Program Description and Rotations

The Surgery Residency Program is a five-year program with six new categorical residents matching each year, five chosen through ERAS and one position reserved for an active-duty resident chosen through the military match. The program provides early hands-on experience, with residents performing operations from the start of their intern year. Residents have broad exposure to a wide range of surgical subspecialties and a diverse population of patients at Boston Medical Center and through their training at the VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston Children’s Hospital, and two community hospitals. Formal didactic education is held weekly. Residents also have the opportunity to pursue a research fellowship during their residency training. Three residents from each class pursue this academic development time, typically for two years after their second or third year.

Our program graduates caring, capable physicians with well-honed surgical skills. The majority of our residents pursue additional fellowship training in a wide variety of specialties, from surgical oncology to thoracic surgery.

Clinical Sites

For more than 100 years, Boston Medical Center has been driven by a commitment to care for all people, providing not only traditional medical care, but also programs and services that wrap around that care to enhance overall health. All of this supports our longstanding mission to provide exceptional care, without exception. During surgical training, you will be introduced to the concept that health is shaped by more than just quality healthcare. It is impacted by social and environmental factors known collectively as the social determinants of health (SDOH). You will be part of a community that welcomes the challenges that come with helping those who need it the most. Because of our wide catchment area, you will be exposed to complex clinical scenarios and participate in multidisciplinary care. All elective admissions to the BMC general surgery service come through an outpatient clinic system in which the residents are full and central participants. All clinic sessions are attended by a full-time faculty member who is responsible for supervision of the house staff in the clinic setting. Residents assigned to clinics see preoperative and postoperative patients as well as consultations and second opinions.

All elective admissions to the BMC general surgery service come through an outpatient clinic system in which the residents are full and central participants. All clinic sessions are attended by a full-time faculty member who is responsible for supervision of the house staff in the clinic setting. Residents assigned to clinics see preoperative and postoperative patients with the attending staff on their service.

Boston VA Medical Center (VA)

The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,255 facilities, including 170 medical centers and more than 1,000 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (outpatient clinics), serving 9 million enrolled veterans each year. We are lucky to be able to send residents to the VA Boston Healthcare System (Boston VA), which has faculty from both Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, as it is affiliated both with us as well as Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Most of the elective admissions to the Boston VA come from its outpatient clinics which, similar to the BMC, are staffed by residents and supervised by attendings. The VA runs combined general surgery/vascular surgery clinics and a GI clinic. All patients in these clinics are seen by surgical house staff with direct attending supervision. These clinics handle a large volume of patient visits per year and provide residents with thorough preoperative and postoperative involvement with their patients. Subspecialty experience includes rotations in urology, orthopaedics, cardiothoracic surgery, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, and pediatric surgery. Rotations during the intern year are four weeks in duration.

Boston Children’s Hospital

Boston Children’s Hospital is a 395-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care. As one of the largest pediatric medical centers in the United States, Children’s offers a complete range of health care services for children from birth through 21 years of age. Boston Children’s Hospital has approximately 25,000 inpatient admissions each year and more than 200 specialized clinical programs that schedule 557,000 visits annually. Our residents rotate to Children’s during their third year with residents from the other teaching hospitals in the city.

Cape Cod Hospital

Cape Cod Hospital is located on a 38-acre Hyannis waterfront campus. Like BMC, it has one of the busiest Emergency Centers in Massachusetts. Cape Cod Hospital sees over 85,000 patients annually and performs more than 12,500 surgical procedures annually. Residents are supervised by a highly skilled group of general, vascular, and thoracic surgeons committed to resident education.

Roger Williams Medical Center

Roger Williams Medical Center is a 220-bed acute-care hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, and the largest academic Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state. For two decades, Roger Williams has been a clerkship site for Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine students and has now been integrated into the residency program, providing additional complex surgical oncology exposure.