Top Retina Fellowships 2014

[OphResearch]

It's been a long time since there were decent threads about good retina fellowships. I thought it might be helpful for next year's applicants to see some updated opinions. Here is my pseudo-list of the top retina programs IMHO. Disclaimer: this list is not comprehensive and I did not interview at every program. It's not in a specific order, but I think the general groupings are reasonable. Obviously, a program can be better or worse depending on whether you are interested in academics or private, location, surgical volume, call schedule, etc.

Top 3, which I think the majority of people would agree with, in no order:
Beaumont
Duke
Wills

rest of my personal Top 15, in a loose but by no means exact order:
Bascom
UCLA
Cleveland Clinic
Tufts/OCB
Emory
UMich
MEEI
Wilmer
UIC
Columbia
NYEEI
Casey

Another set of great programs, in a general order but very extremely difficult to rank these given some are more surgically oriented and others are more academic. Many could be argued should be in the top 15 as well:
Iowa
Rush
UPenn
The Retina Institute (STL)
RGW
Baylor
CPMC
UAB
MCW
Vanderbilt
WashU
Stanford
Mayo
Utah
UCSF
Northwestern
UC Davis
UCSD
Cornell
Kresge
UC Irvine
USC
U Kentucky

Feel free to add any other solid programs that I've missed. Hope this helps somewhat, good luck to next year's applicants!

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[ophthopleaseplease]

I like this thread. I feel that most medical students like myself have no idea where good fellowships are, and this can be a problem because a good residency program doesn't always mean really good fellowship training (and vice versa). I hope there can be lists made for plastics, glaucoma, and cornea as well (hint hint)

 

[Slide]

To the list I'd add Wake Forest and UVA. Both are smaller programs but are top notch in clinical training. These programs are more clinical but offer robust research opportunities, just without the academic name branding. Their fellows come out well trained, and despite being on the smaller side in terms of faculty, the numbers are excellent, and more importantly, the training is well-rounded. Both these places gave lots of surgical exposure to most or all of the criteria I was seeking in a fellowship: complicated TRD (PDR/PVR) repair, treatment of uveal melanomas, ROP and pediatric vitrectomy, and uveitis.

Overall I've found out that most of the fellowships in the southeast and midwest are extremely strong, because really it comes down to a few major things: patient population, insurance status, and faculty. Two of those three tend to be heavily prevalent in these areas.

 

[Eggsettera]

It's been a long time since there were decent threads about good retina fellowships. I thought it might be helpful for next year's applicants to see some updated opinions. Here is my pseudo-list of the top retina programs IMHO. Disclaimer: this list is not comprehensive and I did not interview at every program. It's not in a specific order, but I think the general groupings are reasonable. Obviously, a program can be better or worse depending on whether you are interested in academics or private, location, surgical volume, call schedule, etc.

Top 3, which I think the majority of people would agree with, in no order:
Beaumont
Duke
Wills

rest of my personal Top 15, in a loose but by no means exact order:
Bascom
UCLA
Cleveland Clinic
Tufts/OCB
Emory
UMich
MEEI
Wilmer
UIC
Columbia
NYEEI
Casey

Another set of great programs, in a general order but very extremely difficult to rank these given some are more surgically oriented and others are more academic. Many could be argued should be in the top 15 as well:
Iowa
Rush
UPenn
The Retina Institute (STL)
RGW
Baylor
CPMC
UAB
MCW
Vanderbilt
WashU
Stanford
Mayo
Utah
UCSF
Northwestern
UC Davis
UCSD
Cornell
Kresge
UC Irvine
USC
U Kentucky

Feel free to add any other solid programs that I've missed. Hope this helps somewhat, good luck to next year's applicants!

From some of the reading I have done over the past few weeks, I came under the impression that the two UAB programs were top notch. Is this not true?

Are some programs more academically leaning and others less so? Which are which?

 

[Slide]

From some of the reading I have done over the past few weeks, I came under the impression that the two UAB programs were top notch. Is this not true?

Are some programs more academically leaning and others less so? Which are which?

Both UAB programs are top notch and will give you excellent surgical and clinical training. Both are hybrid programs, with a private practice focus but a strong academic affiliation with UAB. You will get lots of surgical experience, and you will operate...a lot! Of all the US retina fellowships, I believe RCA has one of the highest, if not the highest, surgical numbers consistently (>800 primaries easily).

I got the impression big-name programs tended to be more academic than not. Places like Penn, Columbia, Vanderbilt, MEEI were pretty academic. That's not to say their numbers were not good, but there's a stronger focus on exposure with different attendings and different styles of thinking and research compared to more clinical programs that throw you into the OR and get you operating as a primary surgeon quickly. My opinion is that academia is great and all, but the bottom line is that when you come out of fellowship, you should feel comfortable to handle almost any surgical pathology that shows up at your front door. Except pediatric vitrectomies and melanoma/oncology treatment, a good program should make you comfortable doing anything behind the lens, or if possible, anything in or on the eye.

 

[CAMD2014]

It's been a long time since there were decent threads about good retina fellowships. I thought it might be helpful for next year's applicants to see some updated opinions. Here is my pseudo-list of the top retina programs IMHO. Disclaimer: this list is not comprehensive and I did not interview at every program. It's not in a specific order, but I think the general groupings are reasonable. Obviously, a program can be better or worse depending on whether you are interested in academics or private, location, surgical volume, call schedule, etc.

Top 3, which I think the majority of people would agree with, in no order:
Beaumont
Duke
Wills

...

For the uninitiated and naive, what makes Beaumont a top retina fellowship... Duke and Wills are also stellar residencies, but Beaumont isn't as well-known. Is it a specific faculty member? What faculty at Duke or Wills make the program better than the other ones you listed? Or is it more related to research?

 

[dover27]

Bringing this thread alive after many years to update:

Top Programs:
Beaumont/Royal Oak
Wills/Mid-Atlantic
Duke
Emory
Columbia/NYU/VRM/MEETH
Stanford/Byers Eye
UCLA/Jules Stein
Cole
Michigan/Kellogg
OHSU/Casey

Great Programs (academic):
MEEI
Wilmer
Iowa

Great Programs (surgical):
Retina Institute of St. Louis
Retina Group of Washington
Vanderbilt
Utah/Moran Eye
USC/Roski Eye

 

[docdoc2012]

Bringing this thread alive after many years to update:

Top Programs:
Beaumont/Royal Oak
Wills/Mid-Atlantic
Duke
Emory
Columbia/NYU/VRM/MEETH
Stanford/Byers Eye
UCLA/Jules Stein
Cole
Michigan/Kellogg
OHSU/Casey

Great Programs (academic):
MEEI
Wilmer
Iowa

Great Programs (surgical):
Retina Institute of St. Louis
Retina Group of Washington
Vanderbilt
Utah/Moran Eye
USC/Roski Eye

I would add 2 more programs to the great surgical programs list:
Retina Associates of Kentucky/University of Kentucky
Cincinnati Eye Institute

 

[MPMD]

Bringing this thread alive after many years to update:

Top Programs:
Beaumont/Royal Oak
Wills/Mid-Atlantic
Duke
Emory
Columbia/NYU/VRM/MEETH
Stanford/Byers Eye
UCLA/Jules Stein
Cole
Michigan/Kellogg
OHSU/Casey

Great Programs (academic):
MEEI
Wilmer
Iowa

Great Programs (surgical):
Retina Institute of St. Louis
Retina Group of Washington
Vanderbilt
Utah/Moran Eye
USC/Roski Eye

Would also add:
UIC
Bascom
Colorado
West Coast Retina

 

[mjohnsonets]

Charles Retina fellows are averaging about 1,000 cases as primary surgeon while in fellowship so I would add that to good surgical experience category.

 

[dantt]

Is Beaumont still considered good with the recent sell to PE?

 

[fractalabysm]

I assume Bascom was left out by mistake. Looking at the list from 2014, the top programs are more or less the same, though the order may have changed slightly.

Top 5:
Beaumont
Duke
Wills
UCLA
Bascom

Rest of the Top 20:
Michigan
Cole
Emory
Tufts/OCB
MEEI
Casey
Stanford
Columbia
UIC
Wilmer
The Retina Institute (STL)
RGW
NYEEI
Utah
USC

 

[VReyedoc]

My thoughts: Cautious about including Bascom as a top fellowship for external track fellows. The internal track for chief residents have significantly more surgical experience as they obtain almost all of the resident trauma cases. Several alumni of both tracks attest to this. External fellows now have more time at Palm Beach but the surgical experience remains to be seen. The current fellows note the numbers to be around 250-300 which is good but not tremendous and on the lower side for any of the top fellowships listed above. While the catchman area of South Florida is very large, there are also 8 fellows (4 fellows/years, 2 internal and 2 external).

But definitely agree, the internal fellows/chief residents still get tremendous training and for them, Bascom should be included as a highly regarded fellowship.

It's true that the Chiefs obtain almost all of the resident trauma cases, although I wonder how much staffing resident ruptured globes improves the vitreoretinal surgery experience. I've also heard from recent graduates that the numbers are higher than 250-300s - I heard in the 400s range.

 

[idkididk]

How different are the hours/lifestyle between fellowships that produce 300-600 vs 600-800+ cases? How about private vs academic vs hybrid?

 

[VikingFavre]

How different are the hours/lifestyle between fellowships that produce 300-600 vs 600-800+ cases? How about private vs academic vs hybrid?

Not completely a zero correlation as in general doing cases is not just about showing up and doing them but there are lower volume fellowships with useless scut and higher volume fellowships with less of that.

In general you should desire a higher volume fellowship but in retina a lot of importance should also be placed on a) mentorship as you will still be growing as a surgeon post graduation, b) diversity of exposures (eg knowing how to do a good primary buckle or how to manage complex PVR) and c) being taught good surgical principles.

A couple of the posters here really bashing some academic fellowships like Bascom have to pause and look at how the grads of those programs are doing. Some of the ‘external’ Bascom grads are some of the best up and coming surgeons out there (e.g Chen at Columbia, Weng at Baylor). Heck I think one of the Berrocal sisters was an external fellowship graduate. I did not apply there since my family wanted to stay west, but anyone saying Bascom is not in the top 10-12 range is being disingenuous.

Rankings are silly in general because it all depends on what you want out of your fellowship. But I would say general ‘tiers’ are something like this, in no particular order, especially weighing surgery volume/academic mix:

Wills
Beaumont

Duke
Cole
Tufts/OCB
UCLA
Casey
Stanford

Bascom external
MEEI
Columbia
Emory
Michigan
USC
Iowa

There are plenty of other terrific programs I am probably missing. But the Bascom external fellowship is almost certainly in that 9-13 range historically, and based on what our residents who interviewed there this year said it’s on the rise into the next tier up given the increased volume and the expansion/new faculty adds.

In the end this is silly since there are a good number of fellowships beyond what is being discussed in this thread that produce high quality surgeons. You
Will also meet crummy surgeons from the best programs unfortunately. Caring about patients and a desire to work and learn will take you far at a lot of places.

 

[ophtho838]

Not completely a zero correlation as in general doing cases is not just about showing up and doing them but there are lower volume fellowships with useless scut and higher volume fellowships with less of that.

In general you should desire a higher volume fellowship but in retina a lot of importance should also be placed on a) mentorship as you will still be growing as a surgeon post graduation, b) diversity of exposures (eg knowing how to do a good primary buckle or how to manage complex PVR) and c) being taught good surgical principles.

A couple of the posters here really bashing some academic fellowships like Bascom have to pause and look at how the grads of those programs are doing. Some of the ‘external’ Bascom grads are some of the best up and coming surgeons out there (e.g Chen at Columbia, Weng at Baylor). Heck I think one of the Berrocal sisters was an external fellowship graduate. I did not apply there since my family wanted to stay west, but anyone saying Bascom is not in the top 10-12 range is being disingenuous.

Rankings are silly in general because it all depends on what you want out of your fellowship. But I would say general ‘tiers’ are something like this, in no particular order, especially weighing surgery volume/academic mix:

Wills
Beaumont

Duke
Cole
Tufts/OCB
UCLA
Casey
Stanford

Bascom external
MEEI
Columbia
Emory
Michigan
USC
Iowa

There are plenty of other terrific programs I am probably missing. But the Bascom external fellowship is almost certainly in that 9-13 range historically, and based on what our residents who interviewed there this year said it’s on the rise into the next tier up given the increased volume and the expansion/new faculty adds.

In the end this is silly since there are a good number of fellowships beyond what is being discussed in this thread that produce high quality surgeons. You
Will also meet crummy surgeons from the best programs unfortunately. Caring about patients and a desire to work and learn will take you far at a lot of places.

I think this list is missing a lot of key strong fellowships: West coast retina, RGW, TRI in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, UIC, Alabama, Kentucky, Utah, UW.

The point being that there are a lot of great fellowships out there and any of those mentioned on this thread will train you well. All fellowships differ in regards to: (a) surgical volume/diversity, (b) medical volume/diversity, (c) academic opportunities, (d) mentorship, etc. Trying to rank them is like comparing apples to oranges to kiwis.

 

[Fascia Lata]

The Berrocal sisters shouldn’t be used as an example. They were well versed with retinal surgery at a very early stage of their career (prior to starting fellowship training).

 

[DwyaneWade]

What are the recent retina faculty adds at Bascom? I know Bill Harbour went there a few years back but did not know of any turnover since.

 

[martianmonster]

I think this list is missing a lot of key strong fellowships: West coast retina, RGW, TRI in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, UIC, Alabama, Kentucky, Utah, UW.

The point being that there are a lot of great fellowships out there and any of those mentioned on this thread will train you well. All fellowships differ in regards to: (a) surgical volume/diversity, (b) medical volume/diversity, (c) academic opportunities, (d) mentorship, etc. Trying to rank them is like comparing apples to oranges to kiwis.

When you say UW, do you mean Wisconsin or Washington?

 

[VikingFavre]

Agreed. I knew I missed some and all of those are great and similar caliber depending on what you are looking for.

 

[AQ888]

Does The Scheie Eye Institute make the list of top retina programs?

 

[martianmonster]

Depends on what you are looking for. Definitely have access to cutting-edge research (a lot of the Leber's Congenital Amaurosis gene therapy work was done there) although I am not sure how many of the recent fellows have been interested in this sort of work. Clinically, it seems to have acquired more volume in recent years. I don't think many people would consider it a "top" fellowship but there are a lot of excellent programs that also wouldn't fit this bill.

 

[Slide]

Does The Scheie Eye Institute make the list of top retina programs?

It's a great program, but I don't think it would probably be top 20 unless you plan on going into a research-based career. When I interviewed for fellowship years back, the two younger faculty (Kim and VanderBeek) were helping bulk up the surgical volume for the first year but they were also starting out so their volume is probably higher now. I still liked the program a lot though and ranked it high, and the people whom I know graduated from there came out very strong too.

 

[ball123]

What are some other programs that surprised you that you guys remember? Programs to avoid?

 

[SamSam1234]

Any significant changes to this list over the past few years? How was your experience with virtual interviews? Tips for future applicants?

 

[SamSam1234]

Is Duke still a top program?

 

[martianmonster]

Is Duke still a top program?

Yes

 

[ball123]

Thoughts on following programs:
Rush
Texas Retina Institute
UNC
U of Chicago

 

[martianmonster]

Dont know too much about the other 3, but I think Rush is a really solid fellowship. You work with leaders in the field, get strong exposure to a private practice environment, and also work with clinic patients through Rush Medical Center. From what I understand there is a lot of driving involved but this shouldn't be too big of a deal.

 

[Floater101]

Any insights into the Vanderbilt retina fellowship? Strengths/weaknesses/academic reputation etc?

 

[antiVEGF]

Bringing this alive with an update for 2022!

Top 10 Surgical Retina Fellowships

Things change fast. A decade or two ago, residents were advised that only a smattering of 10 vitreoretinal surgery fellowship programs were considered worth going to. More recently, a more palatable truth seems to have emerged: there are so many amazing programs, each with their own advantages...

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