Trying to figure out where to do aways, anyone have info on Uni of Arkansas?

[lesterfreamon]

Whats the program like there? Seems like a program that is geared towards training solid clinical dermatologists without too strong of an emphasis on pushing residents into going into academics or getting heavily involved with research. Exactly the kind of program I want to be at.

The only issue is, I am not from the area and although I wouldn't mind moving there for residency, I would certainly want to move elsewhere after. Thanks.

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[qvc804]

In the past, they've really loved advertising their residents being in AOA on their website. I think they recruited Dr. Wong to increase their research which is why they're advertising their new research fellowship. So it might not stay as the clinician only program like you may think.

 

[PatsyStone]

Whats the program like there? Seems like a program that is geared towards training solid clinical dermatologists without too strong of an emphasis on pushing residents into going into academics or getting heavily involved with research. Exactly the kind of program I want to be at.

The only issue is, I am not from the area and although I wouldn't mind moving there for residency, I would certainly want to move elsewhere after. Thanks.

Due to ACGME requirements, all residents have to engage in some form of a scholarly project, but some programs want a poster others want a peer-reviewed paper and others want a peer-reviewed paper that required IRB approval. At the most-research heavy programs, there are ample opportunities to engage in existing research, to request a dedicated half-day for research, to enter into a clinical trials mentorship program, or to enter a 2+2 program. However, no one is forced to do any of these. Although Arkansas gained a big name in derm research, this is not going to drastically change the culture of the department into a research-heavy program, and in your case, would not forced you to do research/detract from clinical training.


FWIW, when I interviewed at programs and made my rank list, I used several metrics to gauge the clinical training of a program:

1. Do they have continuity clinics? Believe it or not, not all program do them. Some programs assign patients that randomly get thrown into your schedule, while others have a dedicated half-day or day where you see patients at a particular clinic site (I felt the latter was stronger)

2. Is there a diversity of skin color?

3. Is the program's faculty inbred or did they train at different programs? The point of this is that if all the faculty trained at the program, then there may not be a diversity of how attendings manage different diseases.

4. Do they have a dedicated, fellowship-trained peds, dermpath, and Mohs person?

5. Are there other program in the same city/region, and does program X lose all of the interesting cases to program Y?

6. Does the program have a VA and/or county hospital? I thought this was the most important thing to consider. VA and county hospitals are often overflowing with patients,and at most programs residents have a lot more autonomy to learn how to quickly diagnose and treat patients.

7. Are there specialty clinics? In my limited experience (please correct me if you think I am wrong), specialty clinics sound important, but I don't think they make too big of a difference in your training. For example, let's say Dr. Smith is an expert in oral and mucosal diseases, however, 75% of their clinic time is probably dedicated to general dermatology. Besides, if Dr. Smith's mucoasl clinic is one-half day a week, you may only rotate through this clinic a few times throughout your residency.

 

[1dayatatime]

I've found alot of your posts to be really helpful @PatsyStone and I'm bookmarking for my turn this year congrats on your victory (match) and thanks!

 

[dermie1985]

Have to agree with everything PatyStone said.

- I was also surprised that many places didn't have continuity clinics.
- Some programs also had pretty lackluster grand rounds (either no live patients, or they were only a few times a year).
- Many programs don't have trained derm-path or peds faculty (or only 1 part-time peds faculty). Some of Chicago programs out-sourced dermpath lectures to live web lectures (thought this was weird...). Also means you won't get much dermpath-dedicated training and won't be reading your own slides too often.
- I think every program has a Moh's surgeon (ACGME requirement), but some programs have 3-4 with 1-2 fellows. Different environment/exposure.
-There are many programs that are single-center training. Not only does this just sound monotonous to me (i.e. show up the same place for 3 years)....but I think the better quality programs are the ones with a VA/County/University/Private hospital rotations. You just see very different patient populations (race, socioeconomic, disease spectrum) at each. VA's are AWESOME to train at...lots of hand-on and lots of procedures as the vets always have a lot of skin cancer.
- Also would agree specialty clinics are sort of useless. There are some exceptions to this, as some of the big-wig centers have really interesting sub-specialty clinics that attract patients with more rare diseases (i.e. EB) that you won't necessarily see very much of without. Also, surprisingly few places have a dedicated peds vascular multidisciplinary clinic or a cutaneous lymphoma clinic, which I think are actually pretty bread and butter dermatology and need to be at your residency program.

Things I would add, specifically for those interested in academics/complex derm:

1. Fellowships offered? Look at what fellowships (if any) the internal program offers (Peds, Dermpath, Procedural, Research, Other). This can be helpful not only in potentially having a potential "home connection" to match into should you decide you want to go fellowship route and stay put in whatever city you matched in. But, you'll also get better mentorship/guidance about applying to fellowship program at other institutions if your home program also has a program with dedicated faculty.

2. Program size? (big or small?) Program size varies hugely. Ranging from 2 to 8 or 9 residents per class. I felt the larger programs (5 or more residents per class) seemed much more organized and higher quality than the smaller programs. Plus, you're sort of screwed if you end up not liking your co-residents.

3. Does the program have a dedicated inpatient attending? Dermatology hospitalist is actually a growing field in dermatology and it takes a different skill set to be good at. I liked programs that had dedicated inpatient attendings (most do mixed outpatient/inpatient as the inpatient load can be variable). Some programs (Mayo, Miami) even have their own primary admitting teams and wards. I was surprised that many programs either have very low inpatient volume (maybe 1-2 consults/day....sometimes none) and/or rotating inpatient attending among the outpatient attendings who all hated doing consults.

4. Research options-ask about this. Some programs seem clueless about mentorship and/or research opportunities. One PD even told me she didn't think residency training was for research. Others just seemed soooooo busy clinically that the residents didn't have time for it. While other programs had dedicated 1/2 days or even full-days of research if you were doing fine with your clinical training. This can be really important for getting faculty positions after graduation, so I'd press programs on this.

5. Where is the department going? Some have a lot of old faculty and don't seem to be hiring any new people. Others are trying to expand rapidly and it means you may have an easy route to getting an academic job at your home program straight out of residency if you're interested in academic.

6. Dedicated Academic/Teaching Time? Are the lectures before clinic everyday at 7 AM? Or, is there is a dedicated 1/2 day ( or two 1/2 days) per week of lecture/grand rounds etc. The whole 7 AM maximizes clinic time, but also means you're writing an extra 2 x 1/2 day clinic's worth of notes every week and are also having longer days compared to residents with dedicated time. Also look out for whether or not lectures are done by faculty or residents. Some programs are 100% resident-run.

Finally....

7. How was the pre-interview event? While this is probably not that big of a deal...some programs threw an awesome pre-interview dinner at a nice, hip trendy restaurant or lounge....while others either didn't even have a pre-interview event or it was pretty lackluster. If the program either doesn't have the $$$, organization, or care-enough to at least attempt to wine-and-dine applicants, it probably says something about the experience when you get there too.

 

[PatsyStone]

I totally agree with Dermie1985. I just wanted to add a few more points:

How long are clinic days/are there academic half-days? I bring this up for two reasons. First, I've been told repeatedly that those who read more know more. I realize this is common sense, but given the large amount of knowledge one must master, having more time to read is important. Second, longer clinic days/more clinics does not necessarily mean better training. My home program has cush hours, but the pathology is mostly weird, complicated cases. Conversely, at one of my aways, the hours were longer, but the majority of cases were bread-and-butter issues.

I was not super surprised that not all programs have a CTCL or pediatric vascular lesion clinic, because as I mentioned above, in areas with more than one program, there may be a balance in who gets the complex cases or one program may be a vacuum that sucks up all of the interesting/complex pathology.

You may also want to consider what programs are present at the residnecy's hospital. Do they have a burn center (SJS and TEN), do they do a lot of transplants (post-transplant malignancies and GVHD), are they a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center (probably has a broader exposure to multidisciplinary management of cutaneous malignancies)

 

[estingray]

U of Arkansas was a bit of a hot mess a couple of years ago with a malignant program director who also held the chair position (should raise a red flag when you see that). They have since gotten rid of her and put good people in those 2 positions per my understanding. Rumor is that they are looking to bring someone in from outside now for leadership positions.

As others have said, they used to be really proud of the fact that they only interviewed AOA, but I don't know if that is still the case.

 

[MilkIsGood]

U of Arkansas was a bit of a hot mess a couple of years ago with a malignant program director who also held the chair position (should raise a red flag when you see that).

just wondering, why is that a red flag?