and are these books pre book-fund?). iPod Touch. Sweet pullover/soft-shells for residency program and flight program.
-Amazing new ED with windows and view of the lake.
-High volume with >150,000/yr including peds.
-Well-established program in hospital with EM making the call on admissions. Also means that much of the fat-trimming has been done, but PD and faculty seem to be very open to continued feedback in making the program the best for resident education.
-Moonlighting opportunities beginning 2nd year at ~$75/hr in ICUs and more in nearby EDs in 3rd year (if anything to add, would like UMass resident to comment on this if possible, as this is an important aspect for me because I believe this would be a great growing/educational opportunity (extra $ doesn't hurt either).
-Plenty of international opportunities, etc with 3rd year electives. Although some talk of Hawaii hyperbarics being phased out?

Overall: Great well-funded and well-established place to train with fun, motivated, and intelligent colleagues. Low cost of living with very good opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts. With all its depth, breadth, and history I haven't seen another program that's "better" than UMass other than with things of personal preference like big-city, too-cold, no "ivy-league" or equivalent name.


This past review by resident was also very informative:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=7091110

Hopefully some more folks including current residents will chime in with their thoughts/differing opinions/answers to some questions above.

Also thanks to everyone who has contributed/continues to contribute to the EM forums, making it one of, if not THE best and most informative on SDN!

First off, thanks for the review EvoDevo. I am a current resident at UMass and I'll do my best to answer/clarify your questions.

I’m curious about penetrating trauma experience (frequency, gsw vs stab, chest tubes, thoracotomies, etc?)

As the only level I trauma center for a population of about 750,000+ UMass certainly offers a solid experience with penetrating trauma. Worcester (city itself) doesn't generate the volume of penetrating compared with larger centers like Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore areas but several major metros have multiple 2+ level I centers and ultimately end up sharing. Not only do we cover the 200,000 or so people right in Worcester, but we have the additional 500,000 in central Mass that we see (not only in the trauma bay but also routinely transport via LifeFlight.) You can expect solid experience with trauma procedures. As for thoracotomies... they happen but most ED physicians don't routinely do this in community practice.

-Ridiculous perks: $1500/year book/educational fund and standard books thrown in at the start of residency (Request for resident comment here as to what is the main text used and are these books pre book-fund?). iPod Touch. Sweet pullover/soft-shells for residency program and flight program.

I'm not sure of the exact amount we receive each year, but it is quite a bit and went up this year a few hundred. You can also use your educational stipend for tests like Step 3 (600$) and travel. Plus, if you get a paper or abstract excepted to a conference the program will pay you to go (it doesn't come form your stipend). We do get ipods (love mine). Harwood Nuss is our primary textbook. We also receive free EKG, pediatric, and ultrasound texts.

-Moonlighting opportunities beginning 2nd year at ~$75/hr

A new Massachusetts State law went into effect this year which doesn't allow moonlighting until 3rd year in any medical residency in the state. So you will have to wait until 3rd year.

-Plenty of international opportunities, etc with 3rd year electives. Although some talk of Hawaii hyperbarics being phased out?

Hawaii is being phased out and probably won't be available to incoming residents. However, new opportunities in other areas like Puerto Rico and possibly Africa/Europe should replace the Hawaii elective.

I am happy you enjoyed visiting our program. I certainly think the training, faculty, and team of residents is A+. Wherever you decide to go, have fun and enjoy. The majority of programs in the country provide great training, so no matter where you end up... enjoy the match (and the summer vacation before residency!!)

www.UMassMed.edu/emed

Here are some quick facts about programs from last year of interviewing. I tried to be non-biased as possible, but sometimes I threw in some subjective comments. Hope this helps.

FYI, some things may have changed at programs so be sure to ask.

Christiana - 3 years, 12 EM residents/year (+3 EM/IM and 2 EM/FM), 9 hr shifts with 1 hr overlap, 40 hr/wk as intern, 1 mo of night shifts with minimal night shifts on other ED months, >110k volume at main hospital with 72 beds, ~200k combined volume, 5 hrs lecture/week, daily morning conference, monthly animal lab, 1 month orientation, dedicated CT and radiology dept, OR in the ER, $200 mil expansion of Wilmington hospital by 2011, EM gets airway AND procedures in trauma, no anesthesia residents to intubate, no ortho/ENT/NS/optho residents either, fellowships in admin/EMS/US, 6 U/S machines with great U/S faculty, $49k as R1, 6 mo of ICU rotations over 1st two years, interns work >1/2 shifts at Wilmington, no floor months, no state sales tax, 30-45 min to Philly, 1 hr to Baltimore, 2 hours to DC/NY, 90 min to Atlantic City, moonlighting available

Hennepin - 3 years, 11 residents (+2 EM/IM)/yr, 9 hr shifts, >100k volume, very little floor months but surgery heavy, 2 mo neurosurgery as R2, believer in "graduated responsibility" (AKA delayed gratification) so that as R1 you don't have many duties but by R3 you are running the dept, "pitboss" as R3 with no note responsibility, free food, 4 stabilization rooms with U/S mounted on each bay, airways only as R3, 12 U/S machines total which are directly linked to PACS, U/S tech hired to teach residents, EM on ALL traumas and surgery as consult, 1 mo community experience, OB/gyn involves inpt and outpt care, EMR (Epic), sim lab integrated into curriculum, great EMS relationship, 1 wk hospital orientation and 2 wk EM orientation, hyperbaric chamber

Brown – 4 years, 12 residents/yr, >100k volume, brand new ED with cath lab, 2 CT scanners, 72 beds with 6 crit care beds, awesome sim lab 1 day/mo, no boarding in the ED (is that possible?), strong peds EM program, large amount of trauma since they are the only show in town from New Haven to Boston, strong U/S program with fellowship available, 4.5 mo electives, trauma surg without scut work, conferences supposed to have more small group discussion this upcoming year, 20-22 shifts/mo, 9 hr shifts with 1 hr overlap, great international EM, 75 full-time facult, $50k salary as intern

Yale – 4 years, 12 residents/yr, 1 full month orientation, stong U/S program, 12 hour shifts, 18-20/mo as intern, 6 mo crticial care over residency, tox month at NYU Bellvue, 2 hours sim lab per month, 6 mo elective time, $51k as intern

USC – 4 years, 17 residents/yr, 12 hour shifts, 20? shift/mo, top-notch U/S program with over 20 machines, 12 resus bays, tons of procedures, EM has ALL hospital codes, work in the underground jail ED, excellent teaching with tons of videos uploaded every month, attendings doen’t write notes so that have more time to teach, observation unit run by attendings and NPs, new hospital with good facilities, no EMR using all paper notes but plans to upgrade

Highland – 4 years, 10 residents/yr, one month EM orientation, awesome U/S training with 2 U/S fellows, county program, great salary, uses EMR, ski cabin in Tahoe that residents share, one month off per year, 3 informal teaching session in the ED per day, free food all the time, no OBS unit so you must admit all low risk chest pain, rotate though many hospitals (Kaiser, UCSF, Children’s, SFGH), ortho rotation includes time in OR, great tox month at SFGH, weaker IM program can be frustrating

Carolinas - 3 years, 14 residents/yr, >100k volume, very nice hospital, only 1 hospital to rotate through, labs results broadcast to free PDA, didactics daily with free lunch and protected on off-service rotations, fellowships in tox/EMS/US/peds/research, large amount of off-service rotations but I was reassured that they are important, $45k/yr as intern, no EMR but orders by computer coming soon, no orientation month, 4.5 resus bays, no direct medical school affiliation, residents go to SAEM 2nd year and ACEP 3rd year

UMass - 3 years, 12 residents/yr, no medicine floor months but lots of ICU, 10 hr shifts, 20-22 shifts/mo, 5 u/s trained attendings and 8 toxicologists, volume 80-90K and growing, 200+ million dollar ED, new CT scanner, located in worcester (pronounced wooster), helicopter medicine - one month in PGY1 with a 2 or 3 running the show (the bird never flies without a resident) but can be grounded often in winter, every U/S is recorded and Q/A'd by U/S doc, likely elimination of PGY3 elective to Hawaii with free housing/car, 45-60 min from boston, plenty of trauma with all procedures/airway being done by EM residents, residents can moonlight in the ICU starting 2nd yr, 5 hours weekly of didactics, computer tracking system with labs/rads results but orders/vitals/nursing notes/MD notes are all paper and then scanned into computer that you can pull up later if needed.

Vanderbilt – 3 years, 12 residents/yr (increased by 1 this year), no floor months, 1 hr lecture each morning by PD or chair of EM, 1 month orientation with reduced ED shifts and great teaching, awesome EMR, >100,000 combined volume of main hospital and children’s, teaching by U/S fellowship trained EM physician, >3k level 1 traumas/yr, video review for each trauma, 2 BS toxicologists, ED radiology 24 hrs/day, emergency cardiologist in ED, 6 wks community ED, moonlighting allowed, 2 CT scanner, 4 active trauma bays, 10 hr shifts as R1, great sim lab with 1 day/mo, Keeping Up! (EBM review website) run by attendings, $49k as R1, fellowships for EMS/international health/peds, no anesthesia residents/attg necessary for PSA, tons of airway devices, evals p every shift/month/6mo, great EMS relationship

Thought I should chip in since I know I read these threads incessantly last year. I added in a bit about my overall thoughts on each program, in case anyone finds that helpful. Feel free to PM me if you have questions and I'll try to at least give my personal insight (which was mostly gleaned from a 1 day interview so it for what it is!).I didn't go to all the interviews I was offered, but I ranked all the places I interviewed and honestly feel I'd be happy at any of them. Yay for EM.

1. Vanderbilt: Loved this program. Had everything I was looking for in terms of having great people, tremendous leadership, great academic/research opportunities, nice city with good COL. Overall the hospital is super supportive of resident education, good benefits, etc. SO liked it too, so it was a fairly easy choice.

2. U of AZ: This was a strong #1 for me until I went to Vandy (which was my last interview). Totally loved the residents, wanted to go out for drinks with the rockin' PD, and Tucson in December was awesome. Great research and terrific curriculum, too. In the end, though, it's far from family and didn't outshine anything Vandy could offer so being a direct flight from family won out.

3. Maine: Totally loved this program, too. Fantastic residents, great hospital, fabulous location. I've spent a lot of time in Maine so this place felt great to me. Thing is, they have no NIH funded research, and since it's important to me to have mentors with NIH grants, etc, I decided I had to pass this one up. I do hope to get back there later in my career, though, and if Match Day brings me there now I'll still be really happy.

4. Carolinas: Great, well established program that has been turning out fantastic EPs for a long time. I liked the new PD a lot on a personal level, although it felt like she's still working out her vision for the direction of the program from here. I don't think that really takes away how great the program is, necessarily, but the leadership at other programs pushed them above this one for me. Again, I think I could be very happy here.

5. UMass: Again, another very well established, very strong program where I could be very happy. I absolutely loved the PD here and it's clear that he puts the education/health/happiness of his residents at the top of his to-do list every day. Worcester is really a drab, post-industrial city with horrendous winter weather, though, and SO was pretty dead set against moving there. So down it went.

6. Utah: I rotated here and really enjoyed my month. Really fun people, good focus on education, could not really be in a nicer location. In the end it was also far from family, and it's a young program that still seemed to be finding its place in the overall hospital scene. I know some residents in other departments at the U and it seems from their experiences that there's an overtone of 'residents are here to work' instead of 'residents are here to learn.' I figured out on the interview trail that this distinction was important to me. I don't think that was true in EM there at all, but you do have to do your off-service rotations. This could be off, it just seemed that some of the other programs I saw had a bit more to offer me in the end. Despite that, I would be more than happy to train there, and I'm sure I'd get a great education, if that's how things go.

7. Georgetown: Dr. Love (the PD here) was actually the one who drew my attention to the point mentioned above, that you want to go somewhere that you're not just a cog in the wheel of the hospital but that your education is primary. He has such a well-defined, clear vision for his program. It was really inspiring. I'd be really happy to train here, in theory, but the logistics were just not going to work for me. COL was way too high, you have to drive to locations that aren't near one another in crazy DC traffic, etc. I was kind of bummed I couldn't easily make this one work for us. We'll figure it out if match brings us there, but it'll be a challenge.

8. UVA: I definitely loved Charlottesville and the residents I met. I went here after I was at G'town and I wanted to take that program and move it to Charlottesville. The PD here is new and just wasn't a great salesman. I don't doubt they have a great program, but he did a lot of handwaving and literally saying 'blah blah blah' during his PPT and I felt like I didn't get a sense at all of what he was offering. That said, I'm sure I would be happy here and I certainly loved the scribes program.

9. Rochester: Definitely a strong program, nice people, good COL, strong research, but SO wouldn't budge on location.

That's all she wrote. Bring on 3/17!!

Posted anonymously on behalf of a student who interviewed there.

U Mass Review

Pre-Interview Social: The pre-interview dinner was at Nancy Chang, a sort of Asian fusion restaurant. We ordered a bunch of dishes and passed them around. Lots of people came, and the residents seemed like a social and fun group. I really liked the other applicants too. This was by far one of the least painful and most fun pre-interview dinners that I went to.

Interview Day: The interview day started at 8:30 AM with breakfast and a talk by the PD. He emphasized how important it is to choose a program based on fit, and, as others have already mentioned, not to rank this program if you don’t want to fly. But, and this is typical of his sense of humor, he said that even if you had already decided that U Mass wasn’t for you, that you should still stay for lunch! The chairman poked his head in to say hi to us, and then we had a presentation about the program and Worcester, followed by interviews, lunch, and a tour.

There were eight interviewers, but we only had four interviews. Mine were with the PD, a fellow, and two other faculty. The interviews were 25 minutes each, plus four scheduled five minute breaks. All of the interviews were pretty relaxed. I was asked why EM, what do I think are the qualities of a good resident (and a bad resident), what do I think will be my biggest challenge in residency, and to tell the interviewer about an interesting case. Everyone also asked me what questions I had, so make sure you’re prepared to ask questions!

Curriculum: U Mass is a three year program. The hospitals are U Mass Memorial-University campus (quaternary referral center), U Mass Memorial-Memorial campus (more of a community ED with OB/gyn, NICU, heme), U Mass Children’s Medical Center (peds ED at the University campus), and Milford Regional (community hospital). The University campus adult and peds EDs are both trauma I. Shifts are scheduled in blocks that roll forward, so several days, then afternoons, then nights, with days off here and there in between. There are 20-22 x 10’s per month. There is a dedicated peds EM month for each year, but the residents have “swap shifts” so that they get a longitudinal peds experience even when they’re not officially on peds EM. There are no peds EM fellows, so the residents are the main staff there. The PD said that he is opposed to ever starting a peds EM fellowship for this reason. Total EM time is 20 months, including peds EM and EM supervisory blocks during PGY3. There are five ICU months.

The first block is an orientation block for all of the interns that is a kind of immersion month. The off-service rotations are the usual. Ortho is in the ED with no floor or OR time. OB is on the low risk delivery service. Anesthesia is done at St. Vincent’s during PGY1; the residents tube patients in the mornings and then come back for U/S training in the ED in the afternoons. They also get Life Flight training during the same block and are second call for flights. (The interns take a flight safety and certification course, and they start functioning as the flight doc by the end of the flight month. A faculty member will fly with them the first few times if necessary for the resident’s comfort.) There is a medical specialties month during PGY1, which is dental, radiology, and fast track. (Fast track is staffed half the time by residents and the other half by mid-levels.) There are two months of electives during PGY3. Popular electives include ship’s physician with the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and wilderness medicine in Utah.

All the major EM subspecialties have blocks of their own. I already mentioned peds. Residents take first call on their tox rotation. That is the only month with call, and it is home call. U/S is all three years mixed in with other things. There is one month of trauma each during PGY2 and PGY3. The PGY2 is the procedure person on trauma. EM gets the airway for trauma, and the PGY3 alternates with surgery for trauma chief. PGY3s have two ED supervisor months. EMS is obviously very strong. Besides flying, U Mass owns the city’s 911 services (paramedics are U Mass employees!). It is one of only five programs in the US to staff all flights with residents.

Didactics: They have your standard five hours per week of didactics on Wednesday mornings. These are protected time even on ICU months, and the department provides lunch for the residents every week. There are also weekly tox rounds on Thursday mornings, weekly U/S lectures, and a daily ED morning report by the senior residents on various topics. A nice new sim center is being built, and the residents periodically do peds sim training (mock codes).

Benefits: U Mass’s benefits are good. Residents are U Mass employees, so they get the same benefits as other U Mass employees. After six months of employment, residents and their families get free tuition at several Massachusetts colleges. There is a low-cost hospital gym. Residents get an educational stipend of $1500, EM Challenger, an I-Touch, four free textbooks, and their own call room suite/lounge. PGY3s average around 1000 U/S by the time they finish, and they can get certified if they want. (All scans are recorded with QA over-reads provided.) There is internal moonlighting, and residents can serve on the DMAT team.

Administration: The PD and assistant PD make resident wellness and happiness a major priority. The PD meets with each resident every six months, and every resident selects a faculty mentor halfway through the PGY1 year. There is a yearly resident retreat in RI that all 36 residents attend, where they have educational and fun activities. U Mass has a huge tox department (like 10 toxicologists!), and they stage a popular annual mushroom hunt.

Worcester: Worcester is the second largest city in New England after Boston, though still not huge. COL is very reasonable for the Northeast, especially compared to Boston or New York. There are a lot of outdoorsy things (skiing, hiking, fishing, etc.) available. It is less than an hour away from Boston, so you have easy access to everything there. One thing everyone kept talking about was the armory museum, which I didn’t visit, but it sounds kind of interesting. I was more excited about driving through Framingham (from the Framingham heart studies), which is located between Boston and Worcester. There are hearts on the signs there.

Summary: I absolutely love this program, and I have no idea why it’s not more popular among applicants on SDN (maybe location?). There are no floor months and no real call. The curriculum is strong in every major area of EM, including tox, trauma, teaching, research, EMS, US, and peds. If you’re interested in research, they have a ton of funding (mostly in tox). If you’re interested in EMS, this program has phenomenal ground and flight EMS experiences. If you’re interested in U/S, you can easily get certified. If you’re interested in academics, you get two months of teaching experience. If you’re interested in community medicine, you get plenty of that too. I don’t think I’ve seen a nicer ED anywhere else. In the peds ED, the rooms are centrally monitored, and the equipment comes to the patients! There is a separate psych ED, and several fellowships in just about everything except peds EM are available. The people are incredibly nice, the residents seem very happy, and the administration seems very supportive of residents. The EM residents’ lounge and call rooms are nice, and benefits in general are good since you’re a U Mass employee. Worcester is not as small and isolated as I had expected, and you can easily visit Boston for city nightlife without having to pay the kind of prices you’d need to pay to live in Boston. It seems like even a lot of non-New England people like it enough to stay in the area after graduating. My interview trip to U Mass was actually fun even though I went toward the end of my interview season, and that’s saying a lot.

As far as the program itself goes, I don’t think there are any negatives or weaknesses. I guess probably the main downside for many people is the weather/location. Of course, if you don’t want to have to fly, this program wouldn’t be a good fit. Also, right now, they use an IBEX electronic tracking board with paper orders, but they are implementing a full EMR this year.

Overall, this program is one of my favorites and will definitely end up somewhere at the top of my list.

1. Brigham/MGH: POS: Two amazing institutions, The Name (Partners) which helps if you want to do something in addition to medicine, faculty, resources, admitting powers, off-service education, true SIM-lab along with true integration into curriculum, fellowship in US (not that i'm interested in doing US fellowship, but having a fellowship makes it more likely that we will get a good ultrasound experience), getting an expanded ED at MGH, impressed with 4th years (they get experience running obs unit and getting presentation from PAs- say what you will about the importance of knowing how to run OBS unit and PAs, but all you need to do is look at the news and realize the possible future of EM), can use propofol, You get bread and butter at both hospitals (albeit, you're more likely to see zebras at these hospitals). NEG: Surgery floor rotation (I don't mind medicine floor), only 4 ICU months (I wish there was one more instead of surgery floor), slightly worried about admission pushback (but ED has admitting powers, so it's okay).
2. BMC: POS: "Boston City Hospital"- so many people have trained there, admitting powers, ED is powerful there, trauma is truly run by ED, largest ED visits in the New England area, largest number of trauma (penetrating) in Boston, sees the most number of patients in the New England area, Boston EMS medical control, great number of fellowships. NEG: Ortho experience is what you make of it, POTENTIALLY a weaker peds experience as it's a Level II peds center, limited propoful use, trauma is run sort of inefficiently (3rd year does tube AND leads the trauma, which is contrary to the principles of leadership)
3. UPenn: POS: this place has everything I want (perfect number of ICU rotations), true integration with trauma, residents can use propofol, admitting powers, great off-service rotations, great airway toys, Pharmacy is in the ED to help with codes (drug calculations) and drug questions. NEG: The number of ED visits they see seems a little low, weaker/building from scratch a SIM lab curriculum.
4. NYP (columbia and cornell): POS: Two great hospitals, best peds experience in NYC (which is tough in NYC), subsidized housing available, resources, admitting powers, can use propofol. NEG: relatively new (that being said, it's made a name for itself). High cost of living in NYC
5. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: POS: Academic, 3+1 option, the name, the residents, the faculty. NEG: lower number of ED visits compared to other programs in Boston, many off-site rotations (which are worth it for this program, but driving can be a hassle)
6. UMass: POS: Great toys, helicopter- TRUE integration of residents and nurses as a team, residents, the BEST facilities of any program on my list, PD is AMAZING, busy level 1 adult/peds, great number of fellowships, ED is very powerful here. NEG: location in Worcester (but that being said, cost of living is great with it still being relatively close to Boston)
7. Brown: POS: Amazing number of fellowships in everything you could want to do in the future, VERY busy with large volumes of patients (second largest in New England), Large sim lab, has access to basic science research (if you're into that thing). NEG: location
8. Northwestern: POS: perfect number of ICU rotations, well known, great facilities, great location in Chicago, gets a lot of trauma from the South side of Chicago (since U. Chicago is not a level I trauma center). NEG: No fellowships, except a research fellowship (I'm worried I won't get a good US experience if there is no US fellowship)

Hi everyone, I found these reviews really helpful when I was applying last year, especially the reviews from current residents. So I wanted to give some thoughts for this year since ERAS just opened, and people might be wondering whether to apply to UMass.

So far I have finished two rotations plus orientation, which means that my experience is obviously limited. But I'll tell you what I can.

We rotate at four hospitals and have thirteen four week blocks as interns. The main hospital is UMass Memorial's University campus. It's an academic tertiary care hospital with an extremely busy ED, and a level 1 trauma center for both peds and adults. We all do our first block there together, which is an immersion month where we do a little of everything. We also have four blocks in the adult ED and one block in the peds ED, plus two ICU blocks, a subspecialty block, and an ortho block. Another site is UMass Memorial's Memorial campus. As interns, we do one block there for OB. Our third site is Milford, which is a community hospital about twenty miles away. As interns, we do one block there. The fourth site is St. Vincent's, a community hospital in Worcester. As interns, we do one block there for anesthesia.

The rotations I have done so far are the immersion block and the OB block. For the immersion block, we do several adult ED shifts, a couple of peds ED shifts, and a couple of Life Flight shifts. It's nice, because our whole intern class does it together, and we get to know each other and start learning our way around the University campus EDs. It was also my first time flying in a helicopter, which I ended up liking a lot more than I expected to. There are also special intern lectures each week.

OB was my second block, and it's more or less what you'd expect. There are two weeks of day shifts and two weeks of night shifts. We mainly are responsible for the low risk service, including triage, labor & delivery, and the post partum wards. They expect us to participate in fifteen deliveries, but you can easily do a lot more. I wound up with thirty.

Right now I am doing my first adult ED rotation. It has been very hectic so far, but I'm glad to be back.

One of the things I always wanted to know on interviews was why people picked their residency. UMass was my #1 rank, and I picked it for a few reasons. The first reason was because I liked the people and felt like I clicked well with them. I also thought the administration was supportive of residents and it would be a good environment to train in. The second reason was because I thought the program was really strong in all the important areas of EM. Before I started interviewing, I never thought about how important it was to get good ultrasound training. Ultrasound is becoming more and more important in EM, and at UMass, we will all do more than enough ultrasounds to be certified. Also, I want to do a tox fellowship, and that is a very strong area at UMass too. The third reason is because of the program structure. I wanted an academic three year program with an immersion month but no floor months.

The next thing I always wanted to know is what people liked and didn't like about the program. I think I've covered what I like about the program already, so what don't I like. One thing that comes up a lot is the location. I'm actually neutral about that. The city itself is ok, nothing special, but not horrible either. We have easy access to Boston, and some of the residents and faculty even live there and commute to Worcester. So I don't think that anyone's social life would suffer by coming here.

Another thing that comes up is the weather. I don't like winters, and that is a major downside to me. I think the important thing is to get the right gear, from good snow boots to a car that is safe to drive in snow. Nothing will make me like the winter, but it's doable if you're prepared, and I liked the program enough to be willing to suck it up.

The patient population is a third thing. Our University campus ED is ridiculously busy, and it can be stressful when you're the only resident there working in the pod overnight. I feel like this experience will be something I'm grateful for in the long run because it will make me a better EP, but it's not always very fun while I'm going through it. Also, if hard core inner city trauma is your thing, you might not like this program, because most of our trauma is blunt. That doesn't bother me, because I'm not a trauma junky, but some people might not like what we see here.

That's all I can think of for downsides right now. Overall I like the program, and I'm glad that I chose it. We have a new PD this year, and he is very supportive of the program. I feel like I'm getting well trained.

I'm also starting a blog, which you're welcome to read if you want. The link is in my signature. Good luck if you're applying, and let me know if you have questions.

Medical Student Perspective of UMASS Emergency Medicine

I am an MS4 from UMASS applying to EM recently completed the EM clerkship there.


For years 1 and 2 of medical school, I was in the ED for my longitudinal preceptor sessions, so I also had early exposure to the current faculty and residents, and was able to make several lasting relationships.



My biased observations:


1. The rotation. There were 7 students, including myself, rotating for the month. At least 16 shifts are required (two of which must be overnight), in addition to two shifts riding with Worcester EMS (awesome, really smart group of people!), and an optional Life Flight shift.

You build your own schedule with the other students. Wednesday mornings, students attend resident conference in the morning, and sometimes have early afternoon lectures taught by the attending staff. Every student signed up for a shift to work with the PD when possible, and he got great reviews from everyone I spoke with.

The students have a lot of autonomy in the sense that they can independently sign up for and see patients, and then present to an attending, much like an intern. This seems intuitive (and important) to me, but that is not the case in my away EM rotation, so it is a definite plus for this rotation.

2. The residents. The senior residents at UMASS are constantly available to the juniors, and would also frequently check in with me to see if I needed help or wanted to talk about anything pertaining to my patients. Whenever there was any procedure or teaching point, generally the seniors would allow the juniors/students to take charge, and made sure that everyone in the room understood every step. In a very busy ER, I felt relieved that I could still have teaching.

The residents get along with one another and seemed to have social functions almost every week to hang out outside of the hospital. That kind of camaraderie simply made it easy and comfortable to meet new people and work together. I was impressed and this certainly made the program more attractive to me. The UMASS emergency residents are some of the most well-rounded, intelligent, and genuinely happy people I have ever met.

3. Program Director. There is a new PD as of 2011. He is very approachable and easy to get along with, but also remarkably smart and loves to teach when he is on and off shift. It is obvious that the residents and staff already have great respect for him. He is very enthusiastic about the UMASS training program, and I have heard him say several times that he is striving for UMASS to be the single best place for EM training in the country.

He makes a concerted effort to meet all interested students during their month, and teaches a few of the didactic sessions. His office door was always open when he was not on shift, and he was more than willing to meet with me whenever I asked inside and outside of the hospital to talk about application advice or otherwise. His friendliness, sense of humor, and availability impressed me. Having now also done an away rotation, I know that I cannot say the same for every program, so another huge plus for UMASS.


4. The staff. UMASS emergency attending staff in general is eager to teach students and residents alike. They are enthusiastic, and make sure that all of the house staff understands important points if there is a complex case. As mentioned in above posts, there are very strong fellowship programs here at UMASS, run by attendings who love to teach. Luckily, many of the fellowship directors taught didactics in addition to their clinical shifts, allowing students multiple opportunities to meet them.

The nurses and other ER staff are amazing, especially compared to any of the five other hospitals that I have rotated at. There was not one patient that I saw who did not already have IV access and basic labs drawn when it seemed eventually necessary. The staff was very experienced, friendly, and worked as a well-oiled machine.

5. Worcester, Mass. Sure it doesn’t sound as sexy as living in Los Angeles, or New York City, or Boston… But everything I have seen posted above about Worcester is probably true about any less-well-known city in the US. I have lived there for 4 years now, and I have to tell you that I have grown to love it. It is the 2nd biggest city in New England (behind Boston). If city life is not for you, many of the suburbs surrounding Worcester are beautiful, safe, and great places to raise a family.

One little known fact about Worcester is that it has some seriously awesome restaurants. Off the top of my head, there are some of the best Thai, Spanish, Italian, seafood, and steakhouses that I have ever been to right in Worcester. There are so many other international restaurants too that I have not yet been to. The food is one of the best diamond-in-the-rough aspects of Worcester.

There are also 15 colleges in Worcester, so contrary to what a few posts have said before me, I think that the young single/mingle scene can be great, especially when Boston is seeming 45 minutes too far away on your only night off. There are a bunch of awesome bars, some with a huge on-tap selection of beers, and frequently with live music.

Lake Quinsigamond offers rowing, sailing, jet skiing, and beachside grilling if that tickles your fancy. There are also plenty of wooded trails for hiking or jogging, although experienced outdoorsmen may prefer settings farther from civilization. Boston, Providence RI, Newport RI, Hartford CT, and Springfield MA are all 45-60 mins away if you have family or friends in any of those areas.

Links:New PD http://goo.gl/fMwqv
UMASS Residency www.UMassEMResidency.com
Worcester http://goo.gl/CMT6y



Feel free to PM me with any questions.
Good luck!

I was reading the posts on UMass and I know deciding where to interview and where to rank is hard, but hopefully after spending over two years at UMass I can give some unique insight on our program to help you in your decision.

The single thing that I think sets UMass apart is it can prepare you for where ever you want to go. At our main ED we see a tremendous acuity. We take transfers from all of New England to our ED and provide care with our full range of subspecialty services. Our interns become capable taking care of the most critical patients early on in their training and we only get stronger from there on. As opposed to floor medicine months we rotate in the CCU, SICU, MICUx2, Trauma & Neuro ICU, and NICU, all of which make for amazingly capable emergency physicians.

That being said, we still have a strong community ED base. Each year we spend a month in a busy community ED. This allows our residents to function with less specialist backup and emphasizes the qualities important to an effective community physician. We frequently send our graduates out to community sites all over the nation and they enjoy great success.

As a well established department we bring all of our divisions to benefit the residents. Experience from divisions such as a robust toxicology with a toxicologist on call 24/7, a ultrasound division with dedicated teaching and scanning at least two days a week, an EMS division who not just run out helicopter but also a hospital run; city EMS agency, a new International medicine division who ensure our residents get the most from overseas experiences, a disaster medicine division who are unique and are autonomous from other divisions and a large research division which many NIH grants.

Some people noted Worcester is an older New England city, Which is correct. There are some areas that are less desirable, but at the same time, 9 colleges, two minor league sports teams, Skiing with in 40 minutes and a dramatically cheep cost of living all off set that. Some other people note the Trauma service is lacking, UMass sees a tremendous amount of high acuity trauma but, the primary mechanism is blunt trauma, we benefit from the confluence of many highways right in our backyard, and there are still a shootings and stabbings to keep us on our toes.

This year brings us a lot of excitement. We’ve changed program directors and there is a remarkable energy and enthusiasm. Our strong foundation with an infusion of new ideas is already making our education that much more complete. The drive to be the best is renewed and we are constantly refining our education!

Overall we provide a remarkable education with a tremendous faculty and department standing behind each resident. We have a chance to go forward and be successful in any endeavors and still have a lot of fun at the same time.

I’m a fourth year med student from UMass and I’m applying for an EM residency. I recently completed an EM rotation at UMass as well as an EM away month at another east coast program. As I prepare to embark on the interview season odyssey, SDN program reviews have been incredibly helpful. I want to share my own review of the UMass EM program, from a med student perspective.

UMass Emergency Medicine

Department: The Emergency Medicine department is one of the most highly regarded departments at UMass. The department has garnered much support from the University administration and former EM faculty members have risen to positions at the top of the administration. The facilities are impressive with a sparkling new department including a dedicated trauma wing, two adult pods, dedicated peds ED run by Peds fellowship trained faculty, separate psych ED, obs unit, and fast track. The recent renovation included not only clinical facilities, but also new, ED- specific call rooms, lecture halls, resident library, office space, and sim areas. UMass has faculty who are leaders in their fields, with particularly strong tox and U/S divisions. However, what most impressed me was the dedication to teaching and approachable nature of the faculty nearly across the board.

This is a very busy ED with well over 100K visits per year, including the main University campus, and two nearby community campuses. One of the beauties of the UMass is the location. While the three EM programs in Boston have to share the trauma/pathology of the city, UMass is the only game in town. It is the only level 1 trauma center in central MA, and has a catchment area extending from outside of Boston to the East, southern Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to the north, all the way west to Springfield Ma, and even parts of Connecticut to the South. The volume and pathology is tremendous.

Program: UMass is a three year program. While in the ED residents work 10 hr shifts, about 20-22 per month. The shifts are staggered, with day shifts, followed by evenings, and then overnights. One of the highlights of the program to me is the off-service rotations. The residents have impressive ICU experience, without rotating through less educational medicine and surgical floor months, unlike many other programs. During their labor and delivery month, the residents routinely get over 20 deliveries. At the other program I rotated at, the interns were struggling to get 10. There is great anesthesia, ultrasound, tox, and peds experience mixed in as well. Another highlight for me is the life flight experience. As mentioned before, the helicopter at UMass is staffed 24/7 with residents, unlike the vast majority of flight programs in the country. This provides fantastic EMS/pre-hospital experience for the residents.

The program has impressive support from the staff and administration. Ample teaching time is protected. Opportunities abound to get involved in research, teaching, administration, international work, and really anything that you could imagine. There is a new program director this year that is eager to bring a fresh set of ideas to the program, and is dedicated to making the UMass program the best in the country. The training packed in to a 3 year program is impressive, and I believe it will be tough to find another program with more opportunities as I take off on my residency search.

Residents: As UMass med student, I can tell you that the EM program has always had a reputation as one of the strongest programs at UMass. When talking with the residents you can understand why it has garnered this reputation. They are a talented group of down-to-earth, interesting, fun-loving individuals from some of the best medical schools in the northeast and US. The residents are very happy at UMass, are passionate about their program, and are a cohesive group. UMass was the first choice program for the majority of the residents. I have always been particularly impressed by the confidence, efficiency, and knowledge, of the 3rd year residents. While UMass is a 3 year program, each resident I’ve spoken to has said they felt they would be more than ready to begin their career as an attending upon graduation. This has shown in the ease at which UMass grads have obtained jobs in the New England area, as well as in competitive markets across the country.

Location: The biggest complaint applicants have about the UMass program is the location. I was equally concerned about moving to Worcester when I started medical school here. However, I have really had a great experience living in “the Woo”. It is the 2nd largest city in New England after Boston, and has plenty to offer. While it does not have the night life of a major city, there are more than enough great restaurants, fun bars, and live music, to keep a busy med student/resident occupied. There are great outdoor activities immediately at hand, as well as museums, theater, and minor league sports. The cost of living is incredibly cheap for the northeast, and the city is very livable. The nicest restaurants in town have complimentary valets, street parking in readily available even on weekend nights, and traffic is at a minimum. When that isn’t enough, Boston and Providence are both a 45-60 min drive away, and New York City is an easy 2.5-3 hr drive as well. The winter is long, cold, and snowy, but as long as you are prepared and make the most of it, you will get by. The beautiful spring, summer, and fall easily make the winter worth it, and if my fiancé, a California native, can adjust to the weather, so can anyone.

Overall: This is a well established program within a department with great respect within the University, which has very supportive staff and faculty, a fantastic curriculum, happy, enthusiastic, and prepared residents, and is located in an inexpensive and enjoyable city.

It's only five years late but: it is not pronounced "Wooster" as alleged in ancient-post 3 (however, I'll bet Wooster, OH is pronounced that way). "Wister"...a genuine Masshole accent alters the ending, though.

Not an EM person, but I grew up in the area and worked in a community ED for a period of time before med school. I'd just add UMass is very well regarded in the region surrounding it and beyond by the patient population as well (i.e. people aren't wishing they went to some other Big Hospital). And Worcester is kind of an underrated area.

I’m currently an MS4 at UMass who is applying for a residency in EM and I recently completed a rotation in the UMass ED as well as the ED elective in Toxicology. Having gained a good deal of exposure to the UMass EM Residency Program, I wanted to share my thoughts.

First of all, the month that I spent in the UMass ER was exceptional. As a student, I was offered a great deal of autonomy to sign up for patients, evaluate them independently, construct my own assessment, and execute a plan. I was given the privilege of guiding patient management, which felt a little overwhelming at first, but the ED residents and attendings were all incredibly supportive. The residents frequently checked in with me and they took time during hectic days to share educational cases. The ED attendings spent extra time addressing my questions and they appreciated that I frequently updated them regarding my more complicated patients. There was an obvious sense of teamwork and camaraderie amongst the ED staff that created a wonderful environment for learning and working.

The ED at UMass is a beautiful department with two large pods built with the nurse and physician charting stations in the center of the patient rooms. Many patient rooms even have windows overlooking Lake Quinsigamond. There is plenty of hallway space to help accommodate the more than 100,000 patient visits each year. The trauma rooms are large, with ample room for the trauma team to work and learners to observe. UMass is a level 1 trauma center that caters to all of the needs of central MA so there was a lot to see during my month. There is a full time Life Flight staffed by nurses and EM residents. There is also a clinical decision unit for patients to stay overnight for observation.

UMass has fellowship programs in Disaster Medicine, Ultrasound, International Medicine, EMS, and Toxicology. As a participant in the Toxicology elective, I had the opportunity to work with the two wonderful Toxicology Fellows as well as numerous attendings. Everyone within the department is passionate about the importance of toxicology and they are enthusiastic about the specialty. They jumped at every chance to teach me new syndromes, to discuss management of different toxicologic emergencies, and they encouraged the numerous questions that I had about Tylenol toxicity. The fellowship programs have weekly conferences, which are open to anyone who is interested. The toxicology conferences were fun to attend and filled with interesting (and unique) case presentations. They were a great learning opportunity with useful information for any emergency medicine physician.

The residents seem to truly enjoy each other as well as the work that they do. They were all excited to be at UMass and they could not say enough good things about the program. They work hard, but it is obvious that they learn a lot, and they grow into strong physicians with solid judgment and excellent clinical sense.

The UMass EM program is already strong and the new Program Director is only interested in making it stronger. He may be new to this position, but he is a former UMass residency graduate, fellowship trained in Toxicology, and has served as an attending at UMass for many years. He is a friendly, approachable guy who is respected amongst the residents, and he also happens to be an excellent teacher.

I cannot say enough positive things about the UMass EM program, the ED staff, and the ED facilities. I’m more than happy to address any questions that people may have. Just send me a message. Good luck to everyone with interview season and upcoming residency plans.

J-Rad said:

It's only five years late but: it is not pronounced "Wooster" as alleged in ancient-post 3 (however, I'll bet Wooster, OH is pronounced that way). "Wister"...a genuine Masshole accent alters the ending, though.

Not an EM person, but I grew up in the area and worked in a community ED for a period of time before med school. I'd just add UMass is very well regarded in the region surrounding it and beyond by the patient population as well (i.e. people aren't wishing they went to some other Big Hospital). And Worcester is kind of an underrated area.

Click to expand...

It sounds more like "wuss-tah" to me. I still have to make an effort to control myself every time I hear someone speaking with a strong Masshole accent, because it sounds so funny. I'm rotating at the community hospital now, and there is a sign on one of the printer paper trays that says, "Please close the draw gently." That is exactly how the natives pronounce the word "drawer." No one who I have pointed this phonetic spelling out to had ever noticed, and I still have no idea if it was done on purpose or not.

Fwiw, this is a great rotation. I'm the only resident there during my shifts, and I can cherry pick which patients I want to see. Most of the attendings are UMass grads, and they do a lot of teaching. I have been focusing on peds and ortho since I think those are two of my weakest points. I've seen a bunch of patients with broken bones and helped with reductions. I saw a kid with scarlet fever, including the sandpaper rash and strawberry tongue. I saw a cool tox case. I've gotten to do some procedures and resuscitations. The shifts are mostly only eight hours instead of ten, and cleanup doesn't take as long at the end of the shift. I'm usually only running over the end of my shift by a half hour tops. They give us a bunch of coupons for free meals, and we even have time during shifts to go down to the cafeteria and get food. The only thing I don't like is having to drive there and back every day. It's going to be an expensive gas month.

Just wanted to post a quick update and offer again to answer questions about UMass if anyone has some.

We're six months in now, and we just had our semiannual reviews. That's where we meet with the PD and go over our progress so far, including things like our procedure logs, conference attendance, etc. I've been doing well with getting procedures, although I'm not done with any of the categories yet besides vaginal deliveries. But I'm getting close with some of them, like paracentesis (need three more) and medical resuscitations. I have my first ICU month coming up (CCU) in a week, so I should get a bunch more procedures then. I'm also looking forward to that rotation because I like cards and we have no night float that month. Though I do hate rounding, so that part might be a little painful.

That's about it right now. I still like the people, still think I'm getting good training, and still recommend the program.

Bumping this up in case anyone has some last minute questions before ROL's are due. I can't believe I'm already over halfway done with my first year!

So far my favorite off-service month was the CCU (cardiac ICU). The cardiologists do a lot of teaching, and it was really helpful to see what happens after a code STEMI gets whisked away. I was the only non-internal medicine person on the rotation, but I had a great team. Really the only thing I didn't like about the rotation (besides the ridiculous amount of secretarial work that IM residents have to do) is that there weren't as many procedures as I had been expecting. I told the IM residents up front that I wanted to do central lines, but we only had a couple of patients who needed them the whole four weeks. It seemed like patients who needed lines had usually already gotten them done in the ED. I've been told though that this can be kind of hit or miss, and that some people get tons of lines.