Clinics

Any patient evaluated in a surgery outpatient clinic by a fellow will have an attending identified as the surgeon responsible for that evaluation and continuing care.

Outpatient Clinics:

• General Surgery Clinic: UIC twice a week
• Bariatric Surgery Clinic: UIC twice a week
• Little Company of Mary Hospital: once a week

Emergency Room

Fellows alternate on the call schedule and are responsible for providing primary care. Their work is supervised by the attending staff by telephone discussion or in person, as needed.  Our service will be on call an average of 7 days per month. Our service will also be the “attending of the week” one week per month. The “attending of the week” will cover all the emergency cases from 8 am to 5 pm that particular week.

Operating Room

The fellow will learn how to safely carry out advanced GI surgical operations by first assisting, and then as the primary surgeon being assisted by the faculties. The fellow will be taught the fundamentals of flexible endoscopy. The fellow will also learn how to design and implement new curricula for teaching advanced GI surgery, as well as how to test for and assess competency of learning new technical skills. The latter skills will be learned by interacting with faculty in both the Department of Surgery and Department of Medical Education as we develop the new teaching curriculum.

Procedures most commonly performed:

• Adrenal Gland Surgery:
  • Adrenalectomy
• Esphagus Surgery:
  • Diverticula resection
  • Heller Myotomy (for Achalasia)
  • Nissen fundoplication (GERD, Hiatal Hernia)
  • Radical esophagectomy for cancer
  • Paraesophageal hernia repair
• Hepatobillary Surgery:
  • Major Hepatectomy (left and right)
  • Segmentectomy
  • Wedge resections
  • Cholecystectomy
  • Choledocolitotomy
  • Bile duct bypass
  • Resection of choledocal cysts
• Hernia Surgery:
  • Ventral Incisional Hernia repair
  • Inguinal hernia repair
  • Complex abdominal wall reconstruction
• Pancreas Surgery:
  • Proximal pancreatectomy (Whipple operation and Longmire)
  • Central Pancreatectomy
  • Distal splenopancreatectomy
  • Distal pancreatecomy with spleen preservation
  • Total Pancreatectomy
  • Pseudocystgastrostomy
  • Pseudocystjejunostomy
  • Pseudocystduodenostomy
• Spleen Surgery:
  • Splenectomy
  • Hemisplenectomy
• Stomach Surgery:
  • Total and subtotal gastrectomy for cancer
  • Gastric Resection
  • Wedge Resection
  • Gastric Bypass
• Small Bowel Surgery:
  • Segmental resections (chron cancer)
  • Stricturoplasty
• Weight Loss Program:
  • Lap Band
  • Sleeve Gastrectomy
  • Roux-en y Gastric Bypass
  • Revisional bariatric surgery
  • Endoscopic procedures for weight loss

In collaboration with other Divisions:

• Thoracic Surgery:
  • Lung Resection
  • Lobectomy with lymphadenectomy for cancer
  • Pneumonectomy
• Vascular Surgery:
  • Visceral Aneurism resection with reconstruction
  • Vascular bypasses
• Gynecologic Surgery:
  • Hysterectomy
  • Salpingo-Oophrectomy
• Colorectal Surgery:
  • Right colectomy
  • Left colectomy
  • Sigmoidectomy
  • Anterior rectal resection
  • Proctopexys
  • Miles procedures

Research

Large research facilities are available at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There is a Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery laboratory at the University of Illinois for training fellows, residents, and students in the techniques of minimally invasive and robotic surgery.

With the increased number of funds and the presence of additional research fellows, several projects are currently ongoing. The fellows are encouraged to participate in the research. Each fellow, for the past several years, has finished at least 5 research projects, has prepared their abstract and presented the papers at local, national, and international meetings.

An average of 8-10 papers and abstracts are published yearly by the attending staff and fellows of our Division.

Teaching

The fellow will learn advanced operative techniques in the laboratory under direct tutelage by the attending surgeons.

Teaching of the residents by the attending staff includes:

• Informal clinical teaching in the clinics, the ER, operating room, and wards
• Conferences (weekly) including:
• Weekly Department of Surgery Grand Rounds
• Bi-monthly M & M Conference
• Research Meetings
• Journal Club
• Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery Laboratory
• Library with an extensive selection of books, journals, videotapes, CDs, and DVDs.

Students

Third-year medical students rotate through our service during their surgical clerkship. Our Division offers an elective clerkship of a minimum of 4 weeks to fourth-year medical students, or equivalent level from other institutions and other countries.

Residents and fellows participate actively in the training of medical students.

Teaching Obligations of the Fellows

One of the important components of this fellowship is to learn how to teach. One of the goals of our new surgical education laboratory is to teach future surgeons how to teach effectively and efficiently. We intend to develop and study a new curriculum for teaching academic surgeons how to teach surgical skills to surgical residents. In this regard, the advanced GI surgery fellow will become intimately involved in this process of learning how to teach. We expect that the fellow will learn from Faculty in the Departments of Surgery and Medical Education and then teach these skills, in part, to surgical residents and students.

The fellow will be expected to teach surgical residents, medical students, and operating room staff fundamental techniques in surgery in the laboratory and in the operating room. The fellow will lecture students in the surgical rotation and residents in general surgery on select topics in advanced GI surgery. The fellow will be expected to attend and participate in all didactic teaching conferences in the Department of Surgery such as Department of Surgery Grand Rounds and M&M conference, as well as to discuss cases in the weekly conjoint GI/Surgery conference, and to present at the monthly x-ray rounds. The fellow will run the teaching basic surgical skills lab for residents scheduled every month on Saturday at 9 am.

Meetings

Each fellow is supported to attend two major Surgery Symposiums per year. Opportunities are frequently provided to attend smaller local or regional meetings as well.

Fellows are encouraged to prepare and submit papers for presentation at meetings at the local, regional, national, and international levels. In keeping with the policy of the Department of Surgery at the University of Illinois, fellows are allowed time and funding to attend such a meeting, if the submitted paper is accepted for presentation.

Evaluation Plan

Goals and expectations of this fellowship will be described in detail to the fellow. These criteria will be used as the basis for biannual evaluations performed by the Director and Co-Director of the Program.

Fellows are evaluated by all attending surgeons involved in the fellowship training program. All 6 categories of competence, including patient care, medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, practice-based learning and improvement, professionalism, and systems-based practice will be evaluated. The fellow will also evaluate faculty every 6 months.

Evaluations are paper-based and will be discussed in an open fashion.