Research
The UW School of Medicine is fortunate to be one of the top five U.S. universities in NIH funded support. The surgery department at UW is one of the top five surgery departments in the country in the same regard. Thus, there are outstanding basic science and clinical research opportunities available within the department and the university. Past residents have spent their research years doing cutting edge basic science work, large-scale clinical research projects in conjunction with an MPH, bioinformatics and simulation/robotics, health policy, medical communication, global health, and surgical education research. We are committed to supporting diverse research interests in our residents and help them to fulfill their personal goals. Specific areas of investigative interest, and faculty members involved in those areas can be viewed on our Department of Surgery Research Report.
The John and Helen Schilling Surgery Resident Research Foundation helps support resident research by providing funding for salaries, lab supplies and travel. The annual Schilling Resident Research Day is held each February. This resident research forum provides a venue for presentation of resident research, as well as a funded lecturer picked from the most prominent surgical investigators in the world, who presides as a visiting professor.
Because of the John and Helen Schilling Surgery Resident Research Foundation, we are now able to offer the opportunity to do research to any resident who desires. An option for obtaining a PhD is available. Research is recommended but optional and most of our residents spend at least two years in the lab. The way we maintain this flexibility is in the timing of research. All residents are encouraged to participate, either during or immediately following the completion of their clinical training. Typically, three or four residents enter the lab for two years following the completion of the R2 or R3 year. This provides ample time for those interested in research to lay the foundation for their future career in academic surgery and early enough to help make their application to fellowships competitive. Others choose to do research at the end of their five years of uninterrupted clinical training. They enter their first academic appointment with a funded research program up and running.
Our department and the university at large have several additional funded NIH training grants for which our residents are in an excellent position to compete. Furthermore, if a resident's interests involve an area where strengths lie outside of the University of Washington, the department encourages and supports taking such funded fellowships either during the clinical training or after.
Endowed Lectures
Harkins Symposium
For many years, the UW Harkins Symposium was a CME course. In 2002, the department converted this course into a free one-day educational symposium for area surgical residents which focus on technical aspects of surgery. The speakers are local and nationally known experts in their field and describe how they achieve their excellent clinical results. Residents from the University of Washington, University of British Columbia, Swedish Medical Center, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and Madigan Army Medical Center are all invited to attend the event. In 2003 the UW Department of Surgery invited the Seattle Surgical Society and its members to join. The result is a 2 day symposium that combines technical lectures and scientific sessions. The UW is committed to providing this symposium free of charge to residents, fellows, and medical students.
Schilling Lecture
The Helen and John Schilling Endowed Lectureship was established by the late Helen Schilling to bring distinguished scholars to the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington, and to enhance the Department's commitment to the highest standards of patient care, teaching, research and scholarship. It was Mrs. Schilling's wish that the lectureship be in honor of her husband, Dr. John Schilling, who devoted his life to academic medicine in a career spanning 50 years.
Schilling Lectureship 1995-2009 | 2009 Program
Strauss Lecture
Dr. Alfred A. Strauss was born in Germany in 1881. At the age of ten his family came to the United States and settled in Eastern Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington with honors in 1904. While at UW he was a football star and maintained a strong connection to the UW as an alumnus by his active participation in the areas of football recruitment and scholarships. In 1908 he received his medical degree from Rush Medical College and was later an intern at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. He spent his entire medical career in Chicago and was well known for his research and pioneering techniques in the field of abdominal surgery. In 1950 Dr. Strauss established the Alfred A. Strauss lecture in the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington. His lecture entitled "The Clinical End Result in the Surgical Treatment of Carcinoma of the Stomach and Colon since 1915 and Observations of the Relative Acquired Immunity Against Carcinoma Following Surgery" was the first. Each year the Strauss Lectureship supports a national or international figure in surgery to come to the University of Washington and interact with our students, residents and faculty.
Strauss Lectureship: 1950-2008
updated 9/09