UPMC Horizon's General Surgery residency program was approved by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) in 1973, making it one of the oldest Osteopathic residency training programs in the country. The program as of 2019 has transitioned to ACGME accreditation and is approved for 2 residents per year.
General Surgery residents are based out of UPMC Jameson, a rapidly expanding community hospital located in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Residents also cover UPMC Horizon Shenango Valley campus, located about 20 minutes north in Farrell, Pennsylvania.
Throughout their residency training, residents will be exposed to and work closely with subspeciality services at UPMC Presbyterian, Montefiore, and Hamot, tertiary care facilities all within an hour from UPMC Jameson.
General Surgery residents will interact with residents from UPMC Horizon’s Family Medicine residency program, who rotate on the surgical service as part of their education and also provide care to mutual patients at UPMC Horizon Shenango Valley campus.
Early and frequent operative exposure is an advantage provided by the training program at UPMC Horizon. Experience with open, laparoscopic, robotic assisted, and endovascular cases begins in intern year. The program implemented a technical competence evaluation of PGY3 to PGY5 residents. The program director and surgical faculty observe the resident operating during either laparoscopic or open general surgery cases. The evaluating faculty member would be an observer and not the attending surgeon for the surgical case. This random, real time evaluation has been created to assess ongoing development, technical competence, operative decision making, and overall progress of the general surgery resident.
Formal education is provided through:
General Surgery residents at UPMC Horizon enjoy and benefit from the small and close-knit environment among residents and faculty. This in combination with access to world-class tertiary care facilities has consistently proven to deliver a high-quality training program with excellent fellowship matches and work opportunities. Our graduates seeking general surgery positions are often recruited to practices across the country. Those residents whom do not go on to community based general surgery have been successful in acquiring the fellowship of their choice including Trauma/Acute Care Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Breast Surgery, Minimally Invasive/Bariatric Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and Cardiothoracic Surgery.
The intern year provides incoming residents with a solid introduction to the breadth and diversity of surgery. The requirement, as outlined below, can be fulfilled at the base hospitals, UPMC Jameson and UPMC Horizon, with the following exceptions: three months of out-of-house rotations in the ICU/CCU at UPMC Presbyterian, Burn/General Surgery at UPMC Mercy, as well as pediatric surgery at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Rotations typically involve possibly one or two other senior residents, along with an attending physician and possibly a medical student. This allows our residents to receive one-on-one ratio training.
UPMC Horizon provides PGY 1 resident Central Venous Catheter Placement Training and Certification by attending the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education & Research (“WISER” Institute) located in Pittsburgh which is the comprehensive, technologically advanced simulation lab for all University of Pittsburgh Medical Center trainees. All residents are required to complete and maintain ATLS, BLS and ACLS certifications throughout residency. BLS and ACLS are provided at UPMC Horizon and UPMC Jameson’s Education Departments. ATLS courses are provided through UPMC according to the standards established by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and this course is usually held at UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Hospital. Residents have access to a patient simulator (“Sim Man”) located in the Education Department at UPMC Horizon’s Greenville Campus.
By the end of first year, residents must demonstrate procedural competences in central venous access placement, arterial catheterization, insertion of pleural and other pigtail catheters, insertion of chest tubes, endotracheal intubations cystoscopy, EGD, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy.
A resident’s call schedule typically includes one weekend day and/or night and one month of night float.
First Year Rotations
PGY-2 residents who demonstrate good performance may be given responsibility for independent judgment and surgical decision-making with continued attending supervision. The PGY2 resident is responsible for day-to-day care of surgical patients on their assigned service and patients they follow as consultants. They will be supervised at all times by senior residents and faculty. The major goal of the second year of residency is to allow graded responsibility for patient care, including instruction in pre- and postoperative care, and the evaluation and management of patients seen in consultation. The PGY-2 will gain additional valuable experience in the operating room both as an assistant and as the primary surgeon on uncomplicated surgeries.
PGY-2 residents rotate for four weeks within the transplant intensive care unit (TICU) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Montefiore hospital which is part of UPMC General Surgery Presbyterian Shadyside. The residents will have a robust exposure to transplantation of abdominal organ patients.
A resident's call schedule continues to be 1-2 weekend days per month (call from home). This schedule may vary month-to-month, depending on the out-of-house rotation schedule and vacations.
Second Year Rotations
By the third year, residents may be given more responsibility for evaluating surgical patients in the emergency room, initiating preoperative treatment and arranging for further surgical care. In addition, PGY 3 residents are more involved with the technical aspects of the surgery in the operating room. The goal for the PGY-3 residents is to expose them to some of the more complex aspects of clinical surgery and to develop the clinical judgment necessary to decide who needs an operation, what operation, and the appropriate timing. PGY-3 residents are expected to master basic surgical techniques as well as more advanced techniques including laparoscopic skills, burn management and completion of FES and FLS examinations no later than the end of the PGY-3 year. Leadership and supervisory skills are further developed.
Third Year Rotations
Other Third Year Experiences
The last two years of clinical training are designed to provide residents with an extensive operative experience. The PG-4 and PG-5 residents are the team leaders (chief residents) and under the supervision of the faculty they supervise junior residents and make decisions about patient care. They perform complex operations under the supervision of the faculty. These senior residents are expected to exercise increasing degrees of independent responsibility for surgical decision-making and perform more advanced surgical procedures, while attending surgeons monitor their progress and continue to supervise the service. Senior residents are allowed and encouraged to exercise independent surgical judgment to the degree that is consistent with good patient care. The goal of these two years is to transition the individual from a resident to an independently practicing surgeon.
Fourth Year Rotations
Other Fourth Year Experiences
Mock oral boards are held yearly in order for residents to assess their progress and enable them to set learning and improvement goals. The simulation is consistent with oral board’s case scenarios, and residents are graded on their responses. Immediately following the testing process each resident receives a detailed critique of his/her responses to help identify areas of strengths and weaknesses as well as to assess critical thinking expected for their training year. Residents then develop action plans to improve their identified weaknesses and this method of life-long learning is reinforced throughout their training. In addition, all PGY 4 & PGY 5 residents participate in the Western Pennsylvania Area general surgery mock oral boards. These mock board participants consist of teaching faculty and residents from the region’s general surgical residency programs. Both the local and regional mock boards are designed to simulate the actual oral board process to help acclimate residents to this testing environment and expectations as well as to learn successful, test-taking strategies. Examiner evaluations are discussed with each resident at the completion of testing to maximize learning potential from case management errors.
Other Fifth Year Experiences
The second- through fifth-year curriculum offers more surgery rotations, along with the required rotations by the ACGME, in order to achieve a greater educational experience in general surgery.
The continuity training experience, within the continuity of care surgical clinic, provides the resident with a training environment equivalent to that of a private practice. The continuity of care clinic is conducted by several surgical physicians who have a lifetime of experience to share with each resident.
Residents spend one half-day per week in the surgical clinic during their PGY-1 and two half-days per month PGY-2 through PGY-5 training years. In the outpatient clinical setting the residents are directly exposed to socioeconomic and cultural diversity among the patient population. The resident becomes familiar with the differing cultural and family dynamics that affect surgical healthcare delivery and how to deal with each scenario. During their pre-operative evaluation, the surgical resident will gain experiential learning in developing both non-operative and operative plans. During the post-operative care of the patient, the resident will be responsible for medication adjustments, pain management, wound/incision care, drain management, scheduling follow up appointments/care, and order any pertinent lab/radiographic studies.
Alexandra Drymon, DO, MHSAMedical School: LECOM-Bradenton
Hometown: Sarasota, FL
Clinical interests: Rural general surgery
Jorge Lara-Gutierrez, MDMedical School: Universidad Veracruzana
Fellowship: Advance Clinical Simulation Fellow, Pittsburgh VA Medical Center
Hometown: Veracruz, Mexico
Clinical interests: Vascular surgery
Andrei Gritsiuta, MD, PhDMedical School: Lomonosov Moscow State University
Fellowship: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
Hometown: Moscow, Russia
Clinical interests: Cardiothoracic surgery
Adnan Hassoune, MDMedical School: American University of Beirut
Hometown: Beirut, Lebanon
Clinical interests: Vascular surgery
Leslie Elmore, DOMedical School: West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Hometown: Hot Springs, SD
Clinical interests: Plastics and reconstructive surgery
Khaled Abdul Jawad, MDMedical School: American University of Beirut
Hometown: Saida, Lebanon
Clinical interests: Trauma & critical care
Jeremy Santarelli, MDMedical School: American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine
Hometown: Linesville, PA
Clinical interests: Trauma & critical care
Emilie Fromm, DOMedical School: Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Internship: Cleveland Clinic Akron General
Hometown: Omaha, NE
Clinical interests: Surgical oncology
Medical School: University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine
Hometown: Baghdad, Iraq
Clinical interests: Plastics and reconstructive surgery
Medical School: American University of Beirut
Hometown: Beirut, Lebanon
Clinical interests: Minimally invasive surgery
Jon Henwood, D.O.
Program Director
Vascular and General Surgery
Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery UPMC
Christopher Esper, D.O.
Associate Program Director
Vascular and General Surgery
Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery UPMC
Clinical Adjunct Professor of Surgery LECOM
Christopher Myers, M.D.
General, Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery
Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery UPMC
William Gilleland, M.D.
General and Minimally Invasive Surgery
Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery UPMC
Matthew Sturdivant, D.O.
Trauma & Surgical Critical Care
Christiana Care Hospital; Wilmington, DE
Tijani Osumah, M.D.
Colorectal Surgery
Ascension Providence/MSUCHM; Southfield, MI
Patrick Downs, D.O.
Vascular Surgery
University of Toledo; Toledo, OH
Karisa Beebe, D.O.
Breast Oncology
Christiana Care Hospital; Wilmington, DE
Ryan Enders, D.O.
Private Practice
North Oaks Medical Center; Hammond, LA
Kristin Kennedy, D.O.
Surgical Critical Care/Trauma
Massachusetts General Hospital; Boston, MA
John Muhonen II, D.O.
Vascular Surgery
University of Iowa; Iowa City, IA
Sarah Brown, D.O.
Vascular Surgery
West Virginia University; Morgantown, WV
Nicki Downes, D.O.
Breast Oncology
Cleveland Clinic Akron General; Akron, OH
Michael Morrison, D.O.
General Surgery
The US Army
Emily Zayshlyy, D.O.
Surgical Critical Care
Christiana Hospital; Wilmington, DE
Benjamin Raymond, D.O.
Private Practice
United Hospital Center; Bridgeport, WV
Derek Polecritti, D.O.
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Mercy Hospital; Des Moines, IA
Marc Campbell, D.O.
Surgical Critical Care/Trauma
University of Tennessee; Knoxville TN
Melissa Loveranes, D.O.
Surgical Critical Care/Trauma
University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, PA
Tracy McCoy, D.O.
Private Practice
Phelps Health Medical Group; Waynesville, MO
Nicole Geissen, D.O.
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Rush University; Chicago, IL
Gregory Clabeaux, D.O.
Vascular Surgery
University of Buffalo; Buffalo, NY
Lee Farber, D.O.
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Baystate Medical Center, Tufts University; Springfield, MA
Stephen Bayuk, D.O.
Private Practice
Newberry County Memorial Hospital; Spartanburg, SC
Ralph Kelley, D.O.
Trauma & Surgical Critical Care
University of Nevada; Reno, NV
Marc Polecritti, D.O.
Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Cleveland Clinic Health System; Warrensville Heights, OH
Christopher Esper, D.O.
Vascular Surgery
Cleveland Clinic Health Systems; Warrensville Heights, OH
Danielle Duchini, D.O.
Breast Surgery
The Washington Cancer Institute; Washington D.C.
Jennifer Beatty, D.O.
Private Practice
The Breast Place; North Charleston, SC
Brock Generalovich, D.O.
Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Cleveland Clinic Health Systems; Warrensville Heights, OH
Armando Sciullo, D.O.
Private Practice
Grove City Medical Center; Grove City, PA
Erik Branstetter, D.O.
Private Practice
Mitchell County Regional Health Center; Osage, IA
A variety of options are available for audition rotations:
Applications to set up an audition or shadowing experience will be accepted starting February 1st. Please contact the UPMC Horizon Graduate Medical Education office via email at shermanpj@upmc.edu with your completed form.
In the meantime, please complete the paperwork on the Medical Student Orientation page.
If you wish to shadow, please complete the paperwork on the Job Shadow page and email to shermanpj@upmc.edu.
The General Surgery residency program at UPMC Horizon is approved for two categorical residents per year for five clinical years.
All applications are handled through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).
Completed Application Includes:
We do not have a minimum USMLE/COMLEX score requirement, but all scores must be passing.
All international medical school graduates must hold a current and valid ECFMG certificate in order for their application to be considered complete. The preferred visa for training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Medical Education Program is the J-1 visa sponsored through the ECFMG for residency/fellowship training.
The Interview day will begin on Fridays around 8 a.m. with applicants participating in a portion of the core didactic lectures followed by a tour of the hospital. The applicants will have lunch with the Program Director, faculty, and residents, followed by individual interviews (20 minutes per panel interview) with a faculty panel. The interview day will end with an optional dinner at a local restaurant around 6pm with members of the faculty and General Surgery residents.
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