Hi everyone. I made this account to address a lot of the questions that have been floating around this forum about our program. I want to talk about a couple of specific questions that have been brought up and then open it up for questions.
Recent personnel changes
It’s no secret that our program has recently lost two residents. There has been a lot of misinformation about this, and I want to clear the air and explain exactly what happened. In 2019, one of our PGY-2 residents decided to change careers and pursue a position at a Wall Street hedge fund. And recently, a PGY-1 resident decided to leave medicine altogether and focus on his startup (which is not an uncommon thing to do in Silicon Valley). Neither resident was fired, asked to leave, or anything of the sort. They were both supported through their decisionmaking process, and we have no ill will toward either.
Match 2023
Regarding the match this year, we are thrilled with the three students who matched with us. There were several programs with unfilled spots this year, which is admittedly very strange. We are working to fill the fourth spot and have some candidates we are excited about, but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t. We are in no way “scrambling” and we would be just fine with three. It is our strong opinion (that we have communicated to our leadership) that we interview way too few applicants (usually on the order of 24 or so). This is not sustainable, and we have a commitment from admin that this will change next year. There’s just no way to evaluate all of the qualified applicants we want to if there are only 24 interviews each year. We will also likely start offering an interview to our subIs during their subI- there is no reason that anyone who rotates here and does well shouldn’t be strongly considered for a spot here.
Culture and morale
Understandably, whenever a resident leaves a program, there will be questions about whether the program culture contributed at all. I want to be very clear about this - we are an extremely close knit group who truly do consider each other family. Like best man at each other’s weddings, godparent to their kids, watch their pets, lifelong friends level. We all support each other and genuinely enjoy being together both inside the hospital and our. We’re constantly hanging out with each other outside the hospital, and that’s not even counting the ample social and wellness events that the program leadership gives us (which includes an annual whitewater rafting trip, involvement in the West Coast Neurosurgery volleyball tournament and soon the softball game as well, sponsored dinners at nice restaurants at least monthly, a holiday party, immense quantities of high quality swag, etc). There is a formal mentorship program with faculty, but that’s not even considering the attendings we are on a first name, text any time basis with who help us by reaching out to potential job prospects, meeting collaborators, etc. To reiterate, we have zero concern about the culture here.
Volume
I have read about Stanford’s supposedly low volume on here time and time again. This is one of the most inaccurate “critiques” of our program. It may have been true 15 years ago, but to be completely honest we struggle to cover our rooms with up to 8 first starts not including NIR, peds, VA, county, or Kaiser, and before add-ons. The volume is unreal. And for anyone who remembers the post a year or two ago about how one of the chiefs posted an IG pic of himself doing an aneurysm case with another chief scrubbed in- the comments all said “wow, Stanford must not have any open vascular volume if chiefs have to scrub together.” This is pretty entertaining as we have Gary Steinberg on faculty, who does some combination of 2-3 direct ECIC bypasses, a CEA, and an aneurysm every week. Even when his fellow takes one room, the fellow almost always has a junior resident assigned who is able to do the entire case except the critical portion, and besides he always runs two rooms, one of which belongs to his chief. The fact that the two chiefs scrubbed together at the end of the year is a testament to how much they like each other and has nothing to do with vascular volume, which is copious. All I have to say about skull base is we have JFM, where seeing the pituitary through a retrosig or the brain stem through the nose literally happens every week.
Last but not least, I am not an attending, and I am not in the program leadership/admin in any way, shape, or form. I am a senior resident typing this up (while ENT is exposing a transsphenoidal case) who loves this program and would choose it and the people in it again in a heartbeat. I would encourage anyone who wants to learn more about us to take a look at our portal dura.stanford.edu. Reach out directly to any resident. We are all more than happy to talk to you.
Now…ask me anything! This program is an open book, and I want to answer all of your questions and put any rumors to bed. Thanks for taking the time to read this and congratulations to everyone who matched!
Recent personnel changes
It’s no secret that our program has recently lost two residents. There has been a lot of misinformation about this, and I want to clear the air and explain exactly what happened. In 2019, one of our PGY-2 residents decided to change careers and pursue a position at a Wall Street hedge fund. And recently, a PGY-1 resident decided to leave medicine altogether and focus on his startup (which is not an uncommon thing to do in Silicon Valley). Neither resident was fired, asked to leave, or anything of the sort. They were both supported through their decisionmaking process, and we have no ill will toward either.
Match 2023
Regarding the match this year, we are thrilled with the three students who matched with us. There were several programs with unfilled spots this year, which is admittedly very strange. We are working to fill the fourth spot and have some candidates we are excited about, but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t. We are in no way “scrambling” and we would be just fine with three. It is our strong opinion (that we have communicated to our leadership) that we interview way too few applicants (usually on the order of 24 or so). This is not sustainable, and we have a commitment from admin that this will change next year. There’s just no way to evaluate all of the qualified applicants we want to if there are only 24 interviews each year. We will also likely start offering an interview to our subIs during their subI- there is no reason that anyone who rotates here and does well shouldn’t be strongly considered for a spot here.
Culture and morale
Understandably, whenever a resident leaves a program, there will be questions about whether the program culture contributed at all. I want to be very clear about this - we are an extremely close knit group who truly do consider each other family. Like best man at each other’s weddings, godparent to their kids, watch their pets, lifelong friends level. We all support each other and genuinely enjoy being together both inside the hospital and our. We’re constantly hanging out with each other outside the hospital, and that’s not even counting the ample social and wellness events that the program leadership gives us (which includes an annual whitewater rafting trip, involvement in the West Coast Neurosurgery volleyball tournament and soon the softball game as well, sponsored dinners at nice restaurants at least monthly, a holiday party, immense quantities of high quality swag, etc). There is a formal mentorship program with faculty, but that’s not even considering the attendings we are on a first name, text any time basis with who help us by reaching out to potential job prospects, meeting collaborators, etc. To reiterate, we have zero concern about the culture here.
Volume
I have read about Stanford’s supposedly low volume on here time and time again. This is one of the most inaccurate “critiques” of our program. It may have been true 15 years ago, but to be completely honest we struggle to cover our rooms with up to 8 first starts not including NIR, peds, VA, county, or Kaiser, and before add-ons. The volume is unreal. And for anyone who remembers the post a year or two ago about how one of the chiefs posted an IG pic of himself doing an aneurysm case with another chief scrubbed in- the comments all said “wow, Stanford must not have any open vascular volume if chiefs have to scrub together.” This is pretty entertaining as we have Gary Steinberg on faculty, who does some combination of 2-3 direct ECIC bypasses, a CEA, and an aneurysm every week. Even when his fellow takes one room, the fellow almost always has a junior resident assigned who is able to do the entire case except the critical portion, and besides he always runs two rooms, one of which belongs to his chief. The fact that the two chiefs scrubbed together at the end of the year is a testament to how much they like each other and has nothing to do with vascular volume, which is copious. All I have to say about skull base is we have JFM, where seeing the pituitary through a retrosig or the brain stem through the nose literally happens every week.
Last but not least, I am not an attending, and I am not in the program leadership/admin in any way, shape, or form. I am a senior resident typing this up (while ENT is exposing a transsphenoidal case) who loves this program and would choose it and the people in it again in a heartbeat. I would encourage anyone who wants to learn more about us to take a look at our portal dura.stanford.edu. Reach out directly to any resident. We are all more than happy to talk to you.
Now…ask me anything! This program is an open book, and I want to answer all of your questions and put any rumors to bed. Thanks for taking the time to read this and congratulations to everyone who matched!
![[Image: afkgaming%2Fimport%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2F64...r=1&w=1200]](https://gumlet.assettype.com/afkgaming%2Fimport%2Fmedia%2Fimages%2F64144-5f5d9b481fe5863c196d3441322ab983.jpeg?compress=true&dpr=1&w=1200)