I highly recommend the ANMC rotation, as so many others before me have! It’s a fantastic clinical experience, and there are endless outdoor activities in and around Anchorage. Amiko Uchida and I did this rotation in April at the same time, which made it extra fun.  Spring in Alaska can be unpredictable (it’s historically rainy, muddy, and cold), but we lucked out and had snow in the mountains during our vacation week at the beginning of the month, and mostly clear, warm weather (~50 degrees) while in Anchorage.

I spent two weeks in the ICU, which is a very hands-on, procedure-heavy rotation. The critical care docs are great teachers, they give you tons of autonomy, and you’ll take care of very sick patients flown in from remote parts of the state. In my two weeks here, I did 4 central lines, multiple bronchoscopies, an intubation, arterial line, and more.

I worked in GI clinic with Dr. Bowers for my third week, and I had a cafeteria-style ambulatory block my fourth week. Dr. Bowers is a phenomenal teacher – you’ll see clinic patients in the morning and then he’ll teach you how to do EGDs and colonoscopies in the afternoon (I did at least 5 EGDs and helped with biopsies for multiple colonoscopies). There were multiple days in GI clinic when I was able to go home at 3PM, which gave me lots of time to explore Anchorage.

Overall, you can’t really beat this rotation!

Doesn’t get much better than Alaska in July/August when I was in Anchorage.  You get a sweet apartment that comes with a bed INCLUDED AND a rental car.  When I was there I split time between the hospitalists and the outpatient world.  My recommendation to people going there would be to skip the inpatient side of things (can’t speak for MICU) and do all four weeks in the ambulatory setting.  The hospitalists are all really cool but you will mostly be dealing with alcohol withdrawal, some CHF and CVAs.  The ambulatory setting on the other hand has AWESOME pathology and really super interesting medicine since people come from all over Alaska.  The general internal medicine model is super interesting there as patients are primarily followed by ARNPs, PAs, family med, etc for there general primary care needs and are referred to an outpatient internist for interesting/difficult cases.  You also have the opportunity to work with an Endocrinologist (who is awesome), nephrologist, dermatologist, GI doc, etc.  I spent a lot of time in GI and by the end he wasn’t even dressing up for the EGDs and I was doing them independently as they are mostly diagnostic scopes in patients who arguably don’t need them.

You will also get more time off and have earlier days to enjoy the endless sunshine.  Everyone gets a 5 day weekend and that’s the one I used to go to Denali where it was in the mid 70s, the mountain was out every day and I saw tons of grizzly bears, moose, and other creatures of the wild.  Do the coastal trail, climb flat top, go fishing, get a kayak and bike from one of the hospitalists and cruise around.  Let me know if you questions or need advice on what to do.

It should definitely be #1 on your schedule wish list.

I spent october of 2012 in anchorage at the ANMC MICU.  I had originally set it up as a split block: half MICU, half wards, but decided to just extend my ICU time once I was there.

It’s  a very interesting ICU to work in.  As always, spectacular nursing staff and respiratory therapists make ICU rotations some of my favorite.  They use pressure control instead of AC style ventilation as a default up there, which is a transition that was definitely useful if a bit challenging at first.

There’s an incredible variety of patients, ranging from the worst hyponatremia I’ve ever seen (Na of 98, a combination of beer potomania and schizophrenic polydipsia, wowza), to intense alcohol withdrawal, to the usual mix of sepsis and stroke management.

The opportunity to do procedures varies a bit based on the pathology mix, but even on slow days I would head across the hall to the OR and do scheduled intubations.  There was a nice mix of bronchoscopy, intubations, central lines, LP’s, and art lines otherwise.  Some people had much more procedural months than I did, I only did 3 or 4 of each of our internal medicine procedures.

The attendings come from all over, as they rely on a fair number of locums.  Dr. Madhani-Lovely is spectacular, and will force the residents to really justify decision making with an evidence base when she is on service.

The hospital itself is great, and the sheer splendor of alaska is literally breathtaking at times.   When I would leave the parking lot near sunset, I’d sometimes find myself waxing poetic and wishing for paints. The logistics of licenses and such can be a bit of a drag, so try to get started on those things way in advance.  In general, the people in the hospital are pretty motivated to help you out.

I spent this last October in Anchorage which was a great experience.  You are provided lodging in a modest apartment and a rental car.   October was a great time of the year to go, as it wasn’t too cold and there was no snow on the ground so exploring the surrounding areas was not particularly difficult.

I split my time between the hospitalist rotation and the outpatient clinic. The hospitalist I was paired with was none other than Ted Wright, former UW Boise track graduate.  I carried about 7-8 patients and admitted every weekday.  The hours were not bad. The case mix was bread and butter medicine (pneumonia, urinary tract infection, chest pain, DKA). One of the more interesting parts was discharge planning as the patients you take care of come from some very remote areas in AK.  In fact, they have a hotel in the hospital to stay at while you get outpatient follow up if needed.

The outpatient clinic experience was subspecialty medicine (renal, ID, pulm, rheum). The paired faculty are great and there was a lot of teaching.

All in all, a great month.

Still cold, but an amazing four weeks.  I highly recommend rotating at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage!

Clinical rotation:

• You will be given a choice of (1) outpatient clinic, (2) inpatient medicine, or (3) ICU.  You can pick 2 of 3 if you want to mix/match.  I chose a mix of outpatient clinic (and requested a GI focus) and inpatient medicine.
• For outpatient clinic, you can work with a general internist and see everything, but you can also request to work with the specialists, assuming they are available.  There are two infectious disease docs, a gastroenterologist, a rheumatologist, a neurologist, a dermatologist, nephrology PA, pulmonary, etc.  Many of the specialists see patients in the clinic, but also perform inpatient consults.  You get more weekend time off.
• For inpatient medicine, I was assigned to an Attending (who rotates weekly).  I carried about 5 patients of a 12-15 pt service.  Rounds are pretty informal and you have independence, but still have opportunity to discuss the plan with the Attending.  I admitted from the ED.  There is good support for PT/OT, social work, etc.
• ICU is a busy service, generally.  Less weekend time off, but a lot of procedure opportunities.

Alaska Native Medical Center:

• Beautiful facility.  Very modern.  The patients are also amazing, mostly Native and from villages hundreds of miles away requiring travel in by a bush plane.  I learned so much about Alaska geography and native culture throughout the month.  The patients are very warm and friendly.  I really enjoyed interacting with them.

Anchorage:

• A big city.  Plenty of supermarkets, coffee shops (Kaladi Bros!), restaurants, gyms, museums, etc.  Even in March, snow can be challenging and I would recommend considering upgrading to a slightly nicer car with all-wheel or 4-wheel drive, especially if you plan to take some road trips.

If you have time off, consider going to:

• Anchorage museum
• Drive 2.5 hrs south to meet up with the Soldotna resident and then continue on south to Homer, AK
• Hatcher’s Pass
• Talkeetna
• Seward (I never made it here)
• Fairbanks is quite far and unless you have a lot of time, you would probably need to fly.  You can also take the Alaska Railroad
• In winter, plenty of downhill skiing, cross-country, snowshoeing.  You can even organize dog-sledding/mushing, ice fishing, snowmobiling or a flight over Denali if you want.
• If in March, try and see the start of the Iditarod (pretty amazing!) and the Northern Lights.

Steve Vindigni