West Virginia University

[Andrew_Doan]

Ophthalmology Residency Program Compendium Table of Contents

West Virginia University School of Medicine
WVU Eye Institute, Dept of Ophthalmology
PO Box 9193, Stadium Drive
Morgantown, West Virginia 26506

http://www.wvueye.com

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[cataract55]

1

 

[golfman]

Any thoughts at all on West Virginia? I can't find an opinion about them anywhere. Upper tier? Upper-middle tier? Middle tier? Mid-low tier? Low tier? I honestly have no clue. (I don't know where else to look besides here, Ophthalmology Match Applicants, West Virginias website, and talking to residents I know).

 

[eyeviking]

The sub specialities are very strong and tend to stay up with the current trends and treatments. The faculty are very approachable and it is generally a very good environment to learn in.

Plus - good surgical volume, lots of pathology, good lecture base to prepare for boards, congenial working environment, good trauma experience.

Minus- travel to VA (45 minutes away - but you get lots of surgery and you are paired with an upper year resident and run your own clinic so you learn a lot), you will do lots of hospital consults, call can be busy because you work for the whole state at night and on weekends.

 

[Centre2b]

Can anyone give updates on West Virginia?

They recently named a new chair - Dr. Gross from Baylor. Any thoughts on how that will affect the program?

 

[russiandoc]

I am a current resident there, have rotated at a good amount of programs when applying, and interviewed at a few more.

Recent updates - New chairman who is very dedicated to the program, is making positive changes and will continue to do so. Could not be happier with him. Call is transitioning to q6 with first and second years taking primary home call. Call can be very busy, we are the only game in town, and by town I mean the entire state plus surrounding parts of PA, Maryland and Ohio. Call includes a fair mix of trauma and inpatient consults. There are nights you will be up all night seeing patient/operating. No country club call. We are also expanding our presence at the VA, so more resident clinic there during second and third year. Daily lectures given by faculty, grand rounds by either residents or outside speakers.

Personal favorites - faculty in all sub-specialties as full time staff, ASOPRS fellowship, early surgical exposure (at least a few cataracts as a first year), great work environment/salary/outdoor activities in Motown, strong didactics

Possible drawbacks for some: the VA is a 40 minute ride (we don't take call there, we drive together, and get reimbursed handsomely for using our car), call can be busy (IMO this is where you learn the most, especially from your seniors), relatively small town with limited cultural events (Pittsburgh is about an hour away, DC is about 3hrs, and there is an airport in town that flies to DC)

Overall a fantastic program where graduates are VERY comfortable practicing without the need for a fellowship. About half go into fellowships anyway.

PM me if you have specific q's.

 

[wildholdy]

I am a current resident there, have rotated at a good amount of programs when applying, and interviewed at a few more.

Recent updates - New chairman who is very dedicated to the program, is making positive changes and will continue to do so. Could not be happier with him. Call is transitioning to q6 with first and second years taking primary home call. Call can be very busy, we are the only game in town, and by town I mean the entire state plus surrounding parts of PA, Maryland and Ohio. Call includes a fair mix of trauma and inpatient consults. There are nights you will be up all night seeing patient/operating. No country club call. We are also expanding our presence at the VA, so more resident clinic there during second and third year. Daily lectures given by faculty, grand rounds by either residents or outside speakers.

Personal favorites - faculty in all sub-specialties as full time staff, ASOPRS fellowship, early surgical exposure (a few cataracts as a few year), great work environment/salary/outdoor activities in Motown, strong didactics

Possible drawbacks for some: the VA is a 40 minute ride (we don't take call there, we drive together, and get reimbursed handsomely for using our car), call can be busy (IMO this is where you learn the most, especially from your seniors), relatively small town with limited cultural events (Pittsburgh is about an hour away, DC is about 3hrs, and there is an airport in town that flies to DC)

Overall a fantastic program where graduates are VERY comfortable practicing without the need for a fellowship. About half go into fellowships anyway.

PM me if you have specific q's.

 

[wildholdy]

when does the q6 start? Do you think it will be better w/q 6 for 2 years than q 3 for 1? Thanks for the info!

 

[russiandoc]

In the transition from a q3 to q6, as a group, we quickly decided that a modified q4 scheduled for first year is ideal. Over a period of three weeks a first year call is as follows, week 1 - tues, fri, sat, sun. week 2 - wednesday. week 3. tues and thurs. You have 2 weekends off every 3 weeks, your on call week (week 1) is busy but week 2 you're on call 1 day only and week three 2 days. Confusing enough? It works well. As a second year you take primary call only 1 day every 3 weeks, backup call 2 days. Third years are backup q3.

 

[Super66]

This was my first interview, so my experience of the day was through a brand new, shiny lens without the benefit of seeing other programs under my belt. So I'm not sure if my feelings would have been different if this were, say #10. Overall, I had a fantastic impression of this place. It was one of my personal favorites on the trail both in terms of personalities, educational opportunities, and location. Of course the latter will be the dealbreaker for some. Either you're open to living in a small town with few big city amenities, or you are. Morgantown, in my eyes, is quite charming and seems like a great place to bring a family. Tons of outdoor activities, extremely low cost of living compared to urban settings, safe. No nearby airport however, and a bit of an oasis of pseudo-cosmopolitanism in the rest of the WV desert. It is about an hour away from Pittsburgh.

PROS:
- PD was one of the nicest faculty I met on the trail. Impossible not to like. Infectious smile. Seems to love what he does and love his program.
- Felt similarly about the Assistant PD. Both Peds guys. I imagine it can only be a benefit to have two separate individuals whose job description entails overseeing resident education.
- huge catchment area -- all of West Virginia w/ some PA, OH, MD.
- Gym INSIDE the Eye Institute. 24 hour access. Completely awesome. Not bad equipment, reasonably big. A huge plus for some (me).
- Chair was ex-chair of Baylor. Not sure how well-connected he is in the ophtho world, but I assume this is a plus for residents. Has ambitions to improve research at his institution. Quite involved in community outreach, which is pretty cool and not something you see everywhere. I liked that he came to talk to the interviewees for about 10 minutes and seems like a real straight-shooter.
- Residents had little bad to say about the program (at least to me).
- Family friendly. Daycare available for the young-un's.
- Solid didactics/grand rounds schedule, with lectures most mornings of the week.
- Reasonably good #'s across specialties, though cataracts were pretty average iirc... they did not provide actual figures in our info packets like some other programs do, so I cannot comment on specifics as I do not remember.
- I totally dug Morgantown. I can see other people hating it. One man's trash...

CONS:
- VA in Clarksburg is kind of a hike from Morgantown and requires lots of driving, though it is reimbursed (gas).
- I had very little interaction available with the PGY-2s (the people who would be my future seniors). Yes, they interviewed us, but that was only like 10 minutes and mostly me talking. Besides that, I barely saw them. Only one of them was at the pre-interview mixer the night before and I didn't really get a chance to talk to him then either. I saw this as kind of a red flag. I thought they should have been available to hang out with so I could get a sense of them.
- I thought their cornea specialist was pretty awkward to talk to. One of my more uncomfortable interviews on the trail, but that was only one person. And as someone potentially interested in cornea, I found it difficult to envision a mentorship relationship with him. I think he might be on his way out soon anyway (<--- not sure about this at all though... I vaguely remember someone, somewhere, maybe not even on that day but at a different interview telling me this). The rest of the faculty members were very personable.
- Call is pretty tough. It's a three resident program and a modified Q4. I'm not going to write the details of it. It's described above, not sure if it's changed at all. Ask a resident about it.
- No airport nearby. I like to travel, especially internationally. Seems like it would be a big PITA if one were based in Morgantown.
- It was friggin' "scrape-the-ice-off-your-windshield" cold when I was there, and it was only mid-October. I don't like the cold. That didn't bode well for January I thought...

 

[russiandoc]

I think you have a very fair assessment of our program overall. I am now a senior resident going to fellowship next year and would like to clarify/correct some of the points you mentioned above.

- Dr. Gross, our chairman, was not a chairman at Baylor, but rather faculty. He continues to make great improvements in our department. We now have a glaucoma fellowship, another Retina fellow (1 per year), a new cornea faculty, and another plastics faculty in the works.
- Our surgical numbers aren't reasonably good. They are excellent. I would anecdotally say top 5-10% in the country based on my interaction with residents from other programs. I can share that I will be graduating with at least 200 cataracts, lots of them very complex given that we don't have, and likely won't have a cornea fellow in the program. I have close to 250 primary plastics cases including lots of ptosis/blephs where the resident does bilateral surgery and our previous ASOPRS chairman and current fellow assist (this kind of setup is nearly unheard of in residency). For the other subspecialties I have roughly 5-10 times the minimum requirement. Maybe just double for glaucoma.
- I can't comment about why the PGY-2's weren't as available as you expected on interview day but as stated above, they work hard. Our program is front loaded in terms of call responsibility.
- There are some faculty that will get together for a drink after clinic. And there are some whose words and advice you will remember once you graduate. The cornea faculty you speak of is the latter. Ironically he is one of the best clinical/surgical/practice of medicine mentors in the department. He is dedicated to resident education and we don't envision him leaving anytime soon.

If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.