Does anyone have any recent thoughts or insight to how USC's ophthalmology program will be despite the Doheny split? Still trying to figure out my rank list.
USC ophthalmology
- Thread starter Ophthman
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Magic 8 ball says...
IMO they are going through a huge transition after the split with Doheney. On top of that, their long time chairman Dr. Ryan recently passed away which was a huge loss for the ophthalmology community and USC in particular. Make no mistake about it, this will affect resident life at USC for a number of years and I would take that into account when considering matching. Program stability is an underdiscussed topic on SDN and it is often difficult to grade a program based on this, but USC is an exception considering the changes they have and will be dealing with for several years to come.
IMO they are going through a huge transition after the split with Doheney. On top of that, their long time chairman Dr. Ryan recently passed away which was a huge loss for the ophthalmology community and USC in particular. Make no mistake about it, this will affect resident life at USC for a number of years and I would take that into account when considering matching. Program stability is an underdiscussed topic on SDN and it is often difficult to grade a program based on this, but USC is an exception considering the changes they have and will be dealing with for several years to come.
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Yeah, USC is in a major transition right now with the possibility of the well-known USC faculty members to move to UCLA en masse. However it's also possible that the faculty could stay with USC. Unfortunately, we likely wouldn't find out about their decisions until after we submit our rank lists.
About Dr Ryan's passing, I'm not sure if it would significantly impact USC ophthalmology. After all it has been almost 10 years since he was the dean, but I think that Dr Ron Smith's resignation (he had been the chair for almost 20 years) would affect the program tremendously.
USC would likely have to go low on their rank list to fill their spots. This is great news for applicants who are not as strong on paper but were able to secure an interview through an away. However, for stronger applicants who have ties to the LA area, it's going to be a difficult decision to rank them.
About Dr Ryan's passing, I'm not sure if it would significantly impact USC ophthalmology. After all it has been almost 10 years since he was the dean, but I think that Dr Ron Smith's resignation (he had been the chair for almost 20 years) would affect the program tremendously.
USC would likely have to go low on their rank list to fill their spots. This is great news for applicants who are not as strong on paper but were able to secure an interview through an away. However, for stronger applicants who have ties to the LA area, it's going to be a difficult decision to rank them.
A significant portion of the training is/was at LA County for the USC residents, so I suspect that the program will continue to provide very good clinical training regardless of how things go down. LA is also a highly sought after location, so it will likely continue to be a competitive program to get into, although obviously not like it was before, for now.
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Like anything else it is over money and power.
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USC will be fine; the dean of the medical school at USC is an ophthalmologist who built up the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute prior to joining USC. He'll have no problem retaining faculty, especially since he holds the purse strings there. Doheny is foolish to split from USC
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Similar split at Wash U and also at Baylor has left both programs weaker, though hard to tell what will happen long term. Money and philosophy are at the bottom of it all.
I think it was lost for USC, as doheny/USC was the only USC department that was rated in the top 10 in its own field. Now Doheny is affliated with UCLA another top tier ophtho department. It sounds like there will be good number of faculty that will leave with Doheny/UCLA.
I do agree with you that USC will be fine in the end. It will take some time for them to bring new faculty member and build up their department.
The split was caused by USC wanting the Doheny building and also for program control. The Dean of the medical school, which Ryan and Smith brought into USC thinking that it would be an advantage to have someone in their field lead the medical school, wanted complete control of the opthomology program. That simple and sad. It was ugly and frankly disgraceful how USC and the Dean treated the two men that built the program at USC. The ridiculous thing is that both men were close to retirement. Had USC not begun the fight for control, Ryan and Smith would have retired, and Doheny might have actually stayed at USC. Instead, both men passed away fighting what they thought was an injustice by USC and led the merger with UCLA.
While it was initially unclear how many faculty would follow Doheny to UCLA, Smith's untimely death seemed to have struck a cord with faculty and most followed his lead in resigning from USC, incuding Irvine and Sadun.
While Smith was extremely sad to leave USC under the conditions that he did. He was excited and committed by the prospect of combining two top ranked programs. He passed away with the vision that they would one day become #1 in the country. And while USC might do ok in the long run, it will always be playing catch up to Doheny and JS. Doheny was the reason USC Opthomology was even on the map.
Bumping this thread. Thoughts on USC Eye?
It was unnerving that "Doheny" was not brought up on interview day at all. It feels as though they get good training with LAC, but definitely a concern about transparency.
It was unnerving that "Doheny" was not brought up on interview day at all. It feels as though they get good training with LAC, but definitely a concern about transparency.
I was hoping that it will be clear from the interview day the Doheny/UCLA vs USC Eye situation. Quite a few applicants asked it straight up and residents/faculty were happy to answer. We are still friends and colleagues, as I came from UCLA and many of the former faculty that I am friends with stayed loyal to Doheny. Ophthalmology community is small and we share patients (our clinics are in the same buildings on the private side)
The split happened before I joined USC, so I can not comment on what lead to it. I can only comment on what I see now and how the residents are doing. I have friends (residents)who graduated before and right after the split. Everyone said to me (even before I signed my contract) that the changes were for the best.
Now there is 100% supervision in OR, no cases to start without an attending present. There is an assigned attending to each clinic half day: cornea attending for cornea, glaucoma for glaucoma day, etc at county. Previously, this was not the case and fellows were the only staffing. It is in my contract that I will attend resident clinics/OR, so it is in writing so none of the faculty can disappear. If I need to take a vacation I find coverage myself.
Teaching: dedicated curriculum for 4 hrs each friday morning, we cover everything in BCSC, grand rounds every tuesday nights, glaucoma rounds on wed night with the chairman, usual FA conferences. And we are sending 2nd and 3 rd year residents to San Antonio review course this year and for years to follow. Residents can also attend UCLA review course in addition to San Antonio.
My private clinics are self sufficient and I do not rely on residents to write my notes or do any scut, when they come to work with me - it is for their benefit and I am happy if they see 4 pts total but learn something instead of going through 20 puts in half day.
Oh and they get 24 paid vacation days, required to take all of them- I don't know if any other program can match that...Plus educational leave.
Any questions feel free to pm me or post her.
The split happened before I joined USC, so I can not comment on what lead to it. I can only comment on what I see now and how the residents are doing. I have friends (residents)who graduated before and right after the split. Everyone said to me (even before I signed my contract) that the changes were for the best.
Now there is 100% supervision in OR, no cases to start without an attending present. There is an assigned attending to each clinic half day: cornea attending for cornea, glaucoma for glaucoma day, etc at county. Previously, this was not the case and fellows were the only staffing. It is in my contract that I will attend resident clinics/OR, so it is in writing so none of the faculty can disappear. If I need to take a vacation I find coverage myself.
Teaching: dedicated curriculum for 4 hrs each friday morning, we cover everything in BCSC, grand rounds every tuesday nights, glaucoma rounds on wed night with the chairman, usual FA conferences. And we are sending 2nd and 3 rd year residents to San Antonio review course this year and for years to follow. Residents can also attend UCLA review course in addition to San Antonio.
My private clinics are self sufficient and I do not rely on residents to write my notes or do any scut, when they come to work with me - it is for their benefit and I am happy if they see 4 pts total but learn something instead of going through 20 puts in half day.
Oh and they get 24 paid vacation days, required to take all of them- I don't know if any other program can match that...Plus educational leave.
Any questions feel free to pm me or post her.
Thank you very much! It's great to hear that faculty are engaged and that the training still has a healthy private component. I did definitely get the sense that there were a lot of new, young faculty very enthusiastic about resident education and teaching!
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I'm currently a first year resident at USC ophtho and I thought I'd take a minute to share some thoughts on the program.
1. It's Awesome. Seriously. We're a top 10 program for a reason.
2. We are a MUCH stronger program than we were 2 years ago. There is a palpable sense of excitement at USC Ophtho. From increased didactics (7-9 hours a week) to additional (amazing!) faculty to new equipment (femtosecond laser just for the residents, what! what!), Drs. Varma, Puliafito, Humayan, Patel, and Berry are making our training truly the best in the country.
3. L.A. County is a very special place to learn. Our patients have advanced pathology and are extremely grateful for our care. It's truly an honor to serve those who need it most.
4. We match extremely well for fellowship. Just last year, our graduates went to some of the top fellowship programs in the country: Wills, Wilmer, Michigan, and UCLA.
5. We're happy. We have a culture of respect and support. Not a whiff of malignancy in the entire place.
6. Yes, it's hard. Yes, you will come out a "County Strong" Storm Trooper capable of handling anything. But we are a rock solid team and we kick ass together. And we have a LOT of fun along the way.
My residency class couldn't be happier. For those who match with us in January, you will be too.
-Philip Storey
http://eyelearnusc.org/residency/
1. It's Awesome. Seriously. We're a top 10 program for a reason.
2. We are a MUCH stronger program than we were 2 years ago. There is a palpable sense of excitement at USC Ophtho. From increased didactics (7-9 hours a week) to additional (amazing!) faculty to new equipment (femtosecond laser just for the residents, what! what!), Drs. Varma, Puliafito, Humayan, Patel, and Berry are making our training truly the best in the country.
3. L.A. County is a very special place to learn. Our patients have advanced pathology and are extremely grateful for our care. It's truly an honor to serve those who need it most.
4. We match extremely well for fellowship. Just last year, our graduates went to some of the top fellowship programs in the country: Wills, Wilmer, Michigan, and UCLA.
5. We're happy. We have a culture of respect and support. Not a whiff of malignancy in the entire place.
6. Yes, it's hard. Yes, you will come out a "County Strong" Storm Trooper capable of handling anything. But we are a rock solid team and we kick ass together. And we have a LOT of fun along the way.
My residency class couldn't be happier. For those who match with us in January, you will be too.
-Philip Storey
http://eyelearnusc.org/residency/
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Of all the programs I visited I must say I was most surprised by USC and how they have turned it around since their split with Doheny. However, it did seem like everyone kept mentioning that USC remained in the top 10 even after the split and I felt that isn’t necessarily going to be the case in the next few years. Those US News rankings don’t reflect training as much as prestige and NIH funding of the program, so from a resident-training perspective I think it has little consequence. But the fact is that applicants and programs DO care about ranking and should know what to expect when they start and finish training at a program. For that reason and the fact it was brought up several times during my interview day, I think its important to realize that SC will likely fall in ranking in the next few years. They lost huge names with a lot of funding that were including in the current rankings. Additionally, since the reputation score includes surveys from 2012, the full impact of the USC-Doheny split wont be realized until 2016 when the current applicants will be starting.
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Thank you for posting the fellowship matches for this year. Does anyone have the fellowship matches from previous years? Thanks!