UT houston- thoughts?

[anatomyaddict]

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There is not much information on this program's website. From what I understand they are pretty solid clinically but are a little weak in academics. Do you guys know about the rep of this program, what kind of fellowships residents get etc etc?

 

[GuitarHero1]

Middle tier somewhere. Clinical > academic. Get solid numbers. I really liked it when I interviewed - great facilities, committed faculty. I don't know if the fellowship matches are as strong as they are not as academic as some places.

 

[anatomyaddict]

thanks for the info!
I'm not really looking for a top fellowship spot. I like retina but don't like academics so I guess a decent retina fellowship will do. Do you think you still have to go to a pretty academic place to achieve this?
thanks!

 

[BlearyStudent]

My friend in med school at UT Houston rotated through the department recently and told me that the program is in trouble. I was going to apply but I was advised not to bother with the interview if I could use the date for another program. They have recently lost several core faculty and the resident morale is very low. I hear the surgical numbers are good and the facility is beautiful.

 

[GuitarHero1]

thanks for the info!
I'm not really looking for a top fellowship spot. I like retina but don't like academics so I guess a decent retina fellowship will do. Do you think you still have to go to a pretty academic place to achieve this?
thanks!

You can get retina fellowships from both highly clinical to highly academic programs. Residents in my program which is pretty academic get retina fellowships frequently and a lot of them go into private practice. So I can't say that going to an academic residency = academic career. I would say that maybe going to an academic center will increase your odds of getting a retina fellowship, and a better known retina fellowship which may make you more competitive for a job.

 

[ehseejay]

I did an away there this fall. Here is my 2 cents.

The pros: 1. Beautiful Cizik eye center. It is brand new, state of the art, and very very nice. 2. They stay very busy clinically at the county hospital and get lots of good exposure out there (almost overworked). 3. Located in the Texas medical center (which if you have not seen is worth the trip). 4. I got the feeling the program had some good funding. Money always makes things easier. 5. The faculty (aside from 1 which I will not mention) were great teachers and supportive. I had not heard of any mass exodus but I do know they were looking actively searching for a plastics attending.

The cons: 1. My major concern with this program was that you spent ~half of your rotations at the Cizik eye center. The reason the clinic is so nice is because it is private. Some of the staff have financial interests in the clinic. You see paying patients that at times seemed insulted when the you (or residents) saw them. I got the feeling that the residents were glorified techs while at Cizik and there was very little teaching going on (disclaimer: I only rotated on 1 service at the clinic so it might not be that way at all of them). The resident went in the room, did the basics (History, PE, Assessment, plan) then moved onto the next patient with out any discussion with the attending. The attendings would often change plans and not use this as teaching points or even let the resident know. In the OR at Cizik, the resident seemed to be the professional BSS squirter and dabber. They were not primary surgeon in the slightest. 2. Surgical numbers are average because of previous point.

Overall though, the residents seemed well trained and happy.

 

[BlearyStudent]

I inquired further with friends who interviewed there already. There is no neuro-ophthalmology, no oculoplastics and one of the Pediatric ophthalmologists is leaving. The Residents did not seem too overworked but said there is very little actual teaching and most of their time is spent being technicians. Apparently, the Department is a private practice and set up that way, not so much for teaching.
Most of their experiences come from the County hospital. It is a very trauma heavy program but there is no oculoplastics so I'm not sure how that is managed.

 

[anatomyaddict]

I inquired further with friends who interviewed there already. There is no neuro-ophthalmology, no oculoplastics and one of the Pediatric ophthalmologists is leaving. The Residents did not seem too overworked but said there is very little actual teaching and most of their time is spent being technicians. Apparently, the Department is a private practice and set up that way, not so much for teaching.
Most of their experiences come from the County hospital. It is a very trauma heavy program but there is no oculoplastics so I'm not sure how that is managed.

After did my interview there recently. Basically from what I understand their plastics guy left and they are in the process of hiring 2 new ones to keep up with the volume. As far as teaching, there seemed to be some residents completely happy with the autonomy and a couple who said that there was very little teaching and it was very self driven
But my question is: is a self driven program necessarily a bad thing? Isn't ophtho as a whole a specialty where you learn by doing and seeing?
This program had really good volume and pathology, but I guess I am conflicted because some of the reasons you mentioned above

 

[loves the eyeballs]

I wanted to throw in my 2 cents, though biased (I am a UT resident), I believe UT Houston needs a little updating on the thread (though old, I realize...).

I think it is a very exciting time to be a resident at UT Houston; we have recently hired several awesome ophthalmology specialists who are devoted to teaching and have more time to spend doing so; we have acquired a cornea specialist from Utah fellowship, a glaucoma/pedi glaucoma specialist from Bascom Palmer, 2 oculoplastics attendings, we have an AMAZING neuro-ophthalmology experience with Dr. Andy Lee at Methodist (famous! genius!!) and have also hired a recent graduate of the Utah fellowship, as well. We have a pediatric ophthalmology specialist from one of the best pedi fellowship programs (Children's national) as well as Dr. Hittner who is leading a paradigm shift in ROP treatment. The program is BUSY clinically, surgically and on-call (very trauma heavy), but that (in my opinion) is what you need as a resident. We rotate through MD Anderson (invaluable clinical and surgical experience) as well as get the opportunity to see/rotate through several well-known private facilities in the area (which I also think is invaluable opportunity to experience different clinical settings..). We are also looking to hire a couple more faculty soon, so obviously money isn't an issue in the program (always a plus).

The county hospital (as mentioned above) is where we get to practice our autonomy, but now with more attendings, it is also abundantly-staffed, which can lead to more hand-holding if needed. While true that at Cizik (our private clinic), you can act more like a glorified tech at times, it is all in how you see it; we always have the opportunity to chart-round on the interesting patients at the end of the day with the fellow and attending and I always make it a point to chart review independently on all of the patients I have seen. It is a busy clinic with good practice in efficiency, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

K. My two cents. 😉