need info about Progs (malignant vs. non, good vs. bad, etc.)

[FUBAR]

anyone have some info on the following programs?

UT Houston
Univ of Utah
Univ of New Mexico
Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit)
Good Sam Hospitla (Phoenix)
Maricopa (Phoenix)
Washington Hospital Center (DC)
GW
UT Knoxville
Penn State
UMDNJ Camden

I am mainly concerned about whether any of these progs have a reputation of being mailgnant or unfriendly. Any other gen info about these progs would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Also, has anyone got any interviews lately? Say within the last week or so? Is it too late in the season for me to expect to hear back from more programs? I still have quite a few programs that I havent heard back from yet? Any advice?

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[LaCirujana]

I posted a while back re. the program at Utah (I think it was on Johnny Cash's interview thread). Overall, it is non-malignant. A couple of quirky personalities, but no one particularly evil. Most of the attendings are very cool, as in go out for a beer w/you cool. You will work hard, but you will operate a ton and have quite a lot of autonomy. The chairman is wonderful and there are opportunities for research, if you want them, but no one HAS to go into the lab. Salt Lake City is a great place to live (I miss it horribly!) with excellent outdoor recreation literally right out the back door of the hospital and within minutes to a couple of hours away. The post on Scutwork.com is pretty accurate, if a little out of date. The only reason I left is because I felt like I needed to see how other people do things (the whole "go to grow" thing). PM me if you have other specific questions.

 

[hemoccult]

Just curious...Does Utah see much in the way of penetrating trauma? Also, do they use any of the local community hospitals in the surgery program (...such as Cottonwood, Salt Lake Regional, etc)?

 

[LaCirujana]

The trauma mix at Utah is probably around 75/25 blunt/penetrating (as far as I remember). It seemed like we were getting more penetrating from my 3rd to my 4th year of med school, but maybe I was just on call on the "right" days. We also had a busy burn service (Yellowstone Park provides people w/interesting injury opportunities...). Cottonwood/SLRMC/St. Mark's, etc. are not part of the general surgery rotations, but LDS Hospital plays a major role. That has traditionally been the place where people really learned to operate--kind of like surgery camp. The hospitals covered are: University, Primary Children's, the VA, and LDS. The Huntsman Cancer Center is building all the time and may have dedicated surg onc ORs in the near future; a new Critical Care Pavillion was being built when I left and should be near completion and IHC (the giant Utah HMO) is going to be building a huge new hospital in the middle of the SL Valley--have no idea whether or not the surgery program will have any interaction/rotations there.