Traditional Cardiac Surgery Fellowship

The General Thoracic Track Program lasts two years and begins after successful completion of a five-year surgery training program. Application is made during the fall of the fourth clinical year of surgery training. The program is designed to train individuals in all areas of clinical thoracic surgery as well as to involve residents in clinical research in thoracic surgery. It is expected that the trainee will obtain sufficient operative experience in general thoracic surgery to receive the ABTS certification via the "General Thoracic Surgery Pathway."

Residents will spend approximately twelve months of their training on thoracic surgery rotations, approximately ten months on cardiac surgery rotations, and approximately two months in thoracic transplantation. There will be some flexibility to alter this basic plan according to resident interest. Ten of the twelve general thoracic months are planned to be at Stanford Hospital, with two months at Cedars Sinai Medical Center working with Rob McKenna. There may also be a possibility for additional general thoracic experience at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. The cardiac surgery rotations will be approximately equally split between Kaiser Santa Clara and Stanford Hospital, and the transplant rotation will be at Stanford.

Residents will be exposed to all areas of clinical general thoracic surgery, including both benign and malignant diseases. Both knowledge base and technical expertise will be developed. In addition to basic procedures, such as "open" lobectomy, esophagectomy, thymectomy, sympathectomy, etc., trainees will have extensive exposure to advanced procedures that are performed in only a handful of centers nationally. These procedures include: sleeve lobectomy, VATS (thoracoscopic) lobectomy, minimally invasive (thoracoscopic/laparoscopic) esophagectomy, anterior approaches to Pancoast tumors, lung volume reduction surgery, transcervical thymectomy, laparoscopic Nissen and paraesophageal hernia repair, lung transplantation, etc. It is expected that residents will finish the program with complete, independent facility in the cognitive and technical aspects of performing all of these procedures.

In preparation for a career in academic general thoracic surgery, an important part of the program will be resident involvement in clinical research. Each resident will choose a faculty member/mentor with whom to develop at least one clinical research project that can be carried out during the course of the residency. It is hoped that presentation at a major national meeting and ultimate publication will set the resident on a course to incorporate research into his/her career.

See Benefits & Housing

General surgery residents apply to the program by February 15 of their fourth year of clinical surgery training. These applications will be via ERAS for positions starting July, one year and five months later, and they will be offered via the NRMP (use program code 1820460F0 when applying).

Please contact Stephanie Harrington for additional information. Your application materials should include:

• Curriculum Vitae
• Letters of recommendation from two surgeons and your program director
• All ABME and surgery in-training exam scores
• Medical school transcript and dean’s letter
• A brief statement about why you have chosen general thoracic surgery

Mailing address:

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Falk Building
870 Quarry Rd
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Attn: Stephanie Harrington, Residency Coordinator
E-mail: stephanie.harrington@stanford.edu