Aspiring Doctors in California

[halodoctor]

Please help!

There are a number of programs in Cardiology in California (duhhhh). As somehow who knows close to nothing about these programs and nothing about how to go about finding a right program, I am wondering if someone could enlighten me/others...

1) Which programs are good and is there such a thing as a bad Cardiology program

2) What makes a program good/bad? What should we look for?

Thanks, sorry if this is redundant, but I didn't find much on Cali programs...

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[golytlely]

I can tell you a little about Cali Cards Programs, mostly positive haven't heard too many negatives.

1.UCSF - Great reseach especially in basic science EP. Otherwise strong clinical background as well, probably best program in california.

2.Stanford - Great heart failure/transplant medicine, good CCU experience and big names, competitive nationally for fellowship.

3.Cal-Pacific -Good community program with great lifestyle and happy fellows

4.UCLA - Hard to get into unless you want to do PhD, Star program extra long, though I have heard you can default out of it, overall best transplant medicine, and good experience.

5.Cedars - four star celebrity program, now merged with olive view and west la VA so might be more diversity, LARGE program with good moonlighting opportunities and good lifestyl

6.UCLA - Harbor - county hospital with big name imagers and other big name guys, very busy , very county

7.UC -Irivine - lots of big name imagers, rep took a little hit in last two years b/c of Narula and some stupid credentialling snafu, but strong program

8.UCSD - Jacc edited there, also big basic science dept. fellows are busy in county setting also.

hope that helps, wasn't inclusive list , bc I know very little about USC or Kaiser

 

[halodoctor]

thanks!

that was very helpful. looks like there are no bad programs then as i had imagined...

 

[arrhythmia7]

Just a few things to add:

1. UCLA is now combined with Olive View, and Cedars with VA (not Olive view). You spend about 40% at OV and VA in each respective program. The Cedars moonlighting is not like the glory days anymore as there are twice as many fellows, and they don't have the lucrative Lutheran CT-ICU gig running anymore, just in-house moonlighting.

2. Don't forget Scripps Clinic. Eric Topol moved there last year. Excellent location. Great facilities. Probably the best interventional training in California.

3. Kaiser provides good training as well, and is unique in that there are just as many interventional and EP spots as general fellowship spots, making it somewhat easier if you are interested in either of these after your general fellowship. LAMC is super-busy though, and they run two huge CCUs at the same time.