Any info on Arizona or UT San Antonio programs?

[Quidbert]

Hi,

I am considering applying to Arizona and UT San Antonio, as of now due primarily to geographical considerations. Of course, I would really like to learn more about these programs, but there is very little info in the Interview Impressions thread for these programs and I do not know anyone affiliated with them . . .

Are there any residents, med students, or even faculty out there who know these programs and would be willing to post their impressions on the departments, faculty/chair/program directors, didactics, work load, research opportunity, locations, etc?

Thanks a lot!

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[cdf95cro]

I'm a PGY-4 at UTHSCSA.
Here are my (exceedingly biased) thoughts on the program.

We have 6 residents, and are likely to take 2 this year (we've been on a 2-2-1-1 schedule).
Our chairman, Dr. Ha, has been in charge for the last 3 years and has radically upgraded the program in that span, so ignore any pre-2007 SDN posts, as they are stale. In the last year, our residency director, Dr. Crownover, took over after our previous PD (Dr. Swanson) semi-retired, and has continued to do an excellent job. Our teaching schedule is pretty standard with Radbio, Physics, didactics, and case presentations every week (4-5 hours cumulative weekly, journal club monthly). We have a great RadBio prof who has tons of NIH funding (Dr. Yuan) and an active Physics research program (led by Dr. Papanikolau).

We have a lot of nifty equipment, with Tomo (MVCT), Novalis (CBCT/Exactrac), standard Varian 2100s (OBIs), and Nucletron HDR. We have traditionally done lots of GYN/GU brachy, though our numbers are dropping a bit for prostate implants as Swanson is now 2 days/wk. We also do quite a bit of SRS (1-2 cases weekly).

Re: SA:
San Antonio is a very laid back town, and the cost of living is super cheap compared to the coasts (median home price is $150K-ish). Family friendly town, lots of fun stuff to do (Riverwalk, Missions, Spurs, First Fridays, etc.). Med Center is in livable, non-sketchy part of town. Summers are really hot (>60 days over 100F this year). Also, it really helps to speak Spanish well, as many of our patients do.

If there are any specific questions, PM me and I will fill you in...