Residency Program Information

Introduction

The General Surgery Residency Program in the OHSU School of Medicine provides training in all areas of general surgery. Broad experience in clinical surgery is combined with numerous teaching conferences to provide surgical trainees with diversified experience. A year in research further enhances the surgical trainees' learning experience. Residents who complete the general surgery residency may choose careers in private practice, academic surgery or further specialization in surgery. The general surgery residency program consists of six years of training: R-1 through R-5 clinical years and one year of research between the third and fourth years.

The seven major hospitals participating in the residency program are OHSU Hospital, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (PVAMC), St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center, Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center and Emanuel Hospital.

Integrated Hospitals

Oregon Health & Science University

OHSU is the state's only academic institution dedicated to the education of health professionals and biomedical researchers.

OHSU occupies a wooded, 116 acre campus in Portland. Its missions are patient care, education, research and service. Our primary mission, however, is to provide excellent patient care, which serves as a model for training health professionals and biomedical scientists. OHSU offers the state's only doctoral degrees in dentistry, medicine and nursing. OHSU Hospital and Doernbecher Children's Hospital serve as the primary clinical teaching facilities for students, interns, residents and fellows.

Patients come from all economic backgrounds and represent a full spectrum of medical needs from the routine to the most difficult and complex medical and surgical cases.

OHSU researchers have pioneered significant advances in health care, including new programs in liver, lung, heart and pancreatic transplant.

OHSU's Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research focuses on the neurosciences, including degenerative diseases and behavioral patterns controlled at the chemical level.

The Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology joined OHSU in 1988 and was the first facility of its kind to focus on toxins found in the workplace and their effect on the brain and nervous system.

The Biomedical Information and Communication Center serves as a model for the nation's library information systems, bringing vital medical data and information to health professionals at OHSU and throughout the state.

During the last five years OHSU has experienced great growth. Among the numerous facilities added to the campus are the $30 million dollar Casey Eye Institute, a center for ophthalmologic research and tertiary clinical care; a new School of Nursing building, and a School of Medicine Basic Science addition.

The Physicians Pavilion has enhanced our ambulatory surgery practice, and the addition of the Hatfield Research Center includes a new emergency room and ambulatory research center.

OHSU's Doernbecher Children's Hospital opened July 1998 at a new site on campus. There are 120 beds, including the medical/surgical units, pediatric intensive care, the Kenneth W. Ford Cancer Center, a day surgery unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care Center. Each patient has a private room with a built-in bed so parents can stay with their child. The Doernbecher Children's Hospital is visited by more than 30,000 children annually from every county in Oregon and five surrounding states. There also is a 14-bed labor and delivery unit which adjoins the Doernbecher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This area contains a new anteparturn testing section and a new postpartum ward.

Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (PVAMC)

The PVAMC is a 245-bed hospital that is directly connected to OHSU Hospital via a covered walkway that spans a canyon. Although many routine operations are performed at the PVAMC, the hospital serves as a tertiary care center for many other VA facilities in the Northwest. All surgical specialties are very active. The Portland VAMC is nationally known for studies in carotid artery and aortic aneurysmal disease, and was instrumental in contributing to the VA risk assessment program which compares surgical outcomes adjusted for patient risk. In addition, the Portland VAMC is one of three VA hospitals that has a liver transplant program.

Legacy Health System

The OHSU surgery program is integrated with two major hospitals in the Legacy Health System: Good Samaritan and Emanuel Hospitals.

Emanuel Hospital is a state-of-the-art 363-bed facility with a Level I trauma center, a new pediatric wing, and the state's only burn center. Emanuel is also a center for minimally-invasive surgery, with the most up-to-date equipment built into operating rooms dedicated to minimally-invasive procedures. Until recently the state's only other surgical residency, Emanuel has a long tradition as a teaching hospital and referral center.

Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center is an acute primary and specialty care hospital of 280 beds.

Legacy Portland hospitals have a staff of over 1900 physicians and a house staff of 93 residents and fellows within other free standing residencies.

St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center

St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center is located five miles from Portland's city center and OHSU. The center serves a large, fast-growing suburban population.

St. Vincent also serves as a major referral center for the Northwest. More than 600 medical staff physicians-active, associate, courtesy and consulting-represent every major medical specialty. Nearly all postgraduate positions at St. Vincent have some degree of association with similar programs at OHSU. In addition to postgraduate training of physicians, the hospital also maintains programs for training allied health personnel in medical technology, inhalation therapy and nursing, in cooperation with several local colleges.

Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is a group practice prepaid health plan providing comprehensive health care in many parts of the U.S. The Northwest Region serves over 450,000 members in the Portland and Salem areas of Oregon, and the Vancouver and Longview-Kelso areas of Washington.

Kaiser Permanente operates 26 outpatient medical facilities and Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, licensed at 196 beds. Kaiser works in cooperation with OHSU, Providence Health System, and Legacy Health System, as a teaching institution. There are more than 750 physicians representing all specialties who practice at Kaiser Permanente; many hold faculty appointments at OHSU. The Kaiser Permanente Graduate Medical Education Director is David Schmidt, MD.

The Residency Program

First Year

Twelve categorical surgical interns are accepted into the residency at the first-year (R-1) level. A typical year includes five months of general surgery, one month of emergency medicine and six months of surgical specialties. Residents are integral members of the surgical team and are directly responsible for patient care. A typical team consists of the R-1 intern, a junior resident and a chief surgical resident. Interns perform, under direct supervision, those surgical procedures that are commensurate with their skills and training. In addition to direct patient care duties, interns are regular participants in teaching conferences and attending rounds. Residents also participate actively in teaching principles of surgery to medical students.

Second Year

During the second year (R-2), surgery residents rotate through burn surgery, cardiopulmonary surgery, general surgery, trauma, SICU and pediatric surgery. Much of the year is spent on surgical specialties which provide intense experiences invaluable to the general surgeon, who must be skilled in the care of patients of all ages with complex problems, multisystem diseases, or injuries. During the VAMC general surgery rotation, residents gain considerable expertise in endoscopy including colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy and gastroesophageal endoscopy. Residents share responsibility for resident and student teaching.

Third Year

The third year (R-3) is characterized by an increased operative experience in general surgery. Rotations on cardiopulmonary and peripheral vascular surgery are also included. Because of the advanced status of R-3s, they have increased responsibility in the performance of operative care. Residents have more advanced teaching responsibilities at this level.

Research Year

The resident's goal for this year is to learn how to design and implement basic or elemental research and to evaluate the medical literature critically. Opportunities for research projects are numerous and are arranged with preceptors in the Department of Surgery. The year is spent in OHSU or VAMC laboratories and other nationally prominent locations. In recent years, residents have spent up to two years working with faculty in facilities such as the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, and Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, and locations in the United Kingdom. It is the goal of research residents to gain experience in designing and performing research projects, analyzing their data, writing papers and presenting their research at local, regional and national meetings. Work during the research year has led to numerous publications by residents in the department.

Fourth Year

During the fourth year (R-4), residents have increasing responsibility for providing complex care in general surgery. Residents rotate on general surgery at Kaiser Sunnyside, and St. Vincent Hospital; the pediatric surgery, transplantation, and head and neck services at OHSU; and trauma at OHSU or Emanuel Hospital. During the year they gain experience through expanded duties as senior residents both in increased operative experience, team leadership, and teaching.

Fifth Year

The fifth year (R-5) is the "chief year". The program includes 10-12 chief residents in general surgery: three at OHSU, three at the VAMC, and one at St. Vincent Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital and Emanuel Hospital. Rotation lengths vary. Chief residents are expected to perform a challenging number of surgical cases. During this year, they handle approximately 450 cases. This experience provides an excellent operative record when applying to take the American Board of Surgery examination.

While at the VAMC, residents have an opportunity to perform major head and neck surgery as well as peripheral vascular surgery. At OHSU Hospital, residents are responsible for care and management of general surgical patients and advanced problems in surgical oncology. Chief residents at Good Samaritan Hospital Kaiser Hospital, Emanuel Hospital and St. Vincent Hospital are exposed to the full spectrum of general surgery, including vascular surgery. By the end of the fifth year, typical residents have performed a total of 800 to 1000 surgical cases. More importantly, they are prepared for independent practice and have been exposed to a learning process that will continue throughout their professional lives.

Teaching Rounds, Conferences and Meetings

Many conferences are sponsored by the department and the residents' active participation is vigorously encouraged.

The weekly residents' conference covers the range of the basic and clinical science of surgery and its specialties in a systematic fashion over a two-year cycle. A "team" of residents is guided in its presentation by a faculty member. Readings for the week are distributed to all residents before the conference and sessions are designed to be interactive. The sessions provide key information to aid in preparation for the annual in-training examination and, eventually, for the American Board of Surgery Qualifying Examination.

The Morbidity and Mortality Conference and Surgery Grand Rounds are held weekly for all Department of Surgery faculty and residents at OHSU and VAMC. St. Vincent, Good Samaritan, Emanuel, and Kaiser Sunnyside have their own weekly Morbidity and Mortality Conferences.

Besides the required conferences (M and M, grand rounds and resident teaching conference), the department faculty are involved in numerous other specialty conferences which residents attend while they are participating in those services. The following is a typical weekly calendar of events:

Monday: Surgery Tumor Conference--VAMC; Morbidity and Mortality--OHSU; Department Grand Rounds--OHSU; Residents' Teaching Conference--OHSU;

Tuesday: Med/Surg GI Conference--OHSU; Neurosurgery Grand Rounds--OHSU; Plastic Surgery Grand Rounds--OHSU; Pathology Conference--GSH

Wednesday: Tumor Board--GSH; Teaching Rounds--GSH

Thursday: Breast Conference--OHSU; Surgery Teaching Conference--VAMC; Patient Teaching Rounds--VAMC; General Surgery TeachingRounds--OHSU; Surgery M and M--GSH; Cardiac Surgery M and M--StV; Surgery Grand Rounds--StV; Cardiac Rounds--StV

Friday: Surgery Tumor Conference--OHSU; Trauma Conference--OHSU

Saturday: Vascular Surgery Grand Rounds--OHSU

Surgical Services

General Surgery

The general surgical service at OHSU performs the full spectrum of general surgical cases. Between 900 and 1,000 procedures are performed each year. Cases range from routine problems referred from the Emergency Department or other services within the hospital to tertiary referral type cases from throughout the region including Oregon, Idaho, Northern California and Southwest Washington. Special interests of the faculty include gastrointestinal surgery and minimal access procedures. Types of procedures include complex esophageal, biliary, hepatic, pancreatic, and colorectal cases. OHSU has multiple surgical suites including the Day Stay unit.

Minimal access procedures include many advanced laparoscopic procedures, including anti-reflux surgery, Heller myotomy, adrenalectomy, and splenectomy. Residents and attendings work together in each outpatient clinic so that optimum continuity of care for residents and attendings can be assured. Operative experience is rich and appropriate for each resident according to his or her level of expertise. Formal teaching rounds are made on a weekly basis with less structured faculty input occurring daily. The Blue and Green Service each have an intern, a junior and a Chief Surgical Resident.

Residents also do rotations in general surgery at all resident levels in the following hospitals: Emanuel, St. Vincent, Kaiser, and Good Samaritan. Each of these hospitals provides a rich source of experience in a wide variety of cases, from simple to complex, and the teaching staff at each of these hospitals is composed of dedicated teachers.

Trauma Service

Residents rotate on both of Oregon's Level I trauma centers at OHSU and Emanuel Hospitals. OHSU alone has just under 2000 admissions per year.

At OHSU, two R-5 or R-4s are assigned to the trauma service as the team leaders. An intern also rotates on the trauma service and is assigned team duties leading to advanced experience and responsibility. At Emanuel Hospital, the trauma team consists of an R-1 and an R-4.

Local ambulance services transport critically injured patients to both OHSU and Emanuel from the Portland metropolitan area. The city has a helicopter and fixed-wing ambulance service that provides statewide rapid transportation to the university.

EGS Service

The EGS (Emergency General Surgery) Service at OHSU has an R-5, 2 R-3s, an R-2 and an R-1 on the service. The R-5 and R-2 (a wound care and surgical nutrition rotation) both work day shifts and help cover call for the R-3s who work in 12 hour shifts.

Surgical Oncology

Approximately 600 to 700 major cases are attended to yearly on the surgical oncology service, with an emphasis on complicated, tertiary referral cancer problems. The intern, junior and chief residents rotating on the surgical oncology service are directly involved in the outpatient care of the private patients of the staff. Private clinics meet four times per week and are staffed by the residents and faculty. There is a breast clinic weekly. Besides the weekly tumor and breast conferences, the division maintains a fully accredited tumor registry.

SICU

The Surgical Intensive Care Unit has general surgery and emergency medicine residents assigned to the service. The general surgery/trauma attendings provide supervision and daily rounds with the residents in the SICU. Because of the high volume of patients on both the general surgery and trauma service, this rotation is very busy. Experience in the SICU will teach the junior resident to manage the critically ill and unstable patient. There are 10 beds in the SICU. The team consists of a general surgery R-2, an emergency medicine resident, a surgical director and an emergency medicine associate director.

Pediatric Surgery

The pediatric surgery service at the university has a PGY-1, 2 and 4. A PGY-3 rotates at Emanuel hospital. The division performs over 1,000 cases per year at Doernbecher Children's Hospital and 1,000 cases per year at Emanuel Hospital and encompasses all aspects of pediatric, general, thoracic, minimally invasive, and trauma surgery. A large number of neonatal surgical emergencies are tended to and the division takes primary responsibility for the pre- and post-operative care of these patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units. The service has a special interest in childhood cancer and participates in the Children's Study Group. The service is primarily responsible for the care of pediatric trauma patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Vascular Surgery

The vascular surgery service has two clinical components. The OHSU vascular service is at the university, and performs approximately 400 major arterial recon-structions each year as well as 200 to 250 other operations such as amputations. This service is staffed by the OHSU vascular surgery residents, and by a general surgery PGY-2 or PGY-3, and by a general surgery PGY-1. The operations performed include the entire spectrum of vascular surgery of the neck, upper extremities, thorax, abdomen and lower extremities. The vascular surgery clinic on Wednesdays is attended by all faculty and all house staff on the service. Approximately 75 patients per week are seen as outpatients.

The PVAMC vascular surgery service performs 300-350 major arterial reconstructions each year, as well as a similar number of other operations such as amputations. This service is staffed by general surgery PYG-6, PGY-3 and PGY-1 residents. The PVAMC service also has a large weekly clinic on Fridays.

The two clinical units function as s single academic unit. The vascular surgery basic science lectures and clinical/angiographic patient conferences on Saturday morning are widely attended by students, house staff and community physicians. The OHSU non-invasive vascular laboratory operates units at OHSU Hospital, PVAMC hospital, and at four large private hospitals in Portland, in total performing over 1,000 diagnostic procedures each year.

The OHSU vascular service has multiple areas of ongoing research activity including upper extremity ischemia, Raynauds syndrome and vasospasm; a long term study of atherosclerosis progression and the influence of elevated plasma homocysteine and its treatment; use of duplex scanning in noninvasive vascular diagnosis; nonoperative treatment and natural history of chronic lower extremity ischemia; basic physiology and treatment of chronic venous insufficiency.

Plastic Surgery

This service performs approximately 2000 cases per year with a heavy outpatient clinic load involving 180 patient visits per week. The focus of the plastic surgery service is on reconstructive plastic surgery and includes treatment of maxillofacial, extremity, trunk, and specifically, hand trauma. There is a significant caseload in congenital anomalies including cleft lip and palate, and craniofacial outpatients. The service works in close association with other departments in treatment of cancers and the reconstructive procedures necessary for closure of defects created by their removal or radiation. In addition, there is a sufficient cosmetic surgery workload for treatment of various aesthetic deformities, as well as reconstruction using micro-surgery and other advanced techniques. The service is integrated with VAMC and Shriner's Hospital, and has general and plastic surgery residents assigned to those services.

Burn Center

A PGY-3 resident rotations to the Oregon Burn Center at Emanuel Hospital, where the resident learns burn management under the direction of a dedicated staff in a state-of-the-art facility.

General Urology and Transplantation

More than 130 kidney transplants and the attendant vascular and peritoneal dialysis access procedures are performed annually at OHSU Hospital. An R-1, an intermediate urology resident, and an R-4 provide house staff coverage. An R-1 rotates through the general urology service at OHSU, where the following sub-specialities are practiced: microsurgery, infertility, female urology, endourology, urinary tract reconstruction, calculus disease treatment including percutaneous and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, urologic oncology, pediatric urology and impotence. An intern also rotates through the VAMC general urology service where patient care responsibility is shared with a chief urology resident and a junior urology resident.

Each of the specialty surgical services manages its respective organs through end stage, including transplantation. The general surgery resident is exposed to cardiac and pulmonary transplantation on the cardiothoracic service, pancreatic and liver transplantation on the liver transplant service and renal transplantation on the urology service.

Cardiothoracic Service

Cardiothoracic surgery at OHSU Hospital maintains an active teaching service that encompasses all aspects of adult and pediatric cardiac and non-cardiac thoracic surgery. The surgical house staff assumes a very active role in all aspects of patient care under the supervision and guidance of the attending staff and the cardiothoracic residents. In addition to running a busy adult cardiac surgery service, the service provides cardiac surgery for congenital heart defects to children of Oregon, Southern Washington, Idaho and northern California. Since 1985, an average of 30 heart transplants have been performed at OHSU each year, and more recently, lung and heart lung transplantation have been added to the service successfully.

All patients are admitted and discharged from the cardiopulmonary surgery service. Residents rotating through the service are directly involved in running the cardiac recovery room where postoperative patients are housed, as well as staffing the cardiopulmonary surgery clinic.

Orthopedic Service

General surgery interns participate on the orthopedic service at OHSU Hospital and at the VAMC where there is a busy program emphasizing reconstructive surgery. The orthopedic service interacts closely with Shriner's Hospital and thetrauma service at OHSU Hospital.

Neurosurgery Service

General surgery interns participate on the neurosurgery service as R-1s at the VAMC and OHSU Hospital. On this active service, approximately 1900 surgical procedures are performed annually. The residents assigned to OHSU Hospitalalso participate in the trauma service at OHSU Hospital.

Veterans Affairs Medical Center Rotations

The Veterans Affairs Medical Center has general surgery and vascular surgery services; each includes interns and junior residents and is headed by chief residents. A wide variety of surgical procedures are performed with special emphasis on gastrointestinal, head and neck, and vascular surgery. In addition, residents rotate on the cardiac surgery service, urology, orthopedics and neurosurgery. The VAMC supports a 14-bed surgical intensive care unit where a surgical resident is also assigned.


On-Call Schedule

Resident night call averages every third night throughout the residency. On some services, night call is taken from home; other services require that the resident remain in the hospital at night. Radio pagers are provided to facilitate communication.

Salary and Benefits: 2007-2008

Two weeks of vacation are available annually for each surgical intern (with a third week of vacation during the last week in June ). R2 through R-5 levels also receive three weeks of vacation. The Department of Surgery adheres to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, which requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected parental leave to eligible employees.

OHSU provides part or all of the monthly health insurance premium for residents, their spouses and dependent children, depending on the insurance plan selected. Dental insurance is provided at little or no cost. The resident may choose to participate in other types of group insurance such as life insurance, disability insurance and accident insurance which are available at low cost. Professional liability protection covering all activities within the training program is provided for each surgical resident.



Faculty

John G. Hunter, MD, professor and chair
Brett Sheppard, MD, associate professor , vice-chair, clinical
Karen Deveney, MD, professor, vice-chair, education

Cardiothoracic Surgery

Ross Ungerleider, MD, professor and chief
Pasala Ravichandran, MD, associate professor
Paul Schipper, MD, assistant professor
Matthew Slater, MD, assistant professor
Mithran Sukumar, MD, assistant professor
Howard Song, MD, assistant professor
Karl Welke, MD, assistant professor

General Surgery

Clifford Deveney, MD, professor and chief
Karen Deveney, MD, professor, program director
Robert Goldman, MD, assistant professor
Daniel Herzig, MD, assistant professor
John Hunter, MD, professor
Stanley Jacob, MD, associate professor
Blair Jobe, MD, assistant professor, VAMC
Kim Lu, MD, assistant professor
Robert Martindale, MD, professor
John Mayberry, MD, associate professor
Donald McConnell, MD, professor, VAMC
Richard Mullins, MD, professor
Robert O'Rourke, assistant professor
Martin A. Schreiber, MD, associate professor
Brett Sheppard, MD, associate professor
Donald Trunkey, MD, professor

Liver and Pancreas Transplantation

John Ham, MD, associate professor and chief
Susan Orloff, MD, associate professor
Stephen Rayhill, MD, associate professor
David Scott, MD, assistant professor

Pediatric Surgery

Mark Silen, MD, professor and chief
David Bliss, MD, assistant professor
Marvin Harrison, MD, professor
Sanjay Krishnaswami, MD, assistant professor
Garret Zallen, MD, assistant professor

Plastic Surgery

Juliana Hansen, MD, interim chief and associate professor
Anna Kuang, MD, assistant professor
Reid Mueller, MD, associate professor
Wesley Schooler, MD, assistant professor
Joel Solomon, MD, assistant professor


Surgical Oncology

Kevin Billingsley, MD, associate professor
Arpana Naik, MD, assistant professor
Rodney Pommier, MD, associate professor
John Vetto, MD, associate professor

Urology

John Barry, MD, professor and head
Michael Conlin, MD, associate professor
Siamak Daneshmand, MD, assistant professor
Nina Davis, MD, assistant professor, VAMC
Stephen Dunn, MD, associate professor, VAMC
Eugene Fuchs, MD, professor
Mark Garzotto, MD, assistant professor, VAMC
Guy Hudson, MD, assistant professor
Steven Skoog, MD, professor
Mitchell Sokoloff, MD, associate professor

Vascular Surgery

Gregory Moneta, MD, professor and chief
Jim Edwards, MD, associate professor, VAMC
Gregory J. Landry, MD, assistant professor
Tim Liem, MD, assistant professor

Faculty in Other Teaching Hospitals

St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center

Roger Alberty, MD, Program Director

Philip Alexander, MD; Michael Breda, MD; David Cook, MD; Gregory Geary, MD; Michael Hauty, MD; William Johnson, MD; James King, MD; William McAllister, MD; David Miller, MD; James Peck, MD.

Edward Phinney, MD; Matt Reed, MD; Vince Reger, MD; Kim Swartz, MD; John Wiest, MD; Ronald Wolf, MD; John Zelco, MD.

Legacy Portland Hospitals, Emanuel Hospital and Health Center, Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center

Blayne Standage , MD, Program Director, Chief of Surgery

General Surgery

Robert Acker, MD; Michael Breda, MD; Joseph Frankhouse, MD; Gregory Geary, MD; Nathalie Johnson, MD; Nathan Kemalyan, MD; Patrick Lee, MD; Joseph Pulito, MD; Earl Schuman, MD; Blayne Standage, MD; Lee Swanstom, MD; John Zelko, MD.

Burns

Joseph Pulito, MD; Nathan Kemalyan, MD; Niknam Eshraghi.

Pediatric Surgery

David Bliss, MD, Sanjay Krishnaswami, MD.

Trauma

William Long, MD; Andrew Michaels, MD; Seth Isenberg, MD; Aneen Ramzy, MD; Dean Gubler, MD; Ric Cole, MD; Chris Kaufmann, MD; Ron Barbosa, MD.


KAISER PERMANENTE

The Director of Graduate Medical Education is David Schmidt, MD.

GENERAL SURGERY

West Side Portland Metro
Carmen Hudson, MD, Program Director
Christine Olson, MD, Assistant Program Director
Wayne Gilbert, MD; Carmen Hudson, MD; Steven Lester, MD; Amy Morris, MD; Andrew Zigman, MD; Christine Olson, MD.

East Side Portland Metro
David Parsons, MD, Program Director
James Bisio, MD; Changshee (George) Chang, MD; James Dennis, MD; Andrew Gentile, MD; Homoyan Hajarizadeh, MD; Louis Kosta, MD; Andre Leger, MD; Robert Ludemann, MD; David Moiel, MD; Christopher Nelson, MD; James Schwarz, MD; Michael Schiedler, MD; Mary Giswold, MD.


Portland and Oregon

OHSU is an academic health center occupying 33 major buildings on a wooded, 116-acre campus. Paths for joggers, bicyclists and pedestrians border the campus and connect it to downtown Portland, Oregon's largest city. Residents enjoy a lively downtown area with its museums of art and science, nearby zoo, botanical gardens, center for performing arts, symphony orchestra, opera, ballet and theater. Professional basketball, ice hockey, soccer and baseball provide additional sources of entertainment.

Opportunities for outdoor recreation abound. Nearby rivers and lakes invite swimming, fishing, sailing and other water sports. Mt. Hood, which is visible from OHSU and has a year-round ski area, is only an hour's drive away. The coast can be reached in about 90 minutes.

Portland contains 7,500 acres of parkland in 160 locations including Forest Park, the largest urban wilderness within any American city. Oregonians take pride in their environment and work to protect their natural resources.

Oregon's climate ranges from cool in the forests of the Cascade mountains to and in Eastern Oregon's deserts. Temperatures in Portland average a mild 67 degrees in summer and 42 degrees in winter.

Application Process

The Department of Surgery welcomes you to apply for a categorical or preliminary position through the AAMC's Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). No paper applications will be accepted. Only complete applications submitted through the ERAS system by November 1st will be reviewed for the following academic year. Please contact your dean's office for further information on the electronic application process.

The committee will review applications and determine which applicants will be interviewed. Interviews will occur on Mondays and Fridays beginning December 2007 and continue through January 2008. If you are selected, you will be contacted via email. Arrangements will then be made for you to visit OHSU for interviews, talk with current residents and be introduced to Portland. It is not necessary to provide a return postcard or call to check the status of your application: the ERAS system will notify you as we download your information into our files. Please call for information only if necessary.

A completed application consists of six elements:

• an ERAS application

• a personal photograph

• a personal statement

• a dean's letter with a transcript

• two letters of recommendation

• Official USMLE scores, Part I or National Board scores, Part I

If you have had previous postgraduate training, send letters of recommendation from the program director(s) of your first postgraduate year and any subsequent residency training.

Graduates of foreign medical schools applying for residency must have a valid ECFMG certificate by June of the year for which they are applying. The department also requests results of your USMLE, National Board Examinations, or Flex scores. No American experience is required, however, you must score at least 200 on USMLE Part 1 to be considered for an interview.

If you need basic information about the ECFMG or the NRMP, you may call or write to the offices listed below. Their website addresses are also listed.

Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates
3624 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2685
(215)662-1445
www.ecfmg.org

National Residency Matching Program
2450 N Street NW, Suite 201
Washington, DC 20037-1141
(202)826-0566
www.nrmp.org

For further information please contact the Residency Coordinator at surgres@ohsu.edu, or call 503.494.7758.