I'm a second year at Toledo, and Toledo isn't that bad of a place to live. It has a bad rap by people that haven't been here for some reason. Maybe that tie it to Cleveland or Detroit since we're close to them, but it's a far nicer city than either of those.
Since I'm a second year I've had very little direct contact with the program, so you should probably take what I say with a grain of salt as there are other people who know far more about the program than I do. However, I do have some general knowledge about our program that you might be interested in.
Honestly, our surgery residency program could be stronger. From what I've heard they provide excellent training to students, but the residency program is currently on probation. However, according to our new dean (who is a peds cardiac surgeon from Cornell) the upcoming site review should go very well. They've evidently made some major changes to the program since they were put on probation a couple years ago. I don't know what the reason for probation is, I just know that's our only residency currently on probation and that it should be lifted in the next couple months.
They've just hired Dr. Gerald Zelenock as the new chairman of surgery.
http://utnews.utoledo.edu/publish/article_3249.shtml He is a leading vascular surgeon and has authored numerous books in the field including one of the most widely read vascular surgery texts. He also is very interested in the general education of surgeons. Talking to 3rd and 4th year students he has already made a major impact in the quality of teaching. According to them he seems to be very interested and engaging with both the students and residents. Our dean of the COM also told a group of students (I was one of them) that there are plans to add up to 23 new faculty members to the department. That number is not set in stone and would likely include both full-time and part-time faculty on our campus and at our affiliated institutions. The schools has also recently invested $5 million in new simulation equipment to be used by the residents and students to simulate codes, operations, and numerous other conditions.
There are two main hospitals that students and residents rotate through. Most of the time is spend at UT Medical Center and a large block of time is spent at St. Vincents which is near downtown. Both are level I trauma centers. Toledo Hospital is also a very real possibility for the future (student and residents spend time there for FP, OB/GYN, Peds, and urology), but I wouldn't count on it. I believe there's also time spent at St. Lukes Hospital which is a suburban community hospital, but I don't think it's a whole lot of time.
The hospital has also recently opened a minimally invasive surgery center on campus. The new center has technology available to broadcast procedures with the surgeon miked up throughout the institution. They've already sent live feeds into the 1st and 2nd year lecture halls for clinical lectures, and I assume they use them for 3rd and 4th year students as well as residents. Also, there is currently a new ortho center being built and that should open up significant amounts of space for the other surgical specialties in regards to clinic space.
Hope this helps a little.
