Program Schedule and Didactic Offerings

Here's how the 5 years you spend with us might look like:

PGY-1: Intern year

• 6 months ENT
• 1 month each: SICU, Anesthesia, ER, Plastic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Ophthalmology

PGY-2: Junior year

• Rotate Head & Neck Oncology, Otology/Endocrine Surgery, Laryngology, General Otolaryngology/Sleep Medicine/Pediatric Otolaryngology
• Longitudinal clinic experience & ORs 2-3 times a week
• Home call that is Q4 on average; includes 2 weekends a month (either Fri/Sun or Sat)
• 1 month research time off-service (but still on call)
• 4 wks vacation

PGY-3: Junior year

• Rotate through Head & Neck Oncology; Otology/Endocrine Surgery; and Rhinology
• Otology rotation includes in-depth 1 wk temporal bone lab dissection course with Michigan Ear Institute or University of Michigan
• 2 months immersive away rotation in Cincinnati, OH, with Cincinnati Children's Hospital
• 2 months research time off-service (but still on call)
• Call schedule & vacation the same as PGY-2 year

PGY-4: Senior year

• Balance tips towards more OR experience while still preserving outpatient clinic experience
• Includes chief resident experience on the Head & Neck Oncology service and Complex Consults service
• Rotations now include Facial Plastics as well as a 3 month away rotation with Alaska Native Medical Center covering the full gamut of otolaryngologic care for indigenous & Native American patients with a particular focus on otologic procedures
• Back-up call from home + first call @ West Bloomfield Hospital
• Graduated assumption of administrative responsibilities, including weekly chapter review & dissection course planning

PGY-5: Chief year

• Significant autonomy in clinic and OR
• Includes chief resident experience while on Head & Neck Oncology service and Complex Consults service
• Rotations also include option for an elective month within the subspecialty of your choice
• Additional administrative experience commensurate with Chief Resident status
• Call responsibilities are the same as PGY-4 year

Didactic Offerings

Every Wed AM there is protected time for didactic education:

• 7 AM – Grand Rounds lecture, often involving faculty from other departments in Henry Ford or other institutions. Residents are expected to give 2 Grand Rounds lectures per year.
• 8 - 10 AM – Area focused didactic teaching based on a 2 year cycle of topics conducted by the faculty. This includes some hands-on training, simulation, and workshops. Monthly M&M Conference, Skull Base Conference (with Neurosurgery & Neuroradiology), Sinonasal Conference, and other teaching will also occur during this time.

Every Fri AM there is the Multidisciplinary Head & Neck Tumor Board Conference. We are responsible for presenting the patients to the other members of the board each week, and recording the treatment plans. Patients are often seen later that morning to review the tumor board recommendations.

Journal Club is held every quarter. We usually discuss 4 articles from different subspecialties within the field as well as a 5th article on teaching or learning. Junior residents present the basics of each article; senior residents comment; faculty then comment also. This is usually held at a restaurant in the Metro Detroit area.

Our rhinology division directs a 2-day annual endoscopic sinus and skull base surgery course every spring for the Otolaryngology and Neurosurgery residents. This course brings speakers from across the country and is both lecture-based and a hands-on cadaver dissection course. A resident dissection manual is provided to every resident to optimize their anatomic learning and to guide their lab dissections. State-of-the-art instrumentation is provided by various surgical instrument companies, making for an experience that simulates the operating room environment as closely as possible. In the link below is a summary video of the 2017 course, and pictures highlighting the lecture and lab setup.

The temporal bone & microvascular dissection lab is open 24 hours/day. There is an annual temporal bone dissection course held in Sep/Oct.

We have additional cadaver dissection courses throughout each year. Generally there are about 4 total courses a year, including the t-bone course. Areas of focus include trauma, sinus, microvascular, etc.

We celebrate Resident Research Day in June every year, reviewing examples of our trainees' ground-breaking work accomplished that year. Each resident from PGY-2 to -5 gives a 15 mins presentation on a research project they have worked on that year. Our PGY-1 residents present a case report or plans for their upcoming research. A new project is required each year. Awards are given each year, and an honored guest speaker from another institution also attends & presents.