Cardiothoracic surgery programs?

[dr.evil]

I'm very unfamiliar with what are considered good training programs for cardiothoracics. I am familiar, however, with which programs have the best "reputations". I just can't put a finger on which programs actually allow their fellows to operate a ton and with a significant amount of autonomy. Cleveland Clinic is know for CTsurg but how much do their fellows get to do?

Other programs I question: Louisville (droliver, do you mind commenting on the training), UAB, Kentucky, Virginia, Duke, MCV, Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Utah, Texas Heart, St. Louis, WashU, etc.

Pretty much any program not in the original 13 colonies?😛 or in California. I don't want to live in those places.

I'm asking all of this for not only me for future reference but for a current 4th year resident who has the same question.

Thanks a lot guys/gals.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[droliver]

Evil,

The fellowship here @ UofL is VERY high volume for cardiac surgery & I think the fellows get great training. The thoracic part of it suffers a bit comapred to others as most of the general thoracic surgery is done by our trauma staff and a private vascular-thoracic group who work with us the general surgery residents. My general thoracic case #'s from gen. surg are pretty comparable to what the fellows will do and ends up being in the 90%+ among general surgery residencies usually.

I think similar biases towards mostly cardiac experience exists at most fellowships these days.

I know several of our best residents in the last 15 years here have done CT @ University of Florida, an incredible program from what I understand. One of my good friends just finished there & joined the faculty who was THE best resident I have ever seen.

Another friend just finished @ Baylor (houston) & really liked that program as well. Incredible resources there

 

[celling]

I'd love to hear from some people about what they have heard re: Cardiothoracic Training programs. I know which programs are competitive. What are the programs that produce great technical surgeons? What programs allow their senior residents to do complex cases under their guidance?

From my experience so far:
Michigan- Very competitive, but seem to be funneling residents into congenital
Virginia- Very competitive 2 year program
Brigham- Strong program
MGH- See above
Pitt- Strong Thoracic, Weak Cardiac
MD Anderson- See above
Sloan Kettering- See above
Penn- Strong program. ? Malignant. High endovascular volume.
Columbia- Academic program. Doesn't let you in the OR in the 1st yr.
Hopkins- See above
Emory- Very busy. work you hard in the first yr, with little operative experience. Makes up for it in the next 2 years and produces strong graduates.
UNC- The rumor is that the division is a mess and they're still adjusting to the integrated CTS program.
MUSC- Integrated program only
Duke- Academic Program. Great facilities. Keep hearing that it is extremely malignant.
U of Miami- Inner city, community hospital. Busy but not great resources.
USC- See above
Cleveland Clinic- Extremely busy, Impressive faculty. Great facilities. Overall, keep hearing that the residents don't get to operate much. However, the graduates that I've talked to deny this.
Texas Heart Institute/ Baylor- Extremely busy, Impressive faculty. Great facilities. Overall, keep hearing that the residents don't get to operate much.
UCLA- Busy. Great Facilities. Strong faculty.
Wash U- Also busy. Good facilities. Strong faculty.

 

[Khirurg]

I'd love to hear from some people about what they have heard re: Cardiothoracic Training programs. I know which programs are competitive. What are the programs that produce great technical surgeons? What programs allow their senior residents to do complex cases under their guidance?

From my experience so far:
Michigan- Very competitive, but seem to be funneling residents into congenital
Virginia- Very competitive 2 year program
Brigham- Strong program
MGH- See above
Pitt- Strong Thoracic, Weak Cardiac
MD Anderson- See above
Sloan Kettering- See above
Penn- Strong program. ? Malignant. High endovascular volume.
Columbia- Academic program. Doesn't let you in the OR in the 1st yr.
Hopkins- See above
Emory- Very busy. work you hard in the first yr, with little operative experience. Makes up for it in the next 2 years and produces strong graduates.
UNC- The rumor is that the division is a mess and they're still adjusting to the integrated CTS program.
MUSC- Integrated program only
Duke- Academic Program. Great facilities. Keep hearing that it is extremely malignant.
U of Miami- Inner city, community hospital. Busy but not great resources.
USC- See above
Cleveland Clinic- Extremely busy, Impressive faculty. Great facilities. Overall, keep hearing that the residents don't get to operate much. However, the graduates that I've talked to deny this.
Texas Heart Institute/ Baylor- Extremely busy, Impressive faculty. Great facilities. Overall, keep hearing that the residents don't get to operate much.
UCLA- Busy. Great Facilities. Strong faculty.
Wash U- Also busy. Good facilities. Strong faculty.

Disagree abut Columbia! Operate early on and A LOT!

 

[Thanatos]

I'd love to hear from some people about what they have heard re: Cardiothoracic Training programs. I know which programs are competitive. What are the programs that produce great technical surgeons? What programs allow their senior residents to do complex cases under their guidance?

From my experience so far:
Michigan- Very competitive, but seem to be funneling residents into congenital
Virginia- Very competitive 2 year program
Brigham- Strong program
MGH- See above
Pitt- Strong Thoracic, Weak Cardiac
MD Anderson- See above
Sloan Kettering- See above
Penn- Strong program. ? Malignant. High endovascular volume.
Columbia- Academic program. Doesn't let you in the OR in the 1st yr.
Hopkins- See above
Emory- Very busy. work you hard in the first yr, with little operative experience. Makes up for it in the next 2 years and produces strong graduates.
UNC- The rumor is that the division is a mess and they're still adjusting to the integrated CTS program.
MUSC- Integrated program only
Duke- Academic Program. Great facilities. Keep hearing that it is extremely malignant.
U of Miami- Inner city, community hospital. Busy but not great resources.
USC- See above
Cleveland Clinic- Extremely busy, Impressive faculty. Great facilities. Overall, keep hearing that the residents don't get to operate much. However, the graduates that I've talked to deny this.
Texas Heart Institute/ Baylor- Extremely busy, Impressive faculty. Great facilities. Overall, keep hearing that the residents don't get to operate much.
UCLA- Busy. Great Facilities. Strong faculty.
Wash U- Also busy. Good facilities. Strong faculty.

Interested in this topic myself. A lot of what you have heard and listed here is more or less what I hear from people, most notably about fellows in cleveland getting robbed by super-fellows. In the interest of full disclosure, I hear that a lot but not from anyone that is actually there so who knows.

I have also heard good things about brigham and UVA, and they tell me Yale is good for thoracic (but weak cardiac). Two programs I've heard a lot about that are not your list are Stanford, which is supposedly one of the (maybe the) busiest txp program in the country according to them, and Northwestern which is a great place for cardiac (not so much for thoracic supposedly).

Interested to hear what other people know.

 

[celling]

Stanford went almost completely I-6 this year. They did open up a Thoracic Track position up later in the interview year.

Interviewed at Northwestern. Case numbers are decent. Only take one resident/year. Cardiac does appear to be stronger than Thoracic. Will probably be an overall strong program in 3-4 years.

Also, interviewed at Yale. New program director. Have a feeling that he's going to make that a strong program but got a feeling that it'll take a while.