Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
I thought the faculty at Emory were the most down-to-earth and approachable of the 3 programs where I rotated. The chairman Dr. Roberson is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and the new program director Dr. Bradbury is a great resident advocate as well. The trauma attending at Grady, Dr. Moore, is a great guy as well and spent more time pimping me on his iPod mix than anatomy.
Didactics / Teaching
Very good but not as structured with dedicated teaching time compared to some other places at which I rotated.
Operating Experience
Excellent. You'll operate as an intern, you'll operate a LOT as a PGY-2. Most of your early operative experience is in trauma, as it should be. You will know trauma inside and out by the time you're done. Great breadth of clinical experience between the county hospital, outpatient center, and new elective orthopaedic hospital.
Clinic Experience
It's clinic.
Research Opportunities
You can do research if that's your thing but it's certainly not emphasized as much here as at some other institutions. Still, if you're motivated you can definitely find a wealth of opportunities.
Residents
Awesome group, liked all of them. They love it here.
Lifestyle
You get killed as a junior here. Grady is not for the meek and your call nights are busy. Still, the tradeoff is that you learn a ton and you are in the OR very early on. If you're looking for a cush, white-collar program, this is not it.
Location / Housing
Atlanta's an affordable, fun city, good place to raise a family. Not my favorite city but you could do a lot worse.
Limitations
The only problem I personally saw with the program (and what kept it from being in my top 3 programs) is the lack of in-depth experience on trauma at Tampa General Hospital. This is a top trauma fellowship, but the USF residents are kind of lost in the crowd as residents from several other programs are rotating at TGH also. I think if USF were to expand their experience at TGH and take more call, it would GREATLY improve the residency, in my opinion.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Great program. I think you'll be as well trained coming out of here as anywhere in the country. Not as strong with didactics and research but still very good and improving. Overall, an outstanding program with great faculty and residents.
