The Residency Training Program in Otolaryngology within the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine offers the comprehensive five-year residency program with the option for a two-year physician-scientist training program embedded in the residency prior to the final year of training.
The seven-year program is intended to provide those residents who decide to pursue a career as a physician-scientist with the skills necessary to successfully compete for funding to support their career.
The Otolaryngology residency training programs approved by the residency review committee (RRC) of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are five years in length, with the first year of otolaryngology training replacing the traditional surgical internship. As a result, postgraduate year (PGY) number now matches the otolaryngology-training year. In other words, a resident in their first year of training (PGY1), would now be designated as an otolaryngology one resident, whereas a resident in the last year of a traditional five-year training program would be designated as an otolaryngology five resident. This change could result in some confusion when one compares programs, as there may yet be variability in training year designations.
The Otolaryngology Residency Training program at the University of Pittsburgh is approved currently for five individuals each year. This number is derived from the number of surgical cases performed. As the clinical experiences continue to increase at UPMC hospitals, it is possible that this number could increase within the next several years. We continuously re-evaluate our program in order to guarantee excellence in the educational opportunities offered to our residents.
Each year we receive approximately 300 applications. It is impossible for us to interview all 300 applicants, which is why the applications are carefully reviewed in order to select approximately six to eight individuals for each open position. In this way, every individual who is selected for an interview has a real chance of being successfully matched into the Otolaryngology Residency Training program.
Our admissions committee consists of a subset of our faculty representing all of the major divisions of our department. Residency selection is based on outstanding medical student performance as well as the personal interview. We are interested in training residents who come from widely diverse backgrounds and those who express an interest in entering a wide range of practice scenarios. In other words, we select candidates who intend to enter private practice as well as those seeking a full-time academic career.
Applications are available from the central application process. Further details on the application process are available from the National Resident Matching Program.
