Official pulmonary critical care 2016-2017 thread

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I have interviewed with up to 4 people at some places. Do you send them all the same thank you email? How much do you change it up? ... ?
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drdocdoctor said:
I have interviewed with up to 4 people at some places. Do you send them all the same thank you email? How much do you change it up? ... ?
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Do you think your chicken scratch will move you up or down their rank list?
Do you have custom return address labels? Are they cheesy or tasteful?
Do you have an AOL or Hotmail account?

These are all crucial questions to ponder before you gamble your entire career on emailed thank you notes.
 
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drdocdoctor said:
I have interviewed with up to 4 people at some places. Do you send them all the same thank you email? How much do you change it up? ... ?
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Now on the other side of interviewing for fellowship, I would mainly send emails/thank you notes to people you can foresee staying in touch with. If it is someone you feel comfortable going back to while making your rank list, or staying in touch with in the future professionally. Thank you emails (or the lack thereof) should not affect your ROL position, and possibly cause unnecessary anxiety for interviewees (e.g. lack of response from a PD that gets > 100-200 emails during interview season). If you appreciated your interview day, certainly let the PD/PC know - just don't expect a response.
 
Well I am planning on staying completely silent, until I have certified my ROL. Then I plan to send my #1 the I'm-ranking-you-#1 email and that's it. I don't understand the point of thank-you emails. It should be a given that the applicant is a) at least somewhat interested and b) appreciated the time/efforts of the program.
 
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Not doing your own airway, especially in the MICU/Pulm Floor/RCU, preferably everywhere would have been a deal breaker for me. Again, I am a sucker for clinical exposure. But personally, giving airway to anesthesia as a PCCM fellow is like giving away a bronch/chest tubes to CT surgery.
 
Anri of Astora said:
Well I am planning on staying completely silent, until I have certified my ROL. Then I plan to send my #1 the I'm-ranking-you-#1 email and that's it. I don't understand the point of thank-you emails. It should be a given that the applicant is a) at least somewhat interested and b) appreciated the time/efforts of the program.
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I agree that should be he right way to do things though.... some programs actually do keep tabs on thank you notes or lack of. I just send it to everyone
 
Anri of Astora said:
Well I am planning on staying completely silent, until I have certified my ROL. Then I plan to send my #1 the I'm-ranking-you-#1 email and that's it. I don't understand the point of thank-you emails. It should be a given that the applicant is a) at least somewhat interested and b) appreciated the time/efforts of the program.
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Certainly the ideal way.
But given we cannot know what PD's are thinking/wanting & no way TO know, confusions reigns IMHO.
Appreciate your inputs guys.
 
Anyone interested in submitting anonymous fellowship reviews for this year in a different thread? Maybe someone like jdh, gutonc, or Hern would be willing to collect them and post them anonymously? Always interested in what others have to say about other programs.
 
Vigileo said:
Anyone interested in submitting anonymous fellowship reviews for this year in a different thread? Maybe someone like jdh, gutonc, or Hern would be willing to collect them and post them anonymously? Always interested in what others have to say about other programs.
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I'm keeping a journal and was planning to submit them anonymously once ROLs are locked...
 
aspergilloma said:
I'm keeping a journal and was planning to submit them anonymously once ROLs are locked...
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I'd be happy to contribute to it as well. Although waiting after ROLs are locked will help next year, some input for applicants this year would be helpful.
 
Agreed input earlier would be better Ivan also contribute


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Can someone explain HOUSTON METHODIST to me? It's ranked as one of the top hospitals in the country by US News and World Report, but the fellowship is rather small (2 per year), it's community-based and the faculty is rather small.

I would guess there's a big difference between the care a hospital provides for its patients and the quality of education and teaching it affords its trainees?
 
SS Normandy said:
Can someone explain HOUSTON METHODIST to me? It's ranked as one of the top hospitals in the country by US News and World Report, but the fellowship is rather small (2 per year), it's community-based and the faculty is rather small.

I would guess there's a big difference between the care a hospital provides for its patients and the quality of education and teaching it affords its trainees?
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How did you get this far in your career without understanding that USNWR and Doximity are total bulls*** and completely irrelevant to your training opportunities?
 
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Can anyone comment on the quality of Memorial Sloan Kettering for pulm/ccm? Pulm is a separate fellowship but guaranteed critical care spot in the 3rd year I hear
 
I interviewed there for pulm. Contrary to what I thought it is not all lung cancer. Rather, the pulmonary service sees a lot of immunocompromised patients who have a wide spectrum of malignancies. It feels a bit like a support service for all the various oncology departments. You definitely seem to have exposure to a variety of zebra diseases given the immunocompromised population but there seems to be less of the bread and butter COPD, ILD, PH etc. Fellows were very nice and friendly. TONS of procedures with above average exposure to pleural diseases and interventions (chest tubes, PleurX, pigtails etc.) Lots of bronch and EBUS. Most fellows end up in academic positions though some go into private practice.

Biggest drawback (or plus side I guess depending on each applicant's career goals) was the lack of research time. Something like 10 weeks only. In comparison, Mayo offers at least 6 mo of dedicated research time for the 2 yr pulm fellowship and 12 mo for the PCCM fellowship with lots of support to do an extra yr of research after. Other obvious drawback is that you work as a pulmonologist within a cancer centre so there is less exposure to the non cancer related pulm diseases.

It seems like a solid clinical program that is very busy. The 1 yr CCM program is basically a guarantee after the 2 yrs of pulm so I guess that is a plus if that's what you want. I didn't pay too much attention to that side of things except that there is a step down so the ICU is reasonably acute. Airways done by intensivists I believe.


Edit: I forgot to mention that the 2 yr pulm fellowship is quite old and well established. They are however planning to combine the pulm and CCM fellowships in a couple years time.
 
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Thanks for all the info! They do seem very procedural, maybe the fellowship is better geared for people interested in mainly clinical work. But it is an incredible research facility as well - pretty unique program. Where do their fellows usually come from?
 
I agree. They seem to be a very clinically-focused training program with a pretty unique population of patients and lots of procedural exposure.

I don't recall specifics but it seems many of the current fellows are from or have done their training in the Tristate area.

Oh and forgot to mention a big bonus is the subsidized housing. Super close, pretty swanky accommodations for much less than market price :)....annnnd it's the upper east side :):)
 
SS Normandy said:
Can someone explain HOUSTON METHODIST to me? It's ranked as one of the top hospitals in the country by US News and World Report, but the fellowship is rather small (2 per year), it's community-based and the faculty is rather small.

I would guess there's a big difference between the care a hospital provides for its patients and the quality of education and teaching it affords its trainees?
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Hi!
I interviewed there for Hemonc and I had the same question. One attending told me that although they have lots of competition in the area (MD Anderson is a few blocks away) they manage to get tons of patients from Houston area. According to him, people from Houston prefer to go to Houston Methodist than other big university centers. Also, a few years ago they had a very strong connection with Baylor but due to economic reason it was undone. This connection is so strong that Baylor actually does his BMT in Houston Methodist. Clinically the fellowship seems to be very good and I will certainly put it on the top 5 of my list.

Best
 
Anyone bothered by the fact that the MICU rotation for Montefiore is at Jacobi and not Weiler/Moses?
 
Can someone give opinions on Mt Sinai Critical Care only program? Their core rotation is in SICU and has only a couple of months in MICU. Do you think that is a downside?
 
anybody know about creighton university fellowship program? Any interview experiences.
 
Ahh guys the rank order list is open! :dead:Has anyone sent their "I am ranking you #1" emails yet? Or heard any post interview correspondance from programs?
 
SS Normandy said:
Can someone explain HOUSTON METHODIST to me? It's ranked as one of the top hospitals in the country by US News and World Report, but the fellowship is rather small (2 per year), it's community-based and the faculty is rather small.

I would guess there's a big difference between the care a hospital provides for its patients and the quality of education and teaching it affords its trainees?
Click to expand...

As someone else has mentioned, USNews rankings are silly, the way they formulate their rankings and the way some hospitals game the system for the sake of rankings is utter bs. From my understanding, Methodist is a private hospital with mostly private attendings that share facilities with Cornell-affiliated attendings, who provide the academic aspect of the hospital (was previously baylor). I think the idea is that Methodist has the money and facilities while Cornell (or academics in general) can take the hospital to a higher level than just private practice alone. Trainees work primarily with the Cornell attendings and see their patients and such.

Most people don't know the difference between all the hospitals in Houston. Methodist is a large system with lots of outside hospitals and pop-up clinics, and it does a very good job of putting it's name out there and affiliating itself with events, sports teams, etc., probably the reason people choose it over other hospitals.
 
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NEVER MIND my mind is interview blown... it's the DAY BEFORE rank closes...I said the same thing -- who goes the day after... i was wondering how legit it could possibly be until i saw it was the day before. my bad. i need to sleep.
 
I would appreciate if anyone can comment on the quality of training at Tulane University .
 
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Anri of Astora said:
Ahh guys the rank order list is open! :dead:Has anyone sent their "I am ranking you #1" emails yet? Or heard any post interview correspondance from programs?
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I may just send my #1 an email. Letting other programs know "i'll be ranking you extremely highly" or whatever essentially tells them they aren't your #1 ...unless other people have a different opinion?
 
So is the consensus that we should send PDs a "you're #1" email? I didn't do that for residency, but it seems that the fellowship field is much smaller and maybe it means more? I just assumed it probably wouldn't change anyone's rank list.
 
Vigileo said:
So is the consensus that we should send PDs a "you're #1" email? I didn't do that for residency, but it seems that the fellowship field is much smaller and maybe it means more? I just assumed it probably wouldn't change anyone's rank list.
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it probably doesn't... nothing after the interview probably means anything
 
Got Pulm only interviews from marshall university 10/5 and Howard university dc 10/7.


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SS Normandy said:
I may just send my #1 an email. Letting other programs know "i'll be ranking you extremely highly" or whatever essentially tells them they aren't your #1 ...unless other people have a different opinion?
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As I see it, If you tell a program they are your #1 then they may feel "safe" and list you lower down and give preference to candidates that they deem more highly. As I see it, if a program showed significant interest in myself and told me they have me as #1, I would personally rank other reach programs higher. Again, just another conspiracy theory.
 
Hiiiii5 said:
As I see it, If you tell a program they are your #1 then they may feel "safe" and list you lower down and give preference to candidates that they deem more highly. As I see it, if a program showed significant interest in myself and told me they have me as #1, I would personally rank other reach programs higher. Again, just another conspiracy theory.
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Hmm... wouldn't they rank "candidates they deem more highly" higher than me to begin with, regardless of any emails? I think programs rank candidates purely according to objective data and the interview. Candidates I think go more with location, personal preference. Also conspiracy theory here.
 
For internationals requiring visa, has any of you guys made a list of places that offer H1B visa? Some places were quick to respond to emails about this, and some places were not. It's my fault, but I actually forgot to ask about this at couple of places 'cause it was actually not the most important factor that I was looking at. I am mostly interested in east coast university programs...
 
Sometimes you can email follow up of questions or research results to prog in thank you emails. That leaves a lingering impression


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Vigileo said:
So is the consensus that we should send PDs a "you're #1" email? I didn't do that for residency, but it seems that the fellowship field is much smaller and maybe it means more? I just assumed it probably wouldn't change anyone's rank list.
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It won't change anything if you suck and they didn't like you. But, I know, we considered candidates higher if she seemed to show a lot more interest than others. Now, this was nuanced by a section chief who liked to mess with ranking based on who he thought would make his precious t32 look better . . . academic politics . . . but yes it does help and it is appreciated at most places.

I mean if you are Penn or UCSF . . . yes . . . they all know you all want to go there. So not much of a big deal. But if you're a super solid spot like Utah or Iowa for instance, it will mean a lot if you really like their program.

The only caveat is don't be a douche and tell more than one program you love them.
 
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I remember for residency, NRMP data showed USMDs matching in their top 3 choices ~70% of the time (with ~50% with their top choice) - crazy numbers! anyone know if there's any reporting on this for fellowship? clearly this depends on location and which fellowship we're talking about, but those variables existed for the general residency as well.
 
SS Normandy said:
I remember for residency, NRMP data showed USMDs matching in their top 3 choices ~70% of the time (with ~50% with their top choice) - crazy numbers! anyone know if there's any reporting on this for fellowship? clearly this depends on location and which fellowship we're talking about, but those variables existed for the general residency as well.
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Yes, all of that data is available for fellowship match
 
Found the data, and here are the numbers:

In 2016, matching within:
1st rank: 46.3%
2nd rank: 58.8%
3rd rank: 64.5%
4th+ rank: 73.4%

Of all applicants, looks like 26.7% went unmatched or matched to another specialty. If we were to eliminate these and look at groups that did ultimately match, within:
1st rank: 63.1%
2nd rank: 80.1%
3rd rank: 87.9%
4th+ rank: (obviously) 100%
 
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Can anyone comment on NYU vs Mount Sinai vs Yale? I am looking to stay in academics with a focus in pulmonary research, just not necessarily an 80/20 split. The quality of the CCM training does not concern me much (should it?). I am leaning towards 1) Mount Sinai, 2) NYU, 3) Yale.
 
Anri of Astora said:
Can anyone comment on NYU vs Mount Sinai vs Yale? I am looking to stay in academics with a focus in pulmonary research, just not necessarily an 80/20 split. The quality of the CCM training does not concern me much (should it?). I am leaning towards 1) Mount Sinai, 2) NYU, 3) Yale.
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NYU is a basically a clinical program, would definitely suggest putting it last. If Yale gives you more protected research time than Sinai it should be first on your list.


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Thoughts or experiences in terms of distribution of ICU months in PCCM. I'm not sure which of the following is best in terms of over all learning.
A. Graded system, more front loaded ICU (6 months first year) then reduced over the next
or
B. equal distribution of ICU months through out the 3 years.

A, I could see that practice makes perfect so 6 months of continuous bronchs and procedures
B, Could see more meaningful experience through out the three years.
 
Does it matter whether an applicant interviews with the PD? A couple places I have been to don't seem to have the PD meet with everyone. Kinda hard to not think that the PD selects those he/she is most interested in meeting.
 
Anri of Astora said:
Does it matter whether an applicant interviews with the PD? A couple places I have been to don't seem to have the PD meet with everyone. Kinda hard to not think that the PD selects those he/she is most interested in meeting.
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I've been wondering the same thing. It feels weird not interviewing with the PD.
 
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