Fellowship Information:

Our well-established fellowship program offers a unique, highly-flexible curriculum comprised of surgical critical care, trauma, acute care surgery, and burn care. 

The Cook County Trauma Unit is America’s first comprehensive center dedicated solely to the care of the acutely injured patients. Since 1966, the unit has served as a national model for trauma care. The Cook County Trauma Unit is one of the busiest in the country with more than 5,000 admissions each year. Experienced trauma surgeons and nurses manage all aspects of trauma care from initial presentation until discharge. The trauma center has a self-contained 15 bed resuscitation area, a 10 bed stepdown unit and a 12 bed Trauma ICU. 

With a history steeped in tradition and excellence, the burn center treats nearly 400 major burns and performs more than 1,000 burn evaluations per year. The burn center has an experienced staff operating within a 6 bed ICU, a 10 bed stepdown unit, and several clinic spaces. 

The SICU is a 14 bed unit housing patients from the General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, ENT, Plastics, Urology, and Obstetrics-Gynecology services. The SICU sees over 450 admissions per year. 

During the first year, the fellowship program includes 13 four-week rotations divided between rotations in the SICU, Burns, Trauma, and electives. Electives can be taken in , or in the Pediatric ICU, Transplant Surgery (at Rush University), Neuroscience ICU (at Rush University), Anesthesia, Medical ICU, or Cardiac Surgery ICU (at University of Chicago). An Acute Care Surgery experience is possible. Fellows will manage patients with graded responsibility by full-time board-certified Attending Surgical Critical Care Intensivists as they progress through fellowship during the core rotations. Fellows have responsibility for supervision of residents and medical students from various Institutions and disciplines around the Chicago area. We have an excellent academic program with multi-specialty discussions, journal club, board review, and M&M sessions. The ICUs have the services of full-time and dedicated pharmacists (PharmD) and dietitians/nutritionists. 

The optional and customizable second year of fellowship is designed to prepare surgeons for leadership in advanced trauma operative management, as well as trauma and burn care. This portion of the fellowship provides comprehensive exposure to injury prevention, trauma systems planning, education of prehospital personnel, resuscitation, in-depth surgical experience, rehabilitation and registry functions, and continued experience in critical care. The second year offers flexibility and can be tailored to each fellow’s interests. Successful fellows can be eligible to receive special certifications in trauma or burn surgery based on the recommendation of the departmental faculty.

How to apply

Qualifications: Applicants must have completed an accredited General Surgery Residency program by the time of fellowship.

Our program will use SAFAS for this year's application:
http://sccpds.org/future-scc-fellows/safas-application-process/
https://safas-sccpds.fluidreview.com/

If there are any problems or questions with your SAFAS application, please contact SAFAS and e-mail the program director.