Would appreciate any input regarding the UT Houston Cardiology fellowship program: overall training, workload, fellow satisfaction, reputation, subspecialty matching, service/education balance, research opportunity, and mentorship. Thanks!
Thoughts on UT Houston Cardiology?
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I interviewed there. I got the sense that it was no where near as malignant as previously mentioned in this forum. However I did get the sense that fellow education wasn't top priority. Looked like lectures were fellow driven. First year is brutal, from first year fellows I heard anything from "tough" to "living nightmare" when describing call nights on first year. However, I think sheer volume and exposure makes this a respectable program. Second largest HF program in the country I believe the largest in the medical center.
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By what metric? I find that very hard to believe.
Probably number of transplants. I interviewed there too, I thought it was a very solid program overall. Definitely very tough first year, not sure how much all the work would add to educational value, but fellows would definitely come out very seasoned/strong. Reminded me of Ochsner.
Thank you for this! I agree, it did feel like first year is very tough. I'm not sure about your experience, but on my interview day, I only met a few of the current fellows. Did you feel that they were happy training there?
Yeah, it looked pretty strong in all fronts, including transplant. Did you get a sense of how involved the fellows are with research? Does the workload negatively affect their research involvement, you think?
Didn't get the sense research or pure academia was their primary focus. Definitely not a 'cush' or relaxed place to go cuz of the heavy initial workload, but I am sure the fellows could make up for lost research time in their 2nd/3rd year.
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Your welcome
I didn't get a sense that fellows were necessarily that happy but I did get the sense that they felt very confident that they would be very well prepared when they got out due to the exposure. I didn't feel that they necessarily had a lot of scut or malignant attendings just that they were ridiculously busy.
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Interviewed here, felt pleasantly surprised by the program, particularly in light of the prior posts on this forum that cited it as a malignant place. I didn't get any sense of that throughout the day. The PD has been there for >25 years, and seems very approachable and "grandfatherly" -- appears to be a strong advocate for the fellows and will change things if the fellows want (ie recently switched to the NF system). Also made mention of a service to humanity as part of our role as fellows, which I didn't hear at all otherwise throughout the interview trail. Bigger program than I thought -- currently have 10 1st year fellows, and will expand to 11 next year. Will add a bit of additional info for future applicants, as well as my thoughts below, sorry in advance for the wall of text.
The fellows do seem to work hard the first year -- you have 2 months of night float (some unlucky folks will get another extra month), during which you are paired with another 1st year fellow and alternate weeks of actual night coverage. During your off week, you cover the other fellow's clinic and are on research, so it gives you a breather between NF weeks. As such, sounds much more manageable. It does sound like when you are on, it is pretty busy and you don't get much (if any) sleep. However, when you are on NF, there is another 1st year fellow who stays late to help offload the evening on a 6-11pm shift before heading home. In 2nd year, you are home call for the county hospital (LBJ), and on STEMI call at the main hospital (Memorial Hermann). 3rd year call sounds pretty light -- every 7-10th Saturday, where you supervise a handful of stress tests and then head home before lunch.
The other difficult month seems to be the advanced heart failure service (1st year block), where it sounds like you often stay late (can often be until 9-10pm). It is a service where you are primary and must write notes, which likely contributes to your level of busy-ness (other services you have residents and interns on your team writing notes and putting in orders, including CCU overnight) along with the acuity and complexity of the patients.
From what I gathered on the interview trail, in 2012, a big advanced heart failure/transplant team moved over from THI, and subsequently a large EP group (also from THI) came over to UTH, bringing their patients with them. Sounds like this served to bolster the UTH program quite a bit, bringing in all the procedures and complexity that come along with these patients. This has augmented the training program to a large extent. One of the attendings I met with at UTH said these moves brought UTH from #3 in the region immediately to #1 (his words). While I'm not sure that is necessarily the case, during my interview at THI, one of the attendings conceded that these aforementioned moves left "a large vacuum" in its wake.
Post-fellowship match list seems pretty good (for 2018):
Interventional -- 3 (all UTH)
EP -- 3 (2 UT, 1 Mt Sinai)
AHF -- 1 (Brigham)
Imaging -- 2 (Methodist, Cornell)
So to your question:
overall training -- seems very strong, and clinically-oriented. No subspecialty training in advanced imaging, so that may be a weaker area if you are interested in that
workload -- first year seems tough, but manageable from what I spoke with the first years. 2-3rd year seem fine. 3rd year you can structure as you like
fellow satisfaction -- I think once you make it through 1st year, things are much better, and get even easier by 3rd year. However, even the few first year fellows I spoke with seemed decently happy, despite the tougher workload
reputation -- still likely lags behind Baylor and THI, but I think the clinical training seems incredibly strong given the significant volume. I would anticipate this will catch up given the rigor of the training
subspecialty matching -- pretty good as above
service/education balance -- felt pretty collegial between the fellows and attendings (all seemed genuinely friendly) with a good emphasis on teaching as a result. You do rotate through LBJ, which provides some service-related experience
research opportunity -- may be another weaker point, as they don't really emphasize it during the interview day, though seems like if you want it, infrastructure and support is there
mentorship -- many of the faculty I interviewed with were young and approachable. Definitely seemed there was a focus on having fellows try to figure out what they wanted to do early on, and get you tied in with the appropriate faculty. Personally, I got a great vibe from nearly all the attendings I met with.
Best of luck!
The fellows do seem to work hard the first year -- you have 2 months of night float (some unlucky folks will get another extra month), during which you are paired with another 1st year fellow and alternate weeks of actual night coverage. During your off week, you cover the other fellow's clinic and are on research, so it gives you a breather between NF weeks. As such, sounds much more manageable. It does sound like when you are on, it is pretty busy and you don't get much (if any) sleep. However, when you are on NF, there is another 1st year fellow who stays late to help offload the evening on a 6-11pm shift before heading home. In 2nd year, you are home call for the county hospital (LBJ), and on STEMI call at the main hospital (Memorial Hermann). 3rd year call sounds pretty light -- every 7-10th Saturday, where you supervise a handful of stress tests and then head home before lunch.
The other difficult month seems to be the advanced heart failure service (1st year block), where it sounds like you often stay late (can often be until 9-10pm). It is a service where you are primary and must write notes, which likely contributes to your level of busy-ness (other services you have residents and interns on your team writing notes and putting in orders, including CCU overnight) along with the acuity and complexity of the patients.
From what I gathered on the interview trail, in 2012, a big advanced heart failure/transplant team moved over from THI, and subsequently a large EP group (also from THI) came over to UTH, bringing their patients with them. Sounds like this served to bolster the UTH program quite a bit, bringing in all the procedures and complexity that come along with these patients. This has augmented the training program to a large extent. One of the attendings I met with at UTH said these moves brought UTH from #3 in the region immediately to #1 (his words). While I'm not sure that is necessarily the case, during my interview at THI, one of the attendings conceded that these aforementioned moves left "a large vacuum" in its wake.
Post-fellowship match list seems pretty good (for 2018):
Interventional -- 3 (all UTH)
EP -- 3 (2 UT, 1 Mt Sinai)
AHF -- 1 (Brigham)
Imaging -- 2 (Methodist, Cornell)
So to your question:
overall training -- seems very strong, and clinically-oriented. No subspecialty training in advanced imaging, so that may be a weaker area if you are interested in that
workload -- first year seems tough, but manageable from what I spoke with the first years. 2-3rd year seem fine. 3rd year you can structure as you like
fellow satisfaction -- I think once you make it through 1st year, things are much better, and get even easier by 3rd year. However, even the few first year fellows I spoke with seemed decently happy, despite the tougher workload
reputation -- still likely lags behind Baylor and THI, but I think the clinical training seems incredibly strong given the significant volume. I would anticipate this will catch up given the rigor of the training
subspecialty matching -- pretty good as above
service/education balance -- felt pretty collegial between the fellows and attendings (all seemed genuinely friendly) with a good emphasis on teaching as a result. You do rotate through LBJ, which provides some service-related experience
research opportunity -- may be another weaker point, as they don't really emphasize it during the interview day, though seems like if you want it, infrastructure and support is there
mentorship -- many of the faculty I interviewed with were young and approachable. Definitely seemed there was a focus on having fellows try to figure out what they wanted to do early on, and get you tied in with the appropriate faculty. Personally, I got a great vibe from nearly all the attendings I met with.
Best of luck!
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Definitely not the second largest in the country for transplants, likely not even for lvads. Just don't want SDN browsers to be misled, especially when such a bold statement is made.
This is true based on what I've been told by a friend that went to THI, a large group left THI for UTH and THI's volume took a hit but seems to be doing fine since (2012).
EDIT: 2018 USnews Data (which isn't the end-all source) had UT at about half as many discharges as Methodist and THI. Take it as you wish, but I'm not sure in what way UTH was considered #1 by this attending. I've heard similarly bold claims or gloating from some connected to UTH cardiac dept this past year and it doesn't come off well. It seems a lot of it stems from the THI attendings that moved over but things change often in the med center, one of those attendings has already left UTH supposedly.
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Ok thanks for clarification. I'm just going by what was told to me verbatim on Interview day. Don't want to mislead anyone either.
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No problem, though one has to question a program that makes such bold statements
Seems like an average typical program, good exposures across all specialties, private hospital with 'cornell' attendings. Echo is their strength. Not sure what you mean by "on the way up."
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This question may be slightly off topic but still related. As a current IM applicant about to submit his rank list, would you guys rank UT houston or methodist higher? Plan is cards fellowship afterwards. Appreciate it! My understanding is that the IM program at UT was malignant a few years ago but has significantly improved since the new PD took over. I fell in love with methodist on interview day and I think I may prefer a smaller class size that they offer.
