Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
I would say the faculty at Loyola is one of the MAJOR draws of this program. As previous writer mentioned, Dr. Ghanayem recently took over as chair of the program after Dr. Light stepped down. Initially he can be intimidating, but after spending just a small amount of time with him either in clinic, in OR, or interacting with residents, he's a very funny/approachable guy and it's clear he is functioning as a resident-first type of chairman. He is constantly asking residents for feedback, how the program can be improved, etc. He and the rest of the leadership staff (Dr. Wu is PD, and Dr. Schiff is APD) are actively invested in making sure the resident experience is the best it can be. This is very evident. You get the sense that the residents feel they truly have their backs.
Loyola has recently drawn some new young attendings from elite fellowships (trauma-harborview, Tumor-UFlorida, Joints-Anderson clinic). Didn't interact with them too much, but the resident consensus is that they are energetic and interested in teaching
Didactics / Teaching
I agree with previous writer that the organizations of the didactics are a plus here. Everything is set up and well structured. Didactics included dedicated weekly fracture conference and blocked education time. Lecturers are a mix of attendings and senior residents. In contrast to other programs I rotated at, the attendings seem to show up and actively participate in the conferences. This seemed to drive up the quality of each lecture given. other didactic sessions included cadaver labs, sawbones skill labs, OITE practice sessions, etc. Every so often they have a senior resident present in front of the faculty in a "mock boards" type situation. Faculty act as board reviewers and ask board reviewer type questions in real time. Something unique i didn't see at other programs.
Operating Experience
I'd say a true medium between the "blue collar" programs that kind of let residents fly in the OR with minimal supervision and the "white collar" programs with a ton of fellows and residents are double or triple scrubbed. Loyola is somewhere in the middle. Definitely attending dependent, but for the most part residents get to operate, with close attending supervision. This seems to go over well with the residents, as they get to do the cases, but are actively being critiqued on how they can improve. They also rotate at their VA, where they are allowed to pretty much do cases alone without an attending scrubbed.
Clinic Experience
Clinic is clinic. Your standard dress-nice clinics at Loyola with the attendings. The VA clinic is mostly resident run. Med students get to do a lot here
Research Opportunities
As the previous reviewer mentioned, research is here if you want it. One downside is they don't have the funding that your typical big name powerhouse program would (Harvard, Mayo, Hopkins etc). But residents end up publishing quite a bit. They do have attendings on staff that are extremely well published and quite famous in the their respective fields (Light-hand, Pinzur Foot/ankle, etc)
Residents
The true gold star of the program. A happy/fun/smart group. Of all the places I rotated, none of the residents seemed to have as much fun while working as these guys. Seem to hang out with each other quite a bit outside of work too. Relatively young group, very few have families/kids. 5 of the 25 residents are female.
Lifestyle
About average compared to all the places I rotated. Loyola is a Level 1 trauma center, so with great trauma training comes some longer/later hours when on that rotation. Residents didn't seem to mind.
Location / Housing
Chicago is a world class city. Maywood is not a world class city. I'd say 80 percent of residents live downtown, and the other 20 live somewhere in the west suburbs. Traffic is somewhat brutal, but essentially par for the course when it comes to living in/near a huge urban area. Depending on where you live in the city, 20-30 minute commute in the morning, and a 20-30 minute commute at night.
Limitations
Peds is weak here. Spine can be tough. If you want a lot of money for research, that might be hard to come by. Commuting from the city can be rough if you leave late enough in the morning (or early enough at night). If prestige is what you're into, it doesn't have the national prestige as its neighbor to the east (Rush).
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
The name isn't sexy, but of all the programs I've seen, this one seemed to provide the best overall balanced orthopaedic education (didactics, hands on learning, faculty involvement, operating, research, etc). The trauma experience here is hard to beat. The residents match usually at their top choice fellowship, with some impressive ones recently (Harvard spine, Kerlan Jobe sports). Residents seem happy and have more fun at work than any other group I've seen.
