Conferences

Successful surgeons have cultivated a practice of lifelong learning, and they seize every opportunity to advance their knowledge. A strong, interactive didactic program is a key component of the surgery residency curriculum. Conferences are hosted by the Department of General Surgery as well as the eight subspecialty divisions. Chief residents play an integral role in the conference curriculum, assisting the program director and associate program directors to design a robust and comprehensive course in general surgery. All residents are required to attend departmental conferences.

Our surgery program is unique in that all general surgery residents have the opportunity to travel to a regional or national conference each year. These include general surgery meetings or surgical subspecialty meetings, depending on the residents' career interests. Participation is funded by the Department of Surgery and the CMC Division of Graduate Medical Education. In addition, residents whose scholarly work has been accepted for presentation are supported to attend these meetings.

Core Curriculum

Protected, dedicated time is carved out weekly for resident education. Each Thursday from 7 a.m. - noon, residents participate in Morbidity & Mortality Conference, SCORE Curriculum, Surgical Practice Conference and Surgical Skills Lab. These weekly conferences comprise our core curriculum and are detailed below.

Surgical Grand Rounds

Every other Friday, 7 a.m. Topics include guest lectures from other institutions, presentations from staff faculty as well as chief resident presentations.

Morbidity and Mortality

Every Thursday, 7 a.m. Complications and deaths presented in a traditional M&M format with detailed discussions by all residents and departmental faculty.

SCORE

Every Thursday, 8 - 10 a.m. Interactive sessions led by content experts, representing all divisions of the Department of Surgery.

The SCORE Curriculum Outline for General Surgery Residency is a list of patient care and medical knowledge topics to be covered in a five-year general surgery residency training program. Originally published in 2008, it is updated annually with input from SCORE as the basis for a full surgical residency curriculum.

The Patient Care outline consists of 287 organ system-based categories containing a total of 574 topics. Each category is separated into diseases/conditions (broad and focused) and operations/procedures (essential-common, essential-uncommon and complex). The Medical Knowledge section contains 13 categories and 81 topics.

Learn more about Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE).

Surgical Practice Conference

These formal sessions are immediately followed by peer led lectures on either the same topic or a different topic identified as an area of weakness for the program. Weekly format varies but includes Chief lectures, point and counterpoint debates, lectures on multidisciplinary patient management and focused oral board preparation.

Divisional Conferences

Yearly Educational Conference

All residents that remain in good clinical standing, are able to choose from a list of approved conferences throughout the United States in their field of interest.

Transportation, hotel and food are provided out of the resident's individual CME funding.