Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency Program

The two year Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency Program at the University of Rochester is a mixture of both didactic and clinical service educational experiences, to ensure that our graduates are intellectually capable, and technically and emotionally mature surgeons.

First Year Level – Each R6 CT resident will have a 4 month rotation on one of three separate surgical services which include: a) Adult Cardiac A (Drs. Hicks, Massey, Alfieris and Gangemi). On this service there is an emphasis on valvular operations, myocardial revascularizations, thoracic aortic operations, heart transplantation and implantation of ventricular assist devices, endovascular surgery and the treatment of congenital heart disease including neonates and adults. b) Adult Cardiac B (Dr. Knight). On this service there is special emphasis on off pump coronary surgery, valvular operations and endovascular surgery. c) Thoracic/Foregut Surgery (Drs. Peters, Watson, Jones and Raymond). This service includes significant exposure to operations for esophageal cancer, as well as the surgical treatment of reflux disorders & all forms of pulmonary diseases.

Second Year Level – Each R7 CT (Chief) resident will be assigned to the same three services through which they rotated during the first year of their training. There are never two cardiothoracic residents on the same service. The R6 and R7 CT residents will have senior responsibility for the day-to-day care of patients and families on the service to which they are assigned. However, a resident may be asked to provide coverage on another CT service and be assigned to cover operations which do not conflict with their responsibilities to their primary service and which provide unusual educational value or operative experience.

DUTY HOURS - To ensure that residents are not required to perform excessive prolong periods of duty, the State of New York and ACGME have mandated an 80 hour limit on in-hospital work hours. To accomplish this, a home beeper schedule for coverage of night and weekend emergencies has been established. Following stabilization of patients on the floor or in the ICU, the resident will be on beeper call at home.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sat/Sun
CT B* CT A* R3* CT B* CT A* CT B*
CT A* CT B* R3* CT A* CT B* CT A*

Each resident covers 1–2 weekends per month.

Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency

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