Welcome to the Brigham surgery residency! We believe we have a world-class surgery training program, and we welcome you to explore our website.
At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we combine top-notch clinical care with world-class research and cutting-edge education to provide a comprehensive surgical training program. Our residents rotate through a wide mix of hospitals, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is a tertiary care referral center, as well as two community hospitals (Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and South Shore Hospital), a VA hospital (the West Roxbury VA Medical Center) and Boston Children’s Hospital. Through those rotations, our residents experience the wide range of general surgical diseases. Most of our residents complete a two-year research experience during residency. Our residents have done research in every aspect of academic surgery, from basic science, to health services, to global surgery.
We are looking for future leaders in American and global surgery. Brigham and Women’s Hospital has a century long history of producing surgical leaders. Not every Brigham graduate will be a department chairperson, but we believe that every Brigham surgery resident graduates with the skills to be a leader in surgery, whether at the local, regional, national or global level.
The true strengths of our surgery residency are our residents and faculty. We have a uniquely gifted group of trainees and faculty, and their camaraderie makes for a fantastic surgical training environment. If this is what you are looking for in a surgery residency, we hope that you will apply. We look forward to meeting you in the future.
Program Director
Our five-year ACGME-accredited general surgery residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital provides surgical education of the highest caliber, leading to American Board of Surgery certification in general surgery within an environment designed to encourage clinical and basic scientific investigational experience.
Surgical training at the Brigham and our affiliated teaching hospitals provides a potential daily inpatient population approximating 1,300. These combined hospital facilities allow each surgical trainee to obtain a large operative experience early in the training program and to develop independent responsibility in the pre and postoperative care of a variety of surgical patients. Most residents upon completion of their chief resident year have performed between 1,000 and 1,200 major operations.
For more information on Brigham and Women's Hospital surgical residency and other educational resident resources, please visit the Mass General Brigham Office of Graduate Medical Education.
Mass General Brigham and Brigham and Women’s Hospital is an equal opportunity employer, and by embracing diverse skills, perspectives and ideas, we choose to lead. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, military service, genetic information and/or other status protected under law.
At Brigham and Women’s Hospital we aspire to be the care provider of choice for diverse patients and their families, and the employer of choice for diverse employees.
The Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) aims to enhance workforce diversity by providing career advancement and professional development opportunities and promoting increased recruitment and retention among all diverse faculty, trainees and students. CDI’s mission is to promote a vibrant, diverse and inclusive professional community where every person thrives. This center sponsors many resources and programs dedicated to career development, leadership, and diversity and inclusion dialogues.
We invite you to watch our Training at a Harvard Hospital video to hear how trainees and program leaders describe their experiences with diversity, Harvard-affiliated training programs and life in Boston.
We also have a chief resident who serves as the DEI chief resident and leads all residency related DEI initiatives and programs.
In 2016, the Brigham general surgery residency initiated a Wellness Committee with start-up funds to understand and improve the environment in which surgical residents train at the Brigham. The Wellness Committee has progressed from short-term enjoyable projects, providing regular access to healthy snacks and free admission to events at the Museum of Fine Arts and Boston Symphony Orchestra, to long-term culture-oriented goals such as improved administrative support for residents, protected time for doctor/dentist appointments and formalized, longitudinal mentorship structures for each class.
To know where to start, the Brigham Surgery Wellness Committee conducted a residency wide needs assessment. Since then, we have made significant progress toward addressing key issues that challenge surgical residents’ well-being. Ongoing projects continue in partnership with resident advocacy groups across the Brigham to tackle complex training culture issues such as gender and racial bias, respectful work environments and establishing wellness into educational curricula.
Below is the Brigham Surgery Wellness Committee’s mission statement:
We are a diverse group of surgical residents focused upon improvement of student, resident and faculty wellness. We believe that we are best for our patients when we are our best selves. We aim to succeed through the following efforts.
Committed to teaching and mentoring the next generation of surgeons and leaders in medicine, our general and gastrointestinal surgical faculty is comprised of experienced clinicians who impart a breadth of knowledge and expertise during clinical rounds and in clinics. Residents also interact with the faculty of the other Brigham surgery divisions. In addition, basic and clinical research mentors provide many research opportunities for residents and fellows.
Brigham and Women's Hospital is the largest hospital of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts. The Brigham is Harvard Medical School's second largest teaching affiliate. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Mass General Brigham, the largest health care provider in Massachusetts. Brigham and Women's Hospital is an international leader in virtually every area of medicine and has been the site of pioneering breakthroughs that have improved lives around the world.
Our residents rotate at a variety of institutions to obtain the wide variety of cases needed to become a leader in surgery. Residents rotate at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, our sister hospital where many of our surgeons routinely operate; South Shore Hospital, where residents have a high operative experience of "bread and butter" general surgery cases; and the Boston VA Healthcare System to obtain experience in the veteran population. The pediatric surgery component of the program takes place at Boston Children's Hospital, which is attached to the Brigham via a bridge.
The PGY-1 year of the junior surgical residency consists of rotations through the general surgery services at the Brigham, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, South Shore Hospital, West Roxbury VA Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as the Emergency Department, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Surgical ICU and Thoracic Surgery.
For categorical general surgery residents continuing into the PGY-2 year, there are rotations through the Brigham general surgery services, surgical ICUs, thoracic ICUs, burn/trauma, the West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital and South Shore Hospital.
Nine residents are appointed annually to each of the PGY-3, PGY-4 and PGY-5 (chief resident) years of the categorical general surgery program. The PGY-3 year includes rotations through the Brigham general surgery services, General Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, Pediatric Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, the Brigham Emergency Department, Thoracic Surgery and Transplant Surgery. The PGY-4 year provides a varied experience on the general surgical service and vascular surgery service at the Brigham, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital and South Shore Hospital. The PGY-5 year provides chief residents the responsibilities as required for American Board of Surgery eligibility and consists of rotations through the general surgery services at the Brigham, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital and an apprenticeship rotation with a faculty mentor of their choice.
Many Brigham surgical graduates enter subspecialty fellowships following completion of their general surgery training. Recent graduates have matched for fellowships in the following areas:
Wednesday Education Block: 7 am to 12 pm (protected time)
Weekly
The department leadership strongly believes in providing every resource and opportunity possible to enhance the career development of trainees into future leaders. Most residents complete two years of laboratory study or other academic career development in addition to the five clinical years of the program. The research and career development opportunities currently being pursued by our residents include basic science bench research in a variety of Harvard or outside labs; health services research through our Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH); and pursuit of an MPH, MEd or MBA degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Graduate School of Education or Harvard Business School. We also have several residents involved in international projects in Rwanda.
The Department of Surgery also has several National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grants, which allow us to fund trainees who wish to pursue research in gastrointestinal surgery, surgical oncology or trauma. Many residents have obtained their own funding through various research grant and scholarship programs. For additional information on Brigham research and research funding, please visit our Department of Surgery Research page or the Brigham Surgical Resident Research page.
Mentoring is essential for the development of our surgical residents. At the Brigham, we have a resident mentoring program that starts soon after Match Day, where a new intern is linked with both a faculty mentor and a resident mentor. These relationships welcome the new intern to the program and help with the transition to surgical residency. We also have a faculty class mentor, which organizes wellness and educational events for their respective class throughout the residency. We stress the importance of mentoring to our residents and faculty and encourage our residents to identify faculty mentors as they progress through the program. Our associate program directors of research, Drs. Mark Fairweather and Geoffrey Anderson, help facilitate this process when they meet with each individual resident to discuss their research plans.
The global surgery residency track is available to surgical residents at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Residents will apply in the spring of their intern year. During the second and third years of residency, they will continue in standard surgical residency curriculum and rotations, with focused mentorship to prepare for their global surgery experience. The core of the track begins after the completion of the PGY-3 clinical year and lasts two years. Residents divide their time between one year of fieldwork in a non-U.S. low-resource setting and one year of research course work leading to a master’s degree in public health through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (or other relevant degree program). Residents are also encouraged to apply to the summer program in global health effectiveness.
During both portions of the global surgery track, residents work full-time on innovative global health/surgery projects in the areas of surgical capacity assessment, cost-effectiveness research for innovative treatments and technologies, surgical epidemiology, global surgical education and infrastructure building. Each resident is paired with a Brigham surgeon as their primary mentor and is required to complete at least one research project of sufficient quality for publication. Ongoing mentorship for career planning and guidance continues once residents return to the Brigham for the clinical PGY-4 and 5 years.
Global Surgery residents are required to attend monthly CSPH Works-in-Progress (WIP) sessions and the Academic Global Surgery Forum (AGSF), as well as Programs in Global Surgery and Social Change meetings. Attendance is also encouraged at research and didactic seminars such as weekly Brigham surgery resident research conferences, Brigham Grand Rounds and other CSPH events as announced. Mid- and/or year-end progress reports or presentations are required.
The general surgery residency program matches with nine new residents each year for the five-year categorical program. Nine chief residents will graduate each year. Residency positions for the general surgery program at Brigham and Women's Hospital are matched via the National Resident Matching Program. The NRMP number for the categorical positions is 1265440C0 and for the preliminary positions it is 1265440P0.
We begin the recruitment season each September for residency positions to begin the following mid-June. All resident applicants must register with the NRMP in addition to requesting an application from the AAMC Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Programs participating in ERAS may only accept those application materials sent electronically through ERAS. We will not accept any additional supporting documents by mail.
We will also be utilizing the AAMC Supplemental ERAS application for the upcoming interview cycle for a holistic review of all applications.
We require the following documents to be available for download through ERAS for a complete application to be reviewed:
Our deadline for receipt of your general surgery residency application and all supporting documents is October 15.
Additional application requirements and information:
Each application is reviewed in its entirety with a focus toward a combination of overall academic excellence, leadership ability, career development potential and personal character. We review all applications anonymously without names, pictures or medical schools in order to mitigate potential biases, standardize the evaluation process within our system and create equitable opportunities to all applicants.
We interview approximately 75 candidates for the general surgery program each year. Although we receive applications from many well-qualified candidates, it is not possible to interview all who apply. All invitations are sent through email via ERAS between Wednesday, October 23 and Tuesday, November 6, 2024 and you will have 24 hours to respond. Interview dates are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, but we only offer the number of interviews available and do not invite more candidates than we are able to accommodate for interviews. Preliminary Interview invites will be sent in mid-January 2025.
Each application is reviewed in its entirety with a focus toward a combination of overall academic excellence, leadership ability, career development potential and personal character.
We interview approximately 75 candidates for the general surgery program each year. Although we receive applications from hundreds of well-qualified candidates, it is not possible to interview all who apply. All invitations are sent through email via ERAS after the November 1 deadline.
The next general surgery residency program interview dates will be held via zoom on:
Friday, November 22, 2024
Thursday, December 5, 2024
All of our interviews will be held virtually for the 2024 - 2025 interview season. We will hold a virtual, informal resident-applicant welcome reception the evening prior, followed by the interview day the next morning. We'll have an hour-long group orientation session with Dr. Gerard Doherty, our chair, Dr. Stephanie Nitzschke, the program director, and our associate program directors, as well as presentations by both our current interns and chief residents. Following the orientation session, each candidate will be interviewed by four key faculty members during group breakout meetings. We will be hosting four, pre-interview zoom information sessions beginning in the late summer/early fall and will publish the dates and topics via our surgery resident Instagram page as soon as they are available.
For travel arrangements if you do come to visit, please see our hotel accommodations page for more information.
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