Surgical Residency Program

Welcome to the General Surgery Residency Program at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. Our mission is to provide excellent surgical training that will prepare our residents to independently enter private practice, academic practice, or specialty fellowships.

Our program is based out of two community hospitals – Wyckoff Hospital in the heart of Brooklyn and Huntington Hospital on Long Island, which is part of the Northwell Health System. Additionally, our residents complete rotations through many well-known tertiary participating centers such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and Kings County Hospital. There is a strong emphasis on “hands on” experience throughout the five years of training. Our program provides a large volume of diverse cases.

Our General Surgery Residency Program prepares residents for careers across the spectrum of surgery. This preparation is carried out in an environment that facilitates clinical research and fosters the development of life-long learning practices. The focus of training in the General Surgery Residency Program is to prepare surgeons for a surgical practice managing general surgical disorders and diseases occurring in a community with ethnic, socioeconomic, educational, religious, and life-style diversity, like the community of central Brooklyn, New York, where patient inclusion and equity in provision of care avoids disparity of care. Consistent with the mission of the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, the goal is to promote excellent and high-quality care in all facets of healthcare and specifically in surgical practice through prevention and treatment of surgical disorders and diseases in a safe environment.

Faculty consists of full-time academic surgeons and private practitioners who are highly trained and skilled in many of the subspecialties in surgery. They are dedicated to the development of technically competent and well-rounded surgeons with knowledge of the basic general surgical sciences, and with necessary clinical judgment to render comprehensive quality care of the general surgical patient. The general surgical curriculum is designed to cover the core competencies as described by ACGME through didactic encounters, interactive educational activities, operative experience and clinical research in General Surgery. Our graduates are sought out upon completion of their residency training to go on to prestigious fellowships throughout the country.

We welcome residents who share our commitment and dedication to learning.  The general surgery residency is a five-year program accredited by the ACGME. Upon completing our fully accredited five-year general surgery residency, you will be qualified to practice independently and eligible for board certification in General Surgery.

Dr. Leaque Ahmed, MD, FACS
Chairman and Program Director
Department of Surgery

We participate in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). You must submit your application documents electronically via www.aamc.org/eras

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center complies with federal, state, and city laws and orders prohibiting discrimination in employment, including race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, handicap, marital status, or sexual orientation.

The required electronic application documents are as follows:

• Common Application Form
• Curriculum Vitae Report
• Personal Statement
• Medical School Transcript
• Dean's Letter
• 3 Letters of Recommendation
• Medical Student Performance Evaluation (formerly Dean’s letter)
• Photo
• United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Transcripts
• ECFMG Status Report (foreign medical graduates only)

The following list reflects Wyckoff Heights Medical Center’s Surgery Department’s IDEAL applicant:

• Clerkship evaluations of B or higher
• We prefer score of at least 240 in Step 1 and Step 2 on first attempt
• Class standing – preferably in the top 25%
• Letters of Recommendation – Three favorable letters required with the most weight given to letters from surgical attendings
• Research experience/Publications
• Favorable personal interview by panel of surgeons
• MSPE (Medical Student Performance Evaluation)/Dean’s letter
• Post medical school graduation less than five years; candidates with the latest graduation dates will be considered first
• No previous experience is necessary in the U.S. or elsewhere
• We presently have foreign grads in the program
• ECFMG application must be initiated before applying
• Physicians who are not US citizens must have a valid work permit or be eligible for a J-1 visa or H-1 visa

We have 4 categorical positions
COMLEX II – (if available) passed the first time
COMLEX I  – passed on the first attempt with a score of 85 or higher

Preliminary Year Residency
We will not be recruiting preliminary positions for 2022-2023.

Diversity

We are fortunate to attract a diverse group of residents to our program. Training a diverse physician workforce not only helps make our residency stronger, but also ultimately helps the communities for which we provide care.

For the 2022-2023 training year, your completed electronic application must be available to us no later than November 1, 2021. Program director and recruiting team members determine who will be invited to interview. The Department of Surgery will invite selected applicants for interviews.

Interview sessions take place in December 2021.

All of our PGY-1 categorical positions are filled through the National Resident Matching Program.

To apply to our General Surgery track the NRMP code is 1435440C0

CIR Benefits, Contract and Salary Information: https://www.cirseiu.org/cir-member-hospitalswyckoff/#1526918401596-4f608d9d-f7d5

American Board of Surgery Training and Certification Requirements: http://www.absurgery.org/default.jsp?certgsqe_training

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center GME policies: http://moss01-srv/medicaleducation/Administration%20Policy%20%20Procedure/Forms/View.aspx

Eligibility

It is the policy of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center’s Department of Surgery to adhere to the guidelines published by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Eligible applicants will be selected on the basis of preparedness, ability, aptitude, academic credentials, communication skills, motivation, and integrity. Eligible applicants will be selected for the program based upon their previous records and accomplishments.

Foreign Medical Graduates

All graduates of international medical schools must hold a valid certificate issued by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) to be appointed as a resident or fellow. For details, contact ECFMG at info@ecfmg.org or write to

ECFMG
3624 Market St.
Philadelphia PA 19104-2685, USA

We look forward to receiving your application documents electronically.

If you have any questions, please email:

Anna Trzpis
General Surgery Program Coordinator
atrzpis@wyckoffhospital.org

Our Residency Program helps to provide an environment conducive to learning surgical principles during the clerkship. The students will be assigned to day call, night call, operating room, ambulatory surgery, clinic, and wound care. The chief resident is expected to lead morning and afternoon rounds. Medical students should be encouraged to closely follow several patients on the service and provide input into their care. During rounds, the medical students are invited to briefly present the patients and their progress as well as assist in dressing changes. Morning rounds start at 6 AM and are focused and work-related. In the afternoon, every attempt should be made to make rounds between 5-6 PM. Once or twice a week, afternoon rounds should be focused on medical student education. This may include resident or medical student presentations reviewing the latest literature on a specific topic as it relates to the in-patient service.

The surgical curriculum is comprehensive and includes clinical training, didactics. and research. The clinical training program is a “hands-on” experience. Beginning in their internship year, residents participate in preoperative evaluation of patients, operative experience, post-operative care, and follow-up in outpatient clinics. All operative cases as well as outpatient and inpatient care are supervised by attending staff. Residents will gain experience through graded and progressive responsibility while providing safe and effective care to patients. As residents grow in their ability to care for their patients, they will assume a more autonomous role. Each resident’s development of the skill set, knowledge and attitude required to enter the unsupervised practice of medicine will follow. Our curriculum is competency based and inclusive of all required disciplines, in compliance with the ACGME.

• Medical Knowledge
• Patient Care
• Interpersonal and Communication Skills
• Professionalism
• Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
• Systems-Based Practice

Surgical Grand Rounds

This lecture series is presented once a month by distinguished visiting professors invited to give lectures on topics of their expertise. Surgical Grand Rounds serve to familiarize surgical residents with current, state-of-the-art surgical clinical management. These lectures provide the residents with the opportunity to focus on current controversies related to the clinical topics.

Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) Conference

The overall goal of M&M is for residents to learn how to communicate adverse events to colleagues, how best to analyze these events, and how to discuss learning points to prevent similar errors in the future. The M&M conference is held on a weekly basis.

Tumor Board

Tumor Board is a multidisciplinary weekly conference in which the surgical department and residents present cases they are involved in with oncologists devoted to teaching.

Journal Club

The overall goal of the Journal Club is for residents to learn the analytical skills essential for keeping current and practicing evidence-based surgery. This lecture is presented quarterly.

DECKER Curriculum Seminars

Seminars occur on a weekly basis with parallel sessions for the junior and senior levels.

Morning Report

Morning report occurs daily to discuss patient care issues and plans.

Interdisciplinary Team Rounds

Residents participate in daily Interdisciplinary Interdepartmental Team (IDT) meetings with nursing, social work, and physical therapy staff to discuss socioeconomic patient issues, requirement for patient discharge and placement, and patient education. The IDT meeting allows residents to incorporate multiple aspects of the healthcare system to provide optimal healthcare for the patient during their hospital course.

Clinical Documentation Improvement Lectures

This annual lecture reviews the guidelines needed for complete and specific documentation in the medical record and its impact on both the personal physician profile and that of the Hospital.

Surgical Simulation Skills Workshop

This workshop provides formal hands-on training in technical skills with the surgical attending physicians. Residents are able to focus on the complete procedure or specific components and practice as often as necessary. Skills lab simulators provide objective evidence of performance and immediate feedback in individual training.

The general surgery program follows the ACS Simulation Skills curriculum and works with Covidien to provide the residents with the opportunity to participate in cognitive and procedural skills activities. Training is conducted both on and off sites.

In the Surgical Skills Simulation Laboratory, the resident can practice suturing and surgical knot tying, laparoscopic skills, and advanced laparoscopic skills. We also have a laparoscopic simulator for the residents to practice more advanced laparoscopic techniques as well as participate in animal (pig) labs to perfect surgical technique.

Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (aka FLS) 

FLS establishes a standard set of didactic information and manual skills that serves as a curriculum to guide surgical residents in the performance of basic laparoscopic surgery.  By mastering the curriculum and gathering of skills, it is expected that surgical residents and surgeons will initiate and carry out their performance of laparoscopy more effectively, with greater skill, and with lower complication rates.

Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (aka FES) 

FES establishes a standard set of didactic information and manual skills designed to teach and evaluate the fundamental knowledge, clinical judgment, and technical skills required in the performance of basic endoscopic surgery.

Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Workshops

Residents work in teams to increase resident knowledge and understanding of and the rationale for quality improvement and performance measures, evidence-based surgery, healthcare policy trends and patient safety initiatives.

Faculty Development Seminars 

This educational opportunity is an interactive lecture-based session given by the guest speaker or program director to the attending faculty and the residents.

The department also provides the following educational tools to all surgical residents:

• Fundamentals of Surgery - American College of Surgeons
• Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS)
• American Board of Surgery (SAGES)
• DECKER Curriculum
• Selected Readings in General Surgery (SRGS) - American College of Surgeons
• ACCESS Surgery
• Basic Life Support Course (BLS)
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support Course (ACLS)
• Advanced Trauma Life Support Course (ATLS)
• Fundamental Critical Care Support Course (FCCS)
• American Board of Surgery Flexible Endoscopy Curriculum (SAGES)
• Introduction to the Practice of Medicine
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School Online Courses

The operative experience of the general surgery residents at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center is comprehensive in both quantity and variety of surgical procedures performed.

Home Institution:

• Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

Affiliated Sites:

• Huntington Hospital (Core Rotations)
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (HPB)
• SUNY Downstate (Transplant)
• Kings County Hospital (Trauma)
• Cohen’s Children Hospital (Pediatrics)

PGY 1

The goal of the intern year is to become an integral part of the surgical team while beginning to learn clinical surgery crucial to patient care. Interns spend the year at WHMC running the General Surgery/Specialties Services including ICU and gastroenterology. There is an early focus on ability to complete floor procedures (e.g., central lines and chest tubes) and assisting in the operating room. Most interns complete approximately 150 cases during their intern year.

PGY 2

Second year rotations include:

• 3 months at Huntington Hospital
• 1 month at SUNY Downstate (Transplant)
• 1 month at Kings County Hospital (Trauma)
• 1 month at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (HPB)

Second year residents routinely exceed the expected 250 minimum case volume required by ACGME

PGY 3

Third year rotations include:

• 1 month at Cohen Children’s Medical Center (Pediatrics)

PGY 4

Fourth year rotations include:

• 4 months at Huntington Hospital
• 1 elective month

PGY 5 -Chief Year

• 6 months at Huntington Hospital
• 6 months at WHMC (home institution)

The chief residents run the surgical services with increased autonomy with the goal of functioning at an attending level by year’s end to prepare for life after residency. Each chief resident assumes administrative responsibilities during the course of his/her chief year. Residents routinely graduate with over 1,100 cases.

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

General Surgery
Leaque Ahmed, MD, Chairman of Surgery and Program Director
Hector DePaz, MD, Associate Program Director
Ramon Benedicto, MD, Associate Director
Carina Biggs, MD, Trauma Surgery – Chief of Surgical Critical Care
Paritosh Suman

Vascular Surgery
Rajesh Malik, MD – Chief of Vascular Service

Bariatric Surgery
Leaque Ahmed, MD
Paritosh Suman, MD

Cardiothoracic Surgery
Jaime Yun, MD – Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Breast Surgical Oncology
Sharon Koehler, DO – Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology

Plastic Surgery
Norman Morrison, MD – Chief of Plastic Surgery
Ajani Nugent, MD
Nawaiz Ahmad, MD
Daniel Roger, MD
Clara Rivera, MD

ENT
Jessica Lim, MD – Chief of ENT
Aaron Pollack, MD
Seth Kaplan, MD

Neurosurgery
Randy D’Amico, MD – Chief of Neurosurgery

Huntington Hospital

General Surgery
Robert Zingale, MD, Chairman of Surgery, Site Director
Bill Martin, MD, Educational Coordinator, Trauma
Faisal Siddiqui, MD, General Surgery
Joseph Patane, MD, General Surgery/Trauma
Charles Thompson, MD, General Surgery/Bariatric

Bariatric Surgery
David Buchin, MD
Andrew Godwin, MD

Acute Care/Trauma Surgery
Eric Klein, Director of Trauma
Shabana Perveen, MD, General Surgery/Trauma
Marinel Ardeljan, DO, General Surgery/Trauma

Colorectal Surgery
David Rivadeneira, MD, Chair of Division of Colorectal Surgery
Shirley Shih, MD
Titi Adegboyega, MD
Cici Zhang, MD

Vascular Surgery
Mark Gennaro, MD
Luis Rafael Davila-Santini, MD
Pallavi Manvar-Singh, MD
Kelechi Akuma, MD

Breast Surgery
Alison Mishkit, MD
Erna Barbara Busch-Devereaux, MD
Joyce Tien Chueh Au, MD

Plastic Surgery
James Romanelli, MD
David Pincus, MD
John Layliev, MD
Alan Kisner, MD

Thoracic Surgery
Vijay Singh, MD