Neurosurgery Residency Curriculum

PGY 1 - General Surgery internship and Neuro-intensive Care

Three months of General Surgery including plastic and reconstructive surgery, vascular surgery and surgical ICU
Three months of Neuro-intensive care
Three months of Neurology
Three months of Neurosurgery

HFH is a 877 bed Level I Trauma Center, serving Metro-Detroit as a quaternary care center with 148 ICU beds
Call this year is one in four in-house. Approximate number of operative days is 10 per month. The junior resident can expect to perform about 200 cases this year. Call duties include ICU calls, floor and ED consults, as well as management of post-operative patients. Floor responsibilities are minimized with the assistance of Advanced Practice Providers. The junior resident spends three-month rotations with each of the subdivisions of the clinical service designated:
- Clinical services at HFH main campus include:
  - Neuro-oncology/Spine/Epilepsy - Drs. Air, Asmaro Lee, Rock, Robin, Schwalb
  - Neuro-vascular/Trauma/Spine - Drs. Mahmood, Kole and Abdulhak
The resident takes neurosurgery written boards for self-assessment every year and for credit at PGY 5

This year focuses on subpecialty exposure and complete neurosurgical care with inclusion of outpatient clinics
Four months of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Three months of Functional Neurosurgery and Peripheral Neuro Surgery at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, including outpatient clinic once a week
Two months of Neuroradiology and Endovascular
Two months of Spine Surgery and General Neurosurgery, including outpatient clinic
One month elective of residents choosing to include outpatient clinic

The PGY 4 year is another clinical year, similar to the PGY 2 year, but with more responsibility and particularly more advanced training in the operating room. During this year, the residents have increasing opportunity to be first assistant in the operating room and perform surgical procedures as the primary surgeon with the senior staff. Both PGY 2 and PGY 4 years include extensive experience with critical care patient management in the dedicated neurosurgical intensive care unit. During this year each resident, finalizes plans for projects during the PGY5 research year.

One month of Radiation Oncology under the supervision of Salim Siddiqui, M.D., Ph.D.
11 months of clinical or basic research at the resident's discretion.
One month of Neuropathology consisting of lectures three days/week from 7 to 9 am
This year is protected from call responsibilities except for when a junior resident on service is on vacation.

12 months at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, a 191 bed level III Trauma Center. During this rotation, the resident works primarily with Drs. Air, Asmaro Chang, Chedid, Malik, Robin, Schwalb, and Seyfried
There is strong non-physician Advanced Practice Provider (APP) support at West Bloomfield, allowing the resident to gain experience leading a team and participate extensively in out-patient clinics with Drs. Malik, Chedid and Chang and the operating room.

This year the resident functions as the chief resident. The resident has the responsibility to supervise their respective service. The chief resident who works with the Chair also has the administrative responsibility for coordinating conferences, Morbidity and Mortality rounds, and the operative schedule for the Henry Ford Hospital. The remaining 6 months are spent running the Vascular/Spine service. The chief residents have the opportunity to work with all faculty and to be involved with the more complex neurosurgery problems. During this time, the resident also assumes a more direct role in decision-making at the outpatient level with every patient and has the responsibility to directly follow these patients in the hospital and in the postoperative clinic. During this year the resident is again focused on continuity of patient care, with the resident participating in preoperative and postoperative assessment and on development of operative techniques with increased responsibility in the operating room so that they are ready for independent practice.