Clinical Practice

The principal goal of the program is clinical excellence.  To this end, the residency is structured to provide a breadth of operative experience combined with early leadership responsibilities.  We believe that exposure to a large, diverse patient population and broad exposure to complex open and minimally invasive surgeries are crucial to the training of outstanding surgeons.  While the vast majority of our surgical training occurs at Strong Memorial Hospital, residents have robust surgical experiences at Highland Hospital and Sawgrass.

Our clinical sites provide 12,000 operative procedures each year.  Graduating residents routinely perform between 1000-1100 major operations upon completion of surgical residency. This abundance of clinical material enables the surgical trainee to gain early experience in the operating room and to quickly develop independent responsibility in the perioperative care of a wide variety of complicated surgical patients.  Trainees have an extensive exposure to subspecialties including colorectal, trauma, endocrine and oncologic, thoracic, transplant, plastic, vascular, cardiac, and intensive care.

Strong Memorial Hospital is Western New York’s largest tertiary care facility. It serves as a regional burn center, pediatric trauma center, and heart failure center.  It is a New York State-designated Level 1 trauma center for the Western New York and Finger Lakes Regions,

serving as the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in the area.  More than 3,000 Level 1 trauma Admissions—including blunt and penetrating injuries—are treated each year.  An integrated transplant program offers cardiac, lung, liver, pancreas, and kidney transplants. 

The Wilmot Cancer Center provides world-class cancer care and the newly opened Golisano Children’s Hospital, the region’s only children’s hospital, serves as the referral center for all children from the 17-county Finger Lakes region.

FF Thompson Hospital offers a community hospital experience for our trainees.  It is a 113-bed hospital which offers a broad range of specialty centers and is also a NYS-designated Stroke Center.  Thompson was also the first hospital in New York to be named a Center of Excellence in Hernia Surgery™ by the Surgical Review Corporation (SRC).

The skills lab and robotics curricula provide residents with the tools to prepare for the operating room (see also Live Surgery vs 3D Model simulation).  Residents have access to skills training ranging from suturing and knot tying to laparoscopic box trainer, to FLS and FES.  Fourth and fifth year residents who complete the robotic curriculum under the mentorship of Ahmed Ghazi, M.D., receive a certificate of completion in robotic training.