Applicants are invited to apply for two fellowship positions in Acute Care Surgery. Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is verified as a level I adult trauma center by the ACS Committee on Trauma and as an adult burn center by the American Burn Association. More than 2,000 adult trauma patients and 1,500 non-trauma emergency surgery patients are managed by the hospital annually.
BWH offers a one or two-year Acute Care Surgery and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship track. The first year will be spent in the ACGME-accredited Surgical Critical Care Fellowship leading to eligibility for the ABS Certificate in Surgical Critical Care. The second, optional year focuses on Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
The Acute Care Surgery Fellowship is led by Dr. Reza Askari (Program Director) under the leadership of Dr. Ali Salim, the Division Chief of Trauma, Burn, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery at the Brigham. Meet the rest of our faculty and learn about their academic interests.
The Division of Trauma, Burn, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery seeks to train surgeons that demonstrate a strong aptitude for and commitment to an academic career in trauma and emergency surgery. Our objective is to produce clinical and investigative leaders in emergency surgery.
The Acute Care Surgery Fellowship is intended for general surgeons eligible for certification by the American Board of Surgery with interest in an academic career in acute care surgery.
The Fellowship is designed to prepare fellows to practice competently and independently as Trauma and Acute Care Surgeons. The program incorporates the fellows into a junior faculty role and provides them with graduated autonomy allowing them to develop and fine tune their surgical skills and decision making. We strive to provide a broad-based experience in emergency general surgery and trauma.
The entire ACS Fellowship is spent at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In affiliation with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, our fellowship provides a unique and rich emergency surgery experience as many of our acute care consultations are cancer patients with advanced and or rare disease processes. The complexity of cases provides an incredible learning opportunity for our fellows. To supplement our trauma experience, fellows are offered a one-month elective to do an international rotation at a high-volume trauma hospital.
The two ACS fellows rotate between staffing our trauma/acute care surgery service as the “inpatient fellow” to being the “outpatient fellow” that focuses on elective cases, metabolic support services (tracheostomies, feeding tubes, port placements) and clinic. The outpatient fellow takes faculty trauma/ACS call 3 times per month. During overnight call, there is always a backup attending surgeon available for the fellow.
Each fellow is given 4 weeks vacation.
Every Tuesday, we have our division Trauma/ACS M&M followed by a dedicated didactic/research session for the fellows. On Wednesdays, the fellows attend the Department M&M, followed by Grand Rounds featuring speakers of national prominence on a wide variety of topics and advances in the surgical field.
Fellows also participate in Trauma/ACS Journal club, monthly Trauma Peer Review Committee Meetings, monthly Trauma and burn Performance Improvement and Patient Safety Committee Meetings.
The Brigham is dedicated to patient centered research and innovation, which is also core to our division of trauma, burn, and surgical critical care. Fellows are expected to join our divisions ongoing research efforts and we are supportive of independent investigation as well. Opportunities in clinical outcomes, basic science, surgical education, global surgery and clinical guideline development are available. Most of the trauma faculty have research projects within the Center for Surgery Public Health, which is a combined initiative between Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. This provides an opportunity for our fellows to be involved with surgical public health initiatives.
We also are very proud of our Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation, whose mission is to catalyze multidisciplinary collaboration to inspire groundbreaking innovation, effective prevention and compassionate intervention to both civilians and military heroes who endure traumatic injuries and events. Fellows are welcome to join the current projects or propose their own.
Further information can be found on the BWH Department of Surgery Research website.
Fellows have an office within our trauma suite to encourage frequent informal and formal discussion of patients, cases, and career development. Fellows will work closely with every staff member within the division. You will find the division to be collaborative, supportive, and engaged in your development. Each fellow will meet monthly with the Program Director to discuss clinical, academic, and professional progress. The Program Director will share informal feedback at these regular meetings and, at least quarterly, will share formal feedback from the other division attendings. The Fellows will receive career mentorship to include advice in career development, nomination to national surgical societies, sponsorship for surgical meetings, guidance on research projects, and help with obtaining research funding. Each Fellow will have a mentorship plan tailored to their specific career goals.
Fellows have graduated autonomy as they begin their fellowship. Trauma/Acute care surgery rounds occur as a large group with the opportunity for the fellow to obtain feedback on management and operative plans. One senior faculty member is available as a backup for the fellow in the operating room while on call.
The program invites candidates who have completed a general surgery residency and be board eligible in the United States or Canada by the start of the fellowship. Candidates most strongly demonstrating an aptitude and commitment to an academic career in acute care surgery will be prioritized.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women and members of minority groups are encouraged to apply.
For over a century, a leader in patient care, medical education and research, with expertise in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery.
About BWH
