General Surgery Residency
The General Surgery Residency Program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is designed to provide an organized educational program with guidance and supervision of residents, and to facilitate the personal and professional growth while ensuring safe and appropriate patient care.
Our mission is to prepare residents to become qualified practitioners of surgery at the highest level. It is expected that our residents become specialist certified by the American Board of Surgery and future leaders in their communities. Our goal is to educate residents to improve the health and well-being of our local, as well as, our national and global communities by fostering integrated, collaborative and inclusive education, research, clinical care and public service.

It is with great humility that I take on the honor and responsibility as program director for the General Surgery Residency Program at UTHSC beginning December 2018. This program graduated its first resident in 1919. We have grown significantly and have trained more than 1,100 graduates. We offer eight categorical positions per year providing an opportunity to learn the practice of surgery in diverse hospital environments in a historic and diverse city.
Our education is centered on the campus of UTHSC. Our residents learn and care for patients at affiliated hospitals: Regional One Health, Memphis Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Methodist University Hospital, Baptist Memorial Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. The services at each hospital range from large multidisciplinary teams to individual residents with specific surgical attendings.
The program offers ample optional clinical and basic science research opportunities in a variety of subspecialties. There are opportunities on campus in General Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Trauma and Transplantation. A Master of Science in Epidemiology is also offered by the Department of Preventative Medicine at UTHSC.
I look forward to further building upon the great legacy of surgical education at UTHSC and advancing our departments greatest mission.
—Alexander Feliz, MD
Documents
- Code of Conduct (University)
- Disciplinary Actions
- Clinical and Educational Work Hours
- Fatigue Management
- Fit Testing
- GME Resident Supervision
- Handoff/Transitions of Care Policy
- Moonlighting Policy
- Needlesticks and Worker's Compensation
- HR and GME have worked to make the reporting of needlesticks easier for you and the residents. The State is now going to consider needlesticks for the residents to be an emergency and they can get treated wherever they are. The resident still has to call Corvel afterward and can select option #2 (the entire Option #1 process has been eliminated for the residents). The coordinator needs to then call Corvel and select option #2 to verify and then complete the attached simplified form and send to Jenna in HR. All this must be done within 7 days or the resident may become personally liable for any charges. The form and phone numbers are on the GME website under policies and procedures. - Promotion and Dismissal Policy
- Resident Evaluation Policy
- Resident Reappointment and Promotion
- Selection Policy
- Surgery Supervision Policy
Forms
PLEASE SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS WITH TR
- Original presentation submission with ALL authors listed
- Presentation acceptance letter
Class | Representative |
PGY-1 | Megan Gross, MD |
PGY-2 | Emma Kelly, MD |
PGY-3 | Shravan Chintalapani, MD |
PGY-4 | Justin Drake, MD |
2020-2021 Schedules
Basic Science
- Based on SCORE and ACS curriculum.
- Audience response multiple choice questions.
- "Mock orals" review at the end of each module.
Morbidity and Mortality Conference
- All cases submitted for review.
- Morbidities and mortalities and interesting/unusual cases discussed.
- Topics distributed on Sunday for Weds conference.
Grand Rounds
- Topics presented by faculty, chief residents and visiting faculty.
Journal Club
- Monthly meeting with articles chosen by various faculty members for discussion.
"Intern School"
- Weekly meeting with PGY-1 residents to cover various patient care topics and skills lab.
Skills Lab
- Based on the ACS and FLS skills. Level appropriate labs for PGY 1-5 residents.
- Airway and central line skills labs early in 1st year
- Suture skills kits for each PGY-1 resident
Baptist Memorial Hospital (BMH)
- General Surgery - GS/MIS (PGY-1)
- General Surgery - GS/Pancreas (PGY-1)
- General Surgery - GS/MIS (PGY-4)
- General Surgery - Colorectal Surgery (PGY-4)
Le Bonheur Children's Hospital
Methodist University Hospital
- ACS/GS (PGY-1)
- ACS/GS (PGY-2)
- ACS/GS (PGY-3)
- ACS/GS (PGY-4)
- ACS/GS (PGY-5)
- ACS/GS/Bariatrics (PGY-5)
- ACS/BAR - Germantown (PGY-1)
- ACS/BAR - Germantown (PGY-4)
- ACS/BAR - Germantown (PGY-5)
- Night Float (PGY-2)
- Surgical Oncology (PGY-1)
- Surgical Oncology - Germantown (PGY-3 & 5)
- Surgical Oncology - MUH (PGY-3 & 5)
- Thoracic (PGY-3)
- Transplant (PGY-1)
- Transplant (PGY-3)
- Vascular (PGY-1)
- Vascular (PGY-3)
Regional One Health (ROH)
- ACS/GS (PGY-4)
- Critical Care (PGY-1)
- Endoscopy/Nutrition (PGY-1)
- Trauma/GS Floor (PGY-1)
- Trauma/GS Floor (PGY-2)
- Trauma/GS Floor (PGY-3)
- Trauma/GS Floor (PGY-4 & 5)
Memphis VA Medical Center (VAMC)
- The UTHSC library offers 24 hour electronic access to multiple sources, including PubMed, MEDLINE @ Ovid, MD Consult, and Micromedex, as well as E-books and E-journals.
- The Department of Surgery provides a $200 book stipend annually.
- The Harwell Wilson Surgical Society Surgical Resident Support Fund provides grants to residents for books and loupes.
- Each resident has a subscription to the SCORE website with textbook access, journal and atlas access. There are videos and multiple choice practice questions. The ACS curriculum is accessed through this website. New features are added regularly.
- Each PGY-1 resident has the Fundamentals of Surgery Curriculum program with virtual patients and case scenarios.
- Each PGY-5 resident is funded to attend a national meeting.
Resident Alpha Listing
By Program
Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (CHIP)
Skills and Simulations are a part of the curriculum for each PGY, 1-5.
Alexander Feliz, MD
Program Director
Department of Surgery
910 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor
Memphis, TN 38163
P: 901.448.7635
F: 901.448.7306
Cynthia Tooley
Residency Coordinator
Department of Surgery
910 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor
Memphis, TN 38163
P: 901.448.7635
F: 901.448.7306
Email: ctooley@uthsc.edu