Forum Members PMSR/RRA Residency Reviews

[CutsWithFury]

Any recent reviews on Swedish Seattle? From what I heard they scrambled in recent years. Also posted a PGY-1 opening this year too

They probably fired someone again or refused to take someone because they didn't get who they wanted. That is their M.O.

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[de Ribas]

They probably fired someone again or refused to take someone because they didn't get who they wanted. That is their M.O.

Some of these "top" programs are very unstable. They often scramble, fire, have people transfer away, and change number of residents from year to year. They want more residents to run their high inpatient loads, manage ton of diabetic/pus cases but have low elective cases. Residents complain; then they accept less residents the next year and so on. There are programs that are less known and have great training, good academics, lots of surgical cases with good RRA numbers and manageable lifestyle. How many inpatients do you have to see to know how to rewrap that foot. Will I be a better physician if I start inpatient rounds at 4am vs 6am?

 

[air bud]

Some of these "top" programs are very unstable. They often scramble, fire, have people transfer away, and change number of residents from year to year. They want more residents to run their high inpatient loads, manage ton of diabetic/pus cases but have low elective cases. Residents complain then they accept less the next year and so on. There are programs that are less known and have great training, good academics, lots of surgical cases with good RRA numbers and manageable lifestyle. How many inpatients do you have to see to know how to rewrap that foot. Will I be a better physician if I start inpatient rounds at 4am vs 6am?

Going to a program that is all outpatient and ASC fixes this

 

[future.dpm]

Some of these "top" programs are very unstable. They often scramble, fire, have people transfer away, and change number of residents from year to year. They want more residents to run their high inpatient loads, manage ton of diabetic/pus cases but have low elective cases. Residents complain; then they accept less residents the next year and so on. There are programs that are less known and have great training, good academics, lots of surgical cases with good RRA numbers and manageable lifestyle. How many inpatients do you have to see to know how to rewrap that foot. Will I be a better physician if I start inpatient rounds at 4am vs 6am?

Any east coast programs you would put into this category of less known, but great training?

 

[AdrenalineJockie]

Any review on Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, NY?

 

[Carpe Phalanges]

Any update on the Atlanta VA since the horror story someone shared?

 

[Shiyuan]

Any update on the Atlanta VA since the horror story someone shared?

I do know they have a new director. A couple of the new attendings I know personally and are great.

 

[FutureDPM123]

Any update on the Atlanta VA since the horror story someone shared?

In all reality, 90% of VA programs are not going to have good surgical training if that’s what you’re looking for. The only good one is the New Mexico VA

 

[wakaflocka88]

In all reality, 90% of VA programs are not going to have good surgical training if that’s what you’re looking for. The only good one is the New Mexico VA

Avoid VASF at all cost.

 

[Feli]

In all reality, 90% of VA programs are not going to have good surgical training if that’s what you’re looking for. The only good one is the New Mexico VA

Agree with first part. Second part... Good vs Fair?
Even with the time they (some residents only) spend in Kaiser Calif, I don't think anyone's confusing VA-Abq with a power program.
I would say it's "good" residency if you get the 3rd year in Kaiser and if you're using excellent/great/good/avg/fair/poor/trash scale?

That said, NMex program is definitely better than most VAs as they get their residents outside into non-govt facilities (Albuquerque area... and half pgy3s go to Cali) for more surgery cases... so more variety of M/F pts, more attendings, more cases than most VA programs. There are some good PP attending in the group I work with and other Albuquerque groups to learn with; VA scrubs with some but not all of those groups/facilities.

It is important any student recognize the shortcomings of a VA setting (typically little surgery, typically diabetic overload, vast majority male pts, no peds, no MD residencies sponsored in VA, etc) and even more critical that the VA programs try to overcome that stuff to the best degree possible. Abq tries to overcome volume, but they take a lot of residents and no research help, ABFAS pass is hit or miss, some very decent alumni but few all-stars. Peds cases, most trauma, many elective procedures, and many pathologies overall are never going to come to the VA and are only pure luck if outside PP attendings in Abq happen to schedule them at places the residents can cover. The director and few other VA staff docs obviously can't feed 12 resident mouths with just amps and Charcot and wounds... and elective occasional recon in a mentally sound pt.

Their current program director is also fairly strong (UPMC) and well liked... a lot of director changes recently. Patient population is just a huge limitation to any VA doc, though... scope/stabs and TAAs and peds flat feet seldom come walking in, even bunions aren't common, nor can any of that be referred in. Hopefully the training at VA-NMex keeps improving... heck knows they won't drop number of resident spots with new pod schools/grads upcoming. All that considered, a VA is still a VA... NMex does as good a job as any of trying to be a good program. I don't think anyone's tripping over one another or throwing elbows to match/clerk there. It has potential, but it's more of a backup/alternate program for most. I think their main draw is geographic (just like a lot of Miami area or Tex, Cali programs are more popular than they probably should actually be based on case logs and attendings). Training-wise, this is one of those 'could do worse, could do better.'

...and wasn't this thread a sticky? I was gonna bump it when I saw it wasn't.

 

[Neuroma24]

Yale - New Haven CT feedback? Good surgery numbers ? Toxic ? Friendly ?

The person who I know that is a PGY1 at Yale is the nicest most supportive individual I've met in school and possibly in life. If the other residents are half as amazing of a person as he is you will be so well taken care of there.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Submitted Anonymously!

Program Name: Kaiser Oakland

General Program/Hospital Info: 3 residents per year, 4 locations (Oakland, SF, DSA)

Attendings: Look on the website.

Residents: 3 each year.

Didactics: Weekly radio rounds, and in-person labs, and academics. Between here and the OR this is where the pimping is. They don't expect you to know everything and you won't, but give thoughtful conclusions and they'll help you.

OR Experience: Excellent. I saw things here that I didn't see the rest of fourth year. Residents do quite a lot. Students just observe, but thats just a kaiser rule. Well balanced in forefoot, rearfoot, and it rains and pours trauma here. I saw more ankle fractures here than amputations.

Clinic Experience: Shadowing mostly. Again another kaiser thing.

Research Opportunities: Residents are required to do a research project. good mentorship.

Lifestyle: Pretty intense. Definition of surgically heavy. Residents are some of the best I saw all year.

Pros: Diverse surgical cases, good research mentors, great alumni network. Residents go skin to skin.

Cons: Sometimes have to take ortho call. Kind of annoying the st mary's residents come over for their third year. lots of driving, but its worth it.

Overall Conclusion: I think everyone needs to come to this program at least to visit. The things I learned here helped me the rest of fourth year. Excellent in every aspect. Would recommend this program to everyone.

 

[GreenHousePub]

Avoid VASF at all cost.

Still? I heard the prior director was a huge douchebag but the rumor was he got fired?

 

[wakaflocka88]

Still? I heard the prior director was a huge douchebag but the rumor was he got fired?

He bounced after his ten year tenure was over to pay off student loan (im assuming here but I’m 95% sure) and joined an ortho group in town. He had zero care for the program students and residents. He would host a monthly pizza party to get to know everyone and never shows up himself 😂

 

[wakaflocka88]

Submitted Anonymously!

Program Name: Kaiser Oakland

General Program/Hospital Info: 3 residents per year, 4 locations (Oakland, SF, DSA)

Attendings: Look on the website.

Residents: 3 each year.

Didactics: Weekly radio rounds, and in-person labs, and academics. Between here and the OR this is where the pimping is. They don't expect you to know everything and you won't, but give thoughtful conclusions and they'll help you.

OR Experience: Excellent. I saw things here that I didn't see the rest of fourth year. Residents do quite a lot. Students just observe, but thats just a kaiser rule. Well balanced in forefoot, rearfoot, and it rains and pours trauma here. I saw more ankle fractures here than amputations.

Clinic Experience: Shadowing mostly. Again another kaiser thing.

Research Opportunities: Residents are required to do a research project. good mentorship.

Lifestyle: Pretty intense. Definition of surgically heavy. Residents are some of the best I saw all year.

Pros: Diverse surgical cases, good research mentors, great alumni network. Residents go skin to skin.

Cons: Sometimes have to take ortho call. Kind of annoying the st mary's residents come over for their third year. lots of driving, but its worth it.

Overall Conclusion: I think everyone needs to come to this program at least to visit. The things I learned here helped me the rest of fourth year. Excellent in every aspect. Would recommend this program to everyone.

I concur. Top notch program. You will come out well versed in anything foot and ankle but more importantly, with a lot of reps already for most cases you can encounter which is key. Doesn’t make sense to do a fellowship afterwards unless you somehow botched learning anything for 3 years. Be ready to get pimped hard but take it as a learning point and don’t get rattled.

Kaiser programs are popular because everything below the knee is triaged to podiatry. As a student and resident, this volume of pathology is highly beneficial to your education and training. It’s a salaried system (Kaiser itself is the healthcare provider and insurance system in one for students not familiar). Ortho has no interest in doing more work as they are not RVU base. Podiatry works hard there and has built themselves a reputable image in managing everything foot and ankle and are well respected within the system. That’s why these programs and other programs that are “high volume” are more highly acclaimed and produces good grads each year compared to the bottom barrel programs that claim RRA yet only see one ankle fracture a year.

Edit: also probably makes you curious why most or all programs are not held to this type of standard of training and why there is such a large discrepancy between program A and program B but yet still gets approved by CPME each year. What if ortho residency was this large of a gap in training volume and quality?

 

[podiatryresident]

He bounced after his ten year tenure was over to pay off student loan (im assuming here but I’m 95% sure) and joined an ortho group in town. He had zero care for the program students and residents. He would host a monthly pizza party to get to know everyone and never shows up himself 😂

Is he working with webster ortho group now ?

 

[Weirdy]

Current director at VASF is a good human. He's been pushing/planning hard to get residents more cases.

 

[iridocyclitiss]

I know the past two directors of St. Elizabeth have moved to Beth Israel Deaconess and joined their residency program. With so much residency director turnover in a short time (1.5 years), I'd be concerned. Especially because both directors do a lot for that program, they both do many rearfoot elective cases.

BI or Mount Auburn if you want to go to Boston. Anywhere else is ehhhhhh.

 

[Weirdy]

The following is an anonymous submission

Program Name: Regions/Healthpartners St. Paul Minnseota
General Program/Hospital Info: 3 residents per year, quite a few locations within Regions and TRIA
Attendings: Bofelli, Abben, Pfannenstein, Collier, Gervais, and there are quite a few more- check the website.
Residents: 3 each year.
Didactics: In person labs, and academics every two weeks. Bofelli and Abben attend most of the in-person labs, giving the residents a ton of pearls. Radio rounds and staff meeting almost every Friday morning.
OR Experience: Elective heavy. Foot and Ankle department take the lion's share of forefoot, midfoot, and rearfoot elective. Share trauma call with ortho. More than enough trauma goes through here. I sutured, and threw handties here. Residents are skilled, and attendings are pretty hands-off. Saw multiple residents do difficult procedures here (TARs, calc fractures, and ankle fractures) skin-to-skin comfortably.
Clinic Experience: You're allowed to do everything here, depending on the provider. Dr. Bofelli is very hands-on with teaching his residents billing.
Research Opportunities: Residents produce so much research. Every spare minute the residents had was working on a project.
Lifestyle: Well balanced in clinic, surgery and research. Call schedule here is very very favorable.
Pros: Diverse surgical cases, good mentors, well balanced residency program. Food and parking are free. Great facilities, and the teaching at this program was honestly very impressive to me.
Cons: Snow, Minnesota if you aren't from here. Off service rotations are very busy, they treat you like MD DO.
Overall Conclusion: Glad I did a month here. Even if you don't like the cold or MN, residents who leave this program are very well-trained in all aspects of podiatry.

 

[Shiyuan]

If anyone has questions about East Liverpool City Hospital (OH), feel free to PM me. Great program.

 

[thepoddude]

Any reviews for:
UF Health Jacksonville
Long Island Jewish
Cleveland Clinic

couldn't find anything in the thread for these. Thanks in advance!

 

[PTPuser]

Any reviews for:
UF Health Jacksonville
Long Island Jewish
Cleveland Clinic

couldn't find anything in the thread for these. Thanks in advance!

CCF just opened up. But if you're talking about CCF / Oklahoma. There's posts on it here in this thread.

 

[Shiyuan]

UF Jax was a powerhouse when I was a student 7-8 years ago.

Roukis is now the director I think, great mentor. Big ACFAS guy.

 

[Shino’s Beetles]

Anyone have information about community medial center in Toms River NJ? It's a relatively new program and not much information out there. Dr. Migliori seems to be nice though.

 

[wakaflocka88]

Anyone have information about community medial center in Toms River NJ? It's a relatively new program and not much information out there. Dr. Migliori seems to be nice though.

From his personal PP website “… he is also certified in Hyperbaric Medicine by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.”

If that doesn’t scream odd, weird, questionable to you…..

 

[josebiwasabi]

What is weird about that? It's the official society for doctors who use hyperbaric oxygen therapy

 

[Shiyuan]

What is weird about that? It's the official society for doctors who use hyperbaric oxygen therapy

My director was also certified in it. It’s legit.

 

[diabeticfootdr]

Just to clarify Re: UHMS

That is the society not the board certification.

There is a subspecialty board certification from 2 ABMS boards (preventative medicine and emergency medicine) in Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine … similar name hence the confusion. There aren’t many actually board certified in the US. Maybe 150-200.

1. Podiatrists are not eligible for the subspecialty certificate because you must first hold primary certification from an ABMS board.

2. When podiatrists (and everyone else) say they’re certified in HBOT from UHMS what they mean, and it is more correct to say, that they completed the 40-hour Introduction to Hyperbaric Medicine Safety Course that used to be exclusively put on by the UHMS, but now there are competing organizations. One receives a certificate from the course which is needed to show your hospital since that is usually a privileging requirement.

3. About 4% of ABPM CAQ in Amputation Prevention and Wound Care is on HBOT. This was included in the exam blueprint on purpose so podiatrists who aren’t eligible for other certifications can point to a document which demonstrates a knowledge-base in HBOT indications, treatment, and complications.

 

[Weirdy]

Per anonymous contributor

Program Name: Beth Israel Deaconess Boston MA
General Program/Hospital Info: There are a few hospitals you rotate through. BI gets most of the limb salvage/charcot recon stuff happening here. Boston VA for trauma, RRA and soon TAR. Surgical centers are where the bulk of their RRA and elective take place

Attendings: Dinh, Rosenblum, Giurini, Markou, Riemer
Residents: 2 a year

Didactics: Pretty typical. They do the required amount of didactic with bone saw labs.
OR Experience: Students go to BI and surgical centers, but not the VA. It's pretty solid, the residents and attendings are nice and they are always willing to teach you. Residents go skin to skin on pretty much everything. Its also nice with so many of the surgeons being on the ABFAS board, you know you're getting really high quality training.

Clinic Experience: Students go to clinic pretty much every day. Residents go out and do cases, and occasionally come in. Students do everything in clinic in terms of hand skills except for notes (thank you residents and attendings).
Research Opportunities: They are a harvard training hospital and therefore have all the resources and support to publish high quality evidence based research. The attendings will guide you, but its really on you to finish it all.
Lifestyle: Its an upside down pyramid in terms of responsibility. First years don't take call until january. Offservice rotations you are actually doing procedures, learning complex suturing and not just shadowing.I know we make fun of programs with strong offservice rotations but seeing what the residents do with plastics and vascular it's pretty impressive and it shows with their technique in the OR. That being said it's always busy, and you're always doing stuff whether you are on service or not.

Pros:
TAR and RRA stuff at the VA (only program that rotates at the VA in boston)
They are starting up rotating with Dr. Lamm again for 2 months in Florida to learn complex limb deformity
Autonomy. Residents go skin to skin on pretty much everything.
The quality of teaching here. You're learning from excellent surgeons and their residents don't have any issues sitting for boards.
The BI network

Cons:
Ortho takes all the trauma at BI, so you're relying on the VA for your trauma.
Some driving involved

Overall Conclusion: Honestly this program is super impressive. Residents are super confident even the first years. They definitely are getting everything they need to be successful. The additional TAR training and VA trauma and the 2 months with dr lamm this program may make this program the best in boston.

 

[Shino’s Beetles]

Looking for any further insight into the following programs:
Community Medical Center (Toms River, NJ) relatively new program
Englewood (Englewood, NJ)
Inspira (Vineland, NJ)
Giesinger (Scranton, PA) (There's a review for this but any further insight would be appreciated since I know Dr LaPort has left rather recently)
AMITA St. Joseph (Chicago, IL) (Can't currently visit due to the pandemic)
Mercy St. Vincent (Toledo, OH)
Nazareth (Philadephia, PA)
Atlanta VA (Atlanta, GA) restarted program
Cape Fear (Fayetteville, NC) relatively new program


PM if you would rather.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Submitted Anonymously!!!

Program Name: Medstar

Location: District of Columbia

General Program/Hospital Info: Georgetown, Washington Hospital Center

Attendings: Dr. Steinberg (Director), Dr. Rhanama, Dr. Atvez, Dr. Attinger etc.

Residents: Take 6 a year

Didactics: 1-2 times a week

OR Experience: Dirty case, then another dirty case, and another, and it keeps on going. Procedures that should be taking 15-30 minutes would take 3rd year residents a couple hours to complete. Dirty cases are frequently double scrubbed. They claim they do a lot of elective stuff at outside surgical centers, but the case logs and surgical skills beg to differ. The WHC attendings will bring decent cases, but resident involvement was pretty minimal. On ‘limb’ service, the podiatry residents work with plastics and gen surgery residents. The 1st year resident handles floor work the entire time while the 2nd and 3rd year double scrub lower extremity debridements all day.

Clinic Experience: Residents at WHC would rotate on who would go to the WHC clinic.

Research Opportunities: N/A

Lifestyle: The worst hours ever. Consistently working from 4am to 8pm. The first year residents looked unhealthy by the lack of sleep.

Pros: Good if you just want to do wounds all day every day. Become great at versajet

Cons: The hours are ridiculous. Dirty cases take hours to finish. Won’t know how to do any real surgery out of this program.

Overall Conclusion: Don’t let the big name fool you, this place is trainwreck of a program. Unless you enjoy having 2-3 hours of sleep and only doing dirty cases that are taking way longer than they should to complete, then you should stay as far away from this program as possible. I could never justify going to a program with such hours to do such mediocre cases.

 

[Shiyuan]

Submitted Anonymously!!!

Program Name: Medstar

Location: District of Columbia

General Program/Hospital Info: Georgetown, Washington Hospital Center

Attendings: Dr. Steinberg (Director), Dr. Rhanama, Dr. Atvez, Dr. Attinger etc.

Residents: Take 6 a year

Didactics: 1-2 times a week

OR Experience: Dirty case, then another dirty case, and another, and it keeps on going. Procedures that should be taking 15-30 minutes would take 3rd year residents a couple hours to complete. Dirty cases are frequently double scrubbed. They claim they do a lot of elective stuff at outside surgical centers, but the case logs and surgical skills beg to differ. The WHC attendings will bring decent cases, but resident involvement was pretty minimal. On ‘limb’ service, the podiatry residents work with plastics and gen surgery residents. The 1st year resident handles floor work the entire time while the 2nd and 3rd year double scrub lower extremity debridements all day.

Clinic Experience: Residents at WHC would rotate on who would go to the WHC clinic.

Research Opportunities: N/A

Lifestyle: The worst hours ever. Consistently working from 4am to 8pm. The first year residents looked unhealthy by the lack of sleep.

Pros: Good if you just want to do wounds all day every day. Become great at versajet

Cons: The hours are ridiculous. Dirty cases take hours to finish. Won’t know how to do any real surgery out of this program.

Overall Conclusion: Don’t let the big name fool you, this place is trainwreck of a program. Unless you enjoy having 2-3 hours of sleep and only doing dirty cases that are taking way longer than they should to complete, then you should stay as far away from this program as possible. I could never justify going to a program with such hours to do such mediocre cases.

Wow. That’s disturbing given some big name docs who are attendings there.

 

[deleted1138023]

Not sure I believe the medstar review

 

[iridocyclitiss]

Not sure I believe the medstar review

Curious as to why? didn't rotate there but interested to hear your reasoning

 

[calvinklein]

Not sure I believe the medstar review

Heard similar stories from friends rotating there. There’s a reason why they scrambled a spot last year. And why all there residents are obsessed with getting fellowships

 

[deleted1138023]

Curious as to why? didn't rotate there but interested to hear your reasoning

The director is well respected thought he’d run a better program

 

[AttackNME]

Only so many podiatry cases available in DC to feed a family of 18 hungry residents I guess

 

[Feli]

The director is well respected thought he’d run a better program

Dilution with too many spots and ortho taking good cases can put any decent program into a tailspin.

 

[Feli]

UF Jax was a powerhouse when I was a student 7-8 years ago.

Roukis is now the director I think, great mentor. Big ACFAS guy.

It was never any better than avg among Florida programs... and there are many in Fla.

 

[bob121213]

It was never any better than avg among Florida programs... and there are many in Fla.

It's still that way today. Rotated through UF Jax this year, and very much regretted it. Surgical numbers were low. Residents were not confident in the OR. Double scrubbed (and sometimes triple scrubbed) basically every single case. First years do basically no surgery. Roukis lets the residents do very little in the OR. Students are told to stand in the corner of the OR if Roukis decides to even let them in. I was allowed to watch Roukis in the OR (from the corner) and was told by the residents that it was basically an honor to do that...

 

[PatchAdamsFan]

Students are told to stand in the corner of the OR if Roukis decides to even let them in. I was allowed to watch Roukis in the OR (from the corner) and was told by the residents that it was basically an honor to do that

Lol. Watching a podiatrist do surgery is very rarely an honor, and oftentimes a travesty. If the residents are treated the same way, I wish them and their future surgical patients the best of luck.

 

[docpod9]

Program Name: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

General Program/Hospital Info: Program has affiliations with Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, High Point Medical Center, Lexington Medical Center, Davie Medical Center. Wake Forest recently merged with Atrium Health, so all of these additional centers are under the Atrium Health/Wake Forest umbrella. Podiatry attendings are all based in the orthopedic surgery department

Attendings: Dr. Dekarlos Dial (director); Dr. Medda (Assistant Director); Dr. Blazek (Clerkship director); Dr. Gangopodhyay; Dr. Powers; Dr. Tilles; Dr. Scott (ortho foot and ankle). A good mixture of young/older attendings that are all well trained at UPMC or Wake Forest and many of the newer attendings are fellowship trained.

Residents:
3 residents. Work hard, play hard mentality. Most of them are close and often do parties/events (laser tag, paintball) together. They are very friendly and often invited students out as well. Residents are so welcoming and very willing to teach as well.

Didactics:
3 conferences per week at 6AM. Podiatry lecture, Orthopedic grand rounds, Orthopedic foot and ankle radiology rounds. There were also 2 workshops organized by residents where the faculty also attend to teach.

OR Experience:
Plenty of OR experience to go around. Diversity was phenomenal. Dr. Gangopodhyay works in a ortho surgical center, so all the ortho sent her their foot and ankle stuff. Residents are able to scrub with ortho foot and ankle faculty too. The attendings would freely hand the residents the knife.

Clinic Experience:
Students are mostly expected in clinic to be with faculty members. Residents were also in clinic as well. Less of a hands on experience for students because residents were expected to do everything. Additionally, seeing your own post-op patients is an emphasis here, which I really liked as residents are able to learn how to manage complications.

Research Opportunities
With Dr. Dial taking over the program, research is a major emphasis at this program. His goal is for residents to publish, I believe, at least 8 papers throughout residency. Because of their affiliation with Wake, there is alot of support and resources for papers to be published easily.

Lifestyle:
It depends on what rotation/year you are on. 1st years have the most weeks on call and are mostly on off service rotations. 2nd year you have 3 month block rotations at the various centers. 3 year you have the opportunity to choose to work on different things you're interested in and can even go shadow other services.

Pros:
Great diversity in clinic and surgical cases
Ability to build your own schedule/choose what you want to do in 3rd year
Attendings really care and know to teach and hand over the knife when necessary.
Podiatry and orthopedic foot and ankle relationship

Cons:
Less of an hands on experience for students but it just shows the resident experience/learning is the priority here
There are new rotations being added where the kinks are still being worked out

Overall Conclusion:
With Dr. Dial's leadership, this program is on it's way to becoming a power program. The training is fantastic and the 3rd years were very comfortable in the OR with great hand skills. The faculty really care here and many will go out of their ways to help residents. Dr. Dial is constantly working on improving the program and takes resident's input on ways to make the program better.

 

[iridocyclitiss]

Program Name: Kaiser Vallejo

General Program/Hospital Info: 3 Residents per year, rotating between Kaiser Vallejo, Vacaville, Santa Rosa and San Rafael.

Attendings: Williams, Choung, Jordan, Babu (see the rest on their page)

Residents: 3 residents per year. Residents take primary call for everything foot and ankle related (besides trimming nails, kaiser doesn't do those, hallelujah). Residents (2nd and 3rd year) take a lot of call and cover a different area, rotating between them every 3 months.

Didactics: Once a week, during protected learning time (all kaisers had this). Monthly rad round meetings, and cases. Out of all three kaisers, Vallejo had the most chill didactics.

OR Experience: Kaiser rules make it hard for students to do more than retract, but i was able to suture, handtie and staple. If cases were during protected learning time students are able to single scrub with attendings too. Cases were heavy elective and trauma with the occasional I&D. Students are not required to stay for add on cases either.

Attendings here treat residents and students well. Very positive teaching environment with excellent attendings. High quality evidence based medicine here.

Residents go skin to skin here for pretty much everything. TAR exposure in San Rafeal with Dr. Choung. Excellent teacher. Residents get good training in all aspects of foot and ankle surgery.

Out of all the kaisers, this is probably the most chill in terms of their culture.

Clinic Experience:
Shadowing as a student. Residents have their own patients and do everything.

Research Opportunities:
Really in your court. Kaiser has great resources to help you produce good research. One project due before graduation but residents are working on several.

Lifestyle:
High volume. Kaiser takes pretty good care of its residents so you've got the works (free parking, free food, etc). 1st years start on buddy call and then slowly transition to solo call. Call weeks can be pretty busy, but its a good busy. Kaiser doesn't take any c & c nail patients.

Pros:
Full scope and huge volume with diverse cases.
Great culture
Good opportunities to do research
Attendings are helpful and want to teach you.

Cons:
Lots of driving but imo if this is the only con of a program it must be pretty good lol


Overall Conclusion:
High powered program with excellent residents and attendings.

 

[docpod9]

Program Name: DVA New Mexico Raymond G. Murphy

General Program/Hospital Info:
Most of your time is spent at the VA. Residents are able to scrub with community attendings at other hospitals and surgical centers. 2 3rd years go to Kaiser Sac in their last year. How that is decided is that when the residents first start, they discuss who wants to go to Kaiser Sac and generally it works out that 2 want to stay and 2 want to go. If there's no consensus, it it picked based on their match rank.

Attendings:
Dr. Mele (PD), Dr. Mele, Dr. Allen, Dr. Marshall with new attendings being added. Dr. Mele is the kindest human. She likes to teach and ask questions that are pertinent and relevant. Dr. Allen has a big personality and is very straight forward but still very kind. Dr. Marshall is super chill, very funny. All of them are nice and really care for the residents and patients.

Residents:
4 a year. Worked well as a team and all smart and hardworking. Pimped heavily here. Some residents are more intense than others but overall they were nice and looked out for students.

Didactics:
A big emphasis here. Multiple days of the week after clinic that consisted of McGlamry chapter reviews, radiology rounds on previous cases, and journal clubs. There were also sponsored workshops and student presentations at the end of the month. All of these academics consisted of heavy pimp sessions for students. One grand round per month hosted by Dr. Whitehouse and Dr. Cobbs (outside attendings) were the 1st year residents were pimped heavily. Also does a practice residency interview with students, which I appreciated.

OR Experience:
Currently 2 surgery days at the VA which should be increasing as more attendings are added. They meet their numbers by being able to scrub outside the VA. Great diversity- amps to tendon repairs to ankle fusions.

Clinic Experience:
Busy, heavy clinic. Anywhere from 50-70 patients a day. Wide variety as well. Residents were expected to run clinic and were capable. The student experience was mostly spent in clinic with the ability to scrub in a few cases throughout the month.

Research Opportunities:
Not emphasized.

Lifestyle:
Good work life balance. Despite heavy clinic days, some days are half days and after academics were done, residents could go home. Some off service rotations offered easier days too.

Pros:
Very good training, especially with the ability to scrub with community attendings
For a VA, the clinic and surgical cases were pretty diverse.
Cheap cost of living

Cons:
Too much academics
Location

Overall Conclusion:
I can confidently say this is the best VA program. With great training and good work life balance, this is definitely a unique program in the VA setting.

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Submitted Anonymously!!!

Program Name: SSM health Depaul

General Program/Hospital Info: Hospital in St. Louis and surrounding areas, covers community clinics and directors office clinic

Attendings: Dr. Visser, Dr. Quiroga, others

Residents: 4-5 a year. They were somewhat nice. Least of the programs problems.

Didactics: Lectures in directors office, cadaver labs, workshops

OR Experience: double scrubbing big cases, forefoot cases usually single scrubbed resident doing most of it from what I saw

Clinic Experience: community clinics with a lot of basic foot care

Research Opportunities: not sure

Lifestyle: Seemed like the residents hated their lives

Pros: I’m sure you’d be somewhat competent graduating this program in basic podiatry surgery

Cons: Rude attendings, director that won’t acknowledge you, lots of old podiatric knowledge that isn’t relevant being taught to the residents. If you want to learn about the biochemistry behind charcot and other random pathologies of the foot and ankle that we rarely treat (skewfoot, clubfoot, etc) come here

Overall Conclusion: Not a good program. Rude attendings who treat students bad. There’s a reason no one wants to go here.

 

[LilYoungswick]

Anonymous Submission 2022-2023

Program Name: John Peter Smith (JPS), Fort Worth Texas

General Program/Hospital Info: 2 residents per year rotating through Level 1 Trauma Center JPS Hospital in Fort Worth. 3rd years do operate at local surgical centers/hospitals

Attendings: Motley (Director), Garret, Levine, Rhodes are at JPS Main. The 3rd years do rotate with Downey (Former fellow of Justin Fleming), Ryba, Jaryga, local grads from the program

Residents: 2 residents per year. Residents take primary call for everything foot and ankle related. Great relationship with ortho such that any isolated trauma to the ankle/foot goes to Podiatry. Seemed like even the polytraumas with talus and calcaneus would go to Podiatry as well. Interns truly run all the infectious cases and are on call the most (10-12 days a month). I saw interns handle basic trauma well too (fibula, met fx). 2nd years are in clinic quite a bit but also handle majority of the trauma, easier elective cases. 3rd years get their pick of the cases but definitely do more of the forefoot electives that came in

Didactics: Once a month journal club. Not an emphasis here but the residents definitely do have to read up/defend their treatment plans with attendings as they truly are a resident-run clinic like ive never seen before.

OR Experience: Truly difficult to find a better OR experience. The residents do everything and anything in the OR. The attendings are in the room to guide them but rarely did I even see an attending scrub. The residents are confident in the OR and have some of the best hands ive seen on my clerkships. Very hands on with students as well – all the injections, easy amputations they let me do which made the experience so worthwhile as a student. Interns are confident with trauma, 2nd years are running clinics of 80-100+ at times by themselves and booking cases themselves, 3rd years almost function as a junior attending overseeing the program and teaching.

Clinic Experience:
Students can do all procedures/debridements/splints in clinic. I left JPS feeling more confident in working up a patient, suturing and placing splints. They see 80-100 patietns on Mondays, Tues and sometimes Thursdays. VERY busy. Patients are very noncompliant, uninsured and have a lot of financial/social burdens that make treatment often difficult but I never saw a clinic where patients were so thankful for their care. Great relationship between residents and patients which was unique.

Research Opportunities:
Not an emphasis. Seems like each resident has one project they work on for their term. Lots off opportunites though through UNT Health Science Center (Medical School in Fort Worth)
Lifestyle:
JPS is controlled chaos – the volume is insane and the pathology includes some of the worst trauma/infection cases ive seen as a student but the residents/attendings do a great job controlling this. Interns work a lot seemed like they would work 12-14 hours daily when on service but with each subsequent year the call and hours get better. Best OR experience ive seen, the residents do all the cases skin to skin. Theres no hand holding there. You are held to a high standard so if that does not occur in the OR , the attendings will get onto the resident so they were all thick skinned but also very nice. I spent majority of time with the PGY2 and PGY1s who were some of the nicest ive met

Pros:
Autonomy – residents do all cases skin to skin
Continuity of care – clinic can be a lot but they are able to follow patients very well from consults, OR, post op
TRAUMA - most i have seen on clerkships
Rearfoot/hindfoot reconstruction

Cons:
Less forefoot elective cases than most programs
Did not see much ankle scopes
The call can be difficult/demanding

Overall Conclusion:
as a student, I had the best time at JPS in terms of learning and getting hands on experience. The residents and confident, fun to work with and are laid back. The best autonomy ive seen with a high volume of trauma and infection. The residents were the most confident in the OR that I saw on my clerkships with some of the best hand-skills. Attendings are there for guidance but very hands-off. You have to be able to be thrown into the water and immediately swim there. The inpatient infection cases can fill up the OR boards which can be frustrating for the residents. The residents are all leaving this program with great jobs. Working with Dr Downey seems to have opened up a lot of sports medicine/TAR cases for the PGY3 as well.

 

[deleted1138023]

^ I'm sure all the patients enjoy the fact that a podiatry student is doing all the amputations in the OR, and that the attendings "rarely scrub" lol

 

[DexterMorganSK]

Submitted Anonymously!!!

Program Name: Intermountain Medical Center (Salt Lake City, Utah)

General Program/Hospital Info: Residents cover pretty much the entire state of utah. Logan to Provo (which is a huge area). Residents can go as far as St. George if they want for cases (which is 5 hours south of salt lake). Residents also spend 8 months at Salt Lake VA.

Attendings: Dr. Larsen, Mallory, Hronek, Anderson, and many many more.

Residents: 6 per year. There are a lot of podiatrists in utah so there are enough cases to go around. Residents double the amount required numbers needed but could probably do more. Most of the residents are very nice and chill.

Didactics: Once a week if you're at IMC, every day if you are at the VA. Dr. Larsen and Mallory work pretty hard to make sure the residents are comfortable in seeing stuff. Very well rounded education.

OR Experience: Students scrub with the main IMC and main VA attendings. residents scrub with many outside attendings as well. Residents do most of the cases I saw. mostly saw forefoot/midfoot Elective and limb salvage. They do get some trauma exposure here, but its mostly up north (logan) or down south (St. George) or at the VA.

Ortho and Podiatry have an interesting relationship here. Some ortho works with the residents, and then there are others who will openly **** on podiatry in the physician lounge haha. Many ortho would brag that they are on committees trying to restrict the scope of podiatry.

At the VA if the clinic is busy you may not get a chance to scrub at the VA.

Clinic Experience: IMC has 2 days of clinic a week. The VA has clinic every day haha. Not required to do notes at IMC. You write most of the notes at the VA. IMC has a diverse clinic and the VA is all wounds and chip and clip.

Research Opportunities: No idea. I know some of their residents do fellowship so the have research opportunities.

Lifestyle: What you make of it. You could probably scrub a ton of cases here if you wanted or do the bare minimum.

Pros: Great teachers, pretty good caseload, IMC takes pretty good care of you. Residents do most of the surgeries. Utah is a great place to live too (low COL, great family place)
Great academics, and residents leave the program very well rounded.

Cons: I didn't like the VA clinic, pretty mundane work. It's also a busy clinic (60 pts a day). Rest of the VA experience was great.
Ortho vs Pod relationship is definitely spicy on both sides
I know there are two fellows here too but I never saw them.

Overall Conclusion:
A sleeper program. Dr. Larsen and Mallory have done a lot to make this program a good option. Program gives you a ton of tools to be successful, its just up the you to actually follow through. Residents could easily triple quadruple their numbers if they're willing to drive everywhere.

 

[shadesofgrey]

Good to see the Intermountain program review. When I clerked there back in 2014 or 2015 (man that was a while ago) students were only allowed at the VA, which was mainly nails/wounds. I only scrubbed one case the entire month, a toe amp. The old director was an odd duck as well. About the only time he would talk to students was during a weekly didactic conference when he would question you pretty extensively. There were times I would say hi to him in the hallway and he literally didn't even acknowledge my presence. Loved utah though.

 

[Feli]

^ I'm sure all the patients enjoy the fact that a podiatry student is doing all the amputations in the OR, and that the attendings "rarely scrub" lol

This is the case at almost all major inner city / public health programs... attending in the OR but pretty hands-off. Programs like JPS or Kentucky or DMC or others are some of the best imo.

The major drawback, and the reason the more rounded programs may be optimal is that there is a night and day difference between a midicaid ankle fx and BCBS bunion. But most attendings, myself included, don't just let any student or pgy1 go to work on a private patient elective case, but you can allow a decent trainee autonomy for an amp or trauma with muuuuch lower pt expectations.

You dont really learn how to deal with expectations and demands of a BCBS bunion patient, who might even be a hospital admin spouse, at some of the highest volume inner city programs, but you can figure that out later on your own. It's very tough to just "figure out" the trauma after graduation imo.

It's personal for everyone, but the best move is usually to find the rare high volume rounded programs... or do a high volume inner city .... and then get to attendings' private clinics as much as possible.