Education Programs
The Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care strives to incorporate its core mission of education into all aspects of its work. In clinical programs, students, residents and fellows care for patients as part of an interprofessional team in partnership with faculty and staff. The Musculoskeletal Institute at UT Health Austin, Dell Medical School’s clinical practice, provides trainees and health care professionals with the opportunity to learn about value-based care through hands-on participation in integrated practice units. The team continuously studies and improves the outcomes of its patient care, teaching trainees how to set up learning health systems through involvement in research projects and other scholarly work.
The department’s education programs offer innovative training infused with the elements of Dell Med’s mission and vision, including a focus on leadership, teamwork, care transformation and the pursuit of outcomes that matter most to patients. As associate chair for education, Kimberly Brown, M.D., FACS, leads this work.
Undergraduate Medical Education
The school’s medical students spend at least 12 weeks of their required clinical experiences as part of care teams in the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, integrating skills in medical knowledge, leadership, communication and value-based care. The department also offers a variety of specialty electives for Dell Med students and visiting medical students as well as sub-internships.
Surgery Clerkship
Students spend eight weeks of their second year learning about the care of the surgical patient through a combination of hands-on patient care, interactive instruction and simulation-based training workshops. Students rotate for four weeks with the Division of Acute Care Surgery team at Dell Seton Medical Center and four weeks with a team they choose based on their interests: general surgery, surgical oncology, pediatric surgery, vascular surgery or pediatric congenital heart surgery. Kimberly Brown, M.D., FACS, serves as clerkship director alongside associate clerkship director Jayson Aydelotte, M.D., FACS.
Emergency Medicine Clerkship
Students spend four weeks participating in emergency medicine teams at several hospitals in Austin. This experience provides unique learning opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of conditions. The curriculum also includes interactive instruction and simulation-based training in skills such as starting an IV, splinting, managing an airway emergency and suturing a laceration. Sara Scott, M.D., serves as clerkship director alongside associate clerkship director Suneet Singh, M.D., FACEP.
Two-Week Electives
The Dell Med curriculum includes two-week experiences dedicated to career exploration in the second and fourth years. Students can choose rotations in a variety of specialties to help them decide which specialty they wish to pursue. Charles Osterberg, M.D., directs the elective program.
- Anesthesia (Director: Garrett Scales Jr., M.D.)
- Musculoskeletal Institute IPU (Director: Mark Queralt, M.D.)
- Neurosurgery (Director: Ramsey Ashour, M.D.)
- Orthopaedic Surgery (Director: David Laverty, M.D.)
- Otolaryngology (Director: Jeffrey Kahn, M.D.)
- Plastic Surgery (Director: Steven Henry, M.D., FACS)
- Subspecialty Community Surgery (Director: Charles Osterberg, M.D.)
- Urology (Director: Charles Osterberg, M.D.)
Acting Internships and Four-Week Electives
By facilitating acting internships and electives, the department helps medical students prepare for their next steps. Acting internships allow students to experience life as a resident in a particular field. Electives allow students to learn more about a specific area of medicine or surgery while spending time in the residency programs they are considering. The department encourages students who may apply to its graduate medical education programs to spend a month with Dell Med on an acting internship or elective.
- Anesthesiology (Director: Garrett Scales Jr., M.D.)
- Congenital Heart Surgery (Director: Ziv Beckerman, M.D.)
- Neurosurgery (Director: Ramsey Ashour, M.D.)
- Otolaryngology (Director: Jeffrey Kahn, M.D.)
- Pediatric Surgery (Director: Tory Meyer, M.D., FACS)
- Pediatric Neurosurgery
- Plastic Surgery (Director: Steven Henry, M.D., FACS)
- Urology (Director: Charles Osterberg, M.D.
- Acute Care General Surgery (Director: Jayson Aydelotte, M.D., FACS)
- Emergency Medicine (Director: Oliver Fannin, M.D., FACEP)
- General Surgery (Director: John Uecker, M.D., FACS)
- Orthopaedic Surgery (Director: David Laverty, M.D.)
- Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery (Director: Catherine Sargent, M.D.)
- Surgical Oncology (Director: Kimberly Brown, M.D., FACS)
Research Internship and Fellowship
The Value-Based Health Care Summer Research Internship provides an accepted or currently enrolled medical student with experience working closely with leading department faculty on clinical and/or health services research projects. Additionally, the Orthopaedic Value-Based Health Care Fellowship gives medical students an opportunity to learn about and investigate topics relevant to value-based health care payment and delivery models through firsthand exposure to the Musculoskeletal Institute at UT Health Austin.
Visiting Students
Fourth-year medical students from Liaison Committee on Medical Education– or American Osteopathic Association–accredited institutions are eligible to complete a visiting student learning opportunity.
Graduate Medical Education
The Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care offers three residency programs and two fellowships. Residency programs include Emergency Medicine, General Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery. Fellowships include Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery, EMS, Orthopaedic Surgery and Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
The Surgery Residency is part of the school’s Distinction Program for Care Transformation. All three programs participate in a leadership curriculum led by Anthony Johnson, M.D., program director of the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency.
Continuing Medical Education
The Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care hosts clinical conferences in several areas: cardiovascular surgery, emergency medicine, endocrine, general surgery, hand, trauma and urology. Conferences are multidisciplinary, evidence-based and open to all providers in the Central Texas area.
Immersion Program in Value-Based Health Care
The Musculoskeletal Institute invites health care professionals — including providers, payers, business managers and more — to learn firsthand how to design and implement value-based care models within their own organizations. Participants in the two-day program, which also offers CME credit, have the opportunity to meet the institute’s providers and business leaders, interact with clinical and operational representatives from leading institutions across the country and learn how to create their own value-based health care models.