3 vs 4 year residency programs?

[Richard_Hom]

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Dear Dr. Doan,

I remember UC Davis once had a 4-year residency program for ophthalmology. Has that program retrenched to 3-years? Are there any 4-year programs in existence?

How important are fellowships? Do you feel fellowships really endow a prospective ophthalmologist with the experience or credibilty to be anointed a subspecialist?

How does the Navy feel about subspecialization amongst its ophthalmologists?

Thanks for your thoughts,
Richard

 

[mpp]

I think most Ophthalmology residencies are four years total...the first year being a preliminary/intern year. Perhaps at one time they were four years after intern year...

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by mpp
I think most Ophthalmology residencies are four years total...the first year being a preliminary/intern year. Perhaps at one time they were four years after intern year...

MPP,

Most training programs are now 1 year of internship and 3 years of residency. At one time, it was 1 year internship and 4 years of residency. I am only referring to the actual years of residency in the above discussion.

 

[ckyuen]

Richard,
UC Davis is now a three year program, I just graduated from there 2 years ago. By the way, I know this is a long shot, but is your Father Paul Hom?

 

[ckyuen]

didn't mean to mislead you icewoman, i graduated from uc davis' med school, i'm in residency at ut southwestern. My old roommate is a resident at davis now. Your call schedule is 1/3 for your first year, then you take call for the first two months /c the incoming first years. They are a level 1 trauma center, so you will have good exposure to trauma. My old roomie says that they start doing phaco in their first year, probably getting about 15 cases. That's a definite plus. In the age of silicone tips, and /c the advancements in phaco technology, few people are doing extracaps. Though it is a nice technique to know if you have to use it. We do about 30 extracaps at southwestern and about 150 phacos. I think at davis they just do phaco, maybe about 120-140. In any case more than you need to be certified. Davis has some really well known faculty. They are also very approachable. Cornea and Neuro-op docs are particularly well known there. Hope this helps

 

[Richard_Hom]

No.

Would that be Paul Hom, the public health physician and attorney? When I was practicing in Sacramento, he was a patient of mine then.

Originally posted by ckyuen
By the way, I know this is a long shot, but is your Father Paul Hom?

Regards,
Richard

 

[ckyuen]

Just my rating of the programs in California
1. UCLA stein
2. USC
3. UCSF
1-3 are all excellent programs, hard to distinguish b/t them
4-5. UC Davis and UCSD
still great programs excellent training. UCSD has a lot of saturday events and many evening journal clubs, known in general among the UCs for having malignant residencies
6. CPMC in SF, community program, but excellent ties /c UCSF. One of my mentors did his residency there and went on to SF for cornea. Have a staggered start time there
7-8. UCI great location, acquired prominent faculty from USC, though I have heard of an occasional unhappy resident there. don't know enough to comment further.
7-8. Stanford- most of the ophtho guys in my med school did not think too highly of stanford. One big thing missing there is trauma, and that is one part of training that while it may make calls a lot more hectic, it is something you will appreciate later.
9-10. Loma linda and Drew. Two programs that people in California tell you to stay away from in general. Drew is situated in a very scary place, and Loma linda has been rumored to have some difficulties in the past. For 9-10 this is just from hear say, not from any personal experiences, so not the most reliable sources.

 

[ckyuen]

Yes that would be him richard
I just asked b/c I volunteered for 5 years at the free clinic he started. He sure did a lot of good for the nonenglish speaking indigent population in Sacramento.