University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Overall I got a very good impression of UTSW. It's a big program (9 residents) which was unique and could be cool, as opposed to being stuck with 2-3 other people. Very good surgical #'s, academic, good nice hospitals, VA, they're the only program in the huge Dallas-Ft. Worth area. They are very busy though, moreso than most other ophtho programs they say. It could be a good thing if that is your style. You have to go to Ft. Worth (a 45 min to 1 hr drive) for some rotations but they compensate you for gas.

The PD does an excellent job of selling an excellent program. Training is top-notch. Dallas is a pretty cool city. The huge resident pool looks like they have a lot of fun. They work pretty hard, but they still leave at a decent hour because they have very good support from techs. The hospital is very rich so facilities are great. Alcon sponsers a lot of events beacuse they are nearby which is a nice perk. Some of the faculty can be malignant, but overall very nice. This is a really excellent program.

Does anyone know if UT Southwestern changed program directors recently? How happy do the residents seem?

Thanks!
moocow

Moocow2011 said:

Does anyone know if UT Southwestern changed program directors recently? How happy do the residents seem?

Thanks!
moocow

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No recent change in PD. I think he's been the PD for 8-10 years now, but I can't remember for sure. Not only has he been PD for a while, but he's one of the most impressive PDs on the interview trail. He knew each of our names when we showed up for the pre-interview dinner and knew our applications backwards and forwards, asking each of us detailed questions about our background/family/etc. He's very well organized (as evidenced by his excellent "overview of the program" talk on the interview day - if only other PDs would do the same), supportive of the residents, and really seems to know how to run a residency program.

As for the "happiness" of the residents, I'm not sure I would call them "happy". Content seems more like the word. They work hard but seem to appreciate what they gain from that hard work - excellent clinical and surgical training. Happier residents can be found elsewhere (Wills, Michigan, Casey come to mind among others), but in my opinion, the training is pretty hard to beat at UTSW. I think it's one of the most under-rated programs in the country.

By the way, the UTSW PD's name is Preston Blomquist.

clayito said:

No recent change in PD. I think he's been the PD for 8-10 years now, but I can't remember for sure. Not only has he been PD for a while, but he's one of the most impressive PDs on the interview trail. He knew each of our names when we showed up for the pre-interview dinner and knew our applications backwards and forwards, asking each of us detailed questions about our background/family/etc. He's very well organized (as evidenced by his excellent "overview of the program" talk on the interview day - if only other PDs would do the same), supportive of the residents, and really seems to know how to run a residency program.

As for the "happiness" of the residents, I'm not sure I would call them "happy". Content seems more like the word. They work hard but seem to appreciate what they gain from that hard work - excellent clinical and surgical training. Happier residents can be found elsewhere (Wills, Michigan, Casey come to mind among others), but in my opinion, the training is pretty hard to beat at UTSW. I think it's one of the most under-rated programs in the country.

By the way, the UTSW PD's name is Preston Blomquist.

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I have to agree with almost everything written above with one exception. It is not necessarily under-rated, but I guess that's a perspective issue. I think it's well regarded as an outstanding program, but I see your point in that it may not get the billing of some other big name programs.

UTSW is an excellent program with a GREAT mix of clinic, surgery, and academics. Anyone would be truly lucky to match here. I know plenty of people who ranked this place above the likes of Wills, Emory, UPenn, etc because it was a good fit for them. Good luck and hope this helps!

Dr. Blomquist's ears are burning right now.

I'll pitch in. General impression of this place is that it's a huge program; 9 residents a year, yet they all still remain pretty busy. From what I remember, lots of pathology and patients to be seen at Parkland County Hospital, and overall everything is excellent. Their cornea department seems to be pretty good. It's sort of a "throw you to the wolves" training program, but not in a bad way, and you learn to become autonomous fast.

Pros - 9 residents, meaning spread out call. Lots of great attendings, both a mix of old and new school. Very diverse class. Great surgical volume. Good mix of academic and clinical. Dallas-Ft. Worth is overall a great place to stay.

Cons - traffic (as is any city), long days at times. In terms of applying, last year they took several internal candidates, so despite the 9 slots open, it's tough to secure a spot.

Overall - a great training program, easily top 25 in the country. Though it's often overshadowed by its southern neighbor, Baylor, still a very well-respected program. You would be very lucky to match here. I ranked this program very highly, and in retrospect, I wish I had done an away rotation here.

Very good program. Agree with previous post above. I liked their residents a lot, thought the clinical and surgical training is great, and its a well respected program. It's not considered one of the big guys but definitely not far behind and matching here would be an honor.

The one thing that made me rank it lower than I would was that I'm more into the "graduated hand holding" approach I guess, and they do expect a lot of autonomy real fast - not something that fits me. I don't think I'd survive being thrown into the fire right away.

Great program in a very nice and affordable city. Diverse pathology with lots of end stage path from the only level I trauma center in dallas county, which is also a public hospital. Huge amount of autonomy. first two months of residency can get busy with clinics running to 6 and sometimes 7 but afterwards, mostly end between 5-6 pm. morning lectures start at 7:30 am. grand rounds on fridays. the program has two county hospitals (other one being jps hospital in fort worth), $500 per month of gas money, which more than makes up for driving to fort worth. Also has one of the largest VA in the country with huge surgical volume. calls can get busy like most other places, but pgy 2 only take weekend calls and averages out to be q12 call, pgy 3 has all weekends free and only take weeknight calls and average to be q9 calls. large and strong faculty with more than 2 deep in every subspecialty except pathology, but has a very well known oculopathologists. good resident-fellow harmony and no competition over cases because all cataracts are restricted to residents. most recent pgy 4 graduated with 210 cataracts average. good fellowship match with 2-3 retinas every year. In the past, retina has gone to tufts x3, emory, bascom palmer (medical), multiple utsw, texas retina and national retina institute. strong cornea and glaucoma with multiple residents to jules stein, and one wilmer. program director is very resident friendly and knows how to run a residency program, also was on the acgme accreditation committee. chair is old school but nice on the inside. lots of money in the program with all new equipments. nice wet lab and goes to alcon's wetlab twice a year. new 1.2 billion county hospital will be completed in 2014 and 900 million university hospital a year later. residency salary on the 75 percentile. although not as big as LA/NYC/Chicago, dallas is a large city with many nice places for family and singles. Low cost of living. Can get hot in the summer but not humid. Residents are all very happy, down to earth, and have time to do things outside of work. second year residents are extremely happy.

Disclosure: UTSW resident
idoktor gave a nice summary but needs some updating now that ive been through the program

Pros
UTSW affiliated hospitals is an absurdly rich program in terms of staffing, equipment, and patients. Parkland, the crown jewel of the program so to speak, has an army of nurses and technicians who check vision, pressures, pupils, refraction, extraocular movements, visual fields, all imaging for all patients. There's a dedicated surgical scheduler who maintains the surgical schedule and a nurse practitioner who performs H&P's for all preoperative patients. This means residents are able to see a lot of patients and do a minimal amount of scut work. The latest toys at this county hospital include the LensX laser, toric and restore lenses for patients, Lenstar with Holladay IOL consultant, centurion phaco machines, Pascal laser for retina lasers, ultrasound biomicroscopy, multiple spectralis OCT's, wireless LED BIOs in all rooms. Every year, the PD sends out an email to all the residents asking what new toys we want.
JPS, our second county hospital, also has a huge support staff that does all patient workup and brings coffee with your favorite flavorings to your door everyday in addition to a meal card and $500 gas money/month while you're there. This location also has premium lenses for patients, Lenstar, ultrasound biomicroscopy, spectralis OCT, LED bios in addition to the most clinical and surgical autonomy of all locations.
VA Dallas, we are the busiest clinic at the busiest VA in the country. This site is also heavily staffed and equipped including half a dozen optometrists you can send your refractions to 🙂, dedicated NP for all H&P's, as well as unlimited premium lenses / LensX for our vets, ultrasound biomicroscopy, multiple cirrus OCTs (zeiss's top line), infiniti -> centurion phaco machines, and lumira 700's in all OR's, and EyeSi
Children's medical center, our chillest rotation, also has a massive support staff including half a dozen MA's to handle those screaming toddlers as well as multiple orthoptists who do all the strab measurements. The clinic is pristine and finishes around 3-4 pm at the latest every day.

The education office is absolutely AMAZING coordinating multiple conference and meetings throughout the year, call schedules for residents, fellows, and faculty at every location, and stays on top of all required credentialing, paperwork, and training. They write cover letters for our journal submissions, cut in line for us when we need to update our training/credentialing at different institutions, for a huge program of 27 residents and 16 fellows.

Cons
The call is TERRIBLE. Contrary to what idoktor stated, 2 1st year residents each at JPS and VA will cover call Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun, the day prior to and the day of all holidays. The pager does not stop ringing while on call at Parkland (you cover UTSW hospitals as well as the dreaded "20/20" line fielding phone calls from patients of the entire faculty practice).
There is an absurd number of COMMITMENTS in addition to the busy clinical schedule including mandatory lecture every morning at 730am, journal club every month, a weekend conference or 2 every month.
The OKAPS are heavily scrutinized. Rumors abound everybody's OKAP scores are passed around and form the basis of faculty perception of you. Residents who do not make 40 percentile are administered an oral exam in their worst subjects and are on probation if they fail that exam. The chairman used to parade poorly performing residents out front for a public thrashing.

Fit
Overall, a very intense program where you will work hard and become a great surgeon. The program is truly a "sink or swim" kind of place. First years take primary call after 2 weeks of "buddy call." Residents have tons of autonomy, more than any other program at UTSW (residents only need to "staff" procedures and medicare patients). Quite often, we'll read about a new treatment regimen/strategy or surgical technique and just "try it." The corollary to this is that when you screw up (or something bad just happens regardless of fault), you will be thrown to the wolves.