The Division of Vascular Surgery in the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care is committed to a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to patient care, research and education encompassing all aspects of vascular disease management.
Its mission is to create an environment that allows, guides and supports patients to choose their preferred treatment pathway to restore and maintain their health — all with the capacity to provide care at the highest level while leveraging technological and scientific advances.
The Division of Vascular Surgery was built upon the foundational principles of health care delivery transformation, and it emphasizes patient care that is:
- Centered on the individual and the community, and
- Aims at health promotion, restoration and maintenance.
The success of the division stems from its commitment to these principles and its position within an innovative medical school at a top-tier research university. Additionally, the division’s ongoing research has contributed extraordinary academic and clinical progress, gaining recognition worldwide.
Educational Programs
Division faculty contribute to the department’s educational mission through the following offerings.
Undergraduate Medical Education
Fourth-year Dell Med students have the option to complete a four-week clinical rotation that offers the opportunity of experiencing vascular surgery as a specialty. Students become fully integrated to the vascular service routine and participate in the whole spectrum of the divisional activities, both at outpatient and inpatient settings.
The division offers an opportunity for an acting internship in vascular surgery for fourth-year Dell Med students preparing to enter residency. During the four-week rotation, students are expected to increase responsibility as a member of the vascular surgery team for the entire rotation.
Students have the same responsibilities and duties as an intern or first-year house officer, with activities and responsibilities covering all aspects of vascular care — including seeing patients in clinics, participating in open surgical and endovascular procedures, following patients postoperatively and seeing patients in consultations at the emergency department.
Students in the acting internship program are also expected to assist in teaching, coaching and giving feedback to the surgical clerkship medical students.
Fourth-year medical students from Liaison on Committee on Medical Education or American Osteopathic Association-accredited institutions are eligible to apply for the acting internship in vascular surgery.
Division faculty participate in the Dell Medical School Specialty Advisor Program, which is a Dell Med institutional initiative that provides structured coaching to medical students as they consider their graduate medical education options, offering specialty specific mentorship tailored to improve satisfaction with career choices and to enhance competitiveness for residency match.
Graduate Medical Education
The division provides core rotations for residents in Dell Med’s General Surgery Residency and Orthopedic Surgery Residency. The program’s faculty members are committed to providing residents with the skills needed to foster all surgical and non-surgical elements of vascular care.
Education is provided longitudinally, including exposure to patient care in inpatient as well as outpatient environments, where residents are presented with value-based, patient-centered health care delivery concepts in the context of a wide variety of vascular diseases.
Surgical education is enhanced by recurring sessions in the skills lab and active participation in open, endovascular and hybrid procedures, where residents receive dedicated instruction about indication and utilization strategies of a wide range of medical devices used in reconstructive vascular surgery.
During their vascular surgery rotation, residents are also educated about strategies to pursue and maintain an ethical relationship with the medical devices industry throughout their careers.
Additional Educational Opportunities
Faculty from the division provide mentorship to residents pursuing the Distinction in Care Transformation — the honors component of Dell Med’s signature graduate medical education curriculum — supporting their goal of completing a mentored health systems project in their area of interest. Residents work within the medical school on central institutional initiatives or within other colleges across The University of Texas at Austin campus.
Aligned with the division’s conviction that a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach is essential to achieve high-quality, value-based vascular care, the division believes that the education of physicians caring for vascular patients should be collaborative. Faculty from division actively participate in the recruitment process and education of trainees entering the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship and the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at Dell Med.
Dell Med’s General Surgery Residency offers a surgical transitional year internship for trainees who matched into interventional radiology residency programs across the country. This internship at Dell Med offers trainees the opportunity to participate in the care of vascular patients during their rotations at the vascular surgery division.
Trainees get involved in all aspects of patient care, with emphasis in treatment decision-making that takes into account specific implications of open and endovascular surgery, considering each patient’s health and life goals. Trainees learn pitfalls and potential complications associated with percutaneous endovascular procedures and understand the role of a multidisciplinary approach to these conditions.
Clinical Programs
Surgeons in the Division of Vascular Surgery treat a wide variety of vascular conditions, including limb salvage; dialysis access; vascular trauma; aortic, visceral and peripheral aneurysms; carotid artery disease; thoracic outlet syndrome; and venous disease.
Ascension Texas Cardiovascular is the home to the division’s clinical practice. This clinical enterprise is a multispecialty academic health care network characterized by a multidisciplinary team of experts who provide care for a wide spectrum of vascular conditions, ranging from acute vascular trauma to complex limb salvage in the context of the patient’s overall health and life goals.
Additional Clinical Information
The division plays an important role at the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care by providing support to other surgical specialties performing complex procedures, including tumor resections requiring intricate vascular dissections and/or reconstruction, exposure for spinal instrumentations and emergent surgical rescue for perioperative hemorrhagic complications, using both open surgical and endovascular embolization techniques.
The division uses high-quality vascular imaging support for the diagnosis, characterization and planning the treatment of vascular conditions and to follow the response and progress of treatment delivered. Ascension Texas Cardiovascular houses the only fully Intersocietal Accreditation Commission-credentialed lab in Central Texas, with five registered vascular ultrasound technicians on staff.
The division participates in the Society for Vascular Surgery — Vascular Quality Initiative, which aims to “improve the quality, safety, effectiveness and cost of vascular healthcare by collecting and exchanging information.”
Research
The division is involved in multiple research projects, leveraging national and international collaboration. Its main research areas include value-based considerations for the use of devices and interventions, minimally invasive treatment of traumatic vascular injuries, peripheral arterial disease and limb salvage, and deep vein arterialization. The division also participates in many industry trials, evaluating the application of new technologies and techniques to deliver state-of-the-art care.
The division’s faculty and trainees routinely present their work at annual meetings hosted by major vascular and multispecialty professional societies, with subsequent publications in the highest-ranked surgical journals.
Events
Vascular Surgery Academic Conference
The Division of Vascular Surgery Academic Conference is hosted weekly on Mondays, from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. The division also hosts a monthly journal club dedicated to the review of articles from key vascular surgery publications.
Annual Research Symposium
The Surgery and Perioperative Care Annual Research Symposium provides an opportunity for faculty, residents and students conducting research in or with the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care to present their research and network.
