University of Arizona IM

[jackets5]

Does anyone know anything about U of A IM. I looked through the website and they seem to have pretty good fellowship matches, good amount of Cards. I went to UG at U of A for 2 years and love it out there and would love to do my residency there. Very interested in getting into Cards or Hem/Onc

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[docscience]

BUMP!

Seems like it is hard to get some SDN responses on U of A - Tucson (especially in the IM forums)

But their intern class this year is made up of 11/32 FMG and 12/32 U of A graduates....high U of A turn out this year. No DOs

Their matches look good also:

Class of 2010 -
Hospitalist/Inpatient Medicine - 7
Cardiology - 3
Primary Care - 3
Hematology/Oncology - 2
Rheumatology - 2
Endocrinology - 2
Pulmonary/Critical Care - 1
Geriatrics - 1
Radiology - 1
Infectious Disease - 0
Nephrology - 0
Gastroenterology - 0

Class of 2009 -
Cardiology - 6
Hematology/Oncology - 4
Pulmonary/Critical Care - 3
Infectious Disease - 2
Rheumatology - 2
Endocrinology - 1
Nephrology - 1
Hospitalist - 1
Primary Care - 1
Gastroenterology - 0
Geriatrics - 0

 

[amdoc123]

U of A is very good for Cards and Hem/Onc. The IM program itself is pretty strong.

 

[jdh71]

I've not heard anything bad about Arizona, and I remember being impressed with their pulm program on paper, though they didn't send me an invite during the process. Tucson might be a difficult town to recruit to - I don't think I'd mind it there, but your big city NY, LA, Chicago, Seatte types are not going to go there unless maybe they are from there and are trying to get back home.

Match into fellowship is solid, in that it appears if you apply you'll find fellowship, but I'm kind of wondering . . . where? Not attempting snobbery, merely attemting to size up the how high up the food academic food chain you are able to match coming out of this residency.

 

[jackets5]

BUMP!

Seems like it is hard to get some SDN responses on U of A - Tucson (especially in the IM forums)

But their intern class this year is made up of 11/32 FMG and 12/32 U of A graduates....high U of A turn out this year. No DOs

Their matches look good also:

Class of 2010 -
Hospitalist/Inpatient Medicine - 7
Cardiology - 3
Primary Care - 3
Hematology/Oncology - 2
Rheumatology - 2
Endocrinology - 2
Pulmonary/Critical Care - 1
Geriatrics - 1
Radiology - 1
Infectious Disease - 0
Nephrology - 0
Gastroenterology - 0

Class of 2009 -
Cardiology - 6
Hematology/Oncology - 4
Pulmonary/Critical Care - 3
Infectious Disease - 2
Rheumatology - 2
Endocrinology - 1
Nephrology - 1
Hospitalist - 1
Primary Care - 1
Gastroenterology - 0
Geriatrics - 0

Thanks for the info. The IMG stats are promising being a Caribb. student. Like i said I loved my time at U of A and would love to live in the Phoenix area. I went on their website and said they DO NOT accept forgien students for rotations, which i thought was weird since they have such a large amount of the IMG's in their residency program.

 

[docscience]

I've not heard anything bad about Arizona, and I remember being impressed with their pulm program on paper, though they didn't send me an invite during the process. Tucson might be a difficult town to recruit to - I don't think I'd mind it there, but your big city NY, LA, Chicago, Seatte types are not going to go there unless maybe they are from there and are trying to get back home.

Match into fellowship is solid, in that it appears if you apply you'll find fellowship, but I'm kind of wondering . . . where? Not attempting snobbery, merely attemting to size up the how high up the food academic food chain you are able to match coming out of this residency.

These are the places the grads went from the 2010 class:

Training/practice sites: University of Arizona, Cedars Sinai, Moffitt Cancer Center, University of Indiana, Pennsylvania, UCLA, Phoenix, UPH/Kino hospital

These are the places the grads went from the 2009 class:

Training/practice sites: University of Arizona, Loyola University, University of California at Davis, University of California at San Diego, Michigan State University, City of Hope, University of North Carolina, Tucson, VA hospital, Tucson private practice

And just a dumb question, but who cares about how high up the academic food chain you can match?

Thanks!

 

[SaoTo]

And just a dumb question, but who cares about how high up the academic food chain you can match?

Thanks!

The higher up you go, the more doors open for you (OR at least don't close on you!). If you are planning an academic career, then you want to go to the best possible program that weill guarantee you upward mobility.

 

[jdh71]

These are the places the grads went from the 2010 class:

Training/practice sites: University of Arizona, Cedars Sinai, Moffitt Cancer Center, University of Indiana, Pennsylvania, UCLA, Phoenix, UPH/Kino hospital

These are the places the grads went from the 2009 class:

Training/practice sites: University of Arizona, Loyola University, University of California at Davis, University of California at San Diego, Michigan State University, City of Hope, University of North Carolina, Tucson, VA hospital, Tucson private practice

Do you know which fellowship at which places? I mean Penn for anything is impressive, but more so for GI, Cards, or Pulm/CC . . .

 

[jdh71]

And just a dumb question, but who cares about how high up the academic food chain you can match?

The higher up you go, the more doors open for you (OR at least don't close on you!). If you are planning an academic career, then you want to go to the best possible program that weill guarantee you upward mobility.

Exactly. For the most part, clinically coming out of an ACGME approved fellowship program you will be competent to practice that sub-specialty. The academic food chain is important for those who are interested in staying in academics and doing research. Have ever wondered why Hopkins is considered number one for general medicine? Is it because they teach you how to manage chest pain r/o, pneumonia, or pancreatitis better than a community program? Probably not. Hopkins is number one because that where the most critical mass of research is being done and funded. Highly ranked academic programs are such because they do research. And if you want to stay in academics the game is research.

Hope this helps connect the dots.

 

[docscience]

Exactly. For the most part, clinically coming out of an ACGME approved fellowship program you will be competent to practice that sub-specialty. The academic food chain is important for those who are interested in staying in academics and doing research. Have ever wondered why Hopkins is considered number one for general medicine? Is it because they teach you how to manage chest pain r/o, pneumonia, or pancreatitis better than a community program? Probably not. Hopkins is number one because that where the most critical mass of research is being done and funded. Highly ranked academic programs are such because they do research. And if you want to stay in academics the game is research.

Hope this helps connect the dots.

Thanks jdh71! What part of your training are you in btw? Pulm fellow?

It does make sense. I suppose my #1 priority is to be able to manage chest pain, pneumonia, or pancreatitis and other pathologies.

I haven't however been able to make up my mind to whether I want to do research/be part of the academic food chain.
I am a MS IV and have signed up for a private practice rotation. I hope this will teach me some differences between academia and private practice.

Anyone know the percent of people that stay in/go to academia vs. private practice after IM residency?

 

[docscience]

Do you know which fellowship at which places? I mean Penn for anything is impressive, but more so for GI, Cards, or Pulm/CC . . .

No I don't brother man. The website does not break it down...but I think we can assume the Heme/Onc fellows went to Moffit Cancer Center. (I am deductive genius! ha!)

 

[docscience]

Thanks for the info. The IMG stats are promising being a Caribb. student. Like i said I loved my time at U of A and would love to live in the Phoenix area. I went on their website and said they DO NOT accept forgien students for rotations, which i thought was weird since they have such a large amount of the IMG's in their residency program.

Just so you know jackets5. The U of Arizona residency/campus are in Tucson, not in Phoenix.
Or did I misread your post?

 

[jackets5]

Just so you know jackets5. The U of Arizona residency/campus are in Tucson, not in Phoenix.
Or did I misread your post?

You misread. I know U of A's programs are in Tucson. Was just saying that after residency i would love to remain in AZ to practice, likely in the phoneix/scottsdale area

 

[docscience]

Anyone else have any other info on U of Arizona? I was wondering if I should even go interview.

Thanks.

 

[gutonc]

Anyone else have any other info on U of Arizona? I was wondering if I should even go interview.

Thanks.

You're kidding right? In another thread you're talking about interviewing at crappy community programs nobody has ever heard of but now you're talking about blowing off an interview at a solid university program?

One of my fellowship colleagues went there for IM. She liked it, stayed on as a Chief and has mostly good things to say about it.

 

[docscience]

You're kidding right? In another thread you're talking about interviewing at crappy community programs nobody has ever heard of but now you're talking about blowing off an interview at a solid university program?

One of my fellowship colleagues went there for IM. She liked it, stayed on as a Chief and has mostly good things to say about it.

Gutonc,
I didn't know that U of Arizona was a "solid university program." But you are right in that it is probably better than "I didn't know it was even a program" residency, but as you know other factors are going into my residency choice that I never thought about before:
EMR
Resident chill factor (going to work with these people for a while)
Location (want to match near gf)
etc.

And I heard U of A didn't have EMR...all hand written notes except the VA of course.

I was wondering if anyone had any insight.

 

[Arb]

True. Their leadership may be changing soon too...

I liked the program.

 

[lordjesus]

I have come across some amazing IMG's, particularly from India, who changed my perception of IMG's in general. I don't think having an IMG in a program is bad. I learned a lot from them during my away rotation.

However, not all IMG's are good and some lack the social skills but I think it would be unfair to bunch all the IMG's together. There are AMG's who ain't that good either.

I would not rank a program lower just because they have a lot of IMG's. However, if a program has no AMG's at all I would not rank it too high!

 

[docscience]

True. Their leadership may be changing soon too...

I liked the program.

Hey Arb. Can you elaborate a little more about their leadership changing? Did you interview there? What did you like about the program?

 

[docscience]

I have come across some amazing IMG's, particularly from India, who changed my perception of IMG's in general. I don't think having an IMG in a program is bad. I learned a lot from them during my away rotation.

However, not all IMG's are good and some lack the social skills but I think it would be unfair to bunch all the IMG's together. There are AMG's who ain't that good either.

I would not rank a program lower just because they have a lot of IMG's. However, if a program has no AMG's at all I would not rank it too high!

lordjesus, not being rude at all...but we weren't talking about IMGs. How does this relate to U of A's IM program?

Thanks again.

 

[lordjesus]

"But their intern class this year is made up of 11/32 FMG"

It was in response to the above. I think there is nothing to be concerned if the program has some IMG's, it can still be an awesome program!

I must admit that I had a slightly negative view of IMG's until I actually worked with some of them in an away rotation. Some of my friends who did not have the opportunity to work with IMG's still have the same negative view that I used to have.

If you are considering U of A, I think the fact that they have IMG's should not discourage you from going there. If you intend to remain in AZ post residency or fellowship, I think you would be better off there than going to a program in the East Coast IMHO.

 

[cureious]

I interviewed there already and it seems like a pretty good program. Not a big fan of Tucson, but it isn't the worse city. The program offers the University Medical Center, VA, and a private hospital that you spend some time in. Plenty of opportunities to perform both bench and clinical research there. They have this huge translational research building literally right next door to the university medical center. The AZ cancer center seemed very nice and most of their fellowships at U of A seem to take a good portion of in house applicants (this is according to one of the current chief residents who is going into cards and another R3 who I spoke with that is going to their GI program next year).

Many of the residents seemed very nice and the PD impressed me quite a bit. Overall, I would say it is a rock-solid middle-tier program that will provide you with the opportunities and resources necessary to acquire a fellowship of your choice.

 

[docscience]

I interviewed there already and it seems like a pretty good program. Not a big fan of Tucson, but it isn't the worse city. The program offers the University Medical Center, VA, and a private hospital that you spend some time in. Plenty of opportunities to perform both bench and clinical research there. They have this huge translational research building literally right next door to the university medical center. The AZ cancer center seemed very nice and most of their fellowships at U of A seem to take a good portion of in house applicants (this is according to one of the current chief residents who is going into cards and another R3 who I spoke with that is going to their GI program next year).

Many of the residents seemed very nice and the PD impressed me quite a bit. Overall, I would say it is a rock-solid middle-tier program that will provide you with the opportunities and resources necessary to acquire a fellowship of your choice.

Nice review. I thought the same thing about the program. It was a rock solid middle tier program I guess. They sent 6 people to cards last year! 2009.
Not too many GI matches (except for the R3 the poster talked to).

Tucson does seem like a bear of a city to live in, but PHX is 2 hrs away and the winters are nice. I think I could do 3 years there.

Anyone else considering this program? Any other thoughts?

 

[superhero16]

Anyone know if the pd or chair will be leaving the program? That would heavily factor into my decision to rank them high.

 

[docscience]

Anyone know if the pd or chair will be leaving the program? That would heavily factor into my decision to rank them high.

Is there a rumor that the pd or the chair is leaving? Why do you ask?

 

[Neuro or Derm]

Is there a rumor that the pd or the chair is leaving? Why do you ask?

They have both been there for a while and they are grooming the associate pds to take over either the chair or pd position but that will not happen for another 5 or 6 years. even if it was occurring sooner there should not be a problem because they would be filling internally with someone who was trained for the new position and whom the residents already knew.

 

[docscience]

They have both been there for a while and they are grooming the associate pds to take over either the chair or pd position but that will not happen for another 5 or 6 years. even if it was occurring sooner there should not be a problem because they would be filling internally with someone who was trained for the new position and whom the residents already knew.

Thanks for the info fellow SDNer!

Anyone else have any other thoughts on U of A? Anyone interview there?

 

[meliora27]

Anyone have any updated info on this program? Thanks!

 

[shapeshifter13]

bump. Any more info on U of A IM program?