Best Functional Fellowships?

[Guest]

(09-05-2021, 11:21 PM)Guest Wrote:

(09-04-2021, 09:05 PM)Guest Wrote: Those that have less than stellar surgical skills go into functional.

functional is very easy and requires little iq, drills holes where the instruction label says to. good if you want an easy lifestyle with lower salary

Functional is only 5% about the operation itself, which is 99% about sterility. The majority of functional goes into the planning and research, which is what makes it appealing to some. Don't listen to these trolls. Functional is a great academic neurosurgery specialty. The operations are easy but also low stress, and the research and development potential is endless at this point. And yes you get paid less, but the same can be said about any academic position, and if it's about the money you can always throw in a few ACDFs a month to make up for it.

I'm not going into functional but if you ask me Eddie Chang's work is more impressive than Mike Lawton's. Try telling him it's all about small holes.

[Guest]

(08-12-2021, 10:06 PM)Guest Wrote: Toronto is by far the best fellowship. The other ones are also solid listed above. From personal experience, I can say UF (Foote) and Vanderbilt (Englot) are also very strong although Konrad left for WVU but they have a strong research infrastructure.

Is Toronto an operative heavy experience or research heavy?

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(09-05-2021, 11:21 PM)Guest Wrote:

(09-04-2021, 09:05 PM)Guest Wrote: Those that have less than stellar surgical skills go into functional.

functional is very easy and requires little iq, drills holes where the instruction label says to. good if you want an easy lifestyle with lower salary

Right? I’d much rather do mapping and tumor resection marathons or wreck cranial nerves to clip an aneurysm only to watch the patient still die in 12 months, or spasm their balls off.

Point is, putting down a subspecialty to feel good about yourself is poor form.

[Guest]

Remember, Nimodipine doesn't lower the incidence of vasospasm, but it does save the balls

[Guest]

(09-06-2021, 12:52 PM)Guest Wrote: Remember, Nimodipine doesn't lower the incidence of vasospasm, but it does save the balls

Correct, it saves the balls. I saw this first-hand with your mom.

[Guest]

What is the job market like for functional?

[Guest]

(02-05-2022, 05:27 PM)Guest Wrote: What is the job market like for functional?

Will probably be good in the future. Most programs don't have robust functional programs and the indications look to be expanding. The problem is that reimbursement for DBS isn't the best in contrast to the rest of the field

[Guest]

they need to start letting IR and well trained PAs do functional procedures. this in order to increase access of care to patients in need.

[Guest]

This thread is hilarious. Technology is a great leveler of skill and all disciplines are getting easier with time. In ten years, almost all aneurysms will be treated with endo and most pedicle screws will be robot assisted. It's true that many things in functional have historically been easier from a technical standpoint, but everything is moving to meet this subspecialty. Also, try telling the functional guys doing ATLs and MVDs that they are not surgeons (granted, LITT will soon eat the ATLs lunch with volume).

If you think that functional is a joke and no one respects them, then why have so many of the recent chairmanships gone to functional surgeons? Chang at UCSF, Pouratian at UTSW, Yoshor at BCM then Penn, Eskandar at Einstein.

FWIW - Toronto is the best.

[Guest]

Everybody knows that the functional guys are the only ones, by and large, doing high-impact scientific work. They're the reason neurosurgery is seen as an innovative specialty. Vascular is mostly shit retrospective studies and anatomical regurgitation (endovascular thinks it's innovative but North-American endo gets to see any innovation last in the world and is not really involved in the innovative process of it all). Spine finally reached the minimally invasive ages 20 years after every other specialty. Tumor .... incredibly frustrating if you actually want to put a finger on what has happened in the past 30 years. As a tumor leaning resident with lots of research invested into it I am not ashamed to admit that functional people are the real OGs right now

[Guest]

Agree. How do you make yourself marketable though? How many functional neurosurgeons are needed?