Surgery Curriculum

Conferences/Rounds

The conference schedule is comprehensive, involving one to two activities most days. Protected time (no elective cases scheduled) is set aside Thursday morning for the Morbidity and Mortality Conference, Grand Rounds, Basic Science Lecture and Journal Club. State-of-the-art conference facilities are provided. The department uses digital photography (both still and video recording) in the operating room and for documentation and teaching of interesting cases and principles.

Everyday

Surgical/Critical Care Rounds (morning)

Tuesday

Complex Case Series/ABSITE Review
Multidisciplinary Tumor Conference

Wednesday

Breast Conference

Thursday

Journal Club
Morbidity and Mortality Conference

Grand rounds or Invited Speaker

Friday

Critical Care Rounds

Rotations

Major rotations at Stamford Hospital include the two general surgery services, subspecialty surgery and critical care. Additional educational experience is provided by month-long rotations in gastrointestinal endoscopy, and a rotation in the Burn Unit at Bridgeport Hospital, part of the Yale New Haven Health System. One-month rotations in transplantation at Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, and trauma surgery at University Hospital in Las Vegas, are also valuable features of the program. Only 3 months (one in the PGY-1 year, one in the PGY-2 year, one in the PGY-4 year) are spent at rotations outside of The Stamford Hospital.

Additional Opportunities

• Residents rotate at Stamford Hospital's Tully Center, a high volume ambulatory surgery center.
• An extensive surgical laboratory is a key component of the residency program. The program offers a wide range of skills training, including open surgical simulation and extensive laparoscopic simulation. Stamford Hospital also offers robotic surgery training in key specialties using the Mimic, the hospital's robotic simulation device.
• Residents receive outpatient experience through the hospital's high volume clinics and offices of private attending surgeons, where they will rotate for instruction in both pre-operative and post-operative care.
• Opportunities for clinical research are encouraged and supported using the latest in computer technology and the expertise of a research nurse and personnel for data collection. Residents have presented many papers at regional and national meetings that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
• Residents receive extensive robotic surgery training in general surgery, urology and thoracic specialties.
• Residents are trained in FLS (Fundamentals of Laproscopic Surgery), certified in ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support ) certification and trained in BLS(Basic Life Support) /ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) .