New Gen Surg Landing Page (General Surgery Residency)

Overview

The General Surgery Program at the University of Virginia offers a five-year program filled with rigorous clinical experience, protected research time, structured curriculum and individual attention from faculty.

As a resident, you will learn pre-operative and post-operative patient care with a strong focus on critical care, develop surgical technical skills and, most importantly, acquire pre-, intra-, and post-operative decision-making skills.

Within the program, we have cultivated a a culture and an expectation that our residents seek opportunities to educate others. This is modeled by our faculty, who have won a disproportionate percentage of the teaching awards available at UVA.

Letter from the Program Director

Charles M Friel, MD
Residency Program Director

Dear General Surgery Applicant,

Welcome to the University of Virginia General Surgery Residency Program!

This is an exciting time as you begin your surgical careers and begin the journey of finding a place to train. I am delighted that you have chosen to pursue the excellent training opportunities that we provide. UVA Surgery has a long and distinguished national reputation as a premier academic surgical training program. Superior clinical training coupled with top-notch research defines our academic tradition. We are committed to training the surgical leaders of the future and therefore provide our residents with the background to pursue this mission.

Our residents participate in all aspects of the surgical academic mission and are critical to our continued success, including research, teaching and, of course, clinical surgery. Special features of our program include a uniformly high quantitative operative experience, faculty national expertise and good training case volume in all defined areas of general surgery, performance of operations by residents, emphasis on resident empowerment, and an enthusiastic esprit de corps by the residents. In addition our residents are extraordinarily successful academically and will finish the program with multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts and several national presentations. Because of this production our residents are highly competitive for all surgical fellowships and will frequently match at the most prestigious fellowships in the country.

The UVA Department of Surgery faculty, led by our current Chairman, Reid Adams, M.D., epitomize academic surgical leadership. Since 1907 there have been only six individuals who have held the chairmanship of our Department. Two have been previous Presidents of the American College of Surgeons. Many of our faculty have been Presidents of the leading surgical societies in their disciplines, including Dr. Adams (Americas Hepato-Pancreato- Biliary Association) and Bruce Schirmer (SAGES, AHPBA, Society of Clinical Surgery, and The Fellowship Council). UVA has had a faculty member sit as one of the Directors of the American Board of Surgery for over three decades. More recently Dr. Schirmer has also joined the surgery residency review committee (RRC).

Our residents are routinely recognized for their talents both locally and nationally and have won numerous awards, including the Association of Women’s Surgery Outstanding Resident (Traci Hedrick, Robin Petroze and Allison Martin) and the American College of Surgeons Outstanding Resident Award (Ramesh Singh). Medical education is critical to our success and our residents receive teaching awards from our medical school and medical students every year.

While surgical training is your primary goal this will not be successful if you do not pick an environment that promotes a healthy life style. Charlottesville is a wonderful place to live with easy access to cultural activities, sporting events, restaurants and of course the Blue Ridge mountains. It is routinely ranked as one of the top places to live and I am sure you will agree. Where else can you finish your work day, go to a Bruce Springsteen concert and be home in bed by 11 pm!!!

Photo: UVA School of Medicine, Surgical Residency group photo

At UVA, we are dedicated to continuing our pursuit of excellence in clinical surgery, teaching, and surgical research. We are looking for individuals who are passionate about their future careers, and we strive to allow individuals to achieve unique educational goals. Empowerment and advanced clinical decision making are as prevalent in our program as any in the country. We hope that you will consider applying to our program and joining us as we continue to build on our rich tradition.

Please visit our applicant websites for detailed information about our program. Should you have any additional inquires, feel free contact our General Surgery Residency Program Coordinator, Kristen Dudley by telephone at (434) 924-9307 or by email kdd3k@virginia.edu . Thank you for your interest and consideration, and best of luck to you all in your future surgical careers.

Sincerely,