Newswise — Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine has received initial accreditation from the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for University-sponsored residency programs in general surgery and emergency medicine, in collaboration with its member teaching hospitals in the FAU College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education (GME) Consortium.
The six-year general surgery training program is based at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, the primary site for the program, as well as Bethesda Hospital East, and Tenet HealthCare System’s Delray Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center. The three-year emergency medicine training program is based at Bethesda Hospital East, the primary site for the program, as well as St. Mary’s Medical Center and Delray Medical Center. All five hospitals are member teaching hospitals in the FAU College of Medicine GME Consortium.
FAU’s general surgery program has been approved for a total of 45 clinical positions and up to seven positions for a unique value-added year of scholarship and research, making this program one of the largest in the nation. FAU’s College of Medicine also has formed a new Department of Surgery that includes more than 240 affiliated, full-time and part-time faculty. It will serve as the academic home for undergraduate and graduate medical education in surgery, and aims to build state-of-the-art research programs that will contribute to the regional and national reputation of FAU and its College of Medicine.
Surgical specialties within the department include general surgery and its various established subspecialties, as well as orthopedics, neurosurgery, urology, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, among others.
FAU’s emergency medicine residency program has been approved for a total of 18 positions, with the first class of six residents matching in 2017. Resident rotations in the program will include emergency medicine, trauma, medical ICU, surgical ICU, pediatric ICU, and anesthesia.
“Together with our outstanding hospital partners in the GME Consortium we are fulfilling our commitment to ensure that we continue to have a strong physician workforce and an enhanced health care delivery system in this region,” said Arthur J. Ross, III, M.D., M.B.A., interim dean and professor of FAU’s College of Medicine. “We are proud of our medical school’s residency program leadership team and our hospital partners for this landmark accomplishment for our community.”
New research on the looming physician shortage was recently released by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and reveals that within the next decade, the United States will face a shortage of physicians ranging between 61,700 and 94,700, with a significant shortage showing among many surgical specialties.
“Our new program will provide an outstanding surgical education and experience for residents and will enable them to work alongside top surgeons in this region on a variety of emergent and elective cases ranging from colorectal to cancer to minimally invasive, trauma and vascular surgeries,” said Thomas Genuit, M.D., M.B.A., inaugural chair of FAU’s Department of Surgery and inaugural program director for FAU’s residency program in general surgery, who was instrumental in establishing the new department and residency program at FAU. “The program and FAU’s graduate medical education efforts will help to elevate the level of care for all patients.”
At this time, the surgery program resident selection committee has already reviewed more than 100 residency candidate applications and has interviewed more than 40 highly qualified candidates. Fifteen of the top candidates will be selected to fill the initial residency positions which will begin on July 1.
According to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), emergency care physicians care for nearly 130 million patients each year, and emergency visit rates have increased at twice the rate of growth of the U.S. population from 1997 to 2007.
“We are committed to building a premier academic emergency medicine program in southern Florida,” said Richard D. Shih, M.D., a professor of clinical biomedical science in FAU’s College of Medicine and inaugural program director of FAU’s emergency medicine residency program. “Our program will focus not only on producing excellent emergency medicine clinicians, but also on producing academic leaders in this field.”
In fall 2011, the FAU College of Medicine GME Consortium was formed in partnership with FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Bethesda Hospital East, and Tenet HealthCare system’s Delray Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center to establish residency programs in specialties that would serve their communities.
“The addition of our newest residency programs is an important milestone for our University, our hospital partners, and especially for the patients who will benefit from these programs,” said Lee A. Learman, M.D., Ph.D., senior associate dean for graduate medical education and academic affairs, and designated institutional officer.
“Increasing residency positions is critical to ensuring that we attract and retain physicians in Florida to address our growing and aging population needs in the state. With these new programs and other GME efforts, FAU is going to be a key contributor to the effort of securing the availability of high quality physicians in Florida for the future.”
FAU’s first University-sponsored residency in internal medicine commenced with the first class of 36 residents in July 2014, and will bring a total of 96 physicians to FAU. Additional residencies in various specialties will follow as community needs suggest.
Hospital members of the FAU College of Medicine GME Consortium are Bethesda Hospital East (Roger Kirk, president and CEO and Albert Biehl, M.D., vice president of medical affairs); Boca Raton Regional Hospital (Jerry Fedele, president and CEO and Charles Posternack, M.D., chief medical officer); Delray Medical Center (Mark Bryan, CEO and Anthony Dardano, M.D., vice president of academic affairs); St. Mary’s Medical Center (Gabrielle Finley-Hazle, CEO and Jeffrey Davis, D.O., administrative director of graduate medical education) and West Boca Medical Center (Mitch Feldman, CEO and Jack Harari, M.D., chief medical officer).
– FAU –
About Florida Atlantic University:Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
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