University of Iowa Surgical Residency
RESEARCH
As mentioned above, residents have the opportunity of spending extended time in research during their residency. Research is an important part of the daily activities of all academic surgeons. The continuing commitment to productive scholarship, exemplified by research, as much as a commitment to communicative scholarship, exemplified by teaching, distinguishes the academic surgeon from his/her colleague in nonacademic practice.
The obvious benefit of research to our patients and to the community is improved care. Less obvious, but equally important, benefits are the atmosphere of open and rigorous inquiry, the constant questioning and the intellectual stimulation which the research programs provide to their participants-faculty, residents and medical students.
The laboratories are equipped for any type of research, and the department strongly supports these endeavors by residents and faculty. Many projects completed during the optional year of research are presented by residents at regional and national meetings.
Our laboratory complex includes animal operating rooms and laboratories, completely staffed and equipped to carry out nine animal procedures simultaneously. Our specialty laboratories comprise peripheral vascular, gastric motility, analytical chemistry, transplant, neurosurgery, tissue culture, surgical bacteriology, kidney preservation, and shock units. In a typical 12 months, more than 1,000 experimental procedures are performed in the laboratories. The facilities permit study of such experimental procedures as heart valve replacement in large animals and bile duct cannulation studies in guinea pigs and heterotopic heart transplantation in mice and rats. There is also active research in surgical oncology, studying the sequence of mutations and the localization of predisposition genes for cancers. In addition, the units are used for supervised teaching exercises in surgical technique for medical students and junior residents, and the refinement of technical capabilities of senior residents and faculty.