A review of Penn Presby's website essentially suggests to me that they slam you with off-service rotations. I see 3 months of vascular, 3 months of plastics, apparently a 1st year heavy in offservice medicine rotations. Having a strong surgical/medical background to recognize when things are going astray is a wonderful thing, BUT - your smart friends going to high quality programs are going to accomplish this in 3 years. There are no shortage of good programs that get the job done in 3.
In the end - we are all going to be podiatrists. None of us are going to manage insulin. 3 months of vascular will not make you a vascular surgeon - you will not do BKAs or bypasses when you graduate.
I did 1 month of vascular. Scrubbed a bunch of cases. They referred 99% of foot amputations to us so I didn't do a single foot on vascular. I enjoyed the cases, but I derived far greater value from (1) attendance in vascular wound clinic on rotation and intermittently off (2) open communication / co-managing patients with vascular throughout all 3 years. 1st phone number I was given in residency was the vascular surgeon's number. I read all their notes, rounded with them when I could. Reviewed all imagery/duplex/etc. If vascular told me they were going to round I went and rounded with them. Could 2 more months have been beneficial? Sure. I'd certainly prefer it to the 2 months of IM, 1 month of ID, and 2 weeks of CC I did, but at some point enough is enough for off service.
You could argue - what if there was a program that was just so amazing - where every year was great and valuable and so many good cases. But if that program is so great - shouldn't it just be an amazing 3 year program?
Last I checked there are ...3 four year programs. More could be coming.
-Penn
-Denver VA and the 4th year is optional and is like a wound care fellowship.
-Some program in Queens.
If you have to do a 4th year it should probably be a fellowship so you can forever say - I AM A FELLOWSHIP TRAINED FOOT AND ANKLE SURGEON. WHAT IS THIS poo-diaarhea-tree THAT YOU SPEAK OF? You'd also hopefully be somewhere with different, new ideas/thoughts/techniques etc.