Anyone have any input on these programs if you want to go into academics:
NYU
Mt. Sinai
UPitt
UVA
Wake Forest
NYU
Mt. Sinai
UPitt
UVA
Wake Forest
Questions about programs
- Thread starter BraggPeak
- Start date
D
deleted4401
I'm at Pitt. It's a good clinical program. We see a fair amount of patients and extremely diverse pathology, as it is the major tertiary center in the tri-state (Western PA, Eastern OH, Panhandle West Virgnia - actually all of WV).
There are rotations at the "flagship" at Shadyside Hospital, Magee Women's, and Presbyterian Hospital, pretty much site specific, but sort of technology specific: head/neck/Cyber, gyn/breast, lung/sarcoma/Cyber, CNS/GK/Synergy, prostate/breast/peds).
We do a lot of GammaKnife - have two of them 4C and Perfexion - and the first in North America to (legally) treat patients with it. We also have a active CyberKnife program - much of the data for that unit comes from us and Stanford. We do MammoSite for breast, and again, a fair amount of data has come out of our center. We do HDR for gyn (typical - vag cuff, interstitial/syed, Y applicators, r&t/r&o) and for sarcoma (not a whole lot). We do LDR brachy for prostate (one of the only places using Cesium). We do LDR/vicryl mesh for lung, for tumors resected with adverse features. Starting GlioSite soon, just got trained for that.
As far as the technology mentioned above, we also have a Trilogy unit with OBI/CBCT, just started Synergy (linac-based IGRT/SRS) for body radiation at Presby.
The didactics are pretty good - the faculty you actually work with are good about teaching 'on the job'. There is a typical physics curriculum, nobody has failed the boards yet. The radbio is unique - we have a guest instructor for 2 one week intensive sessions for classical radbio (September and March), then we have about 8 lectures during the Spring (after Physics is over) for modern radbio. Nobody fails.
As far as clinical teaching, we have a Thursday AM conference which runs likes this - we would spend this Thursday discussing the pre-op rectal CA literature, the following Thursday discussing the post-op rectal CA literature, then the following Thursday we would do 'treatment planning' which ends up being mock oral boards/cases. Everyone is doing fine on the in-services, and again, nobody has failed the clinical or oral boards.
As far as research, your PGY-4 is blocked off for that. You can do 6-12 months of clinical or lab research. Some people do one or the other or a little of both. No pressure to focus on one area or another. The Chairman's lab specialty is on MnSOD, look it up before the interview
PGY-5 year rounds it out. Most people have 're-done' rotations that they feel like they need (i.e. peds or gyn or something). Some have also done community rotations (we have 25 satellite sites; there is talk of allowing rotations at UPMC-Dublin), including one 20 miles north where you can do 20-25 prostate brachy cases a month.
Every graduate so far (four) have taken private jobs, but would not have had problems getting academic jobs. We've now expanded to 6 total positions. Everyone is pretty happy here and the faculty are very nice people. It's not malignant and none of us feel overworked. There is time to study, because you get home at a reasonable hour. There are days that are light that you can catch up on reading, research, dictations, etc. The four (soon to be 6) of us have dinner together, go out, etc., and get along well. We have activities with attendings - kayaking, happy hours, and concerts.
PM with questions...
S
There are rotations at the "flagship" at Shadyside Hospital, Magee Women's, and Presbyterian Hospital, pretty much site specific, but sort of technology specific: head/neck/Cyber, gyn/breast, lung/sarcoma/Cyber, CNS/GK/Synergy, prostate/breast/peds).
We do a lot of GammaKnife - have two of them 4C and Perfexion - and the first in North America to (legally) treat patients with it. We also have a active CyberKnife program - much of the data for that unit comes from us and Stanford. We do MammoSite for breast, and again, a fair amount of data has come out of our center. We do HDR for gyn (typical - vag cuff, interstitial/syed, Y applicators, r&t/r&o) and for sarcoma (not a whole lot). We do LDR brachy for prostate (one of the only places using Cesium). We do LDR/vicryl mesh for lung, for tumors resected with adverse features. Starting GlioSite soon, just got trained for that.
As far as the technology mentioned above, we also have a Trilogy unit with OBI/CBCT, just started Synergy (linac-based IGRT/SRS) for body radiation at Presby.
The didactics are pretty good - the faculty you actually work with are good about teaching 'on the job'. There is a typical physics curriculum, nobody has failed the boards yet. The radbio is unique - we have a guest instructor for 2 one week intensive sessions for classical radbio (September and March), then we have about 8 lectures during the Spring (after Physics is over) for modern radbio. Nobody fails.
As far as clinical teaching, we have a Thursday AM conference which runs likes this - we would spend this Thursday discussing the pre-op rectal CA literature, the following Thursday discussing the post-op rectal CA literature, then the following Thursday we would do 'treatment planning' which ends up being mock oral boards/cases. Everyone is doing fine on the in-services, and again, nobody has failed the clinical or oral boards.
As far as research, your PGY-4 is blocked off for that. You can do 6-12 months of clinical or lab research. Some people do one or the other or a little of both. No pressure to focus on one area or another. The Chairman's lab specialty is on MnSOD, look it up before the interview
PGY-5 year rounds it out. Most people have 're-done' rotations that they feel like they need (i.e. peds or gyn or something). Some have also done community rotations (we have 25 satellite sites; there is talk of allowing rotations at UPMC-Dublin), including one 20 miles north where you can do 20-25 prostate brachy cases a month.
Every graduate so far (four) have taken private jobs, but would not have had problems getting academic jobs. We've now expanded to 6 total positions. Everyone is pretty happy here and the faculty are very nice people. It's not malignant and none of us feel overworked. There is time to study, because you get home at a reasonable hour. There are days that are light that you can catch up on reading, research, dictations, etc. The four (soon to be 6) of us have dinner together, go out, etc., and get along well. We have activities with attendings - kayaking, happy hours, and concerts.
PM with questions...
S
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I am absolutely new to SDN and thank in advance any comments that I get. I am currently an MS3 seriously considering RadOnc, but with some very limiting geographical restrictions (which are making me VERY nervous with how competitive this specialty is). My husband is a PhD currently in the interview trail for tenured track positions. The following are the medical centers that look most promising:
NYU
Michigan (Ann Arbor)
U of Kentucky
U of Colorado
UT Southwestern
I'll appreciate any comments you can provide on these schools (I was able to find only info on Michigan in past forums). As I see it, NYU is tops just because the many other programs available in New York City...
NYU
Michigan (Ann Arbor)
U of Kentucky
U of Colorado
UT Southwestern
I'll appreciate any comments you can provide on these schools (I was able to find only info on Michigan in past forums). As I see it, NYU is tops just because the many other programs available in New York City...
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- Jul 20, 2007
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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There is info on all of these programs in the two threads "stickied":
Interview impressions & Rad Onc rankings. Use the search function, choose those threads, and then you have to scroll through them to look for the word (i.e. Kentucky) which will be highlighted in red. Not ideal, but that's how it works. Also note, this year's batch of interview impressions will be coming up after February 27th, so check back for potentially more fresh info on these and other programs in the interview impressions thread. Best of luck
Interview impressions & Rad Onc rankings. Use the search function, choose those threads, and then you have to scroll through them to look for the word (i.e. Kentucky) which will be highlighted in red. Not ideal, but that's how it works. Also note, this year's batch of interview impressions will be coming up after February 27th, so check back for potentially more fresh info on these and other programs in the interview impressions thread. Best of luck
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