University of North Carolina Hospitals

[Andrew_Doan]

Ophthalmology Residency Program Compendium Table of Contents

University of North Carolina Hospitals
Department of Ophthalmology
CB# 7040, 5110 Bioinformatics Building
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599

www.unceye.org

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[Andrew_Doan]

Here's my 2 cents for all it's worth:

UNC: Liked the campus, liked the facilities, every interviewer was nice and approachable, very low stress interviews, didn't even seem like there were 9 of them. Residents fairly approachable, 4 course lunch was definitely nice. However I have some reservations regarding the faculty that just left. 1 glaucoma specialist left, leaving the seniors somewhat scrambling for glaucoma cases. 1 retina person is leaving. Every interviewer mentioned this as a drawback to the program. Although they are actively searching to replace the outgoing faculty, it might take a while for the search to conclude & for the new faculty members to establish themselves & build a patient base . Also, the lack of a VA in close proximity is another drawback. They send their residents to a VA in Minnesota, but i was told that some of the residents weren't too crazy about this. They basically have to go there to get enough cases. Also there was some mumbling about the surgical case volume when I pressed one of the seniors. They seem to be a bit on the low side. Clinic volume is not a problem though.

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[UNC Eye]

Applicants!

We residents at UNC created this account to update the information on here, since the last comments were a bit dated. We've all chipped in to give you our take on our program. Let us know if you have any questions.

Pros:
-- Great area to live.
-- Good 'working environment', non-malignant staff
-- Good cataract teaching curriculum, learning multiple techniques and doing difficult cases (not 150 divide and conquers).
-- Good surgical numbers, and experience exceeds numbers due to the above
-- Awesome plastics operative experience
-- Big "names" in retina and plastics, cornea too
-- Surgery, surgery, surgery: 3rd years are graduating with ~200 cataracts. 1st years are routinely doing first cataracts at the end of their first year. Dr. Ken Cohen has created a full surgical curriculum, weekly wetlabs for 1st years, and monthly surgical labs for all residents. Probably one of the best highlights was Dr. Cohen showing a video of one of the 1st years taking out a white cataract to the audience at the Harvard Cataract Course - people were definitely impressed. Hands down the surgery training at UNC is unparalleled.
-- Smaller program with a family feel: 3 residents each year truly allows you to get to know each of the faculty members on a personal basis (go their homes, lake house, etc) as well as build amazing professional relationships. I feel that I have multiple mentors in each of the sub-specialties because of how close you work with the faculty. When searching for fellowships or jobs this helps tremendously. Residents definitely become a part of the "Carolina Family" after training here.
-- Amazing new program director: Dr. Amy Fowler -(plastics). She has changed the program a great deal in the past 2-3 years. She is very in tune with residents, completely approachable, and definitely will go to bat for us. We meet with her once every month over lunch, just to talk, air out any concerns, and plan for ways to make any needed improvements.
-- General feeling that the program is on a real upswing.
-- Location: Can't beat Chapel Hill as a town and North Carolina for the location/weather.
-- More on location: Great sports culture here in regards to basketball and baseball especially. Football is picking up (... except for 13-14 select players). Mountains, lakes, trails, etc for outdoors sporting.
-- Very good balance between didactic, clinical, and surgical training.

Cons:
-- Lots of call for 1st years
-- Lots of resident clinic, often with late hours (hopefully this will change).
-- Research is not a top priority, although enough to get you to ARVO yearly
-- Pediatric surgical volume is on the low side

 

[wantToMatch2011]

thanks for the updated info.. but one question how come you guys haven't given me an interview

 

[eyeloveyes]

Is it correct that the program increased it's number of residents from 3 to 4 for this year's pgy-2 class? I forget if they mentioned that at the interview day. I wonder if this means the numbers will go down per resident?

 

[DrZeke]

Is it correct that the program increased it's number of residents from 3 to 4 for this year's pgy-2 class? I forget if they mentioned that at the interview day. I wonder if this means the numbers will go down per resident?

3rd years are graduating with ~200 cataracts. Most likely this program does not have issues with volume. I would not be concerned about numbers going down, rather instead excited about call being dispersed between more people...

 

[LightBox]

More residents = typically surgical volume will go down per resident. Unless the real limiting factor on surgical volume is something else. For example, poor throughput at the local VA or inability to find someone to staff the cases. I know nothing about this program, but common sense dictates that more residents will mean less surgical cases per resident. But yes, this also means less call per resident

 

[eyeloveyes]

Thanks for all the input. I only brought it up because I am choosing between this and another program....UNC seemed to have the edge in terms of surgical volume based on the numbers but I just realized those probably don't reflect the experience of the incoming 4-resident classes.

 

[DrZeke]

Thanks for all the input. I only brought it up because I am choosing between this and another program....UNC seemed to have the edge in terms of surgical volume based on the numbers but I just realized those probably don't reflect the experience of the incoming 4-resident classes.

If the edge is 30-40 cataracts I wouldn't base my rank list on that.

 

[Chords]

Great facilities, incredible wet lab (I believe they sometimes host large sessions where other schools like Wake drop by), and a lot of the faculty are invested in research. UNC works with the underserved (Duke only takes insured patients? I can't confirm this though, and honestly don't know if it impacts clinical exposure much), so that's something to consider if you're choosing between schools in the research triangle.

 

[doctoreye7]

Can anyone comment on fellowship match?