UK, IU, Louisville

pretty sure there is something about these programs already on orthogate. its just a matter of sifting through thousands of posts with the search tool to find what youre after.

scutwork.com is a site you may want to check. not every program has a review, but it can be pretty helpful.

indiana and ky seem like two good, comparable programs. not sure about louisville.

IU is going through some tough times with internal changes and problems. At this point I would call it unstable with rumors the chairman is leaving??? There is a large group in town that consumes many cases and referals. The trauma is most hurt by this with the other level I taking most blunt cases. The department has great subspecialty rotations at the hand center etc. Need a high step I to get in here.

Louisville is a quality program that you will operate early/often and be a great surgeon. There is a lack of teaching and OITE scores are low. It is a great program that is very stable. University is a nice county type experience. They are excellent if you want to do spine, good for everything. Need to fit in really well to get in here.


KY- know nothing

Cincinnati- trauma heavy in this same area.

INtj

Cincinnnati is a great program and Peter Stern, the chairman is very well known and respected . He is an excellent Chairman, and resident advocate and is the president of the hand society of america. i would recommend rotating there if you want to stay around the Ky, In,OH area. it is trauma heavy but they come out great surgeons.

I am a current resident at the University of Louisville and can speak of our program in particular. We have four residents per year accepted, and have been getting more rotators through our program over the past few years. We rotate on four three month blocks throughout the year. First year - a mix of six months of general surgery rotations, 3 months of orthopaedics and 2 more months of elective rotations (radiology, anesthesia etc...). Second year - 3 months each of hand, trauma, pediatrics and orthopaedic oncology. Third year - 3 months each of trauma, adult reconstruction, spine, and sports. Fourth year - 3 months each of trauma chief run service, trauma another service, pediatrics and elective orthopaedics. Fifth year - 3 months each of chief's trauma, oncology, elective and hand. Overall, I think we have a very strong educational experience. I can say that we have an early operative experience, and all feel very comfortable with "bread and butter" orthopaedic cases. We have found that we enjoy getting to know rotating students on our rotations, and encourage all those interested to apply for a rotating position. If you have any questions you may feel free to send me your address and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

I was lucky enough to get an interview at Louisville, but I have no personal experience. The impression I got is that they are VERY keen on their rotators. I really wondered why I got an interview there, but I enjoyed my day. They have the Leatherman Spine Center which is awesome, but I'm not really sure if you get to rotate much there as a resident. The guys seem nice, but I got the impression that during that interview day they were only letting us talk to two residents that apparently did crazy well on OITE. I've also heard that they were having problems with board scores. They operate a ton; the chief giving the presentation said he did 40+ tabs or something like that. Overall, I liked the program, but never really thought I had a chance of matching there.

i concur on the IU thing. Know a fair amount about the program as am fairly close.

Their have been many recent problems. Ones that the RRC should (but may not) look at closely. Three peds staff left 1.5 years ago leaving only two for a large well respected children's hospital (Riley). I hear they hired some "fresh meat" out of peds fellowship this coming year. The chairman has been in some trouble at their trauma center.

Their are other issues that you can ask me about and tell you what i know. The issues they don't have is i know a lot of the guys and they are great hard working guys.

PM me if you want any further (or more specific info).

I am a resident at Louisville and just wanted to comment on a few things that have been said on this forum. First, Louisville is a strong, well rounded program. And as others have said, we operate a ton. We have had chiefs in the past few years graduate with over 2400 operative cases (twice the national average), so when you leave here, you should have the skills needed to do most general cases thrown your way. We have had some lower OITE scores, but from what I am told those were mostly from several years ago and the scores have been climbing steadily since then. You can make of that what you want. As for the comment about how applicants were only allowed to talk to two residents who did well on the OITE, there is no truth to that. Every resident is asked to show up at some point during the interview day to talk to applicants and answer questions. There is also the social the night before that is attended by all the residents who aren't on call. We do normally pick a few residents who are present the whole interview day and those are the one's who have lived in Louisville the longest and can better answer questions about the city. We do get to rotate at the Leatherman Spine Center and it is rated as one of our most popular rotations. I haven't rotated through it yet, but from what I am told we get a lot of responsibility in the OR and it is a great learning experience. As for heavily favoring rotators, it is probably true. But what program doesn't? We know the rotators and can assess them better than the people we only meet for a day. But that being said, I did not rotate at the program and had absolutely zero ties to KY, so it isn't totally true.

Ok, that was more than I expected to write. If you have any more questions, post them and I will do what I can to answer them.

ATCnMD,
Can you PM me and let me know whats going on at IU. I may be rotation there in the next few months.