University of Florida Department of Surgery
Residency Program Highlights
Welcome to the Department of Surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine! Our department has a long tradition of training outstanding clinical surgeons and leaders in academic surgery. The fundamental mission of our department is to provide excellence in patient care, research and education.
Our 45 faculty members practice and teach primarily at two hospitals, Shands at the University of Florida and the Malcolm Randall Veterans Administration Hospital. Shands Hospital is a 582-bed facility that is the tertiary referral center for north central Florida and southern Georgia. The Malcolm Randall VA Hospital, part of the North Florida South Georgia VA Health System, is a 273-bed hospital that is one of the busiest in the entire Veterans Health Administration. We also have affiliations with a community hospital in Gainesville, Shands at Alachua General Hospital, as well as an affiliation with the West Palm Beach Veterans Administration Hospital.
The Department of Surgery consists of eight divisions. There are three General Surgery divisions: Surgical Oncology and Endocrinology, Gastrointestinal Surgery/Laparoscopy (the Woodward service) and Acute Care Surgery. The General Surgery Divisions and the training program in General Surgery are led by Dr. Kevin Behrns, a renowned academic surgeon and educator. In addition, the divisions of Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Transplantation, and Vascular Surgery are in our Department. Each division has strong leadership and is comprised of dynamic and diverse faculty members who are leaders in their specialties and highly-dedicated to resident education and clinical training.
The Department offers exceptional opportunities for basic, translational and clinical surgical investigation. Our Laboratory for Inflammation Biology and Surgical Science is a national leader in gene therapy and the genomics and proteomics of critical surgical illness. Our Laboratory for Signal Transduction and Surgical Oncology conducts pioneering work in signal transduction pathways of human cancer and the development of small molecule cancer therapeutics. The Surgical Laboratory of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Pathobiology is performing ground-breaking research on the role of chronic injury on cell signaling and survival in the liver and pancreas. In addition, the Vascular Biology Research Laboratories are focused on novel genomic findings in intimal hyperplasia and shear stress of the vein graft. Resident research is funded via two T32 Surgical Training Programs, one in inflammation/sepsis and the other in surgical oncology. In addition, collaborative efforts between surgeons and the premier research scientists at the UF Shands Cancer Center and the Gene Therapy Center have fostered fast-tracking of novel discoveries from the “bench to the bedside.”
The University of Florida, with its 24 diverse colleges, provides limitless possibilities for innovative, multidisciplinary collaborations. For example, our developing Institute for Advanced Surgical Technologies combines the clinical expertise of the Department of Surgery with the technical wizardry of the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering and the creativity of the Digital Worlds Institute in the School of Fine Arts.
The recent dramatic changes in the health care system and in training requirements have made it increasingly difficult to rely on traditional methods of surgical education. It is imperative to develop valid, efficient, and reliable alternative methods for learning medical and surgical skills. The Department of Surgery at the University of Florida has a major initiative in surgical simulation, joining the simulation program across all colleges in the University of Florida Health Sciences Center. We are currently testing novel suture simulators and laparoscopic simulators that were designed at the University of Florida for surgical training. By taking advantage of such collaborative opportunities, we are uniquely poised to continue innovative approaches to training surgical residents.
The University of Florida campus is located in beautiful north central Florida within close proximity of the pristine beaches of the Atlantic coast and the fishing villages of the Gulf of Mexico. Gainesville is a vibrant community with numerous cultural, athletic and recreational activities, enhanced by the University of Florida’s prominent intercollegiate athletics. Taken together, this environment provides a unique opportunity for outstanding training in general surgery, while maintaining a great quality of life outside the hospital.
In summary, the Department of Surgery at the University of Florida is committed to providing a supportive learning environment that maximizes the potential of each surgical resident. We offer a learner-centered, evidence-based educational program in which surgical residents have considerable input into their own training. We welcome you to join us in this unparalleled educational experience!