'04 Gen Surg ROL Top 3-5!

[hemoccult]

I know Johnny Cash (aka Mr...Dr. Whipple) has made efforts to have the folks hanging around in this forum to give up a little info regarding their top 3-5 programs. It is nearing that Feb 25th date when no more changes can be made. I thought it would be neato to see where people are thinking most about ranking highly.

Here goes with my top few programs...(of course in no particular order as they have changed multiple times over recent days):
-Indiana University
-Dartmouth
-University of Utah
-Ohio State
-UT-Southwestern

Hopefully we can get a small ball rolling...

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[jc7721]

Univ Washington
UCSF
MGH
WashU
Brigham

 

[Crimson&Clover]

in no particular order:

wash u
cleveland clinic
brigham
columbia
umass

 

[RedBlanket]

Of course in no particular order:

U of Colorado
U of Washinton
Emory
Brigham

 

[pheoMD]

Here are my top picks in no particular order

U of Michigan
Baylor
Vanderbilt
Brigham
U of Florida

Anybody have any information on these programs?

Thanks

 

[LaCirujana]

Originally posted by hemoccult


-University of Utah

Glad to hear you liked it!

 

[LaCirujana]

Originally posted by pheoMD
Here are my top picks in no particular order

U of Michigan
Baylor
Vanderbilt
Brigham
U of Florida

Anybody have any information on these programs?

Thanks

I have pretty good info on Michigan . PM me w/any specific questions.

 

[quicksilver2000]

Umiami
UIC
Indiana

Umiami has replaced Mayo in the top three mostly cause my girlfriend said she'd rather visit me in Miami.

Good luck!

 

[gatorAKM]

info about UF -

The residents get along well for the most part, and the attendings are interested in teaching. Some of the attendings are characters, but most are great.

The chairman is new and is also the PD, he has a lot of energy and is taking strides to continually improve the program. They follow the 80h week well. UF will be a Level I trauma center during the next 2 yrs, and so this may change training some what, but no one knows how much will come in with jacksonville, orlando and tampa already having centers. The new trauma attending is great from what i hear.

conferences are good.

students from UF like the clerkship if they are interested in surgery. many students have stayed at UF to train.

many chiefs end up in fellowships- i know two this year are doing CT and plastics. the other two i dont know well enough.

gainesville is fun if you like the college town atmosphere. its a great place to raise a family.

research is supported if a resident is interested in going into the lab. the dept of surgery lab director is very well known , and world renowned. Lots of funding. all major subspecialties have labs as well.

 

[droliver]

Originally posted by gatorAKM
UF will be a Level I trauma center during the next 2 yr

They may have trouble reaching encounter #'s to get level I status where Gainesville is located. There is some pretty strict criteria for this. Not that it's that important, its just a label that may get the institution some extra funding. Has little effect on your training as long as you still have the patients & exposure. I think Grady Hospital in Atlanta has never been level I, although they have one of the higher volume trauma centers in the country, because of some of the red tape & expense of being labeled a level I trauma center. To get that accredidation you're forced to have a certain volume of various levels of trauma patient classification & all kinds of specialists and services either in house or immeadiately available.

A few years ago we (one of the higher volume trauma centers traditionally nationally here in Louisville) had to do all these kind of silly hoop-jumping to maintain ours because of the way the ER was counting & recording trauma alerts. It was painful as it took all discretion away from the E.R. (which usually was good @ this) from triaging some of the clearly less injured trauma patients without having to reflexively calling trauma alerts by protacol. It also became where the Chief residents now had to go sign some stupid form about what time they came to the ER & a bunch of stupid paperwork & that we all had to carry walkie-talkies now. Very painful beurocracy to deal with in other words.

 

[Mango]

Again, in no particular order:

Cincinnati
Brigham
Ohio State
MGH
Hopkins

 

[sandg]

Mango, hemoccult, or anyone else:
What did you think of Ohio State? Mango in particular has included OSU in his/her top 5 with some seriously big names.

 

[hemoccult]

To reply to your question, I also visited some solid places (WashU, U of Wash, Pitt, etc) but have chosen to place them a little lower in the ranking secondary to the fact that I have successfully reproduced and have children of school age. Thus, it was often times the intangibles such as affordability of housing, general environment and surroundings of the city along with the quality of the school systems that lingered in my thoughts having nearly equal weight as the "quality" or perceived status of the program.

Forgive the ramblings...on Ohio State, the faculty seemed very solid and interested in teaching. There was a "young" feel to the faculty in general and they seemed very happy. The residents seem to get a wonderful exposure to all aspects of general surgery. Laparoscopy seems to be as good at Ohio State as anywhere in the country. In addition, the program is small at 4 and has the operative case load to support at least one or two more residents. This translates into plenty of cases.

The residents seemed very happy and "normal" yet still intelligent and skilled enough to do everything they would want. They were very relaxed and content with their experience at Ohio State.

The ICU at Ohio State is one of the better ICU's I saw in my whirlwind tour of 16 ICU's over this past winter. Overall the facilities were excellent, residents great and interactive, and the faculty seemed eager to get involved. Dr. Arnold was outstanding and I have even debated over including them in the #1 spot.

Hope this helps your quest.

 

[cooze2]

In alphabetical order:

BIDMC
MGH
Northwestern
U Chicago
U Penn

 

[Mango]

About OSU, I almost cancelled my interview there, and am very glad I didn't. The residents were the happiest I met, and I agree with the above comment that they were refreshingly normal. Also they have an NCI center as well as top of the line facilities and very friendly attendings. Overall, including a location that's important to me, OSU stood out as a place I would be very happy. That's why they're in my top 5.

 

[sandg]

Thanks hemoccult and Mango.

 

[VCMM414]

Originally posted by droliver
I think Grady Hospital in Atlanta has never been level I,

For what it's worth, and it's certainly a little OT, but Grady hospital is the ONLY level 1 trauma center in Atlanta.

http://www.gaems.net/Hospital_Status/Trauma_Centers/trauma_centers.html