Program Curriculum

Monday

Valve Conference - Every Monday, 7am. Discuss complex valve cases.  Residents on the cardiac service will be expected to attend.

Resident Conference - Every Monday, 5pm. Residents meet with faculty one-on-one, to review and discuss selected curriculum topics from the STS Learn CT Surgery clinical materials.

Tuesday

Aortic Conference - Every 2nd Tuesday 7am.

CTOP - Every Tuesday, 12 noon.  Tumor board conference to discuss pre and postoperative thoracic surgery patients.  Residents on thoracic surgery service are expected to attend.

Cardiac Cath Conference - Every Tuesdays,  4pm.  Discuss complex coronary cases.  Residents on the cardiac service are expected to attend.

Wednesday

CT Surgery Resident Conference - Every Wednesday morning, 7am.  Attendance is required.
Schedule rotates as follows:

Grand Rounds/Cardiac/Thoracic Conference - 45 minute discussions with slide presentation on the assigned topics.  Grand Rounds will focus on a broader issue surrounding our patient population (i.e.; vascular surgery, pulmonary medicine, cardiology, anesthesiology, minimally invasive approaches), whereas the cardiac and thoracic topics will mirror the TSDA curriculum more.  Residents may expect topic assignments for presentation, up to one per month. (Cardiac, 1st Wed., Thoracic, 2nd Wed., Grand Rounds, 4th Wed. of each month)

M&M (3rd Wednesday of Month) - Residents should plan to lead the discussion for M&M. Ideally the talk should focus on 3-4 patient examples (2 per resident) of recent complications on cardiac and thoracic surgery, and evidence-based examples of how to avoid or better-approach a similar event.

Cardiac Quality Conference (3rd Wednesday of Month, 8am) - This is similar to M&M. We specifically discuss any mortality, and other quality issues effecting cardiac patients. Residents on the cardiac service will be expected to attend.

SESATS Questions (5th Wednesday of Month/as they occur) - Every month with a 5th Wednesday we review board-exam style questions led by cardiothoracic faculty, with resident and audience participation.

Thursday

Sarcoma Tumor Board - Every other Thursday, 4pm. Sarcoma tumor board conference to discuss pre and postop esophageal cancer patients.  Residents on thoracic surgery service are expected to attend.

GI Tumor Board - Every Thursday, 12 noon.  Tumor board conference to discuss pre and postop esophageal cancer patients.  Residents on thoracic surgery service are expected to attend.

Lung Transplant Section Meeting - Every 2nd Thursday morning 7am.

Friday

Heart Transplant Section Meeting - Every Friday morning 7am.

Journal Club

Quarterly - Each resident should expect to present 1-2 assigned articles to the group for discussion on a topic relevant to CT Surgery.  Often collaborated with another subspecialty.

Mock Orals

Semi-Annually (Fall & Spring) - Twice per academic year the faculty host mock oral examinations for the residents to prepare the resident for the second stage of ABTS exams.