Lesser discussed programs

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NobleEightfold

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I feel like for residency I hear the same things about the same 10 programs over and over. What are people's thoughts on some of the smaller programs. In particular, how are UT Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville, Wake Forest, Virginia Commonwealth, Loyola, U Chicago N/S, U Illinois, St. Louis U, Allegheny. Info on many of these are tough to come by.
 
U Chicago N/S= formerly known as Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH). They ended their affiliation with Northwestern over a year ago.
 
I took a look at the websites and here is my quick analysis:
UK Lexington http://www.mc.uky.edu/pathology/training/residency.asp:
Pros: Nice city, low cost of living, my quick impression is that this is a borderline adequate program.
Cons: No dermpath attending in path dept, the schedule is heavy on AP with 26-30 months out of 48 months, the department has residents doing rotations at St. Claire Hospital in Morehead KY 70 miles away, the onsite fellowships are paltry (only surgpath and cytopath)
Questions to ask: Are those 3 months of surgpath rotations in Morehead KY mandatory? Do they reimburse for mileage or a local hotel or place to stay? In my mind having to drive 140+ miles each day back and forth to St. Claire Hospital would be a giant negative. Do the residents have to cover frozens and autopsies and grossing at St. Claire on the weekends or weeknights?
Are the residents involved in giving lectures to the UK Medical Students? How much time do residents spend at the VA Hospital?
 
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Another quick websearch review:
Pros: Nice city, low cost of living, my quick impression is that this is a borderline adequate program.http://gsm.utmck.edu/pathology/residency.cfm
Cons: Paltry fellowships (only surgpath and cytopath apparently).
Questions to ask:
Are the residents involved in giving lectures to the UT Medical Students?
It looks like they have a Med Tech Program there: http://www.utmedicalcenter.org/cms/...atory+Science+%2F+Medical+Technology/978.html
Are the residents involved in teaching the med techs?
It looks like from the same link that the lab at the hospital is run by Labcorp. What effect does having the lab at the hospital managed by Labcorp have on resident education?
Do the residents cover any other hospitals?
 
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Pros: Reasonable cost of living city, four fellowships (cytopath, transfusion med, forensic, chemistry), four weeks of leave, pay for medical license fees. https://louisville.edu/medschool/pathology/divisions
Cons: Very difficult to get much info about this program from the website. Are the residents involved in giving lectures to the Lousiville Medical Students? How much time do residents spend at the VA Hospital?
 
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http://www2.wfubmc.edu/pathology/index.htm
Pros: Excellent fellowships on site. Some big name faculty - Geisinger (cytopath textbook author), Sangueza (dermpath), excellent rotation schedule, FWIW much higher % of US allopathic grads than the first three programs above. Nice city.
Cons: Not obvious. Seems like the best program on your list thus far.
Questions: They also have a med tech program http://www2.wfubmc.edu/pathology/medtech/
Are the residents involved in teaching the med techs?
The rotations are listed as all being at Wake Forest except 1/2 day every 4th week of surgical pathology. What happens on that 1/2 day? http://www2.wfubmc.edu/pathology/house_officer/rotations/
Are the residents involved in giving lectures to the Wake Forest med students?
 
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http://www.wpahs.org/agh/pathology/conferences.html
Pros: Looks like they have abundant learning conferences including a board review conference. Excellent balance between AP and CP and giving 12 months of electives really lets residents tailor their schedule to their interests
Cons: Pittsburgh is not a good city to live IMHO. Paltry fellowships (surg path, cytopath). "Pediatric surgical and autopsy pathology experience is acquired through a rotation at a Children's Hospital, in Columbus, Ohio." - WTF Columbus Ohio?
Other questions:
Cytogenetics at West Penn Hospital?
Dermpath at Dr. Rabkin's Lab?
Any responsibilities to teach med students?
Any communications issues (many FMGs on faculty http://www.wpahs.org/agh/pathology/faculty.html )?
 
NobleEightfold said:
I feel like for residency I hear the same things about the same 10 programs over and over. What are people's thoughts on some of the smaller programs. In particular, how are UT Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville, Wake Forest, Virginia Commonwealth, Loyola, U Chicago N/S, U Illinois, St. Louis U, Allegheny. Info on many of these are tough to come by.
Click to expand...

I can only comment on VCU/MCV because I interviewed there and I know a few people that came out of there. It is a good program and you will no doubt see a lot of pathology there. The people that I know that have trained there are excellent pathologists.
 
Louisville: High surgical volume and what seemed like very good training from my interview. The hospital gets bigger and bigger with more money every year, and I felt like their program was on the way up.

UK: Great oral path program.

VCU: I interviewed here at thought it was a very solid program that provided good training. I think that a former poster to this forum (Great Pumpkin) did residency there and always spoke highly of it.

Wake Forest. Very solid program from what I know. The best diagnostic pathologist I know trained here. We used to say that she saw disease like Neo saw "The Matrix" at the end of the first movie.

SLU: Withdraw your application tomorrow.

Seriously, there are a number of extremely solid programs throughout this nation that aren't mentioned when people start talking about "good residencies." But honestly, the single biggest determinant in a good residency is you.
 
UK - This was my medical school. Very good path. I did the student fellowship. True-No dermpath. But other than that it's well respresented. Everyone passes their boards and they have some really great attendings. Plus they are getting a brand new hospital and path facilities in 2011.

Louisville - No knowledge of last 4 years, but I was told that 4 years ago 2 out of their 3 residents failed their AP boards.

Thats all I got!
 
I am very impressed with the training in pathology that Wake Forest has to offer, but have heard that the program is geared towards residents who are married/have children and that they don't spend much time with other residents outside of their service obligations. I have also heard that if you're single, the city of Winston-Salem/Greensboro is not the best place to live or meet people. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

exPCM said:
http://www2.wfubmc.edu/pathology/index.htm
Pros: Excellent fellowships on site. Some big name faculty - Geisinger (cytopath textbook author), Sangueza (dermpath), excellent rotation schedule, FWIW much higher % of US allopathic grads than the first three programs above. Nice city.
Cons: Not obvious. Seems like the best program on your list thus far.
Questions: They also have a med tech program http://www2.wfubmc.edu/pathology/medtech/
Are the residents involved in teaching the med techs?
The rotations are listed as all being at Wake Forest except 1/2 day every 4th week of surgical pathology. What happens on that 1/2 day? http://www2.wfubmc.edu/pathology/house_officer/rotations/
Are the residents involved in giving lectures to the Wake Forest med students?
Click to expand...
 
medsight said:
I am very impressed with the training in pathology that Wake Forest has to offer, but have heard that the program is geared towards residents who are married/have children and that they don't spend much time with other residents outside of their service obligations. I have also heard that if you're single, the city of Winston-Salem/Greensboro is not the best place to live or meet people. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

I wasn't a Wake resident, but I do have some good friends who did 4 years of training there, and I have visited several times. AFAIK, your impression is fairly accurate. The city is very Southern conservative, with little in the way of nightlife. You might get lucky and meet some Preacher's daughter who is ready to go an a tear.

Boone and Asheville are much cooler burghs.
 
Feel free to PM me if you want to hear about life in Louisville. =)
 
I met a guy once at a USCAP meeting who said he went to MGH and I said "oh how do you like Boston" and he said "no it is MGH in Chicago". What MGH is in Chicago?
 
pathstudent said:
I met a guy once at a USCAP meeting who said he went to MGH and I said "oh how do you like Boston" and he said "no it is MGH in Chicago". What MGH is in Chicago?
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm being stupid, but could he have said "ALGH"? I know there were two community programs that merged with one of the university programs in Chicago in the last few years, and one of them was Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (ALGH). That's all I can think of.
 
JPmamd09 said:
Maybe I'm being stupid, but could he have said "ALGH"? I know there were two community programs that merged with one of the university programs in Chicago in the last few years, and one of them was Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (ALGH). That's all I can think of.
Click to expand...

I think it stands for Metropolitan Group Hospitals which includes Univ of Illinois-Chicago Medical Center and some other area community hospitals.
 
gbwillner said:
Not my program and I don't want to talk smack. I don't know details about why or anything, but they've lost residents and faculty recently... and not just a few.
Click to expand...

I went to SLU for medical school...

I did consider it kind of a hidden gem with adequate volume, multiple fellowships, good contacts in the community, and best of all, stellar teaching faculty. In 2007 they also hired a new chair (a former chair at LSU, and former chair of the renal department at AFIP) who was extremely active and vibrant with great plans for the department. I considered SLU a fine safety school for the match and would not have been disappointed to match there.

Since that time and due to fights with the medical school administration, the chair and the teaching faculty have left in droves. Furthermore, my classmates who matched there when things were looking rosy have for the most part transferred to Wash U and other programs. See for yourself on the website: multiple classes have unfilled spots and the number of DOs and FMGs has increased significantly.
 
A friend asked me to find out about the program before applying to SLU. I dont know how it was when you went to med school, but currently I would not reccomend it to anyone. In the last 2 years 14-15 faculty, and 5-7 residents have left the program. I have heard that more faculty and residents are leaving this year. From what I heard there is minimal to no teaching at the scope, no didactics, not enough volume.I dont know if I would consider 6000 specimens, mostly GI and ENT, enough volume.🙁
 
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