Program Chairs

[RuNnR]

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Can someone please in detail tell everyone what it means if a program does not have a chair? How much influence does the chair have on our residency experience?

I have one program who told me it wouldn't matter that they didn't have one, but everyone else begs to differ. I'm tempted NOT to rank them b/c of this.

 

[axm397]

Can someone please in detail tell everyone what it means if a program does not have a chair? How much influence does the chair have on our residency experience?

I have one program who told me it wouldn't matter that they didn't have one, but everyone else begs to differ. I'm tempted NOT to rank them b/c of this.

I don't think I would NOT rank a program solely for not having a chair.

The chair of a department can have a pretty big influence on the residency. The chair represents the department of PM&R to the rest of the institution and if he/she is influential and well respected, then the department has more pull to get more resources, opportunities, and build relationships. Many of the chairs of top programs are very well known and powerful. The chairs can help get attendings credentialed to perform procedures, do consults, etc within the institution. They help attract high quality attendings to come work for the department. Some of the chairs at top programs have made it a medical school requirement to rotate through PM&R or be taught by PM&R attendings. (UMDNJ(Kessler), Northwestern(RIC), Mayo, to name a few)

Our chair actually has weekly chairman rounds when he sits with us residents for an hour to discuss various rehab related topics. It's very nice to have the chair know your name and be able to pick his mind about rehab. Hope this helps

 

[RuNnR]

was that i wasnt' gonna rank them b/c the program TOLD me it didn't matter. that's a lie.....

 

[rehab_sports_dr]

I think it depends on the reason that a department doesn't have a chair.

If they don't have a chair because they are in the middle of an active search process, than that is not neccessarily a bad thing, you just need to know the parameters of the search.

For example, as I understand it, both University of Utah and Spaulding/Harvard are in the middle of current chair searches. These are both good, albeit young, departments, and while you can never be certain how things are going to work out, all indicators is that these are both programs on the upswing, and as such should be in ok shape.

As another example, last year the University of Miami was in the middle of a chair search. They brought in Diana Cardenas, and are now a better program for it.

As another example, the University of Washington has an interim chair at the moment. This is a department with an outstanding long term tradition, so the assumption on most everyone's part is that it will continue to be a strong department throughout the transition.