Program Director's Message

As the Program Director of General Surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, I would like the prospective applicant to know that we feel our program is unique and exciting in several aspects. First, and foremost, we place a great emphasis on resident education. Our educational program involves multiple approaches: small group didactic sessions, attending rounds, a regular lecture series, weekly multidisciplinary conferences, journal club, preoperative conference, oral board exam review, and a bimonthly quiz based on selected assigned reading. The educational value of our surgery program is highlighted by a publication in the Archives of Surgery, which demonstrated that our categorical residents averaged a national percentile at the 75^th percentile on the ABSITE. The most recent 5- year pass rate for our graduating residents on the American Board of Surgery qualifying (written) examination is 96% and for the certifying (oral) examinations is a 100%, which places us among the top 5% of programs in the country. Our hospital is a UCLA-affiliated County institution. It is also the second busiest one of only a few Level I Trauma Centers in Los Angeles County. All our faculty are appointed by the UCLA School of Medicine. This combination provides the resident a rich opportunity to treat a vast number of general surgical problems as well as see a large number of challenging trauma cases. The County hospital environment provides appropriate autonomy under the supervision of academic faculty, one of whom is always in-house on call. This experience allows the resident to graduate feeling competent to take on complex general surgical problems. Our program is growing. Over the past four years, we have added six new Faculty members: Dr. Joe Chauvapun to the Division of Vascular Surgery, Dr. Christine Dauphine to the Division of GI-Oncology and Breast Surgery, Dr. Puneet Dhawan to the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Drs. David Rosing, Angela Neville and Timothy Van Natta to the Division of Trauma and Critical Care. A few years ago, we created new rotations that have been popular and productive. At the intern level, we added a surgical ICU rotation. At the PGY 2 level, we added a Pediatric Surgery rotation at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, a Breast Surgery rotation, and a Trauma/Emergency Surgery rotation. Kaiser Permanente Medical Foundation, in Harbor City, has been one of the favorite rotations for our residents as it provides them with exposure to community practice with high volume surgery. We have expanded our affiliation with Kaiser, so that our residents now rotate there in years 2, 3, and 4. These rotational changes have come about as we have shifted our philosophy to giving junior residents earlier and greater operative experience as well as increased critical care responsibilities. These changes have paid dividends.  Our categorical interns finish with 50-75 major cases, and by the end of the R2 year, most residents have over 250 major cases as primary surgeon.  And, our chief residents graduate with an average of 1100 cases each (national average is 900 cases). In addition, the chief residents graduate above the 90^th percentile with respect to teaching assistant cases.  Our special combination of excellent hands-on training and research experience for residents has translated into great success in placing our chief residents into top-notch fellowships. Over the last six years, two-thirds of our chief residents have gone on to fellowship training (including Pediatric Surgery, Vascular, Colorectal, Surgical Oncology, Transplant, Laparoscopic, Cardiothoracic, and Plastic Surgery). Nearly 25% have gone on to academic careers. These figures are a reflection of the high quality of our residents as well as the excellent training they receive from our dedicated faculty.  Finally, we have had two site visits during my tenure as Program Director (most recently in December 2004). I am pleased to report that at both site visits we were granted a full 5-year accreditation, the maximum bestowed by the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Surgery. At the last site visit, the program was given a commendation by the RRC. As a former Harbor-UCLA resident, I take particular pride in our Program and have a strongly vested interest in maintaining a high standard of excellence. – Christian de Virgilio, M.D.

Christian de Virgilio, MD
Vice Chair, Surgery Education
Director, General Surgery Residency Program, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Professor of Surgery, UCLA School of Medicine
Phone (310) 222-2700 

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