OK heres a breakdown of what I went through.
1. Grand Rapids/MetroHealth: Nice, new hospital, a very good program which I feel is less known about outside of Michigan. There's a lot of attendings for the 5 residents they have, and they could easily increase the number of residents in that program with their caseload. One of the guys is an author in Pasha's laryngology section. They videoconference didactics with other programs. They do out rotations for Head and Neck (Indianapolis) and Peds (Cincy); good opportunities for fellowships due to their predominant MD staff. Their residents graduate with at least 3800-4200 cases. good volume in every specialty except plastics. Their out-rotations include: Michigan Ear Institute in Detroit and private otology again with Dr. Daniels in town, Head and Neck Surgery at HANSA in Indianapolis, Laryngology with Dr. Rubin in Detroit, Plastics in town at Spectrum Health, Allergy in town, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Anesthesia in town, SICU at University of Michigan and several electives that are the resident's choice.
http://www.metrohealth.org/body.cfm?id=959
Old PD Director's Advice: Read either "ENT Secrets" or Gates, "Current Therapy in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery" Make certain that your suturing skills are very good and your hands are steady. Several programs including ours watch skills closely during the selection process. Finally, do not come to any ENT rotation unprepared. I cannot remember the last time we selected a resident who had not rotated here (I think they actually did at least once though). The hospital is in Wyoming, MI I think? The area around the hospital is not crappy like the detroit programs, it looks like a lot of it is new, its nice--but still doesn't look like there is much to do around there. I didn't make it out to see the town of Grand Rapids. The PD Markeweitz or however you spell it--is nice but can be intimidating, he lets you know that there is only one spot and it is very competetive and he does ask questions.
2. Genesys/Grand Blanc - a pretty good program in a pretty crappy area to live; very strong didactics as they also participate in the weekly teleconference, but also do additional didactics on their own; attending is a trained otologist so you will see some big ear cases; also work with a pretty strong ENT group in downtown Flint where they get some good exposure, especially to Head and Neck cases; be careful because they typically have a few base students who have been there all year who are interested in ENT (putting you behind the ball to begin with)
http://www.genesys.org/GRMCWeb.nsf/0/2A092C9777079F6A852572900060A592?open
Here's an idea of their caseload from their PD:
General ENT (tubes tonsils septum sinus surgery) : Too much! More than ample volume for training
Otology: Strong case load. I am a fellow trained otologist and do 150 200 ears per year and some limited Neurotology. Better than all but one other DO program (Jopplin)
Rhinology: Strong case load in all standard procedures FESS, Caldwell Luc, Balloons, frontal sinus trephine or osteoplastic flap
No frontal drill outs
Head and Neck: good case load. We routinely work with a general oncologic surgeon that does a lot of H&N including some flaps and mandibular splits. Several of our core faculty do every day H&N like parotids and thyroids.
Plastics: Poor. We do some basic plastics but rely on out rotations for most of it
Trauma: weak to average. I think we are comparable with any other DO program
Academics: Very Strong. We have regular didactic session that take a variety of forms. My OGME 4 last year scored 94th percentile on inservice (vs MD and DO!) The year before that a different resident was given the colleges award for highest DO in service score. Last year my OGME 3 received award for best research project.
3. Des Peres/St. Louis - a so/so program; here's what one of the residents had to say: "Des Peres is a community hospital and our three attendings are general otolaryngologists. We do go on out rotations but most of them are within St. Louis due to a great variety of ENT subspecialties represented. I think it is definitely worth rotating for at least a couple of weeks this Fall. August, September, October is the high season for fourth year rotators so I would recommend sometime other than those months. I thought there was a decent case load of the basics, and they let students do a lot. It was solid in my opinion.
http://www.despereshospital.com/en-...aleducation/otolaryngology/pages/default.aspx
4/5/6. Mt. Clemens/St. John/Henry Ford - same as above; I don't know much about them; I had a friend rotate with them, and he said Mich Staters were all over it.
Dr. Kubek-Henry Ford Macomb: The residents have 5 core rotations where they get exposure to many different cases. The residents spend 7-8 months working with my group. I would like you to take a look at my website lakeshoreent.com. The residents also spend 2-3 months at our affiliate program at Henry Ford hospital. This program is a top 15 ENT MD residency program. The resident didactics and research is coordinated through Henry Ford. The residents spend 4-5 months at the Michigan Ear Institute. The last core rotation is at Childrens Hospital of Michigan for 2-3 months. In my opinion I believe we have an excellent program both in volume and scope of surgical cases. The didactics are solid and the research is university level quality.
Resident-St. John Macomb: Surgical variety/load:
For our residency program, the residents are in house (at Oakland) 6 months each year. For those months, we are in surgery every other monday, every tuesday, every wednesday, and 2-3 fridays per month. We are in the office on monday afternoon (junior resident), Wednesday evening, all day thursday, and every other friday afternoon. The typical cases that we perform are tubes, tonsils, sinuses,laryngoscopy/bronchoscopies, facial/scalp lesions, neck masses, vocal cord lesions, tympanoplasty/mastoidectomies, and septoplasties/rhinoplasties. We also perform (but less often) stapedectomies, blepharoplasties, thyroidectomies, and parotidectomies. At Oakland, we do very little trauma and do not do head and neck cancer cases (other than diagnosis and biopsies). There are probably 10-20 cases per week at Oakland.
Out rotations: For our out of house months, there are not any required rotations however; the residents tend to do similar rotations. We rotate with Michigan Ear Institute for otology (2-4 months), we do head and neck rotations at Karmanos cancer center and in Indianapolis (4-6 months), oculoplastics, laryngology, facial plastic surgery, allergy, oral maxillofacial surgery, and pediatrics. The majority of the rotation sites and offices are within 30 minutes from St. John Oakland. The only out of state rotation is in Indianapolis and it is not required but is highly recommended. Dr. Brandes likes the residents to rotate with fellowship trained subspecialists.
Advice: - ENT secrets is a great book to read for students. - Many of the programs in the Detroit area are in close proximity to one another and all the residents know each other. Many times we see each other on our elective rotations. - Dr. Brandes works at Oakland and at Botsford so if you schedule a rotation at Botsford you will spend half the time with their program director and the other half with Dr. Brandes. (This is not the case if you schedule your rotation through Oakland). - If your school limits the number of ENT rotations you can schedule, you can schedule a rotation as allergy (through Oakland) with Dr. Rochen (who is in the same group at Dr. Brandes).
7. Affinity (Massillon)--I feel bad whoever rotated with them last year because they didn't let their applicants know that they weren't taking a resident until sometime in August I believe. They didn't take a resident because they were in the process of moving to Cuyahoga Falls, a nearby town in Ohio. I guess they are taking a resident this year, with some of the same faculty? That's all I know. I think they do out rotations for otology, head and neck, and peds.
http://www.affinitymedicalcenter.com/Education/Pages/Education.aspx
Here's a resident's opinion:
"Our program (consistent with the majority of other osteopathic ENT programs) is focused on general otolaryngology. Our program offers a comprehensive exposure to general ENT. Time is spent at Affinity as well as at surrounding facilities. Outrotations are geared to emphasize aspects beyond general ENT. Specifically, outrotations emphasize otology, facial plastics, head and neck, and laryngology. The time spent on outrotations depends on your PGY year as is dictated by the hospital contract. Generally one can expect 3-4 months each year off site. There are several ENT texts considered essential to ENT training. One series that our program favors (and is used for book club) is Bailey's (btw this is a huge book not for students to buy!) It is best to go on your audition rotations early in your 4th year - you should be done with them by October. Interviews will be November for most places. I only rotated at two Ohio programs and the St. Louis program. I know the Michigan consortium lets you be seen by a lot of programs at the same time because the residents go to all of the programs.
I can tell you about our program. Our director is Mark Brigham. He is the first graduate of the original program when Richard Klapchar was the director. Dr. Brigham became our director last year when Dr. Klapchar moved to Detroit to be a part of their program. You spend your entire intern year in house and most of your PGY-2 year. Then, between year 3 and 5 you spend about 14 months traveling for subspecialty rotations. Not all at once - three or four months a year for those years. Currently, the head and neck rotation is moving to University of Indiana. I never went there. For my head and neck we were affiliated with Roswell Park in Buffalo. So I don't know much about that. Otology is at Pittsburgh Ear Associates - AWESOME rotation. Two of the busiest neurotologists in the country and we are their only residents - they have a fellow only. For pediatrics we are going to Children's in Michigan - I never went there and it might be changing. Laryngology is with Libby Smith, DO at University of Pittsburgh - AWESOME. I did plastics in Des Moines (where my family lives) it was great and he would be happy to have us all the time but no one else has gone.
So...there is a fair amount of traveling. Our responsibility to arrange the rotation, housing, etc, and pay for it. Sort of a pain but good rotations with tons of learning so totally worth it. Our program is very resident run...you have to be EXTREMELY motivated to succeed here and get what you need/want. If you are interested in applying I would spend the 2 weeks and arrange a formal rotation to spend time with the residents and all the attendings - most come to interview day and everyone's opinion counts.
8. PCOM: From a resident: I believe this is the best DO program out there. Whereas the other programs are based in smaller community hospitals, with PCOM you have access to several larger university affiliated hospitals. Your intern year starts in community based hospitals for all your general stuff. The ENT part you rotate through Hahnemann (Drexel's teaching hospital, and Drexel doesn't have an ENT residency). There you will work with a number of big names including Dr. Robert Sataloff, probably the biggest name in laryngology and also the editor of ENT Journal. There are a number of other guys there as well who are nationally known--you can find many of them on their website
www.phillyent.com. They rotate through Albert Einstein in Philly, Dr. Seth Zwillenberg is the name there. Same thing--big hospital, lots of cases, busy OR's. For all of their pediatrics they have a dedicated pediatric hospital St. Christopher's Hospital for Children--Dr. David Zwillenberg (Seth's brother) is the name there--and man are they busy, I mean 4 or 5 ORs going at the same time. The second years get sooo much more exposure with their basic tonsils and tubes than anywhere else by a mile, its almost an embarassment of riches. You also go through Mercy and Crozer with the PD, Ghaderi, the only DO in the program and he is just awesome. His fellowship is in allergy--such a nice guy. Traffic in Philly can be aggravating, if you have to drive between hospitals. Parking costs and lack of coverage for meals are downsides. Better plastics and trauma exposure than most programs. Basically it has the highest volume of any of the programs with good teaching from a number of big names in university hospitals. Another big advantage, is the access to all the courses offered in the city from the other MD ENT residency programs. You work more in this program and have less time to read than others, it all depends what you want. Given their connections, fellowships are not a problem. Philly is also the birthplace of American medicine which doesn't hurt either, and is one of the only programs in an actual semi cosmopolitan city.
http://www.pcom.edu/Graduate_Medica...rhinolaryngology/Res-Otorhinolaryngology.html
9. Columbus/Doctors - a so/so program. I can say that everyone is very nice in the program, the PD the residents, but the case exposure just isn't there. Most of the time there were a couple of surgeries in the morning and the rest of the day you'd be waiting in the hospital for consults--but youd get your reading done in that time span. And there was just your bread and butter ENT cases. I think almost all their attendings graduated from that residency--so its a little bit inbred (Which btw you will find is problem at many DO ENT residencies, and is a negative in my opinion.) They have to drive quite a way to their physician own surgery center COSI - but its an outpatient clinic--so just the basic T/A's, ears, etc. They do out rotations for otology (I think), Head and Neck in Cincy and Indianapolis, and Peds in Cincy. Their didactics are once a week--read a chapter or 2 from Bailey's the next day the senior quizzes you or may have a ppt. The one big positive was the city. I liked Columbus, big sports town, fun downtown, young city. The hopsital itself is nice, but the docs like doing more of their surgeries at the surgery center because they own it!
http://www.ohiohealth.com/bodydoctors.cfm?id=579#otorhino
10. Dayton/Grandview - Off the bat, the PD is an awesome guy and loves teaching, Adan Fuentes, and he is one of the big strengths of the program. About an hour away from columbus. You rotate at a few hospitals, It is the best program in OH, but doesn't have the location that Columbus does. The residents were all really nice. Didactics were the same as columbus pretty much. They do away rotations at University of Cincinnati for Head and neck. They also do a 4-6 week basic anatomy course at the start of their 2nd year in iowa/indiana? cant remember. that's a nice addition i think. they were fairly busy, but it can be annoying driving between the hospitals.
http://www.khnetwork.org/med-ed/grandview/Otolaryngology/Otolaryngology.cfm
11. Tulsa: Shaky funding situation? All I know is its a so so program. From the PD: Average volume of 90 to 150 cases per month. T&As,Tubes, Nasal septoplasties, turbinate reductions, FESS sinus surgery, facial reconstructive cases, fractured jaws. Multiple tooth extractions, tongue jaw neck dissections, thyroid surgery, allergy etc. In addition the residents have a rotation set up for the next five years ast the Indiana Head and neck surgery unit in Indianapolis (2month rotation). A one month rotation with the Hough Ear Institute in OK City. We also do Radical and Modified Radical neck dissections as well as thyroid surgery.
12. St. Barnabas: I heard this is a really good program; they have a good case load and good didactics; I guess they rely heavily on board scores for making their resident selection; definitely the better of the 2 NJ programs from what I hear. The PD and residents are all really nice. One of the residents is straight outta the jerzy shore! Same setup as columbus with a base hospital and outside surgery center--didn't rotate there so I really can't comment on case load--I just know it has a good reputation. They do aways at Sloane Kettering in NYC for head and neck which is awesome. It's expensive up there and they are only 45 min away from NYC--prob more with traffic.
http://www.saintbarnabas.com/education/sbmc/otolaryngology/index.html
13. Lake Erie - I heard this is a really good program also; also rely a lot on scores; something interesting about them is that they make the residents get a masters in education during their residency so that the residents can move on after graduation and be attendings at programs; I guess this masters degree is incorporated into the residency program so I don't think it is any extra work or extra years of residency
http://www.millcreekcommunityhospital.com/meded_residency.php
So there you have it. That took a while. I know info is scarce out there about trying to decide which ENT programs to rotate at, so I tried to provide as much info as I could through emails and experiences. In general, try to schedule early as slots fill up. Have the board scores and grades. Impress on rotations yadayada. Pasha, ENT secrets, emedicine, and anatomy atlas were some of the resources I used, plus the links I listed below. Try to make connections wherever possible because ENT is a small field. Always be nice to the secretaries and the ones scheduling your rotations. The best program is pcom in my opinion, but ask around. I did all 2 week rotations, and PCOM is the only one I wish I did 4 weeks because there are so many players involved. I only went through a couple of Michigan programs--I was averse to them mainly because of location, feeling that Mich State students had a big leg up, and all the driving the residents have to do. Think about programs that have/dont have away rotationsdo you want to spend 25-40% of your time away from your base city? The ones out west--the only one with a good reputation is Joplin, MO--but I didn't go because of location. Tulsa and Oklahoma state are on shaky ground from what I understand in terms of funding. I was impressed with Grand Rapids. Listen, it is a stresssful time with rotations and interviews, I mean especially when you know you are one of umpteen people rotating through there and you're not a base student, and you missed a question, and you're wondering do they like me? am i being annoying? am i too quiet? i hope they don't ask this question, did I just fart?, I wonder if he smells it?--its not really a fun process. the best advice i can give is prepare as much as possible, but don't lose your personality and who you are in the process. show as much personality as possible--all the residents and pd's know exactly what you are thinking and going through. give them a glimpse of the real you and how enjoyable it would be to work with you over 5 years. i know i know--easier said than done. Youre going to have to weigh how much you like everyone, clinical exposure, the city, academics, reputation, yadayada. Youll know on your rotations.
ps also i rotated at an md institution and received 3 md invites--the one common theme was they seemed to be concerned i was going to do the osteopathic match. i gave them a schpiel, but really it is too hard to turn down the osteopathic match, esp if you really like one program. its very hard to get into those md programs--you really need the entire package of amazing grades, boards (BOTH usmle Step 1 and usmle step 2 have to be good), and research. there simply are too many qualified applicants. so think twice before scheduling that md rotation. even if a program really likes you and you like them, a. there are no prematches in MD ENT programs, b. you're not seriously going to skip the DO match if you know you have a spot at one of the DO programs are you? (one thing i forgot to mention is that with many DO ENT programs you will know soon after the interview if you got it or not). One advantage to doing an MD rotation is that you may make connections that will help you later on in the interview process because remember ENT is a small field.
Here's a bunch of links that I found and tried to use:
http://www.utmb.edu/otoref/Grnds/GrndsIndex.html
http://www.bcm.edu/oto/index.cfm?pmid=15659
http://wiki.uiowa.edu/display/protocols/Home
http://www.entusa.com/
http://www.waent.org/
http://www.entnet.org/EducationAndResearch/cool.cfm
http://www.headmirror.com/Headmirror/Links_&_Resource_39.html
http://drfling.hyperphp.com/Notes/index.htm
http://www.siumed.edu/surgery/otolaryngology/powerpoints.html
http://www.ent.uci.edu/GRarchives.html
http://hannaziegler.tripod.com/ent/lee/lee.htm
http://www.neurographics.org/2/2/2/1.shtml
http://oto.ucsd.edu/ResidencyProgram/tabid/55/Default.aspx
http://otomatch.com/
http://www.docbook.co.uk/index.html
http://thelippylibrary.com/
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/generalsurgery/technical-training/basic-knots-sutures/
http://www.headandneck.org/site/c.8hKNI0MEImI4E/b.6281225/k.BDD9/Home.htm
http://www.orlive.com/videos?videot...&objectID=784556B2-3FEE-11DE-928300219B8D5584
http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/radio/curriculum/ENT/Structure_ENT_f.htm
http://www.nejm.org/medical-research/otolaryngology-general
http://home.comcast.net/~WNOR/index.htm
http://entnyc.com/coclia
http://www.otohns.net/default.asp?id=3242
Thats about it! Hopefully this helps everyone out there. I know when I was looking there wasnt a whole lot of information about DO ENT programs. So whatever experiences you guys have in the future, remember to come back here and post about it, and remember how much it sucked when you were going through it. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck! And remember youre capable of more than you think.
