General Surgery Residency Curriculum
The curriculum of our General Surgery Residency Program offers a broad scope of clinical rotations at several training sites and a variety of didactic experiences.
Clinical experiences
We evaluate and update rotation schedule annually to ensure the best educational experience for our residents. The chart below reflects the 2024-2025 rotations during each year or residency.
STAR center
The STAR Center of Allegheny Health Network is located at our West Penn Hospital and offers a wide variety of equipment to help our residents become skilled surgeons. Residents receive a curriculum to progressively hone their skills in laparoscopic surgery, endoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery. Certification through FLS and FES is now required to sit for American Board of Surgery exams and the STAR Center is available to acquire the skills need to pass those exams.
Our residency's robotics curriculum provides residents with the opportunity for a robotics certification. Our residents are exposed to robotic surgery at every PGY level during their bariatric, colorectal, ENT, general surgery, plastics, thoracic, transplant/liver, and surgical oncology rotations at Allegheny General Hospital, West Penn Hospital, and Forbes Hospital. As a growing field of surgery, we believe it is important for our residents to be proficient in robotic surgery. Our robotic surgery curriculum has been developed to guide residents through progressive proficiency in robotic surgery in their 5 years of training.
Training sites
Our General Surgery Residency Program includes rotations at Allegheny General Hospital, West Penn Hospital, Forbes Hospital, Jefferson Hospital, Wexford Hospital, and UPMC Children's Hospital. Surgical capabilities include:
Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) - 23 main operating rooms and integrated minimally invasive suite, 4 specialized operating rooms, and 7 Ambulatory Surgery Center operating rooms; 24-bed surgical/trauma intensive care unit, 32-bed cardiothoracic intensive care unit, and 32-bed neurosurgical intensive care unit. The hospital was first in the state to open a dedicated trauma ICU and is a Level I Regional Resource Center for Trauma that annually admits more than 2,000 patients to the Division of Trauma Surgery. Our air ambulance service, LifeFlight, introduced in 1978, was the first aeromedical emergency transport system in the northeastern United States. Five LifeFlight helicopters transport more than 200 patients per month within a 150-mile radius of Pittsburgh.
Forbes Hospital - 15,000 inpatient admissions, 12,000 surgeries, and nearly 50,000 emergency department visits annually; cardiovascular surgery and neurosurgery; a new 38-bed emergency department; Joint Commission-certified Primary Stroke Center; Pittsburgh area’s first Level 2 trauma center
West Penn Hospital (WPH)- academic medical center regionally and nationally recognized for excellence in nursing (first in the region designated Magnet by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and first to achieve second designation, in 2012), bone marrow and cell transplantation (repeatedly FACT-accredited), and reproductive medicine (including Level III NICU). Emergency Medicine services include a completely renovated Emergency Department with dedicated state-of-the-art X-ray room, 128-slice computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound equipment. West Penn Burn Center is the region's first and only burn center verified by the American Burn Association/American College of Surgeons Commission on Trauma for both pediatric and adult burn care. The Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence has achieved HealthGrades recognitions many years in a row.
Jefferson Hospital - more than 10,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries performed annually. Newly expanded $17.5 million Operating Rooms feature state-of-the-art technologies, an onsite pathology lab and dedicated pharmacy. Modern high-definition video equipment enhances the surgical team's capabilities to view sharper, more accurate images especially in minimally invasive laparoscopic, vascular, and cardiothoracic surgery.
Wexford Hospital - The all-private 160-bed hospital opened in 2021. It has a 24-bed emergency department and offers high-quality, innovative health care services. Here, the region’s top medical experts deliver some of the latest procedures, such as same-day spine surgery and minimally invasive heart operations. We also provide specialty care in cancer, neurology, cardiology, radiology, gastroenterology, and orthopaedics. Wexford Hospital will expand the AHN system-wide commitment to comprehensive health care for women at every stage of life. It offers a complete labor and delivery unit with a level 2 NICU, and services for gynecological oncology, advanced breast care, and urogynecology.
Didactic experiences
Although clinical experience is key to a surgical resident's education; formal, didactic conferences are important as well. The following are the regularly scheduled didactic experiences:
Weekly/ Monthly Conferences
Every Tuesday morning the following conferences are held as part of our didactic schedule:
- Morbidity and Mortality Conference
- Surgical Grand Rounds
- Basic Science/Clinical Science Conference
During these conference times, residents are protected from all clinical activity except for emergency care.
Journal Club
Journal Club is held regularly where recent surgical articles are critically reviewed by both residents and staff.
Specialty Conferences
Additional specialty conferences are required for residents on particular services, and these may be attended by all residents as well. These include the following:
- Acute Care Surgery Conference
- Trauma Conference
- Colorectal Cancer
- Vascular Surgery Conference
- Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Conference
- Tumor Board
Oral Board Exam Preparation
PGY4 and PGY5residents are invited to a session held with selected staff outside of the hospital setting to informally prepare for the oral boards by reviewing material and answering oral board-type questions.
Additionally, in the spring, mock oral board examinations are held for both the PGY-4 and PGY-5 residents. This is a combined effort with six other programs in the region and involves faculty from all institutions. Residents are given formal evaluations of their performance.