General Surgery Residency Program Accorded ACGME Accreditation

Senior resident Dr. James Guzzo gives the new resident curriculum "two thumbs-up" approval.

The division of general surgery residency program has, once again, received full ACGME accreditation. This comes as little surprise when one considers that the University of Maryland School of Medicine, which is celebrating its bicentennial this year, was the nation's first public medical school as well as the establisher of the nation's first residency training program.

The general surgery residency program was originally accorded accreditation in 1954. This is the first, however, granted during the tenure of Dr. J. Scott Roth as the Program Director and Dr. Stephen T. Bartlett as Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (SOM). Newly serving the program also are Dr. Patricia Turner as Assistant Program Director and Dr. Adrian E. Park in the role of Vice Chair of Surgery at the School of Medicine, in addition to being head of the Division of General Surgery.

The general surgery residency program, as characterized by Dr. Roth, is regimented and structured but also manages to be democratic by allowing for resident input. The program is tailored so that residents have broad-based exposure to all components of general surgery. After becoming director two years ago, Dr. Roth - along with his team - reviewed the requirements for residency education in surgery, and while supporting all that was right and efficacious already, they "chipped away at program problems one at a time," according to Dr. Roth. Such intense follow-through has resulted in what Dr. Roth terms "thoughtful changes" in resident rotation schedules and the educational experience, resulting in improved case volumes, didactic curriculum and duty hours.

Dr. Roth notes that residents here have much to value, including the camaraderie of community and family fostered among those in the program, the diversity of experience offered, and the exposure to world-class faculty practicing in many if not all facets of surgery.

General surgery residents have exposure in a variety of fields and to patient care that benefits from the institution's cutting-edge therapies and research. Such research is often a precursor to fellowship training. Additionally, such exposure provides an educational background that can give residents the proper springboard from which to make informed career decisions.

UMMC residents are part of a quite distinguished surgical program, one that includes:

▪ The division of transplant surgery, lead by Dr. Bartlett, which has achieved both the first simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplant and the first successful pancreas-alone transplant in Maryland, as well as earning the distinction of annually performing the most kidney transplants of any of the nation's hospitals.

▪ The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where more than 7,000 critically injured patients are treated annually, has attendings available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to perform global patient management that includes emergent and scheduled surgical procedures. Almost 35 years ago this now internationally renowned trauma center was established through the work of Dr. R Adams Cowley, an open-heart surgery pioneer in the United States. The idea of the "golden hour" was conceptualized by Dr. Cowley, who reasoned that saving severely injured trauma patients was possible if within an hour they could be start receiving treatment at a specialized emergency medical facility. The opportunity to gain knowledge in the recently established acute and critical care surgery discipline awaits those who are part of the UMMC general surgery residency program.

▪ The division of cardiac surgery, which is lead by internationally renowned lung and heart transplantation heart surgeon, Dr. Bartley P. Griffith. He credits the division's ability to be innovative to its collective experience with heart tumors, heart reconstruction and heart transplantation. Groundbreaking work has been accomplished with coronary bypass procedures, mitral valve repairs, surgical treatment for atrial fibrillation (MAZE procedure), and heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support devices. UMMC, for example, was the first East Coast medical center and the third nationwide to implant the Jarvik 2000 device, designed to complement without entirely replacing a poorly functioning heart. Additionally, UMMC is among the only hospitals in the U.S. to offer robot-assisted MIS for heart bypass.

UMMC can also lay claim to the performance of many of Maryland's first laparoscopic procedures, among them videoscopic cholecystectomy, pelvic lymph node dissection, vagotomy, hernia repair, colon resection, splenectomy, and nephrectomy.

The flagship service of the residency program is general surgery. Nationally known laparoscopic surgery expert Adrian Park, MD heads this division, which is known for its work on development and application of new approaches and technologies in minimally invasive surgery. Among the components of the General Surgery Division are the AeroDigestive Center, Bariatric Surgery, the General/Gastrointestinal Surgery Center, the Hernia Center, the Critical Care/Emergency Surgery section and the Surgical Oncology section.

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