Neuropath

[Agent Mulder]

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Hey guys,

I am new here. I am a Pathology resident from the East Coast.

Did a search to see if Neuropath fellowship programs were covered in the forum, no luck.

Anybody has any ideas which programs would offer the best training? Any comments?

I was thinking of Hopkins, WashU, UCLA, University of Washington (Seattle).

UCSF, Duke and MGH are all full for my year.

Thanks!!

 

[LADoc00]

Hey guys,

I am new here. I am a Pathology resident from the East Coast.

Did a search to see if Neuropath fellowship programs were covered in the forum, no luck.

Anybody has any ideas which programs would offer the best training? Any comments?

I was thinking of Hopkins, WashU, UCLA, University of Washington (Seattle).

UCSF, Duke and MGH are all full for my year.

Thanks!!

b/c I spent a decent amount of time in NP in Boston (screwing off mainly), Im very partial to BWH/MGH but WashU is solid as well.

I would put MGH at no1 for training. That likely wont change for quite awhile.

personally would rather be at BWH due to Au Bon Pain/Starbucks at BID across the street but to each his own.(plus they had this nice gym and apartments in the longwood area).

UCSF would have been interesting only because Tihran is a fairly cool guy.

 

[Agent Mulder]

Thanks

Unfortunately both programs in the Boston area already have fellows until 2010.

 

[LADoc00]

Thanks

Unfortunately both programs in the Boston area already have fellows until 2010.

take that as a sign from God and apply to a specialty where you can be gainfully employed afterward. What can I say.

 

[Agent Mulder]

LOL too late!!

 

[LADoc00]

LOL too late!!

huh? too late for what? How could it be too late? you are a resident?

too late is 20 years from now when your house is foreclosed on, your wife leaves you and your Honda gets repo'd because you are selling tinfoil chicken from a cart in Chinatown because NP is so overtrained. Come to me when you have body lice from sleeping in a homeless shelter, then I will agree.

 

[yaah]

LOL too late!!

You could do the thing that many residents do, just keep doing fellowships until you get the one you want. 😉 Or maybe somebody will pay you to do a research year or something.

I tell you what though, if you do neuropath and focus on muscle biopsies or opthalmic you will likely be able to get a job anywhere. No one knows what the hell they are looking at with muscle biopsies. We have one pathologist who knows anything about it. I have no idea what happens when she goes on vacation.

 

[deschutes]

No one knows what the hell they are looking at with muscle biopsies. We have one pathologist who knows anything about it. I have no idea what happens when she goes on vacation.

Three magic words: "Send it out!"

 

[yaah]

Three magic words: "Send it out!"

It's hard to send out muscle biopsies because you have frozen tissue, immunos on frozen tissue sections, EM, etc etc. Nasty stuff. You also have to get to them pretty quickly after they are taken out or it can negatively effect interpretation. Then you have plastic sections. Nerve biopsies are just as bad. Shudder.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

b/c I spent a decent amount of time in NP in Boston (screwing off mainly), Im very partial to BWH/MGH but WashU is solid as well.

I would put MGH at no1 for training.

Agreed.

Unfortunately both programs in the Boston area already have fellows until 2010.

It is unfortunate...my classmate got screwed by this...he was under the impression that he would be able to do neuropath when he entered the program. But he got shut out due to massive filling of the fellowship with out of house people for the next several years.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Agreed.



It is unfortunate...my classmate got screwed by this...he was under the impression that he would be able to do neuropath when he entered the program. But he got shut out due to massive filling of the fellowship with out of house people for the next several years.

Out-house people? That sux azz.

UCSF would have been interesting only because Tihran is a fairly cool guy.

And yeah, Tihan is a stand-up individual and a great neuropathologist.

 

[caffeinegirl]

I may be biased 🙂

But I just have to second the remarks about MGH's Neuropath program. The attendings are outstanding, and the former and current fellows are awesome. The structure of the fellowship allows for great neuropath training and a great jumpstart into an academic career.

The downside of this is that the program is filled way in advance, and usually with in house people. Although, the program incorporates rotations through the other Harvard institutions (BWH/Childrens), and you can rotate through as a fellow in those institutions as well.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I may be biased 🙂

But I just have to second the remarks about MGH's Neuropath program. The attendings are outstanding, and the former and current fellows are awesome. The structure of the fellowship allows for great neuropath training and a great jumpstart into an academic career.

The downside of this is that the program is filled way in advance, and usually with in house people. Although, the program incorporates rotations through the other Harvard institutions (BWH/Childrens), and you can rotate through as a fellow in those institutions as well.

Hell, I'll give a kudos to your neuropath program too. This is based on comparing notes regarding our two neuropath fellowship programs with a MGH neuropath fellows when they rotated here. We are equally cynical people so we were on the same page.

 

[Nilf]

b/c I spent a decent amount of time in NP in Boston (screwing off mainly), Im very partial to BWH/MGH but WashU is solid as well.

I would put MGH at no1 for training. That likely wont change for quite awhile.

personally would rather be at BWH due to Au Bon Pain/Starbucks at BID across the street but to each his own.(plus they had this nice gym and apartments in the longwood area).

UCSF would have been interesting only because Tihran is a fairly cool guy.

Which gym are you talking about?

 

[pathdoc68]

I have heard good things about UVA. Have you contacted UNC?

 

[abercrombie]

You could do the thing that many residents do, just keep doing fellowships until you get the one you want. 😉 Or maybe somebody will pay you to do a research year or something.

I tell you what though, if you do neuropath and focus on muscle biopsies or opthalmic you will likely be able to get a job anywhere. No one knows what the hell they are looking at with muscle biopsies. We have one pathologist who knows anything about it. I have no idea what happens when she goes on vacation.

I thought ophthalmic sort of an esoteric field, even though I find ophthalmic interesting, not too many specimens around, or may be you have to be in a place like MA Eye and ear infirmary?

 

[Neddy]

I thought ophthalmic sort of an esoteric field, even though I find ophthalmic interesting, not too many specimens around, or may be you have to be in a place like MA Eye and ear infirmary?

I'm pretty sure the ophtho path fellow at the MEEI this year is an ophthalmologist. I think this is often the case. It would be pretty hard to make this your main schtick as a pathologist.

 

[caffeinegirl]

Ophtho path can be quite a specialized field. And, you can do ophtho path as an ophthalmologist or as a pathologist. All the optho residents at MEEI have required months in eye path. However, the eye path fellowship is open to pathologists as well. Last year's eye path fellow was a pathologist. It is interesting that most path programs don't have an eye path rotation...but that's mostly due to specimen volume.

In my experience, eye path bridges both neuropath and dermpath, and although the field is very small, it can be quite interesting. As for doing eye path all the time...even at the MEEI, it's a part time job, with most of the eye path attendings doing research, signing out other services, or having clinic.

 

[EvilTaz]

I realize this post was months ago - but I want to plug Penn Neuropath also. Depending on your interests, neurodegenerative disease diagnostics and research are very strong here, and their commitment to mentoring their fellows towards an academic career is also very strong. Like many of the other strong NP programs (off the top of my head I would inlcude MGH, BWH, Hopkins, WashU, UWash, UCSF), the fellowship I believe is filled until 2010 or so. Their fellows have all gone on to great academic positions aside from one who is out making millions with his biotech startup company.