I had actually addressed the split in my previous post, that disappeared into the ether, but I'll readdress it here, as well as why Methodist was the best program for me.
So, a bit of history: Yes, Methodist Hospital was the private hospital associated with the Baylor College of Medicine. A few (maybe 5-6?) years back, they severed relations - primarily in a dispute over money, from what I've been told. Clinical departments wound up fragmented, and most of the Pathology staff stayed on at Methodist. Most of the dust from this has settled. Baylor is in the process of building its own hospital. Methodist is in the process of building a new Research Institute building, and already has some nice new lab space in one of the professional towers, etc. The chair of Path is actually director of the research institute, as well. Anyway, the Baylor residency stayed at Baylor, but the Methodist faculty were educators who enjoyed teaching residents, so they started a new program at Methodist. This has some benefits I'll get to later.
Moving on to the Cornell thing - I don't know the exact reasons for it, GB's answer sounds good to me. I also heard it helped keep Methodist connected to some multicenter clinical trials, but I don't know. Some people have joint appointments to their faculty. In any case, it doesn't seem to affect my life as a resident. Its not like I commute to NY to signout once a week or anything.
So why was Methodist the best residency for me? Well, let me try to break down the pro's and con's in a more organized fashion:
- Faculty: The faculty is absolutely fantastic. They love teaching residents, they're approachable, they're fantastic about pulling residents into projects and publications. Our interviewees go through a whirlwind of short interviews because so many faculty want to meet the applicants. They really look out for us. Also, we have our share of experts and big names - all of whom are accesible and involved in teaching, not hidden away.
- Didactics: We have really great didactics, generally twice a day (with free lunch!) and a third conference for half of the year taught at the 18 headed scope by Dr. Ro. Its the absolute best surgpath teaching at the scope that I've ever seen. We have a good mix of straight lectures and interactive conferences, and a good mix of faculty and resident led conference.
- Service: We have terrific PA support (4, i think, in SP). PAs gross our routine biopsies. Our volume is good but not overwhelming, and we have a float resident to help in the afternoon if necessary. Gross cutoff is 6pm. We alternate days gross/signout, frozen/sign out, a biopsy signout day and a float day. Our call schedule is not bad at all. In autopsy, we have great autopsy techs. So good specimens, good preview time, signout with the faculty. We also do a rotation at MD Anderson and can do an elective at Texas Children's. We have a blood bank and active transfusion med service.
- Benefits: Our benefits are fantastic. Highest salary in the state for Path last I checked, insurance benefits include free labs/xrays at Methodist and Texas childrens. Its #10 on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For, and you can see why. We get quarterly patient satisfaction bonuses, random giveaways (Astros, Texans and Dynamos tix... Methodist schwag... "I survived Ike" coffee mugs, etc). Heck, we even have a 403b retirement account with 50% matching (up to 4% of your income). They pay for our parking in the med center (huge!), plus also will pay for a bus card if you take the Houston Metro. Vacation is generous as is our meeting support.
- Research track: They have the absolute best research track of anywhere I interviewed in the country, if you're interested in a research career.
Anyway, this post is too long as it is, so I'll cut it short. Here are the few "cons" or caveats: 1) Our autopsy volume is low (maybe ~2/week avg), so if you want to do a lot of autopsy, you might want to look elsewhere. That having been said, if you're proactive you should have no problem getting your 50. 2) We do have a lot of didactics, so if you're the sorta person who just HATES attending conferences, even good ones, probably not for you. 3) You will get called on in conference, even as a first year, so if that bothers you, maybe not the place for you.
I'll be happy to answer any other questions about specifics. I doubt anyone read this far, but if you did, kudos!
🙂
DBH
