Can anyone familiar with these programs offer any insight. Particularly interested in Northwestern, U. Chicago, Loyola, UIC, and Rush.
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I'm familiar with UChicago from prior training although didn't do residency there. Their faculty seemed chill, residents relatively competent, and definitely happy. They had a pretty sweet IR set up too with lots of rooms and seemingly strong turnover time.
Beyond that all I know is IR. Generally IR ranks Rush > Northwestern >> U Chicago >>>> Loyola. Can't comment on UIC and whatever else is in the area.
Rush has arguably the most comprehensive IR practice of all of Chicago. Arslan is nationally and even internationally known. He has a very aggressive mindset and has a history of building great practices. His trainees are known to be well trained and are able to build practices.
If you are going to go to an academic IO practice, Northwestern would be a great place. Or if a radiology practice wants to expand their IO services , the cognitive understanding of cancer by Salem and Lewandowski is certainly a plus. IO is very challenging to build in the community (without a transplant team) due to lack of level I evidence ( outside of hepatocellular cancer). If the combined data of the prospective RCT Y90 trials showcase an overall survival benefit, this may change.
having just gone through the IR match, I agree 100% with ir warrior in that Rush is the best IR fellowship in Chicago. Now for overall diagnostic radiology training, northwestern is probably the best.
Pure nonsense. I challenge every medical student reading this thread to approach the interventional radiology attendings at their medical school and pose the question. I will guarantee you, the answer is not Rush. Don't believe the rubbish being posted here.
2 questions for @badasshairday:
1) What program did you match at?
2) Did you interview at all 5 Chicago programs? If not, which programs did you interview at?
No antagonism to Rush. But I do have antagonism to bad advise being given to med students.
First, I think its disingenuous of you to post that Rush is the best IR program in Chicago if you're not from here (resident or practicing physician in Chicago) or you didn't interview at all the programs.
Second, while I fully believe in IRs doing PAD work (believe me, I've started threads on this topic), I would disagree that it's the defining aspect of a program. If that's your passion, then that's fine. You should choose a training program that fits what you want to do in your career. But to generalize that one program is better just based on that one aspect is very skewed. It would be like seeing a thread on which are the best general surgery residencies, and someone claiming that because one hospital does more robotic surgeries, that they are better.
I think Rush is a good program. And I know that it has improved significantly since Arlsan came over. I've met him a few times at meetings, and I know the stuff he's doing. If you're a resident or fellow there, I'm sure you'll do well. But it's not the best program in Chicago and, frankly, it's not really up for debate. To give another analogy, it would be like making the claim: "Duke University just recruited a nobel laureate to their faculty. They're the best university in the country." No. Duke is a fine place, and recruiting a nobel laureate to an institution is a big deal. But it doesn't change the fact that Harvard is still the best university. (My apologies to Yale or Princeton grads who think otherwise.)
What about Advocate, Stroger, St. Francis? How competitive are these programs in terms of scores/grades?