Retina Fellowships

[VikingFavre]

Which are considered the 'top' retina fellowships in terms of training?

Specifically, how strong are places like Baylor, UTSW, Emory, Duke, UVA and Retina Group of Washington? Being from Texas I'd like not to venture too far north or west lest I anger the wife 🙂

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[DwyaneWade]

I am curious to see responses to this question. Other programs you could look into would be Vandy, UAB, Dean Mcgee, and Florida programs including BPEI

 

[4424]

Depends what you're looking for. Beaumont, Wills, the Retina Group of Washington, BPEI are probably the top programs. In that list 2 are more private practice oriented so you have to make sure that's what you want. I'd agree with UAB (both of them), Duke and Emory being in the top 10 as well. Vanderbilt has dropped a bit with losing some people but still is very solid

 

[Dusn]

Depends what you're looking for. Beaumont, Wills, the Retina Group of Washington, BPEI are probably the top programs. In that list 2 are more private practice oriented so you have to make sure that's what you want. I'd agree with UAB (both of them), Duke and Emory being in the top 10 as well. Vanderbilt has dropped a bit with losing some people but still is very solid

It depends on your long term goals. I would put Retina Group of Washington far lower on that list if you have any interested in academics, research or non-bread-and-butter pathology. It is a private practice based group: so their pathology, available technology and the overall experience will be exactly what you'd expect from a private practice, which has to keep finances in mind, rather than from an academic center.

UAB, Duke, BPEI are all great programs. The others listed have very good reputations as well.

 

[4424]

Agree. Those are all top programs. However, I know the first year fellow at Retina Grp Washington well so they work with the Georgetown residents and spend half their fellowship there with tons of pathology so that's not entirely true at all. In any case, you can't go wrong with the ones mentioned.

 

[DwyaneWade]

Since we are on the topic what about the top programs in NYC and Chicago? I've heard good things about Columbia and UIC but there are so many more.

 

[Dusn]

Agree. Those are all top programs. However, I know the first year fellow at Retina Grp Washington well so they work with the Georgetown residents and spend half their fellowship there with tons of pathology so that's not entirely true at all. In any case, you can't go wrong with the ones mentioned.

True. I forgot that they do also work at Washington Hospital Center (I think the Georgetown residents work there also) and as a large inner-city hospital/trauma center, they should get a lot of pathology there.


I've heard good things about Columbia, but that was largely because of Stanley Chang; I'm not sure what his involvement is at this point.

 

[azzarah]

As an outsider academic cornea person, I would say the top academic programs in retina are (in my biased opinion 😳):
-MEEI: recent high profile recruits, merged with Schapens recently
-Duke: all that retina history and amazing reputation 👍
-Beaumont: I know some of the past fellows who loved it there
-Hopkins: lots of retina stars on staff
-Cleveland Clinic: very strong clinically from what I hear
-BPEI--unfortunately they have a different track for their own residency graduates
-Emory
-Vanderbilt: Lots of retina stars here.
-Cornell/NYEE/Columbia
-Baylor: I'm from Houston, so I include Baylor on every list. 👍
-Wills
-Oregon



Edited to say--This is just my opinion. Take everything with a grain of salt. 🙂

 

[Hemichordate]

Forgive my stupidity, but what are the main differences between a medical and a surgical retina fellowship? And do most places just have a combined fellowship or separate ones for each?

 

[4424]

Forgive my stupidity, but what are the main differences between a medical and a surgical retina fellowship? And do most places just have a combined fellowship or separate ones for each?

Medical Retina fellowships traditionally are 1 year fellowships while surgical retina is 2 years. Medical retina fellowships do not teach retina surgery. Surgical retina is 2 years and will teach both the medical and surgical aspects of retina. Some places have both fellowships (i.e. Duke) but there are far fewer medical retinal fellowships than surgical.

 

[4424]

As an outsider academic cornea person, I would say the top academic programs in retina are (in my biased opinion 😳):
-MEEI: recent high profile recruits, merged with Schapens recently
-Duke: all that retina history and amazing reputation 👍
-Beaumont: I know some of the past fellows who loved it there
-Hopkins: lots of retina stars on staff
-Cleveland Clinic: very strong clinically from what I hear
-BPEI--unfortunately they have a different track for their own residency graduates
-Emory
-Vanderbilt: Lots of retina stars here.
-Cornell/NYEE/Columbia
-Baylor: I'm from Houston, so I include Baylor on every list. 👍
-Wills
-Oregon



Edited to say--This is just my opinion. Take everything with a grain of salt. 🙂

As mentioned earlier it all depends what you're looking for. Some of the ones mentioned here have a strong academic name but have very low surgical volumes for their fellowship. Just like any other fellowship, interview, talk to the fellows and figure out what situation is best for you.

 

[PCR]

Another well rounded good surgical retina fellowship is CPMC (California Pacific Medical Center).

 

[doozy]

Anyone know anything about UVA's retina fellowship? Doesn't seem like they've updated their website in a while.

 

[Pharmacol90]

Most of the programs still show 2012 deadlines and interview dates.

 

[MR1]

Don't worry. It is still early for them to have updated their info. Most never post interview dates anyway

 

[doozy]

Thanks for the attempted help, folks, but I was asking because they haven't updated their website since 2010. That's why I am interested in any info about their program. Not just a matter of them having not gotten around to it yet.

 

[airplanes]

How do people feel about WashU?

 

[azzarah]

It was such a great program but now they split so who knows.....

 

[VikingFavre]

As an outsider academic cornea person, I would say the top academic programs in retina are (in my biased opinion 😳):
-MEEI: recent high profile recruits, merged with Schapens recently
-Duke: all that retina history and amazing reputation 👍
-Beaumont: I know some of the past fellows who loved it there
-Hopkins: lots of retina stars on staff
-Cleveland Clinic: very strong clinically from what I hear
-BPEI--unfortunately they have a different track for their own residency graduates
-Emory
-Vanderbilt: Lots of retina stars here.
-Cornell/NYEE/Columbia
-Baylor: I'm from Houston, so I include Baylor on every list. 👍
-Wills
-Oregon



Edited to say--This is just my opinion. Take everything with a grain of salt. 🙂

Two questions:

1) What is Schapens?
2) How does Bascom have two tracks? I see only two spots on sfmatch

 

[jsh1986]

There are around 15 hospitals/institutions affiliated w Harvard medical school. One is MEEI another is Schepens Eye Research Institute. Last year they merged w MEEI so are now formally the same institution. They're about a quarter mile apart from one another.

 

[VikingFavre]

There are around 15 hospitals/institutions affiliated w Harvard medical school. One is MEEI another is Schepens Eye Research Institute. Last year they merged w MEEI so are now formally the same institution. They're about a quarter mile apart from one another.

Thanks!

Anyone have any insight into the BPEI issue brought up above?

 

[DwyaneWade]

Thanks!

Anyone have any insight into the BPEI issue brought up above?

There are 4 retina spots at Bascom. 2 are filled outside the match (usually from Bascom residents) and 2 are filled through the match. The matched spots undergo a pretty similar training track to other major programs. The unmatched/chief spots have a full year (2nd year) of operating as the attending of all trauma cases and RDs which come through the emergency room.

 

[smartfellow]

As an outsider academic cornea person, I would say the top academic programs in retina are (in my biased opinion 😳):
-MEEI: recent high profile recruits, merged with Schapens recently
-Duke: all that retina history and amazing reputation 👍
-Beaumont: I know some of the past fellows who loved it there
-Hopkins: lots of retina stars on staff
-Cleveland Clinic: very strong clinically from what I hear
-BPEI--unfortunately they have a different track for their own residency graduates
-Emory
-Vanderbilt: Lots of retina stars here.
-Cornell/NYEE/Columbia
-Baylor: I'm from Houston, so I include Baylor on every list. 👍
-Wills
-Oregon



Edited to say--This is just my opinion. Take everything with a grain of salt. 🙂

For azzarah:

As an outside academic cornea person- what is your opinion about the top cornea programs especially Baylor, BPEI, MEEI?

 

[MB2012]

As an outsider academic cornea person, I would say the top academic programs in retina are (in my biased opinion 😳):
-MEEI: recent high profile recruits, merged with Schapens recently
-Duke: all that retina history and amazing reputation 👍
-Beaumont: I know some of the past fellows who loved it there
-Hopkins: lots of retina stars on staff
-Cleveland Clinic: very strong clinically from what I hear
-BPEI--unfortunately they have a different track for their own residency graduates
-Emory
-Vanderbilt: Lots of retina stars here.
-Cornell/NYEE/Columbia
-Baylor: I'm from Houston, so I include Baylor on every list. 👍
-Wills
-Oregon



Edited to say--This is just my opinion. Take everything with a grain of salt. 🙂

How about Jules Stein? Doheny? West Coast?
thx