Mississippi Program

Overall the program is strong.

Here goes:
I would say this is a well rounded program. The residents operate early and it shows later on. The residents are a good group of guys that are laid back and willing to help/teach motivated (emphasis on motivated) medical students. It feels like a fraternity in that you need to get "in" with the guys. From what I have seen it seems like most go onto sports and trauma fellowships.

Trauma is a strong area with two dedicated traumatologists. Both are very nice and enjoy being around med students and residents. One will usually show up during the week for xray rounds in the morning to discuss the previous nights trauma with the guys. The ICU tower is only around 10 years old.

Sports also appeared to be a positive area. There are, I believe, two sports guys. One of which is a young guy who just came on board. The younger doc is very laid back and doesn't pimp a lot. The older doc is more of the pimping old-school type. He will get onto you a fair amount if you don't know your stuff, but I think he is just trying to help you out. Although it does seem that he gets a kick out of getting you to miss some of his questions. Big plus is a brand new outpatient surgery center in the new hospital.

Joints is a good area but there is only one joint guy. I heard they are actively searching for a second. There may be one at the VA but I am not sure. His patients love him and he spends a lot of time with them in clinic to explain what is going on and put them at ease. I did not spend a lot of time operating with him, but I believe he does let the residents do a lot. The upper level on the service is completely autonomous in another room until the implants go in, when the attending will come by to just check everything over.

Pediatrics has two dedicated surgeons. One is great and will teach if you are interested. He does a lot of scoliosis cases. The other is more of the quiet type when it comes to med students. You need to make a little effort to get to know him. The peds hospital is fairly new (about 10 years old I think) with good facilities.

There are foot/ankle and hand surgeons on staff. I don't know anything about them. There is one tumor guy who really seems to enjoy teaching.

That is about all I can think of right now. Hope it helps.

Glad to hear you're interested in Mississippi and I think orthojacket did a great job explaining a little about us. Trauma is definitely a strength with excellent attendings and tons of cases coming in. Our time on the trauma service is extremely busy, but the experience is tough to match. Lots of operative experience to go along with great teaching and exposure to a wide variety of cases. We do have a good number of residents go into sports also and the addition of another sports guy has been a major improvement.

Orthojacket also mentioned all of the new aspects of the hospitals - the new adult hospital just opened within the past year and the day surgery surgery is definitely a great addition. Basically the entire campus has been renovated or built within the last 10 years and construction is still going on for a new research building.

As far as some of the areas that orthojacket wasn't sure about, we do get a lot of joints and arthroscopy experience at the VA in addition to our University staff. Our tumor guy just came on board within the last couple of years also and already has a pretty busy service of his own. Not too many tumor guys to compete with (pretty sure he's the only one in Mississippi), so a lot of unique cases are being referred in. He has also implemented an excellent didactic curriculum to improve the staff-to-resident teaching. Our foot/ankle specialist is also heavily involved and interested in teaching. Another unique bonus to our program is a 4th year AO elective that allows us to do an international rotation for 4-6 weeks in places like Switzerland, Australia, or England.

All in all, I think we're a well-rounded program with a great group of residents and excellent staff. I'm biased, of course, but there have been a lot of great changes and improvements made to the program over the last few years. Feel free to post or PM me with questions.