3 Programs

[texas2011]

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Was hoping to get some info about three programs in the south...

UT San Antonio
UT Houston
U of Oklahoma

Any info about the programs would be appreciated such as work hours, competitiveness of the program, fellowship opportunities,
anybody who interviewed or currently there would be awesome.
I only ask because it is hard to get info about alot of the programs in the south.

 

[Analemma]

I will do my best to chime in about the University of Oklahoma program. Dr. Gordon joined the program three years ago as the new chairman and has made drastic improvements to the department and program. He is committed to building both an excellent program and educational experience. He formerly was on faculty at the University of Miami where his father invented Harvey the cardiac patient simulator and he brings the same innovation and passion for education with him. He is an incredible and dynamic educator and inspires excitement for the field of Neurology. He is very hands on, is present for and runs most didactic sessions. There is a heavy emphasis on a wide variety of didactics in the program.

Dr. Khoury, a pediatric neurologist, took over the duties of program director this year. He is also an excellent educator, both in ped and adult neuro, and is incredibly nice, approachable, and frequently joins the residents for social functions.

This department is growing, having taken on 2 interventional neurologists (in the Neurology department which I have found to be a unique offering as opposed to being in the radiology department or neurosurgery department), one epileptologist, one critical care neurologist, one electrophysiology specialist, one pain specialist and one dementia specialist in the last year. The neuro ICU was opened in October and the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit will open in 2010. There are currently approx. 20 full time faculty and the number is growing. Areas covered include Stroke, Critical Care, Epilepsy, Movement, Interventional, Peds, Behavioral, Neurorehab, Spine/neuromuscular, Electrophys, Pain, Headache, Dementia.

I can’t speak directly about the work hours as I am not in the program, but it seems the residents are busy with clinical duties and balancing didactics. There will be additional work with the growth of the program into NSICU and EMU, but the faculty are working to make the added responsibilities manageable. There is a night float system covered by PGY3s. Residents cover Presbyterian hospital where the general/consult, stroke service, NSICU, and EMU are located, Children’s hospital as a consult service, and the VA.

Four residents are taken per year. With the excitement for Neurology that Dr. Gordon has inspired at OU, there are a good amount of OU students going into Neurology. There is strong interest in staying with the home program as the exposure of the students to the program and faculty is so positive through the clerkship and electives. There is strong support for placing residents in fellowship positions as all PGY4’s from last year and this year except one are all heading to strong fellowships, i.e., Stroke/Interventional at BIDMC, Peds at WashU.

I hope this helps.

 

[Analemma]

I was able to find some nice detail of programs on scutwork.com. Here is a link to a couple review of the University of Oklahoma Program.

http://www.scutwork.com/cgi-bin/links/review.cgi?ID=2854&d=1

It appears that there are not any reviews of UT Houston or UT San Antonio on scutwork.com.

 

[texas2011]

Just something for clarification, is this current interest in neurology among home med students a recent occurrence because a good majority of the residents look to be IMG's. I am guessing this current interest will be reflected in future match classes.

Thanks by the way. That was great information. I am thinking Oklahoma may be a possible rotation site for students wanting to stay in the south.

 

[Analemma]

Just something for clarification, is this current interest in neurology among home med students a recent occurrence because a good majority of the residents look to be IMG's. I am guessing this current interest will be reflected in future match classes.

Thanks by the way. That was great information. I am thinking Oklahoma may be a possible rotation site for students wanting to stay in the south.

Yes, that is reflected in last year's class (currently in their prelim year who I have noticed are not listed on the department website yet), the class applying this year, as well as future classes.

 

[AznTrojan]

I will do my best to chime in about the University of Oklahoma program. Dr. Gordon joined the program three years ago as the new chairman and has made drastic improvements to the department and program. He is committed to building both an excellent program and educational experience. He is the former chairman of the University of Miami where his father invented Harvey the cardiac patient simulator and he brings the same innovation and passion for education with him. He is an incredible and dynamic educator and inspires excitement for the field of Neurology. He is very hands on, is present for and runs most didactic sessions. There is a heavy emphasis on a wide variety of didactics in the program.

Dr. Khoury, a pediatric neurologist, took over the duties of program director this year. He is also an excellent educator, both in ped and adult neuro, and is incredibly nice, approachable, and frequently joins the residents for social functions.

This department is growing, having taken on 2 interventional neurologists (in the Neurology department which I have found to be a unique offering as opposed to being in the radiology department or neurosurgery department), one epileptologist, one critical care neurologist, one electrophysiology specialist, one pain specialist and one dementia specialist in the last year. The neuro ICU was opened in October and the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit will open in 2010. There are currently approx. 20 full time faculty and the number is growing. Areas covered include Stroke, Critical Care, Epilepsy, Movement, Interventional, Peds, Behavioral, Neurorehab, Spine/neuromuscular, Electrophys, Pain, Headache, Dementia.

I can’t speak directly about the work hours as I am not in the program, but it seems the residents are busy with clinical duties and balancing didactics. There will be additional work with the growth of the program into NSICU and EMU, but the faculty are working to make the added responsibilities manageable. There is a night float system covered by PGY3s. Residents cover Presbyterian hospital where the general/consult, stroke service, NSICU, and EMU are located, Children’s hospital as a consult service, and the VA.

Four residents are taken per year. With the excitement for Neurology that Dr. Gordon has inspired at OU, there are a good amount of OU students going into Neurology. There is strong interest in staying with the home program as the exposure of the students to the program and faculty is so positive through the clerkship and electives. There is strong support for placing residents in fellowship positions as all PGY4’s from last year and this year except one are all heading to strong fellowships, i.e., Stroke/Interventional at BIDMC, Peds at WashU.

I hope this helps.

correction.. the DLG (Dr. David Lee Gordon) was never the chair at miami..

he is however an awesome educator and we were sad to see him leave miami.. he would have made an awesome residency director.. although his rounds would go on forever..

 

[Analemma]

correction.. the DLG (Dr. David Lee Gordon) was never the chair at miami..

he is however an awesome educator and we were sad to see him leave miami.. he would have made an awesome residency director.. although his rounds would go on forever..

Thank you for catching that, I am sorry for the misinformation. I worried something in there would have been wrong and that's quite a large detail for me to have broadcast.

 

[Fencer]

All three programs will provide you with an education on becoming a clinical neurologist. However, the environment is very different in those 3 places. At the present time your goal is to become a "general" clinical neurologist, but the strengths of the UT programs are quite different. UTHSCSA is "growing" to a faculty of 25 neurologists with strengths in Epilepsy (7), Neuromuscular (4) and Stroke (5). UT-Houston is a program with 24 neurologists with strengths in Stroke (many), MS, Epilepsy (4) and Movement Disorders. U of OK is considerably smaller than the two UT programs.

Most places will take their own residents for fellowships. That is not the exception for these programs. Where do you want to practice? Are you interested in academia or private practice? Do you want to be part of a program that is growing? Are you more comfortable at an older established program? Do you thrive in a relax environment? Do you prefer a lot of research focus?

I have lectured at the 3 programs. There are good faculty and residents in each place. But if I had an open choice in 2009, I will still select only the program were I currently practice, teach and do research.

 

[texas2011]

As I am at an early point in my training my main focus is to become the most competent clinical neurologist. I have interest in stroke and neurocritical care.
I have no interest in research at the current time but that may change in the right environment. I don't foresee working in academia. I have always preferred private practice however as my third year progresses I am tending to prefer my inpatient experiences more so then the outpatient experiences.

An old established program compared to a newer growing program makes no difference to me assuming I get along with the faculty and feel I have the utmost support from the faculty. I am very laid back by nature and despise high tension environments. Even as a medical student it is obvious at some institutions that residents do not get along and constant competition undercuts moral. Ideally I want to be in a residency where the residents all get along aside from unavoidable personality conflicts, hang out outside work or at least are willing to, faculty who all are interested in and enjoy teaching and training future clinicians. I am sure this ideal seems rather naive and I understand that every program has its problems but I would gladly go a smaller less known place where I am happy as opposed to a big name high power place where everyone is in crappy moods all the time.