Program Description and Rotations
The Surgery Residency Program is a five-year program with six categorical residents per year, five chosen through ERAS, and since 2021, one position each year reserved for an active-duty military resident chosen through the military match. The clinical training program is a hands-on experience with residents performing operations from the start of their intern year. Residents have the option of pursuing a research fellowship during their residency training, either after their second or third year. The program graduates caring, capable physicians who are highly competent technicians. 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.