Curriculum
Didactic Sessions
Residents are excused from clinical responsibilities on Thursday mornings for didactic sessions, which include lectures to cover areas of basic and clinical science of vascular surgery presented by residents with faculty moderators. In addition to didactic conference, there are weekly Grand Rounds, monthly Morbidity & Mortality conference and Journal Club to review seminal publications in the surgical literature.
Surgical skills lab teaches residents suturing, knot tying, and other basic skills at the beginning of the first year, and extends in complexity of skills taught to residents in all years of the training program. As residents gain more experience, sessions involve more complex case-based skills.
Clinical Rotations
Vascular residents gain expertise in the preoperative, operative, and postoperative care of patients with vascular surgical diseases under the guidance of expert faculty.
Surgical internship consist of 4 week rotations geared towards acquiring broad basic skills in the general surgical specialties, vascular, trauma, plastic, surgical oncology, and intensive care. Following internship, residents are integrated at the PGY-2 level into progressively independent leadership responsibilities, commensurate with increasing levels of clinical experience. This includes 4-8 week rotations in vascular medicine, ultrasound, trauma, intensive care, and a research block.
The PGY-3 year offers 4-8 week rotations including cardiac surgery, vascular, transplant and culminates with 6 months spent in the Finger Lakes and Highland Hospital. The PGY-4 year allow residents to focus on major areas of vascular surgery by spending 6 months at F.F. Thompson and Geneva General Hospital and 6 months at Highland Hospital. The varied training environments enable our residents to work with faculty in an apprenticeship training model of comprehensive vascular care, allowing them to care for diverse communities of patients. This mixed training model provides a truly rewarding experience.
PGY-5 year is devoted to operating independently and maturation of clinical decision making, as well as developing leadership skills by leading teams of surgical residents. The Chief resident is responsible for running her/his own service at Strong Memorial Hospital (SMH).
Rotation Schedule
| Department | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burn |
X |
||||
| Cath Lab 1 |
X |
||||
| Cath Lab 2 |
X |
||||
| ENT |
X |
||||
| Finger Lakes Vascular Surgery |
X |
X |
X |
||
| Float A |
X |
||||
| Highland Hospital General Surgery |
X |
||||
| Highland Hospital Vascular Surgery |
X |
X |
X |
||
| Interventional Radiology |
X |
||||
| Plastic Surgery |
X |
||||
| Research |
X |
||||
| Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) |
X |
X |
|||
| Strong Memorial Hospital Vascular Surgery |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
| Trauma |
X |
X |
|||
| Transplant |
X |
X |
|||
| Ultrasound |
X |
Resident Operative Experience
| Case Type | 2022 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdominal (30) | 60 | 72 | 47 | 75 | 42 | 88 | 92 | 64 |
| Cerebrovascular (25) | 48 | 67 | 79 | 75 | 49 | 81 | 59 | 53 |
| Peripheral (45) | 96 | 121 | 104 | 114 | 76 | 130 | 150 | 109 |
| Complex (10) | 82 | 104 | 92 | 72 | 31 | 88 | 162 | 94 |
| Endo Dx (100) | 280 | 403 | 603 | 344 | 242 | 528 | 810 | 312 |
| Endo Tx (80) | 257 | 313 | 309 | 198 | 148 | 240 | 432 | 347 |
| Endo Ao (20) | 93 | 94 | 101 | 74 | 55 | 130 | 82 | 99 |
Defined Category Program Averages--Operative Cases 2014-2022 - required numbers are in ()
Unique Curriculum Elements
The Rochester Vascular training experience is a unique and truly exceptional environment. Dedicated catheterization lab rotations in PGY-1 begin the diagnostic foundation and mastery of catheter-based skills. Vascular imaging rotation in PGY-2 culminates in PVI certification for trainees, creating an environment wherein the vascular resident has been trained to interpret all vascular anatomies before taking senior resident on-call responsibilities. Up to six months of in-line research rotations allow exploration of outcomes, engineering, and translational science research, rounding out an academic surgeon portfolio. The Division faculty and staff are leaders in the point-of-care integration of VQI data, and the development of decision support and informatics necessary to be a contemporary vascular surgeon. The varied clinical sites (academic medical center, rural community, and urban community) with a dedicated full-time faculty create a true comprehensive curriculum centered on education, not service.
Vascular Leadership Seminar
Contemporary practice is a complex, multi-disciplinary environment. To date, training programs have centered on the biological and social management of disease processes, often leaving graduating trainees ill-equipped to become thought leaders within complex organizational structures. In addition to resident-led process improvement committees, and institutional initiatives such as CLER, the Division has developed a series of seminars to introduce healthcare system management topics. These include a primer on healthcare finance, budget and accounting literacy, how to lead a team, addressing dysfunctional team dynamics, how to run a hypothesis-driven research project, and how to chair hospital meetings. The goal of our training program is to train surgeon-leaders who will be local, regional, and national experts.