I would be interested to get thoughts on the following programs in terms of general academic reputation and ability to relocate to a semi-desirable location after fellowship. I am most likely interested in noninvasive cardiology, but I'm not certain and want to make sure I get adequate procedural numbers in case I change my mind. Thanks all.
Washington University (STL)
Michigan
Emory
University of Washington (SEA)
Texas Heart
Loyola
Colorado
Wash U, Michigan, Emory are in the same tier.. top 15 programs or whatever that means. Wash U and Michigan get a lot of respect on the coasts; hence it shd be easier to relocate. Atlanta is a good city to live in. These programs will be busy (higher clinical volume than the big '4'), may be less busy than Texas heart..
UDub (top 25)- less of a clinical powerhouse; strong echo with Otto and adult congenital program; they seem to have jumped on the 3D bandwagon as well; so may be turning around. wd look in to how their clinical volume is these days. strong research infrastructure. Now if you want to live in Seattle, that is a different story..
Texas heart is probably the most clinically bad ass program on your list; but who wants to do another residency???
Colorado- good program in a desirable location (not in the same league as other programs you have).
Don't know much about Loyola.
Reputations in academia take time to change and remember that reputation is only reputation- there wd be at most only moderate correlation between reputation and trainee satisfaction in general; hence a s0-called great program may not live up to your expectation, and you may get great clinical training in a not so famous program.
Main advantage of training in a big cardiology division is that your training is more immune to unexpected faculty departures as there is a critical mass of faculty at all times.
Congratulations on a great list.. you won't go wrong with most of them on the list!!
In terms of echo training alone, Wash U (Perez), Emory (Lerakis etc) and UWash stand out. Haven't seen anything great come out of Michigan's echo lab in last few years. But I cd be wrong..