Education

Introduction

Dr. Michael Belkin is the Division Chief of Vascular Surgery and the Program Director for the ACGME accredited Program in Vascular Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Vascular surgery consists of eight board certified vascular surgeons with full-time academic appointments at Harvard Medical School. All vascular patients admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital are available for the teaching of both general surgical residents and vascular fellows. All elective vascular surgical procedures at Brigham and Women's Hospital are carried out by members of the Division of Vascular Surgery functioning in the role of teaching assistants with either the vascular fellow or a general surgical resident as surgeon. Vascular trauma is managed in consultation with both the vascular fellow and the attending on call. The vascular fellow will gain extensive experience in diagnostic and therapeutic endovascular techniques as well as weekly instruction and practice in the non-invasive vascular laboratory.

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Clinical Training

The vascular fellow is on duty approximately 60-70 hours per week, averaging 12 hours per day during the week and every second weekend for emergency procedures. Weekend call is provided on a rotational basis by the attending staff in concert with the vascular fellow who participates on weekend cases and emergent admissions as necessary. The vascular surgical fellow is not required to be on in-house overnight call.

The vascular surgical fellow and the general surgical residents function on the same service, although the vascular surgery fellow and the general surgery chief resident are not assigned to the same cases. As the volume of surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital exceeds 1000 vascular procedures and 300 endovascular procedures per year, each vascular fellow has accumulated in excess of 300 open cases and 200 endovascular cases during their tenure.

Graduates of the program currently hold prominent positions in academic and private practive vascular surgery.

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Research

Each vascular fellow is required to participate in ongoing scholarly activity under the supervision of the attending staff in preparation of clinical reviews for submission to regional and national meetings. The vascular fellow is expected to attend both the regional New England Society for Vascular Surgery meeting in September as well as the national meetings of the SVS/AAVS in June at the Division's expense. In addition, the vascular fellow is responsible for researching and presenting the majority of the topics for the weekly conference curriculum.

For additional information on BWH research, please visit our Department of Surgery Research website.

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Application Requests

The vascular surgery residency program matches with one new fellow each year. Applications for this two-year fellowship are now being accepted from physicians who will have completed a five-year ACGME accredited general surgery residency by the time the vascular program begins in July 2009.

The vascular fellowship positions each year are filled via the vascular surgery match sponsored by the National Resident Matching Program. All applicants must register with the NRMP in addition to submitting an application to our program. Applicants participate in the vascular match during their general surgery PGY-4 year, matching for a position to begin following completion of their PGY-5 year.

We are currently recruiting for residency positions for the 2009-2010 academic year to begin in July 2009. All applicants must register with the NRMP in addition to requesting an application from AAMC ERAS electronic residency application system. Programs participating in ERAS may only accept those application materials sent electronically through ERAS. We will not accept any additional supporting documents by mail. Please contact ERAS at www.aamc.org.

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Requirements and Deadline

• ABS in-training exam scores
• Three letters of recommendation from physicians who have worked closely with you during your general surgery residency or in your laboratory research. (The inside salutation in your letters of recommendation may be addressed to the residency program director, Dr. Michael Belkin)
• Medical School Transcript
• Dean's Letter

Our deadline for receipt of your residency application and all supporting documents will be February 1, 2008.

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Selection of Interview Candidates 

Each application is reviewed in its entirety with an eye toward a combination of overall academic excellence, leadership ability, career development potential and personal character.

We interview approximately 15-20 candidates for the vascular surgery program each year. Although we receive applications from many well-qualified candidates, it is not possible to interview all who apply. Every effort is made to notify applicants of their interview status in a timely manner in order to allow sufficient time for making travel arrangements.

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Interview Date

The date for the Spring 2008 interview season will be Tuesday, April 1, 2008. We do not schedule any individual interview dates outside of the scheduled group interview date. Any candidate who is invited to interview must contact the surgery education office to confirm their acceptance of the interview offer. If we do not receive a confirming email or letter from you by the given RSVP date, we will not be able to schedule you for the interview.

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Interview Format

The format for the day of the interview begins with a continental breakfast during the early morning check-in time, followed by an orientation session with Dr. Michael Belkin, the vascular surgery fellowship program director. Following the orientation session, each candidate will meet individually with two groups consisting of the applicant and two or three key faculty members. Our current vascular surgery fellows will be on hand throughout the morning to visit informally with the candidates between interviews and to conduct hospital tours. For purposes of making travel arrangements, applicants may anticipate being finished with all interview and tour activities by 5:00 p.m.

Travel arrangements and hotel accommodations

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