Chairman Dr. Davis is alright, cares about his residents but really doesn;t seem to care much about the experience you get as a student. He is a general ortho surgeon with illizarov training but some of his techniques and indications seemed out dated or quetionable to me, nice guy though. Dr. Canaday is not very courgeal to students and considers himself very intelligent. As a student we didn't get to see his OR skills but mainly he does a lot of joints. Dr. Payne is a sharp and great spine surgeon that does everything, very cool and great with the residents. He lets the residents do everything while he pimps but not to malignant, just provoking.
Didactics / Teaching
Poor, once a week at a hospital 1hr drive away usually in traffic for about 2 hrs of pretty substandard lectures, definetly a week point in the program.
Operating Experience
Excellent, lot sof autonomy and seems like a lot of variety at the different centers. The residents graduate as good surgeons.
Clinic Experience
Pretty poor, most of the clinic is with Davis and Canaday and it was sub standard from what I saw. Clinical exam and acumen would be a concern of mine.
Research Opportunities
None
Residents
Some of the seniors seemed cool but as a student you really only meet a couple of the residents. The femalae intern I rotated with was nice but not much of a teacher. The 3rd year was not very cool at all, definetly a hard ass and a bit of a blow hard that made you hang out even though the learning opportunity was not there. the senior was awesome though. Didn't seem like a very cohesive bunch, everyone kinda does their own things because they are so spread out across the city on different rotations.
Lifestyle
Really tough, lots of driving and Chicago is a very expensive city to live in.
Location / Housing
Chicago is nice but hospital rotations are everywhere so average morning drive is from 30min - 1.25hrs through rough traffic. Lots of car time.
Limitations
Driving and lack of central didactic experience
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
These residents graduate as good surgeons and work hard to get there. Overall this was #5 on my rank list.
