Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

The University of Pennsylvania’s Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship is a fully-accredited ACGME training program within the Department of Surgery. The fellowship is designed to educate fellows in all phases of care of the critically ill and injured surgical patient.

Our training philosophy can be divided into several discrete areas including clinical training, research, academic framework, and trauma community integration. The clinical training is focused on cutting-edge, evidenced-based experiences in trauma, emergency general surgery (acute care surgery) & surgical critical care. Fellows will complete the program with not only top notch technical expertise, but with the strongest command of all care strategies and theory. Fellows have clearly defined training goals and objectives with the highest attention to their educational experiences. Roles and responsibilities are clearly differentiated from the resident learners so there is minimal overlap.

Research opportunities abound at Penn, both within the division and in the very collaborative broader University of Pennsylvania community. Fellows acquire research mentors early who then ensure milestones are achieved resulting in successful completion of projects by fellowship end. Beyond the individual projects, all fellows participate in a continual research didactic series that provides all the building blocks to join or initiate a basic science or clinical research program at their next job.

Fellows will also leave our training program with a solid academic framework or understanding of how to establish themselves as an academic surgeon. This framework includes an understanding of choosing and obtaining growth and leadership opportunities locally and in external national and international societies. Formal administrative didactics and personalized exposure to our world-renowned faculty facilitates this exposure.

Fellow integration into the broader trauma and critical care community is facilitated by the large network of Penn trained acute care surgeons practicing around the world. This vast network (see history section below) exposes current and past trainees to the experience and mentoring of this academic faculty along with opportunities to collegially collaborate on a multitude of academic levels.

History

The Penn trauma training program was founded by C. William Schwab, MD in 1989. Since that time, over 100 fellows have completed the program and are now practicing around the world. Among this cohort are leaders in American Medicine including Deans, Chief Executive Officers, Chairs of Departments, Division Chiefs, Trauma Directors, ICU directors, and many other prestigious titles (see section on past fellows. This legacy of past trainees is a testament to vision and ideals created by Dr. Schwab that are now carried down and instilled in all our trainees. Of particular note is our strong history and commitment to training military trauma surgeons. Starting with Dr. Schwab who himself spent many years as a Naval surgeon, there have been over 20 military surgeons in the Penn trauma faculty and fellowship program.