Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

Fellowship Overview

Program Director: Nadia Obeid, M.D.
Program Coordinator: Deshira Davis

The Surgical Critical Care Fellowship program is based at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, a large academic quaternary referral center for the region, and a busy ACS-verified Level 1 trauma center. The fellowship is a fully accredited ACGME training program with a total of 3 fellowship positions. Our training program, established in 1991, is one of the oldest surgical critical care fellowships in the country, and we are committed to continuing to train outstanding surgical leaders.

The Surgical Intensive Care Unit is a 40-bed unit with a diverse surgical patient population, including: Trauma/Acute Care, Vascular, Transplant, Thoracic, Surgical Oncology/HIPEC, Otolaryngology, Plastic/Reconstructive, Colorectal, General, Endocrine, OB/GYN, Urology, and Orthopedic surgery patients. Fellows will have the opportunity to work with our 22 critical care faculty members (13 TACS/Surgical Critical Care, 8 Anesthesia Critical Care, and 1 Emergency Medicine Critical Care), as well as our 15 SICU Advanced Practice Providers. A strong emphasis on a collaborative approach to patient care exists, with a multidisciplinary team comprised of the SICU team (staff, APPs, fellows, residents, and medical students), primary surgical services, SICU nursing, respiratory therapists, clinical pharmacists, nutritionists, and physical & occupational therapists. The fellows will also have exposure to advanced heart failure and cardiac surgery patients in the cardiothoracic ICU, with experiences in management of heart failure assist devices, ECMO, and heart and lung transplant patients.

The fellowship provides comprehensive training in a formal, intellectual, and supportive environment, dedicated to helping trainees acquire the knowledge, skills, and clinical judgement essential to the practice of critical care. The program is designed to provide advanced training to graduates of approved surgical residencies or to surgical residents above the PGY3 level who have a position in an approved surgical residency. The fellowship allows the surgeon to acquire competence and expertise as a practitioner, consultant, and teacher in critical care. The program emphasizes scholarship, self-instruction, development of critical analysis of clinical problems, and the ability to prioritize patient care needs and make appropriate decisions on complex surgical and medical problems in critically ill surgical patients. The training will also ensure the development of skills to perform procedures required for the practice of surgical critical care. Completion of the program will provide the surgeon with proficiency in managing critically ill surgical patients, teaching critical care skills, conducting scholarly activity, and in supervising critical care units.

Mission: The practice of Surgical Critical Care requires dedicated physicians with the knowledge and experience to care for patients with complex and diverse pathologies. Our mission is to train the providers of the present and future to improve people's lives through excellence in the science and art of health care and healing.

Aim: We aim to provide our fellows a well-rounded experience and the knowledge base to successfully pass their boards, practice with confidence and competence, and become leaders in their group/private practices as well as academic practices in the field of Surgical Critical Care.

Eligibility Requirements

All required clinical education for entry into ACGME-accredited fellowship programs must be completed in an ACGME-accredited residency program, or in an RCPSC-accredited or CFPC-accredited residency program located in Canada. Fellowship programs must receive verification of each entering fellow’s level of competency in the required field using ACGME or CanMEDS Milestones assessments from the core residency program.

Prior to appointment in the program, fellows must have completed at least three clinical years in an ACGME-accredited graduate educational program in one of the following specialties: anesthesiology, emergency medicine, neurological surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, surgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, or urology.

Henry Ford Hospital participates in the NRMP match process. Interviews are held from April through August. Applications should be submitted through Surgical critical care and Acute care surgery Fellowship Application Service (SAFAS) website.