The University of Florida Surgical Critical Care Fellowship offers a dynamic 12-month, multidisciplinary training program by a team of critical care specialists at UF Health Shands Hospital, which is a Level I trauma center and tertiary surgical referral center serving north and central Florida, as well as southern Georgia.
120 combined critical care beds include the trauma ICU (TICU), surgical ICU (SICU), cardiac ICU (CICU), thoracic ICU (TICU), vascular ICU (VICU), neuro ICU (NICU) and burn ICU (BICU). In collaboration with the surgical services, the critical care teams manage 3,500 critically ill patients across trauma surgery, burn surgery, emergency general surgery, surgical oncology, pancreas-biliary surgery, bariatric surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, vascular surgery, otolaryngology, urology, plastic surgery and transplantation surgery. Primary learning objectives include, but are not limited to, advanced airway management, critical care ultrasonography (ex. FAST, TTE, TEE, ultrasound guided procedures), bedside procedures such as percutaneous tracheostomy, tube thoracostomy, vascular access, trauma and postoperative resuscitation, as well as sepsis, ARDS, and renal failure management.
Program Mission
The fundamental mission of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship is to train highly skilled, knowledgeable and compassionate surgical critical care specialists.
Program Aims
The aims of the surgical critical care fellowship are to ensure 100% of program graduates achieve board certification within two years of program completion and to produce well-rounded graduates with a strong academic foundation as evidenced by fellow participation in clinical or basic science research during the course of their training. Fellows will also demonstrate an understanding of the greater health care system with 100% of fellows participating in at least one quality assurance/patient safety project during training.
Clinical Experience
Surgical critical care fellows are required to complete 9 months of critical care training, with 5 months being spent in the TICU and SICU. One month each in the Burn ICU, Cardiothoracic ICU, Neuro ICU, Thoracic/Vascular ICU. The electives available are vast, including, but not limited to trauma surgery, burn surgery, emergency general surgery, abdominal wall fistula surgery, cardiothoracic ICU, medical ICU, pediatric ICU, neonatal ICU, VA SICU/CTICU, research, nutrition, ultrasound/echocardiography, airway, transplant, critical care nephrology, gerontology and advance radiology. All call duties are almost exclusively in-house 12-hour shifts. Trauma and critical care call duties are not combined, although there is the ability to take trauma and emergency general surgery call throughout the entire academic year. Surgical critical care fellows are expected to actively participate in fellowship education, as well as protocol implementation and construction. ATLS and ATLS instructor classes are offered and surgical critical care fellows are encouraged, but not required, to enroll in these classes. Robust training with internal credentialing in critical care ultrasound is also provided.
If desired, a distinct second year of trauma fellowship can be tailored to the specific trainee interests and can include a faculty appointment, robust trauma and emergency surgery clinical experience, research and/or a master’s program in public health or medical education. The University of Florida and UF Health Shands Trauma Center was approved as an official fellowship training site for Acute Care Surgery by the American Association for the surgery of Trauma in 2014. Learn about our program: Acute Care Surgery Fellowship.
UF’s College of Medicine also offers critical care medicine fellowship programs in anesthesiology, emergency medicine and pulmonary medicine. Surgical critical care residents work in a multidisciplinary fashion with attendings and residents/fellows from all disciplines, allowing for a robust, comprehensive approach to their critical care education.
Research
The Department of Surgery acute care team has a robust research presence at the University of Florida. Multiple faculty members have active research programs within the Department of Surgery’s Laboratory of Inflammation Biology and Surgical Science which focuses on the role of innate cellular immunity and inflammatory mediators in the host response to severe trauma, burn injury, and sepsis. The team, under the direction of principle investigator Fred Moore, MD, was recently awarded a National Institutes of Health P50 center grant to establish the UF Sepsis and Critical Illness Research Center to study the persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome (PICS) following sepsis in surgical intensive care unit patients. Trainees with interest in a career in academic medicine are encouraged to pursue a faculty-mentored research project during their fellowship. Faculty expertise and potential research projects span a broad spectrum of research approaches from basic laboratory and translational research, to clinical and outcomes research. Individual research projects, additional research time, and/or master’s programs in public health or medical education can be designed to tailor to the trainees’ interests and career goals.
Application & Requirements
Four positions are available each academic year, one of the four continuing on to complete a second year as an acute care surgery fellow. Surgical critical care trainees must be board-eligible in general surgery, urology, neurosurgery or obstetrics and gynecology. The program is approved by the Residency Review Committee for Surgery through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and participates in the National Resident Matching Program. Upon completion of the fellowship, the fellow will be eligible to take the surgical critical care board exam.
Interested applicants will need to click on the link below in order to submit an application, additionally questions regarding the program can be directed to Cameron Ghalayini, please refrain from emailing the program about your application status.
Program Director:
Jessica E. Taylor, MD, MBA, FACS
University of Florida
1600 S.W. Archer Road
Gainesville, FL 32610-0108
Program Coordinator:
Cameron M. Ghalayini
University of Florida
1600 S.W. Archer Road
Gainesville, FL 32610-0108
Faculty
Letitia Bible, MD
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Amalia Cochran, MD
Clinical Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Vice Chair of Faculty Development & Associate Program Director of Leadership & Mentorship Programs
Chasen Croft, MD, FACS
Associate Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Associate Trauma Director
Ian Driscoll, MD, FACS
Associate Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Director, UF Health Shands Burn Center
Philip A. Efron, MD, FACS, FCCM
Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Medical Director, UF Health Surgical Intensive Care Units and Respiratory Therapy
Liza Laquian, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Tyler J. Loftus, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Alicia M. Mohr, MD, FACS, FCCM
Professor & Chief, Acute Care Surgery
Program Director, Acute Care Surgery Fellowship
Andrea M. Munden, MD
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Rohit Patel, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Chief, Division of Critical Care Medicine
Martin Rosenthal, MD, FACS
Associate Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Chair, UF Nutrition Committee
Sara Scarlet, MD
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Robert Smith, MD
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Jessica E. Taylor, MD, MBA, FACS
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Program Director, Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Ashley Thompson, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Erin Vanzant, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor, Acute Care Surgery
Our Fellows Today
| year | fellows | current or last known position |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Matthew Abourezk, MD | Allegheny General Hospital |
| Michael Bright, MD | University of Florida, Acute Care Surgery Fellowship | |
| Julie Stortz, MD | Malcom Randall VA Medical Center | |
| 2021-22 | Annie Fassler, MD | University of Florida, General Surgery Residency |
| Mia Klein, MD | University of North Carolina | |
| John Saydi, MD | Baylor College of Medicine | |
| Rebecca Schwartz, MD | University of Florida, Acute Care Surgery Fellowship | |
| 2020-21 | Christian Brown, MD | Advanced Gastrointestinal Minimally Invasive Surgery & Flexible Endoscopy Fellowship, Cleveland, OH |
| Liza Laquian, MD | University of Florida, Assistant Professor, Surgical Critical Care | |
| David Rubay, MD | Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, Faculty, Acute Care Surgery |
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