UPMC thoughts

[doc2b2009]

I really liked this program, it is vying for a #1 position on my rank list. From other candidates (i.e. classmates) I have spoken to, I am getting mixed feelings. It is a strong program, with seemingly happy residents - though I really only met a handful.

I like the city, from what I saw of it...so if anyone has additional info on the town of pittsburgh, that would be helpful, too.

Just curious to hear other opinions from those who interviewed there. I am fellowship-interested (likely pulm/cc), fyi.

Any input would be great, including from current/past residents and med students.

Oh, this is the main university program by the way.

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[jgl1980]

Whats up! The only thing I have heard about the program is that it is good and you will be ready for anything by the end of it. As for the town I really enjoy pittsburgh. It has something for everyone. If you like baseball going to pirates games is really cool. I am not even a pirates fan but I have been a couple of times and loved it each time. The city itself has everything from museums, great fine arts and a happening downtown scene if you are into that. Not sure what your hobbies are but you will find it in pittsburgh. Another plus is there is a nice ski resort fairly close by. Sorry I can not comment of the program to much but the city itself is really great and I hate big cities. I grew up in the country but have lived in many parts of the U.S. for various amounts of time. Good luck with everything.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

I talked to a medical student at Pitt who said that Pitt is generally strong for its surgical residencies (not that that's the only strong area), ob/gyn, peds and for some of its medicine/peds fellowships. He claimed that IM itself at UPMC was weaker and that surgery "threw" its post-op patients at medicine rather than taking care of them themselves. Perhaps that's better for training, perhaps it just creates more work. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[tibor75]

UPMC is more fellow run than other hospitals that have a reputation for being fellow run, like Mayo. But the training is solid. It's likely on par with other major academic IM programs in the midwest - OSU, Indiana, Rush, Loyola.

Pittsburgh is a bleh city. It's old. As in elderly. The county Pittsburgh is in is the oldest big county in the country outside of the Florida counties (Broward, West Palm Beach). If you are young, there are far better cities to go to. If you have a family, there is some appeal as it's cheap. The people are idiots when it comes to their beloved Stillers. Local schools actually operated on a 2 hour delay the day after the super bowl. They were never able to get a smoking ban passed which tells you something. PNC Park is amazing and it's nice that the team stinks so tickets are easy to get.

 

[DrJosephKim]

Sorry, I thought I saw UMPC and I got really excited.

 

[Evil Eye]

UPMC is more fellow run than other hospitals that have a reputation for being fellow run, like Mayo. But the training is solid. It's likely on par with other major academic IM programs in the midwest - OSU, Indiana, Rush, Loyola.

Pittsburgh is a bleh city. It's old. As in elderly. The county Pittsburgh is in is the oldest big county in the country outside of the Florida counties (Broward, West Palm Beach). If you are young, there are far better cities to go to. If you have a family, there is some appeal as it's cheap. The people are idiots when it comes to their beloved Stillers. Local schools actually operated on a 2 hour delay the day after the super bowl. They were never able to get a smoking ban passed which tells you something. PNC Park is amazing and it's nice that the team stinks so tickets are easy to get.

No need to hate on the Stillers just 'cause they're the greatest sports franchise in this country...

 

[deleted4401]

The 2 hour delay is true ... but housestaff did not fall under the category of people that were allowed to come in late. Bummer.

The smoking ban passed.

The city is older demographically, but there is a lot of things to do - arts/culture, parks/outdoors activities, restaurants, bars. There are many colleges/universities here for a city it's size - 6 undergraduate institutions including Pitt and CMU, medical school, 2 law schools, 2 pharmacy schools, etc. UPMC has almost the highest number of housestaff anywhere in the country. Because of that, there actually is a fair amount of 20-30 year olds. Property prices have held value, and the city has been fairly recession proof. There are nice neighborhoods to live in for both single and married people.

I did prelim medicine at UPMC and it was not a bad year, at all. Conference with lunch every single day, 80 hour work week was fairly strongly enforced (except for MICU, I think), attendings were nice, and the residents seemed to be fairly happy.

It's a nice place to live - clean, cheap, green. The weather is terrible and there is not a lot of sunshine. People here are nice. And yeah, the Steelers are a big deal, but whatever. It's nice when a city has a common bond (i.e. Austin and their music festivals, Chicago and their corruption).

S

S

 

[annie5644]

born and raised in pgh, went to pitt med. now doing residency in another city. pittsburgh is great. great neighborhoods, awesome music scene, lots of good restaurants and some cool bars too. the people are friendly and love the city. good places to run, walk, great urban parks for frisbee golf, mountain biking, dog walking, etc. yes it's demographically older but near the hospitals, the neighborhoods are pretty young - shadyside, squirrel hill, south side, etc.

if you really think you want to go into ccm, this is the place to be. probably the best ccm program in the country. the medicine program tends to get overshadowed by surgery but is still damn strong.

i'm currently in a much bigger city and i can tell you w 100% certainty that i did 4x as many cultural, social, fun things when i was in pgh than i do now....

 

[zatennis]

Bump
Any more insights on Pitt would be appreciated.
I really enjoyed my interview day there.
The perception that I have heard from multiple people (including one who did residency there) is that fellows and hospitalists do many of the procedures that at other programs would be done by residents... but that if you are proactive you can get your hands on them.

I assume you have to be proactive to do procedures anywhere though. So I don't know what to make of that.

 

[ResidentMD]

Bump
Any more insights on Pitt would be appreciated.
I really enjoyed my interview day there.
The perception that I have heard from multiple people (including one who did residency there) is that fellows and hospitalists do many of the procedures that at other programs would be done by residents... but that if you are proactive you can get your hands on them.

I assume you have to be proactive to do procedures anywhere though. So I don't know what to make of that.

I interviewed at Pitt this year and was impressed.

Few things -

1. PD and Chair - awesome. You have to see them to realize how involved they are in the program.
2. Residents - much more laid back than some of the other academic centers I have been to. I think that is their style of learning, and it suits some people, and doesnt suit others. They are much more informal (at least thats the way it appeared to me on morning report), but in the end, they still learn.
I found them great, but when I have discussed this with some other people on my interview trail, I hear the residents at Pitt are not as "academically oriented" (I wont use the word 'smart' as thats not true) as those at some of the Boston programs. Possibly a location issue. No offense to Pitt residents - as I thought all of them were decent. Its just the word on the trail.

3. Procedures and clinical training - Yes, its fellow run. But I have visited some other "fellow run" programs, and your perception is correct - they say, as long as you are proactive in wanting to do procedures, you will get the opportunities. It may not be something like community hospitals in NYC, UTSW, Baylor, BU, etc that you will be offered procedures on a silver platter, but I believe opportunities exist.

I do believe that fellows have a presence at UPMC, but I think if you can prove yourself as a resident, any fellow and attending would be happy to give you more responsibility. Its just logical.

Research opportunities are phenomenal at Pitt. And they have tracks for everyone.

I think Pitt is one of the programs, like Mayo, UCSF, BI among many, that also has a strong GIM focus. A lot of their grads choose to go into GIM or even Women's Health (another area of focus).

I think the Pitt program is on its way up, and I wont be surprised if it turns into a top 10 IM program in the country in the next 5-10 years. They need all the good residents that they can get to make the program stronger.

I will be ranking Pitt in my top 3, may be even at the top of my ROL. So if you are enthusiastic about IM (and procedure-oriented) like me, rank it high and maybe we will be co-interns next year, and get the fellows to start trusting the residents more!

 

[zatennis]

I interviewed at Pitt this year and was impressed.

Few things -

1. PD and Chair - awesome. You have to see them to realize how involved they are in the program.
2. Residents - much more laid back than some of the other academic centers I have been to. I think that is their style of learning, and it suits some people, and doesnt suit others. They are much more informal (at least thats the way it appeared to me on morning report), but in the end, they still learn.
I found them great, but when I have discussed this with some other people on my interview trail, I hear the residents at Pitt are not as "academically oriented" (I wont use the word 'smart' as thats not true) as those at some of the Boston programs. Possibly a location issue. No offense to Pitt residents - as I thought all of them were decent. Its just the word on the trail.

3. Procedures and clinical training - Yes, its fellow run. But I have visited some other "fellow run" programs, and your perception is correct - they say, as long as you are proactive in wanting to do procedures, you will get the opportunities. It may not be something like community hospitals in NYC, UTSW, Baylor, BU, etc that you will be offered procedures on a silver platter, but I believe opportunities exist.

I do believe that fellows have a presence at UPMC, but I think if you can prove yourself as a resident, any fellow and attending would be happy to give you more responsibility. Its just logical.

Research opportunities are phenomenal at Pitt. And they have tracks for everyone.

I think Pitt is one of the programs, like Mayo, UCSF, BI among many, that also has a strong GIM focus. A lot of their grads choose to go into GIM or even Women's Health (another area of focus).

I think the Pitt program is on its way up, and I wont be surprised if it turns into a top 10 IM program in the country in the next 5-10 years. They need all the good residents that they can get to make the program stronger.

I will be ranking Pitt in my top 3, may be even at the top of my ROL. So if you are enthusiastic about IM (and procedure-oriented) like me, rank it high and maybe we will be co-interns next year, and get the fellows to start trusting the residents more!

I do plan to rank Pitt in my top 3 but having trouble deciding between my home school (best reputation), Pitt, and Umaryland (closest to siblings).
Pluses for Pitt:
+ I was also highly impressed by the energy of the PD and it was nice to meet the chair (unlike at some programs). The flexibility of the curriculum
is also cool.
+/- I didn't get to meet the residents much because I came for the heme/onc subspecialty day, though I also got the feeling it was more relaxed. I'm not sure whether the relaxed vs. the more hopkins-like aequanimitas environment suits me better. I suppose the two can co-exist..

+ I do like Pitt's emphasis on professional development in a broader context e.g. professionalism retreat, courses on medical education (i just saw that they offer an MS in medical education as well).

Regarding procedures, I did get a good response from an acquaintance currently doing the transitional year at UPMC:

'The floor months can be long days. But, there is ample opportunity to learn and to be your patient's primary doctor. I have never had a procedure stolen from me by a fellow or upper level resident. On the contrary, everyone is eager to have the younger residents do the procedures (because the older residents are sick of doing them).'