Indiana University

[blast]

Any thoughts on Indiana University Internal Medicine Program?
How strong is this program academically? Are people well supported for their fellowships? Is there good teaching? Any backstabbing/gossiping between residents?
I wanted to get opinions of those who know about this place before I rank them.
Thanks a lot.

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[nasdr]

Any thoughts on Indiana University Internal Medicine Program?
How strong is this program academically? Are people well supported for their fellowships? Is there good teaching? Any backstabbing/gossiping between residents?
I wanted to get opinions of those who know about this place before I rank them.
Thanks a lot.

i'll post some quick thoughts, and ask one of the residents to provide some of the details. the biggest advantage of this program is the 4 hospital system. there is a university hospital (tertiary care), a VA (good for bread and butter medicine), a county hospital (lots of indigent care, has been compared to Grady in the past, runs fairly well with regard to nursing but you will spend some time doing social work here), and finally methodist (which is a level 1 trauma center hospital). of note, IU also has a strong transplant program.

this program is probably comparable to OSU in terms of reputation. i got the impression that ppl are supported for fellowships (unsure of the specifics about fellowship matches). faculty seem to be interested in teaching. frontloaded program, but plenty of electives as a JAR/SAR.

i thought the scutwork reviews were fairly accurate:

http://www.scutwork.com/cgi-bin/links/review.cgi?ID=206&d=1

 

[dragonfly99]

I don't know specifics, but did interview for fellowship there. It seemed pretty OK and I think they had several IU residents in the fellowship program there. We had some former IU residents in my medicine residency and they didn't seem to have anything bad to say about IU (med school) and they were good residents. They do have several hospitals (as mentioned above). There is a little tram/train that runs between some of them. I wonder what it's like trying to get to conferences when you might be rotating through 3-4 various different hospitals? They might just have their own morning report, etc. at each one, but I wonder about getting to Grand Rounds, etc. if you happen to be stationed at one of those various other hospitals.

I have heard Indianapolis is a pretty nice city. It does get cold in the winter. You can live a decent lifestyle on a resident salary, and would live well on an attending salary should you end up living there later. Indiana is known for being a pretty good state to be a physician in - i.e. you don't get taxed to death or sued to death like some states in the northeast, etc.

 

[blast]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I read the scutwork entries but the newest is 8 years old. Since then even the PD has changed. I am interested in Cardiology. How is their Cards program like? Comments anyone?

 

[nasdr]

i just checked out the scutwork.com website; i see some reviews from jan and feb of 2006. i do agree that some current residents might be able to give more insight.

the cardiology department happens to be one of the stronger ones at IU. the krannert institute of cardiology is a good place to train and is home to people like harvey feigenbaum, aka "the father of echocardiography." however, i'm not sure of the specifics for fellowships...

 

[punk]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I read the scutwork entries but the newest is 8 years old. Since then even the PD has changed. I am interested in Cardiology. How is their Cards program like? Comments anyone?

I interviewed there for cardiology fellowship. Their program coordinator was new, so the interview schedule was a little messy and time consuming. They do have some big guys like Feigenbaum, zipes and their chief of the division. Zipes is not very active clinically. Their chief is well known in EP. Some good EP research comes out of IU. The fellow's schedule is quite busy. They are q4 for one year and then they cover all the 4 hospitals and you get called quite frequently and its busy. The cardiology program's main base is at the methodist hospital. Most of the fellows are former IU residents. They had their families there and Indianapolis is pretty cheap to live in. Several of the fellows had bought homes in the suburbs. The only thing that the fellows did not seem to like about the program was that it was difficult to arrange your vacation time as you have to arrange somebody to cover the rotation that you were leaving.

 

[hipopanonymous]

Blast-

I'm a current resident at IU. TO answer your questions as best I can, I'd say IU has a decent reputation academically. It's not going to carry the bang that Hopkins, Harvard, et. al. "name institutions" carry, but will be considered equal or superior to most other IM residencies once you get past the 1st tier.

The clinical training on the inpatient side is second to none. You will be ablwe to take care of the sickest patients after graduating. The University ICU is annualy one of the 5 sickest ICUs (occasionally #1) in the country (based on APACHE scores) due to the robust liver transplant program here.

The fellowships here preference IU residents with the exception of GI, who will take 1-2 residents/year (rather than a majority). Plenty of opportunities for research if you want them for a competitive fellowship. You're not guaranteed to walk into a cards or GI fellowship as a lot of residents want to do it, so you have to put your time in. However, if you work hard you will match somewhere.

There is no backstabbing or attempts to sabotage other residents. Everyone generally gets along. Of course, we're residents, so we used to be med students, so we gossip and talk all the time, but nothing malicious.

Morning reports are great, program director and higher ups often in attendance. Otherwise teaching is attending dependent, some are great, some aren't. Send me a message if you want to know any more specific details. Hope this helps

 

[Dr. J?]

From current resident:

-Solid clinical training between 4 urban medical centers (Wishard/Uni/Methodist/VA)
-stable leadership - the chief and PD are lifers
-concentration is on clinical education
-program is front-loaded (8-9 wards in PGY1, f/b 4-5 wards in PGY2, f/b 3-4 wards in PGY3).
-the PD and all of the associate PD's are young and very excited about educating housestaff.
-only medical center in IN - very nice referral pattern
-strengths in GI (ERCP)/Cards (EP)/Heme-Onc (test cancer)
-University is major transplant center (esp livers - x1 q2d - and kidneys)
-Uni/Methodist usu rank very high (in top 5, occ #1) in acuity within the University Hosp affiliated national survey. One of the largest Neuro CC units in the country.
-Indy is cheap to live (most residents own homes - avg mortgage is about $900-$1000/mos; avg rent is $600-800)
-has well-established relationship with Moi Univ in Kenya. Partnership has developed the largest, academic treatment program for HIV in the world. It is call AMPATH (Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV. IU and it's Kenyan colleagues treat 75,000 HIV pts every day. As housestaff you may rotate for 2 mos on wards in Kenya. Usu 2-3 residents a month are in Kenya throughout the year.

 

[Dr. J?]

Link for those interested:

http://www.iukenya.org/hiv.aids.html