UF pediatric surgery fellowship State's first to earn national accreditation

The University of Florida College of Medicine's pediatric surgery residency training program is the first in the state to earn national accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

"The requirements set by the ACGME for a pediatric surgery training program are rigorous," said residency program director Mike Chen, M.D., an associate professor of pediatric surgery. "The qualifications include the availability of comprehensive services for the care of children, quality clinical programs, excellence in teaching and an academic investigative component. By virtue of this accreditation, it is a declaration that we have all the services required to be one of the top programs in the country to take care of kids."

The two-year residency, or fellowship, program is the next step for a general surgery resident who has completed a full general surgery residency and wants to specialize in pediatric surgery. UF will accept one new fellow each year.

The accreditation was awarded retrospectively and applies from July 2007 to February 2011. This marks UF as the nation's 35th accredited pediatric surgery program.

Both nationally and statewide, there is a need for more surgeons in this field.

"The number of pediatric surgeons in this country is fairly limited to about 500 to 600 practicing pediatric surgeons," said Chen. "We need more."

Across the state of Florida there are at least 10 pediatric surgeon vacancies that need to be filled, he said.

"Pediatric surgeons are in short supply and there are limited (training) programs in the country," said Richard L. Bucciarelli, M.D., chairman of the UF department of pediatrics. "Because 60 percent of fellows (residents) stay in the state they are trained, Florida's children will benefit in the long-run by having more trained pediatric surgeons available in Florida to take care of congenital and acquired illnesses, as well as trauma and burns."

A recent article in Florida Trend magazine stated that Florida ranks 44th nationally in the number of graduate medical residency slots, "meaning too few medical school grads finish their training in Florida and begin practice here."

"There are not enough fellowship programs to fill the available positions not only in Florida but also nationally," Chen said. "For many hospitals, the absence of pediatric surgery expertise means that the infants and children need to be transferred to an institution like Shands at UF."

David W. Kays, M.D., chief of pediatric surgery for the UF department of surgery, said, "Following this training, the surgeon will be eligible to take both written and oral exams to achieve subspecialty certification in pediatric surgery. The resulting board-certified pediatric surgeon is uniquely qualified to provide surgical care for children, and regularly cares for everything from the routine and simple to the highly complex. It is a real feather in the cap of both the pediatric and pediatric surgical services at UF to have achieved accreditation to provide this training."

Atlanta and Birmingham, Ala., host the two closest pediatric surgery training programs in the Southeast. UF accepted its first pediatric surgery resident last fall, in anticipation of the accreditation approval.

To achieve accreditation UF was evaluated in clinical and educational opportunity areas such as adequate volume and diversity in patients, number of faculty surgeons, and availability of supporting programs, including pediatric radiology, anesthesiology and pathology.

UF pediatric surgeons are recognized experts in many areas, including minimally invasive procedures, neonatal surgery, pediatric oncologic surgery, and burn and trauma care, as well as in the treatment of newborns with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. The National Institutes of Health is funding the division's work in neuroblastoma and tumor biology research. Newer clinical and research programs, including surgical treatment of adolescent obesity, are currently being developed.

Established in 1981, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is a private, nonprofit council that evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. Its mission is to improve health care by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians' education through accreditation.