Best IR Fellowships?

[samsoniter]

So what would you say are the IR fellowships with the best training in the country? And what can residents do to increase their attractiveness to said programs? Also, is it true that the IR match has become much more competitive over the past few years?

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[shark2000]

Compared to average radiology fellowship it is considered competitive, but not really as competitive as people say. You will find a spot. Compared to 6-7 years ago it has increased in competitiveness, mostlu because of job market. Neuro and MSK are not hot anymore. 6 years ago IR and mammo programs had problem filling their spots, not it is exactly opposite.

Good names are Miami vascular, UVA, Peoria from University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin, University of colorado, UCSD and UCLA and probably northwestern. Some big names have lost a lot of turf and also a lot of their faculty.

Many of the turf is shifter to vascular surgery and surprisingly many of the turf has shifted to other radiology departments for example at MGH body fellows are doing most of the body interventions including percut tubes including biliary work, RF ablations, biopsies, ....

As a result I will avoid places with strong procedure oriented body fellowships and also strong vasc surgury. In pp, most of what you do will be the bread and butter of IR rather than for example TACE. Make sure you get good training on body interventions that is getting more and more controlled by body section.

Also, the shift in quality of IR departments is very rapid on either direction. A strong department can go down the drain over a night and on the other hand many places hire a new team of IR who really change the whole environment of the department.

 

[deleted103644]

Any recommendations on good IR programs in the northeast?

 

[shark2000]

Brown is the best one in NE. Georgewashingtown and yale have solid training. Hopkins to my surprise is not really good. In NYC, columbia has had a fundamental change in the last 2-3 years and many think of it as the best one in NYC. NYU has issues. MGH, I've heard is getting better. I don't know about other Boston programs. Upenn, I've heard is the only good one in Philly.

The major problem is rapid cycle of changes in IR programs. Also the training is really different between different programs. The main IR procedures are cancer work, PVD, UAE, drain and tubes, biopsies and ... In most places you get a good training for biopsies and drain/tubes, though many body fellows are also good at these. Then it comes to vascular work. You may do tons of cancer work and then end up in a practice that does not do it at all. On the other hand you may not do PVD and end up in a group that wants you to do PVD. Making things more complicated, you may get tons of PVD in your fellowship, but end up in a place that PVD is controlled by vasc surgeons.

 

[kubIR]

Also consider Albany. Small program but it does everything from what I have heard.

 

[Mcgrey]

I think The Johns Hopkins IR fellowship program is the best to try)

 

[Radiologyreviews2015]

Is UMich in the mix of things?

 

[Fab5Hill33]

There's many great IR fellowships, and I'd argue that it's not even possible to narrow it down to a top 10.

No fellowship is perfect. Given that there's only 1 year of training, it's impossible to comprehensively learn everything in 1 year. This is partly why IR is becoming an IR/DR residency with 2 years of IR training.

But to specifically address the programs mentioned above: Hopkins, Brown, Miami vascular, UVA, Peoria, Colorado, UPenn, NW are all great. UMich, UCSD, UCLA, Columbia, GW are also outstanding. You can't go wrong with NYU, Columbia, MGH or Yale though my personal feeling was that the Northeast programs didn't live up to their layman reputation as "Ivy League" institutions. But that's nitpicking.

University of Iowa - I don't think they even have an IR fellowship, so I'm not sure why they were mentioned.
University of Wisconsin - Things may be changing, but I'd look harder at MCW - that's the premier IR program in the state.

 

[123IR]

"Best" is a relative term, in the ever changing, evolving field of IR. Mt. Sinai, Brown, UVA, Dotter, UPenn, Northwestern, Mallinkrodt, MD Anderson and Miami Vascular have always had a strong reputation so you can't go wrong with these. The most well-rounded programs I've come across are the Medical College of Wisconsin, Rush, MUSC, Yale, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington in Seattle. These programs do everything, including IO and EVAR/Vascular work. Some of them also do peds though I've forgotten which ones now. These are also very busy programs, which is key for getting good hands on experience! Thomas Jefferson has incredible clinical training and great IO though vascular work is not as prominent, though lack of vascular work again is a common theme in many programs. If you can handle being far from a city atmosphere, Albany also has outstanding, well rounded training.