Why not San Antonio?

[Mac or Miller]

The medical school classes, like most everything else in Texas are large, and they seem to produce a lot of people interested in radiology.

I can understand why they would choose to train in Dallas and Houston which have historic academic reputations. I can even understand why they would choose Scott and White if they don't need to find somebody to breed with. Baylor Dallas is the darling of all community programs out there.

What I don't get is why San Antonio didn't fill in the match in 2011 or 2012. Now I know that they had major political issues years back when their chair moved to Denver; but following an interim stint, they should have things under control.

Their IR program has a great reputation, and they seem to have the only version of some odd combined Ph.D. thingy. They advertise collaboration with the military programs even though one of them produced the infamous recall whistleblower. Last year, 2 national radiology societies (Ped's and MSK) held their national meetings there.

My question is this. It is the third largest medical center in the state, so what the heck is wrong with it? Why did the residents push me so hard in selling the place when I visited, even arguing that their "study aids" *wink wink* were better that UTSW.

So what is wrong with it? The fact that you need to go to Austin for a singles scene? I could care less about that if that is the problem.

PM's are welcome. Thanks.

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[SCOTTYDAWG]

san antonio is dirty

 

[Mac or Miller]

Thank you for this excellent analysis.

 

[shark2000]

The medical school classes, like most everything else in Texas are large, and they seem to produce a lot of people interested in radiology.

I can understand why they would choose to train in Dallas and Houston which have historic academic reputations. I can even understand why they would choose Scott and White if they don't need to find somebody to breed with. Baylor Dallas is the darling of all community programs out there.

What I don't get is why San Antonio didn't fill in the match in 2011 or 2012. Now I know that they had major political issues years back when their chair moved to Denver; but following an interim stint, they should have things under control.

Their IR program has a great reputation, and they seem to have the only version of some odd combined Ph.D. thingy. They advertise collaboration with the military programs even though one of them produced the infamous recall whistleblower. Last year, 2 national radiology societies (Ped's and MSK) held their national meetings there.

My question is this. It is the third largest medical center in the state, so what the heck is wrong with it? Why did the residents push me so hard in selling the place when I visited, even arguing that their "study aids" *wink wink* were better that UTSW.

So what is wrong with it? The fact that you need to go to Austin for a singles scene? I could care less about that if that is the problem.

PM's are welcome. Thanks.

Having a well established radiology department needs a lot of elements, only one of them is being the 3rd largest center in state. In fact, in many occasions, having a very large medical center means less control over many aspects of it.

A good program should have a very well established departments with deep roots in all disciplines. Radiology is not all IR. For many reasons, they may have weak vascular surgery department, so the IR can have a very growing business. And this is true for many departments. A top notch neuroradiology department is usually within a program with top notch neurology department. However, for IR it is exactly the opposite. You need a weird situation where there is a weak vascular surgery But a strong transplant surgery service.

And having a national meeting in a specific city means nothing. National meetings are held in cities with lots of tourist attractions and not a good radiology department. For example, RSNA in Chicago does not mean that Loyola has a better department than UCSF.

I don't know specifically about this program, but can tell you that it is not a top program even in Texas.

 

[Mac or Miller]

Thanks for the response.

I agree that the reason societies go to San Antonio has more to do with an affordable hotel conference center, warm weather, and Sea World.

My question is not why is it not a great program which I understand. My question is why do people specifically avoid it? There are only a handful of programs out there that don't fill in the match in a specialty in which the average step 1 is upper 230's, and this was one of them. There is an explanation for most of the others in the region that don't fill, namely location and a poor reputation among local graduates.

The reviews from 4-5 years ago talk about malignant faculty and political problems. Their website is pretty terrible, so it is hard to even get a feel for what they have to offer. I have run into fellows from their program in Houston and Dallas, and the grads are better than many others. They don't appear to interview people who don't have ties to the area, so I have not met others who have visited.

So really I am looking for some type of objective or subjective red flag to decide whether they belong at a number 7-9 or 15-16. It has to be there, or they would retain more of their med school graduates than they do.

 

[Mac or Miller]

Related to the above, UCSF has a remarkable academic reputation, but when I visited, the fellows openly admitted that the cost of living make it tough to live there on the provided stipend, and radiology jobs in northern Cali are scarce. The residents there did not impress me much at all, and the program was not what I expected. The templated and overly structured way that they generate their reports seems restrictive. Hopkins and MIR have the same feel. They have a review course every year with great lectures, so I will settle for gleaning an education from UCSF in that way.

My problem is that I ask people why they rank programs high, and they seem to tell me that it is because of their awesome reputation or because other people like it. Unfortunately I threw away my copy of the US News rankings after I started medical school, and some of these places that have 8 divisions and residents who don't even know each other look great on paper, but many of them look like they produce remarkable graduates only because they attract remarkable applicants in the first place.

 

[Updated]

The medical school classes, like most everything else in Texas are large, and they seem to produce a lot of people interested in radiology.

I can understand why they would choose to train in Dallas and Houston which have historic academic reputations. I can even understand why they would choose Scott and White if they don't need to find somebody to breed with. Baylor Dallas is the darling of all community programs out there.

What I don't get is why San Antonio didn't fill in the match in 2011 or 2012. Now I know that they had major political issues years back when their chair moved to Denver; but following an interim stint, they should have things under control.

Their IR program has a great reputation, and they seem to have the only version of some odd combined Ph.D. thingy. They advertise collaboration with the military programs even though one of them produced the infamous recall whistleblower. Last year, 2 national radiology societies (Ped's and MSK) held their national meetings there.

My question is this. It is the third largest medical center in the state, so what the heck is wrong with it? Why did the residents push me so hard in selling the place when I visited, even arguing that their "study aids" *wink wink* were better that UTSW.

So what is wrong with it? The fact that you need to go to Austin for a singles scene? I could care less about that if that is the problem.

PM's are welcome. Thanks.

What happened in San Antonio? I know that the Army stepped into the program in Augusta, GA (now Georgia Regents University) because it failed, but what did the civs in San Antonio do?

 

[rule out normal]

I am interested in people's opinions on this program and city as well. I had an extra day to drive around and thought it was decent.

 

[Updated]

The recall 'scandal' as reported by CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/health/prescription-for-cheating/

This still doesn't explain why their med school takes Army residents.

 

[colbgw02]

The recall 'scandal' as reported by CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/health/prescription-for-cheating/

This still doesn't explain why their med school takes Army residents.

Why would a medical school take residents? I'm not sure what you're getting at.

Army and Air Force residents do one, maybe two, rotations at UTSA during their four years. The two programs also share a noon lecture schedule. To my knowledge, that's the extent of the collaboration.

 

[Updated]

I'm sorry, I meant that Army-committed med students can apply to UTSA's program, just as they can apply directly to the GRU program. If this isn't the case, then I'm misreading MODS.

 

[colbgw02]

Oh, you're talking about the supplemental spots administered through the VA. I think why they'd agree to do it is all about the money. Namely, this gives the UTSA program a resident that they don't have to pay for. I'm sure the Army chose the sites it did because of their collocation with large posts. My understanding is that the filling of these spots has been very hit or miss. I can't say I've every met anyone that trained at any of these civilian programs.

 

[Lavan]

UTSHCSA is a solid radiology program, with Texas-sized volume and a very diverse patient population. San Antonio isn't as nice of city as Houston or Dallas but it's quite liveable, EXTREMELY affordable, and the river walk areas has gotten a lot more fun and awesome over the past few years. Staff are friendly and great. Plenty of moonlighting. High volume, excellent training. Peds is the only relative deficiency, as the children's hospital in SA isn't superb. There is zero reason to avoid the program. The PD is a great guy.

The main reason they didn't fill is simply because they were underinterviewing. Most programs interview in the ballpark around 10x for the number of spots they have (10 spots, 100 interviews). A few years back they were interviewing around only 60 people. They also tend to mostly ignore people from outside the region without TX ties by default to not waste their time, which probably does rule out people who might otherwise be interested. A simple email if truly interested would suffice to remedy that from any interested parties. They had an interim chair for a number of years, which has now been resolved, but really outsize importance is placed on the effect of the chair in an otherwise stable department.

 

[Roberie]

I'm sorry, I meant that Army-committed med students can apply to UTSA's program, just as they can apply directly to the GRU program. If this isn't the case, then I'm misreading MODS.

The VA sponsored spot at UT San Antonio wasn't available for this year's army match.

 

[Updated]

The VA sponsored spot at UT San Antonio wasn't available for this year's army match.

That's too bad, any idea why? Do you know if the VA-sponsored position in Augusta was available?