What's the story on UT Southwestern's Gen Surg program. I've heard from residents there the following things, all a bit red flags for me.
- Lots of issues with the New (2013) Chair
- New PD (Brian Williams) as of this summer. I googled him and it was like he almost didn't exist. Anyone know who he is?
- They've had issues with case numbers. Apparently two graduates a few years ago didn't meet min ABS case numbers and they got in trouble
- Resident attrition. People leave as early as 3 months into intern year and late as PGY4
- Faculty turnover.
- They won't interview IMGs or anyone not "traditional" for their program (read: not a prototypical white kid straight out of residency)
I'm confused because they seem to have an okay reputation, but my insider says it's falling apart. I would love to be in Dallas though. Anyone else have any info?
Thx
I graduated in 2013. I never met the new chair. I occasionally call some of my old attendings to discuss patients. My brother is the nephrology program director. I would characterize my knowledge of the current state of affairs within the UTSW surgery dept as pretty limited, but I have heard the rumors. I will respond to each of your statements.
1. The rumor is that the chair wants to transform UTSW into more of an academic place like the names you see in various top 10 lists. I have always felt that the strength of UTSW as a place to train was that it could put you on track to be an academic surgeon if you wanted but could also turn you into an above average community general surgeon without additional fellowship training. It would be sad to me if somehow the program's focus on promoting graduated autonomy and training true general surgeons were lost while transforming the program into a specialty driven institution with fellows everywhere. I have also heard rumors that faculty pay under the new chair is terrible.
2. As an example of how out of touch I am, I didn't even know Brian Williams was the new PD. He is just about perfect for the job: former military, Harvard residency, Grady for trauma, etc. He appeared to genuinely enjoy being an educator for students and residents. I enjoyed being on his service.
3. This may be true of any large program: it's possible to skate by and avoid the OR by sending junior residents in so you can bug out early. If anybody failed to get their numbers I bet this was the reason. I frequently stuck around post trauma call to cover cases my colleagues couldn't. I also traded one of my co-chiefs for an extra month of surg onc which is the most demanding month for chiefs in order to get more HPB cases. I would have met my numbers without having done all that by just doing what was expected of me.
4. I had never heard of an intern leaving after 3 months but I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen. UTSW takes 13 categoricals each year. Attrition in general surgery is about 20-25%. Do the math. I suspect in the case of the intern, he or she wasn't just leaving UTSW but the entire medical field. I can't come up with a likely career path in medicine after a move like that unless it was related to some significant medical or family event. There were a few residents that I knew who did not have their contracts renewed after PGY4. While sad, in every case the residents had multiple opportunities to fix deficiencies including counseling, being assigned a proctor, repeating a clinical year, etc. If we are going to talk the talk about policing our own and graduating safe surgeons then we have to walk the walk.
5. See my answer to #1.
6. Absolute rubbish. I was a Indian guy with shoulder length hair and a nontraditional path into medicine. One intern class had 3 IMG categoricals: 2 from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and 1 from Ross (a Caribbean school) and they were all very good residents. One intern class had 10 women and 3 men. There have been multiple openly gay residents and fellows. Lastly, Brian Williams is black.
