Tufts Medical Center, the primary teaching hospital of the Tufts University School of Medicine, offers a two-year residency in Cardiothoracic Surgery that is accredited by the ACGME. The program accepts one resident per year. Residents divide their time equally between Tufts Medical Center and the Lahey Clinic. All individuals who have completed the program during the past 25 years have successfully passed the examination of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and are currently in practice in the United States.
Clinical rotations include 12 nonconsecutive months spent at Tufts Medical Center which offers the resident exposure to approximately 600 open heart operations a year as well as 300 thoracic cases. There is one combined service that cares for patients undergoing adult cardiac, pediatric cardiac, and thoracic surgery, so the experience in all three fields is simultaneous. The adult cardiac surgery program provides exposure to virtually all cardiac procedures including complex coronary artery revascularization, valve repair and replacement, arrhythmia surgery, thoracic aortic surgery, advanced heart failure procedures, cardiac transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and minimally invasive techniques.
The Lahey Clinic is a state of the art tertiary hospital with an annual surgical volume of about 500 cardiac cases and about 300 thoracic cases. Although many patients at the Lahey Clinic have complex heart disease, the residents are exposed to the practice of cardiac surgery in the community setting, making this a valuable complementary asset in the teaching program.
The general thoracic surgical experience is provided by a wide variety of routine and complex pulmonary and esophageal cases. As noted, the thoracic experience at both hospitals is part of a combined service, so the experience is continuous throughout the two years. The clinical experience received is designed to provide a graded responsibility with each resident functioning as Chief of the service, conducting patient rounds with a team of physician assistants, general surgical residents, and medical students from Tufts University School of Medicine. In the operating room, they will initially assist the attending staff, then progress to performing routine and then more complex operations. Review of the operative experience of our recent residents (finishing in 2005 and 2006) has shown that they had participated in more than 700 cases, and did between 400 and 500 cases as primary surgeon, well exceeding all requirements of the ABTS and establishing them as technically proficient surgeons capable of independent operating upon completion of the program.
The faculty consists of 6 full-time cardiothoracic surgeons at Tufts Medical Center and 4 at the Lahey Clinic. At Tufts Medical Center, one surgeon runs the pediatric cardiac surgery service and one performs exclusively non-cardiac thoracic surgery. The faculty is dedicated to the teaching and training of residents in order to graduate outstanding technical surgeons as well as compassionate physicians with excellent skills in patient care. All of the faculty participate in the teaching, evaluation, and professional development of the residents.
Educational conferences are considered to be an essential component of surgical training. There is a full schedule of weekly didactic teaching conferences that review systematically all aspects of cardiothoracic surgery. In addition, the thoracic resident is expected to organize a weekly conference including morbidity and mortality, journal club, pulmonary conferences, and other topics of interest. A biweekly pediatric cardiac surgery conference, alternating with a conference reviewing upcoming thoracic cases, rounds out the educational sessions. The resident is expected to attend cardiac and thoracic outpatient clinics as time allows.
The thoracic resident takes call from home during the week for their assigned institution and every other weekend for both institutions. Although they are not required to take in-house call, they are responsible for covering emergency surgery and participating in the care of critically ill patients. Our program is dedicated to upholding the standards set by the Residency Review Committee and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education with regards to resident work hours.
Trainees are permitted three weeks of vacation per year. Each resident will also attend one national meeting per year at the Division's expense. The Division will also support additional meeting attendance for abstract or research presentations. Participation in clinical research projects is highly encouraged, but not mandatory. Remuneration is at the standard level for 6th and 7th post-graduate years in this institution.
If you have general or specific questions about the program, please feel free to e-mail Program Director Dr. Kenneth G. Warner, the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery. To apply please access the universal application through ERAS. The deadline for the 2009-2010 academic year is March 1, 2008. Contact Annette Cerulli by e-mail or phone, 617-636-5891, for additional pre-application information.