Pitt IM residency

[synonomous18]

I was just wondering if anybody had any information regarding the IM residency at Pitt. Quality, competitiveness, fellowship rate, general opinions?? Thanks.

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[scrub monkey]

i'd say it's actually a pretty decent university program.

because of it's location (people don't like pittsburgh), it's much less competitive than other equitable programs.

 

[deleted4401]

I'm there as a prelim.

I think the other poster was somewhat correct - if it wasn't in Pittsburgh, it probably be higher ranked. Despite that, I don't even mind the city, it's not bad, enough stuff to do, pretty, friendly. And, this is coming from a guy who lived in Chicago, New Orleans, and Copenhagen the last 8 years.

Academics is pretty good, we work pretty hard, see a ton of patients. Big GI center, so a lot of the medicine services are GI pathology-heavy. Decent camaraderie, I've made some good friends. Pretty good mix of single and married. As far as fellowship, cards had 4 go unmatched, and GI had a few go unmatched as well. Allegedly, people overvalued themselves and didn't apply to enough places. Most other fellowships, everyone matched. I don't know enough about it, though.

I'm not sure how competitive it is. However, I was a scrambler for the prelim spot, and they wouldn't take anyone without a USMLE 2 digit score below 90 or 95. I think people are pretty sharp. The thing that works in favor of the whole location thing is that for most people, Pitt was their first or second choice, b/c they are either from the area or went to med school in the area, so they want to be here, and that makes for happier interns.

More generally:

Pros - very responsive to the 80hr week; every time enough people complain about specific rotation, a change is made to facilitate 80/30 compliance. Lot of pressure from the chairman to be compliant. Mentorship opportunities abound, there's always meetings with faculty in different specialties. If you want to do research, just find a lab, and the chief will okay you an entire month intern year for protected research time. Fairly high level of independence on medicine service and in the ICU. There's a VA (a plus in my book). Very sick patients. You get a nice Palm pilot, Tungsten T5. Catered lunch at noon conference every day, dinner at the VA is catered when you are on call. Intern conference is very educational, probably the best conference of the week for me. Plenty of elective time early on (I have hematology, GI, radiology, ER).

Cons: Some attendings are arrogant and sometimes malignant (won't say what services on a public forum). Either it's a UPMC thing, or just my first four rotations, but attendings don't care at all about being 45min to an hour late for rounds, while we just wait - that didn't really fly at my med school. Some services have way too many team members and not enough work (i.e. cards consults may have 3 interns, 2 med students, a resident, and 2 fellows). Consult services don't include clinic, so you just sit around all morning hoping to hear about a new patient. Otherwise, you wait until 4, and then round until 6 or 7 or sometimes later. Lectures have been so-so, and we don't evaluate them, so crappy lectures repeat themselves year after year. Lecture time isn't protected - other programs give the pagers to secretaries during lunch - here, you just have to leave and deal with it. Interns only get one morning report a week (we had it 3x/week in med school).

I'm trying to be fairly objective. I actually really love it here. If I wasn't trying to do rad-onc, I'd want to stay here and try to do a fellowship.

If you have more specific questions, let me know
Simul

 

[synonomous18]

Thanks for all the info. I am a Pittsburgher, so that is why I want to come back. I was just wondering more about my chances of matching there next year. Two questions. What kind of step 1 score do you think I need to match there? Secondly, do I have to have research? I really appreciate your help.

I'm there as a prelim.

I think the other poster was somewhat correct - if it wasn't in Pittsburgh, it probably be higher ranked. Despite that, I don't even mind the city, it's not bad, enough stuff to do, pretty, friendly. And, this is coming from a guy who lived in Chicago, New Orleans, and Copenhagen the last 8 years.

Academics is pretty good, we work pretty hard, see a ton of patients. Big GI center, so a lot of the medicine services are GI pathology-heavy. Decent camaraderie, I've made some good friends. Pretty good mix of single and married. As far as fellowship, cards had 4 go unmatched, and GI had a few go unmatched as well. Allegedly, people overvalued themselves and didn't apply to enough places. Most other fellowships, everyone matched. I don't know enough about it, though.

I'm not sure how competitive it is. However, I was a scrambler for the prelim spot, and they wouldn't take anyone without a USMLE 2 digit score below 90 or 95. I think people are pretty sharp. The thing that works in favor of the whole location thing is that for most people, Pitt was their first or second choice, b/c they are either from the area or went to med school in the area, so they want to be here, and that makes for happier interns.

More generally:

Pros - very responsive to the 80hr week; every time enough people complain about specific rotation, a change is made to facilitate 80/30 compliance. Lot of pressure from the chairman to be compliant. Mentorship opportunities abound, there's always meetings with faculty in different specialties. If you want to do research, just find a lab, and the chief will okay you an entire month intern year for protected research time. Fairly high level of independence on medicine service and in the ICU. There's a VA (a plus in my book). Very sick patients. You get a nice Palm pilot, Tungsten T5. Catered lunch at noon conference every day, dinner at the VA is catered when you are on call. Intern conference is very educational, probably the best conference of the week for me. Plenty of elective time early on (I have hematology, GI, radiology, ER).

Cons: Some attendings are arrogant and sometimes malignant (won't say what services on a public forum). Either it's a UPMC thing, or just my first four rotations, but attendings don't care at all about being 45min to an hour late for rounds, while we just wait - that didn't really fly at my med school. Some services have way too many team members and not enough work (i.e. cards consults may have 3 interns, 2 med students, a resident, and 2 fellows). Consult services don't include clinic, so you just sit around all morning hoping to hear about a new patient. Otherwise, you wait until 4, and then round until 6 or 7 or sometimes later. Lectures have been so-so, and we don't evaluate them, so crappy lectures repeat themselves year after year. Lecture time isn't protected - other programs give the pagers to secretaries during lunch - here, you just have to leave and deal with it. Interns only get one morning report a week (we had it 3x/week in med school).

I'm trying to be fairly objective. I actually really love it here. If I wasn't trying to do rad-onc, I'd want to stay here and try to do a fellowship.

If you have more specific questions, let me know
Simul

 

[Molly Maquire]

Yinzer Power !

 

[medgator]

Im also a prelim there now.... I really couldn't tell you anything about scores. From what I've heard though, it has been getting more selective each year. I believe most, if not all, of the interns in our class are US trained MDs.... in contrast to a few years ago where there had been some FMGs.

If you look at the US News rankings, UPMC (the hospital system associated with the IM residency) is highly ranked nationwide in a number of areas including ENT, urology, oncology, GI... enough to get on the US News honor roll (along with Mayo, Cleveland Clinic, MGH etc).

 

[gwen]

OK, I'm not sure what you were referring to but UPitt Cardio matched all its spots. My fiance matched there for next year and they get an e-mail stating the unmatched spots throughout the US. There were no unmatched spots at UPitt or any University Program for that matter. There were only 5 umatched cardio spots in the entire country and those were at some community hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin etc like states. Perhaps you were referring to 4 IM UPMC residents not matching into cardio??

Also, I can't possibly imagine ANY GI spots going unfilled at UPMC. It is a hepatology mecca!

 

[TommyGunn04]

Perhaps you were referring to 4 IM UPMC residents not matching into cardio??

Yes, I think you misread that post. I'm pretty sure Simul was saying that some residents FROM the Pitt IM program didn't match into any cards programs. Simul said, "Allegedly, people overvalued themselves and didn't apply to enough places." That made me think it was in reference to Pitt medicine residents, not to the Pitt cards or GI programs.

 

[medgator]

He/She did misinterpret that post.... the PD of Pitt cards gave a lunch lecture today and told us 6-7 out of 13 residents did NOT match into cards last year (~50%) and that this is pretty typical (not sure if he meant for pitt or in general). Pitt filled its program.

 

[gwen]

thanks for clarifying, guys. i guess i read the "As far as fellowship, cards had 4 go unmatched, and GI had a few go unmatched as well." part instead of the "people overvalued themselves". as they say, my bad. how ghetto is that.

ciao!