Education & Conferences

The Vascular Surgery Fellowship program includes a number of interactive conferences. Vascular fellows actively participate and contribute to these conferences to establish their own decision-making and teaching skills. Protected time is provided for educational conferences from 4-6PM every Tuesday throughout the academic year.

Conferences include:

  • Patient care conference (daily except Thursdays): Vascular attending(s) meets with the team including general surgery intern, resident, fellow and/or nurse practitioner to discuss status, progress, and plans for all service and consult patients.
  • Case planning conference (weekly): Conference includes a review of open and endovascular cases for the upcoming week and any other interesting cases on service. The vascular fellow leads the conference which includes a review of patient history and exam, indications for the procedure, imaging and plan for revascularization including alternatives.
  • Vascular Surgery Morbidity and Mortality Conference (biweekly): Focus will be on the opportunity for improvement. Whenever possible the fellow should determine opportunities for improvement according to evidence-based medicine and practice guidelines in the literature.
  • Journal Club (monthly): The conference is led by the vascular fellow and is open to fellows, general surgery residents, and medical students.
  • Vascular Grand Rounds (two grand rounds per year): Vascular Grand Rounds is conducted as part of the entire Department of Surgery Grand Rounds program. Grand Rounds will include a presentation by invited guest lecturers. Professor Case Conference will be held after Grand Rounds.
  • Vascular Study Group of New England Meeting (biannual): Fellows may attend the biannual VSGNE meeting to participate in quality improvement initiatives.
  • Research Conference (quarterly): Meeting of fellow, analyst and research mentor to plan and review the progress of ongoing clinical research projects. The conference includes a didactic session on research and select participation in the UVM Cardiovascular Research Institute lectureship program.
  • Quality Improvement Conference (quarterly): Fellows and staff discuss current and future quality assurance and quality improvement projects.
  • Simulation Training (monthly): The Clinical Simulation Laboratory at the University of Vermont College of Medicine is a state of the art facility available for fellow education and teaching.  Simulations include sessions in the Cadaver Lab to review key anatomical exposures.

Teaching

The Vascular Division has a strong tradition of teaching medical students and residents. Teaching is a key component of the training program and we value this highly in our fellows. As the senior trainee on the service, the vascular fellow helps to educate medical students and more junior general surgery residents. Fellow teaching takes a variety of forms including informal interactions on rounds, acting as teaching resident in the operating room and interventional suites and through educational conferences. Opportunities to develop teaching skills exist through the UVM Teaching Academy.