Cleveland Clinic Foundation

[Andrew_Doan]

Ophthalmology Residency Program Compendium Table of Contents

Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cole Eye Institute, Desk i-32
9500 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44195

http://www.clevelandclinic.org

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[Andrew_Doan]

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Long time lurker, first time poster.

I was really surprised by how impressed I was with the Cleveland Clinic. I truly believe this is one of the best programs in the country. Yet, it is still a real sleeper. The residents were very happy with their training. They got excellent surgical numbers, excellent clinical teaching, and great fellowships. The faculty are great and growing and the facilities are unbelievable. It is a program on the rise and I feel will continue to rise.

Anyone else who visited the program, please give me your 2 cents. Am I missing something or was it really that good?

 

[Andrew_Doan]

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It was really that good. I cannot find anything wrong with the program except for the location. Cleveland, well, sucks. The faculty are very well known in the field and it will definatly be a top 5 academic powerhouse within the next 5 years. The facilities cannot be beat except for Jules Stein. They just recruited the chair at U Washington to be their cornea research guy. Watch out for this place........ if Cole Eye Institute was in say, San Francisco, it would undoubtedly be the most desired program in the country IMHO. Kinda like another Iowa

 

[Andrew_Doan]

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The only things that I did not like about the Cleveland Clinic were (1) Cleveland, (2) how all the interviewers talked about their residents going into academics (Dr. Lewis is a super intense guy about their residents being academic physicians), and (3) Cleveland again.

But it was definitely a great place to visit.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

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Cleveland Clinic -

A very academic focused program - perhaps not the best choice if one were to want to do solely private practice in the future

 

[Andrew_Doan]

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When I was there, they mentioned that if was PREFERRED if their residents went into academics, but most previous residents went into private practice. As they mentioned, most highly academic programs would like their residents to go into academics, but it is unrealistic to expect everyone to go into it, since private practice jobs outnumber academic ones by a lot. I still think they prepare their residents well to go either route, which keeps more options open. I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to get a private practice job coming from their program. What do you guys think? Please, somebody give me a reality check!!

 

[Andrew_Doan]

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I've only heard awesome things about The Cleveland Clinic. One of the third year residents at Iowa matched there for Cornea.

Although the program may emphasize academic careers for their residents, with the surgical and clinical training you'll receive, you should be able to go either way. In my opinion, The Cleveland Clinic is an outstanding program with mucho financial funding.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

I'm not sure where the Cleveland Clinic bashing came from. All I can say is that I have friends who were residents there and they were very happy about the program. They felt they were very well trained and had great options (fellowship or jobs) after residency. Take a look at the website and look up the recent alumni:
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/eye/physician_info/alumni.asp

Not too shabby if you ask me.

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[iamsleepy]

So I've heard (and now seen on their website too) that Cleveland Clinic is looking for a new PGY-2 since Oct or something.

Does anyone know why two residents have left this program in a mere 4 years? Makes me a little nervous... it can't be cleveland since i haven't heard of that happening at the other program there.

 

[DOapplicant]

CCF is not alone, when it comes to having unfilled positions. According to the SFM website, U of Maryland and Vanderbilt also have vacancies for PGY-2 positions (2007). I also remember a sought-after program in the Northeast having a vacancy in their PGY-2 year, last year.

I understand residents have lives outside of training and unforeseen circumstances occur (eg, death in the family), but three vacancies sounds like a lot, no? Perhaps, there are even more that haven't been posted on SFM.

Peculiar situation, as so many of us are struggling just to get interviews that residents are leaving their programs- even when from such well-respected places like CCF and Vanderbilt.

Does this happen in other competitive specialties? Perhaps someone has a better understanding of the situation.

 

[Adaline]

The resident who left CCF this past year apparently changed his mind about ophtho and decided to go into general surg. Really sucks for both parties, and the person who could have had his spot earlier.

 

[123ophtho]

Can anyone comment on the surgical/clinical experience (numbers, etc.)?

 

[daniel plainview]

This program has changed a lot in the past few years -- since they hired a new chairman (Dan Martin - Retina from Emory) the residency has been given new life. Surgical numbers over the past two years are much more competitive (residents graduating with 140-160 primary cataracts now compared to years before where they averaged closer to 90). The city may be a detractor for some people but the cost of living is hard to beat.

 

[SlitLampN'Chill]

I feel like this deserves another update. At this year's interview, they said that this year's resident class is on track to hit 250+ cataracts. Apparently, this is due to a 2+ hr/week wetlab curriculum so now the attendings are more comfortable with the residents operating. I'd say the biggest downside is that they have no VA and only spend 9 months total at the county hospital. Since there are no techs at the county clinic, volume is somewhat limited. I also got the sense that almost every patient is staffed, even for 3rd years. All in all, a great academic program with a huge surge in surgical volume, but may benefit from more autonomy (obviously depends on your preference).