Welcome to the University of Washington surgery applicant web site. I am delighted that you have chosen
to explore this, one of the top academic surgical programs in the United States.
Our department began training surgery residents over sixty years ago. Since its inception the program has focused on training excellent surgeons. Today about half our graduates go into private practice and half into academic medicine. As such, we play an important role as a referral center for this large area and also provide for surgeons to practice in rural areas.
Our graduates who chose careers in academic medicine populate all major US universities. Our department offers an exceptional program in all areas of clinical medicine and extraordinary opportunities for research. The clinical program is based in two major and distinct hospitals: University of Washington Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center (jointly known as the Academic Medical Center), and the Veterans Administration Health System of the Puget Sound which comprises two major VA facilities. Our residents also rotate through Children's Hospital and a private, community hospital.
The University of Washington Medical Center provides residents with training in complex gastrointestinal, endocrine, and oncologic surgery, and is the primary site for transplantation, thoracic, and cardiac surgery. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance provide the most up-to-date training in oncology.
Harborview Medical Center is the northwest's premier trauma center. It is the only Level-I trauma center in Washington State. With its ultra-modern facility, Harborview provides residents with the unique opportunity to learn trauma care from the emergency room to the operating room, and the management of patients in the surgical intensive care unit. But Harborview also provides elective surgical care of all types to our underserved population. In addition, Harborview Medical Center has one of the world's best burn units, one of the world's top neurosurgical pavilions, and an outstanding plastic and reconstructive surgery center.
The Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System (VA Medical Center) is exclusively associated with the University of Washington. It has two VA facilities, the Seattle VA and the American Lake VA. Both these facilities treat the spectrum of surgical disease in adult and elderly veterans.
Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center of Seattle is affiliated with the University of Washington and is staffed solely by surgeons who are full-time UW faculty. Children's offers an extraordinary opportunity for learning pediatric surgery. We also have an association with Providence-Swedish Medical Center that provides our residents with a taste of private practice as well.
These facilities are the sites of practice of the various divisions within the surgery department--general surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, pediatric surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, transplantation, trauma surgery, and vascular surgery. The modern Center for Videoendoscopic Surgery allows residents to acquire basic skills and training in laparoscopic surgery through simulation - technology that is second to none.
In addition to our excellent clinical program, the department is well known for its basic laboratory investigation. I invite you to read the Department of Surgery Research Report. This report summarizes the extraordinary research activities of our faculty. In this report you will see the results of being one of the top ten departments of surgery in the US in terms of NIH funding, plus significant industrial, commercial, and private funding.
The University of Washington, the third largest research funded institution in the United States, provides an incredibly rich environment and we encourage our residents to do two years of research. The Schilling Research Fellowship provides four, two-year fellowships for residents of our department of surgery. The department provides additional funding for those who are legitimately interested in research.
The educational mission of the department is to create surgeons who are clinically and technically superb, while emphasizing continued learning, ethical principles, service, interpersonal relationships and compassionate care. Our program director is supported by two assistant program directors (covering the three major hospitals) and an associate program director (Dr. Hugh Foy, former program director) along with a superb residency staff who are always ready to provide advice and support to our residents. Feel free to contact the program director, any one of the current residents in our program, or me.
Welcome to our web site. I hope you will consider our department for your training. I look forward to receiving your application.
Sincerely,
Carlos A. Pellegrini, MD, FACS
The Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chairman
Read Dr. Pellegrini's article on
the future surgery education
