University of Kentucky College of Medicine

[Andrew_Doan]

Ophthalmology Residency Program Compendium Table of Contents

University of Kentucky-Chandler Medical Center
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Kentucky Clinic E 302
Lexington, Kentucky 40536-0284

http://www.mc.uky.edu/eye

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[idoc]

If anyone would like insider info, I am a resident at this program. Either post a question or PM me.

For what it's worth, I love this program and have gotten excellent training here.

 

[GuP]

Can you comment on the retina fellowship there? Thanks.

 

[PDT4CNV]

Can you comment on the retina fellowship there? Thanks.

It is good fellowship. They take 1 fellow per year. There are two rotations and so the fellows rotate so they are on different rotations at any given time.

One rotation is with the deparment faculty at UK. You work with Pearson who is a really great guy as is Blackburn. Dr. Pearson made it clear to me that he does not like to do cases in the middle of the night. Dr.Blackburn does some melanoma plaqueing if you are interested in that. Dr. Ambati is there, and you work with him just a little bit. He is mostly doing research now.

The other rotation is with a private practice group. It is a great group. Dr. Wood didn't even cancel his clinic when I interviewed, so his interviews were about 5 minutes long. He seemed nice but with an old school surgeon type of personality. Dr. Stone and Kitchens were also great guys and they all trained at reputable institutions. Dr. Isernhagen was not there the day I interviewed. They are involved in a surpisingly large number of clinical trials for a private group. I've seen Dr. Kitchens name listed as a lecturer at several national meetings so I believe he is an up and coming name in the retina world.

Surgical volume I would say is very good, probably looking at 500-600 cases as primary surgeon over the course of the fellowship.

I would highly recommend this fellowship.

 

[idoc]

I think your assessment of the fellowship is mostly right, but I do have to take issue with a few comments. First, our last fellow got about 800 - 900 cases as primary surgeon, so I don't think the 500 -600 mark is accurate. He was doing 10 vits/day, and not all straightforward ppv/mp's either.

Regarding Dr. Ambati, once you get to know him, he is an amazing person with great insight into retina, and also is extremely well read on world politics, etc. He is one of my favorite attendings because he makes you think. I would be more put off by someone who went through the motions during an interview process than by someone who challenges you through tasks and difficult questions. If anything, that shows he is more invested in the process of selecting people by truly getting to know how people react in certain situations. Just my $0.02, but I think you would be hard pressed to find a resident or fellow who doesn't like Dr. Ambati once you get to know him.

I am not applying for retina fellowships, so I don't know how to compare this program to others, but I will tell anyone interested that you get a crazy amount of surgical and clinical experience with some of the nicest and most personable retina guys around in Drs. Pearson, Blackburn, Stone, and Kitchens. I don't know Wood or Isenhagen, so I can't comment on them. Hope this helps.

 

[PDT4CNV]

Dr. Ambati in the past has had applicants stack things and perform tasks while fireing off complicated questions. Word spreads among those applying for retina and I had heard about him even before I interviewed there. The fellows spend very little time with him relative to the other attendings, I see no reason for the interview with him.

Don't take offense man, I was complementing the fellowship as a whole. I think very highly of it.

 

[idoc]

I don't think you really know what you are talking about if you think our last fellow had a tendency to embelish. I think you are getting your years mixed up. I scrubbed with the last fellow, and believe me the numbers are legit. I am not trying to get into a semantics debate, and I do appreciate the overall unbiased endorsement. Best of Luck to all who are in the process.

 

[rubensan]

The mission of SDN is to be an "independent resource to the pre-health and health professional student community." Note the word, PROFESSIONAL. Although this is a mostly anonymous forum, I do not think that calling a colleague an "a-hole" in a public forum is in keeping with the professional standards of being a physician. The above post from PDT4CNV has been reported and a few are asking that it be removed. Although this forum has the right to delete posts that are deemed "abusive, libelous, defamatory or obscene," the post, as a whole is actually quite supportive of the retina fellowship at the U of Kentucky so I intend to let it stand. Perhaps PDT4CNV might consider editing his original post to make it less disparaging to certain individuals and apologizing to those he/she has offended. Remember, if you wouldn't sign your name to something that you are posting in a professional blog, why post it? This was an issue a few months ago and we lost a moderator because of it. Let's not repeat that.

 

[PDT4CNV]

removed

 

[KingTutATL]

Sorry to dig up an old topic but I just sat on a jury for 5 days involving Dr. Ambati as the plaintiff suing the Medical College of Georgia. Small world.

 

[wf2bu]

i think the ambati at mcg is not the same one at kentucky. they are brothers....

 

[futuremd16]

Updates on the residency program here?

 

[outdoorfanatic]

Had heard really positive things about UK from alumni, and was really impressed on interview day. Just made the switch to 4 residents/year, will be moving to a brand new eye clinic in 2017. Good numbers across the board, and great fellowship placement (website very informative on much of this). Good retina reputation. Offers a great internship that includes 4 months of ophtho clinic in the VA (no call, no weekends) spread out over the year. The only other places I have heard that do something like this are Utah and Iowa, and it's obviously is a big plus. I really liked the faculty I interviewed with, and the alumni said they felt very comfortable with all of them, even for middle-of-the-night questions. Residents seemed tight, and several had families and said the program is very family friendly. VA, Children's hospital, UK hospital, and eye clinic are all connected by bridges. Call schedule is primary q5 year one and q15 year two according to the website. Residents report plenty of interesting pathology referred in from the hollers out in the mountains. Lexington is actually a really cool town for its size, lots of sports/races/concerts/etc. Cost of living is apparently great with little traffic and some incredible parks. Loads of outdoorsy options in the Red River Gorge 1hr away. 1hr from Cincinnati and Louisville.

 

[Bronze Medal]

I'm sure the 4 months of ophthalmology during intern year are great, but the rest of the prelim surgery year is probably very rough. Kentucky is known for its grueling and historically malignant general surgery program. This coming from someone who strongly considered applying to general surgery and researched lots of programs. I'm not commenting on ophthalmology at Kentucky, just the surgery prelim year.

 

[DrZeke]

I'm sure the 4 months of ophthalmology during intern year are great, but the rest of the prelim surgery year is probably very rough. Kentucky is known for its grueling and historically malignant general surgery program. This coming from someone who strongly considered applying to general surgery and researched lots of programs. I'm not commenting on ophthalmology at Kentucky, just the surgery prelim year.

Intern year is behind you in the blink of an eye, I wouldn't put much weight on the integrated intern year when deciding on UK. It will probably make you more appreciative that you picked Ophtho anyways.

 

[Bronze Medal]

Intern year is behind you in the blink of an eye, I wouldn't put much weight on the integrated intern year when deciding on UK. It will probably make you more appreciative that you picked Ophtho anyways.

All other things being equal, it could be the tie-breaker when making a rank list. Just something to consider .

 

[DrZeke]

My point is that it shouldn't be a tie breaker on someone's rank list. Sometimes people look back on rank lists and realize they were being fickle. Something to think about... Hindsight is 20/20

 

[outdoorfanatic]

Importantly, the internship is NOT required like at Utah or MUSC. You can still choose to do a cush TY.
The surgery rotations are 1 month each of ENT, Plastics, Vascular, and neurosurgery. The rest of the months are IM wards or consults like rheum. It was recommended by the residents who had done it.

 

[CPT52692]

Can anyone offer new input on this program? How well do residents match into fellowships?