VASCULAR FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Introduction
The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) is located in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Iowa City is a college town of 70,000 located on both banks of the Iowa River near the intersection of the U.S. Interstate Highways of 80 and 380 in southeastern Iowa. The UIHC is a tertiary referral base for the state of Iowa and several surrounding states. Information about living in Iowa City while doing a fellowship can be found at the website for the UI Graduate Medical Education Office.
The Vascular Surgery Section was established in the Department of Surgery in 1987 and became a Division in the Department of Surgery in 2001.
The Division of Vascular Surgery offers a two year Vascular Fellowship program to accommodate the evolving needs for training in endovascular surgery and the noninvasive vascular laboratory. The goal of our program is to provide the trainee with a broad in-depth experience in the management of vascular diseases in the setting of a large University Hospital complex and a Veteran Administration Medical Center-Hospital complex. Our fellowship has been approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education since its inception. Our program graduates one resident trainee per year.
Applications for Vascular Fellowships for 2007 will be accepted through ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) at www.aamc.org/eras. Eligible candidates for our program must have completed or be completing an approved General Surgery residency and be eligible for certification by the American Board of Surgery. Our program selects one candidate each year through the National Resident Matching Program for Specialty Training.
Graduates of the program are eligible for the Certificate of Added Qualifications in General Vascular Surgery offered through The American Board of Surgery. Since 1988, close to twenty-four graduates of our program have obtained certification as specialty trained vascular surgeons.
Structure and Administration
Year 1
July - August
The first two months will be dedicated towards training in the non-invasive vascular laboratory in our Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL) accredited laboratory at the VAMC. Four days a week will be spent in the vascular laboratory where personal teaching sessions, review of scans and video tapes, and participation in scanning will be performed. The fifth day will be spent in clinical activities at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) in the outpatient Vascular Clinic.
September - December
These four months of training will be dedicated to interventional and endovascular procedures and clinical/basic science research. The fifth day is assigned for clinical responsibilities at the in the VAMC outpatient clinic.
January - June
During these six months, the fellow will be rotating at the UIHC. The fellow will have no responsibilities at the VAMC during this period of time.
Year 2
July - December
During these six months, the fellow will be rotating at the UIHC. The fellow will have no responsibilities at the VAMC during this period of time.
January - June
The last six months of the fellowship will be spent at the VAMC. Three days a week are assigned for clinical activities including all endovascular procedures performed by the vascular surgery service. The remaining two days are assigned to clinical/basic science research activities.
Electives (optional)
Hematology
Two weeks of electives are available to be spent in the Hematology Department at the UIHC to learn in detail the pertinent aspects of coagulation disorders.
Lipid Management
Two weeks of elective are also available for further education in lipid management at the UIHC Lipid Clinic.
Volume of Surgery
The Vascular Surgery Division performs approximately 800 operations each year at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the Iowa City VA Medical Center. The staff assists on all operations. Each fellow can expect to perform 250-300 major procedures during their fellowship. A satisfactory balance of the peripheral vascular disease spectrum is available with an emphasis on the more complex types of reconstructions. Major vascular reconstructions from the operative experience of the 2005 fellow consisted of 26 aortic reconstructions, 27 carotids, and 80 peripheral arterial bypasses. Endovascular experience consisted of 93 diagnostic endovascular procedures and 118 therapeutic endovascular procedures.
Organization of the Vascular Surgery Service
The Vascular Surgery Services at the UIHC consist of three faculty, a vascular fellow, a chief resident and two junior residents. The call coverage is from home and is equally divided between the fellow and the general surgery chief resident.
The Vascular Surgery Service at the VAMC is staffed by all members of the Vascular Division rotating on a weekly basis. The team is composed of a fourth year surgical resident and a junior resident. A Vascular fellow covers the VAMC clinic year round. The first year fellow covers July-December, and the second year fellow covers during a clinical rotation at the VAMC January-June.
Resident Educational Program and Teaching Conferences
A multidisciplinary vascular conference is held each Tuesday at 7:00 AM. This conference provides instructions on complex vascular cases and their management. This conference also serves as the Mortality/Morbidity conference for vascular procedures. A Journal Club is presented once a month. The vascular fellows are allowed one national meeting per year that is financially supported by the Division. Additional meeting time is supported if the fellow is making a scientific presentation.
Facilities
Clinic
These includes the 953 bed of University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and the adjacent 269 bed Iowa City Veterans Administration Hospital. The clinical material for the vascular program is provided by these two institutions.
Research
Within the two hospitals there are animal research laboratories under the supervision of individual faculty. Through these laboratory facilities trainees can initiate and complete experimental research projects. Clinical projects can also be conducted and the noninvasive vascular laboratories are a source of several projects.
Peripheral Vascular Laboratories: Venous, Arterial & Cerebrovascular Evaluations
The Clinical Vascular Laboratories at both hospitals have a full compliment of noninvasive vascular diagnostic equipment including 5 duplex ultrasound scanners. Although a wide variety of noninvasive tests are performed, there is heavy emphasis on the use of color scanning at each institution. At the University of Iowa Vascular Laboratory, around
10000 tests are performed each year. At the Iowa City VAMC approximately 4000 test are done annually. There are 7 vascular technologists employed between the two institutions. Both laboratories are accredited by ICAVL.
Full-time Peripheral Vascular Faculty
Jamal J. Hoballah, MD, MBA, FACS
Professor and Chair, Division of Vascular Surgery
Director, Vascular Fellowship Program
Dr. Hoballah is a graduate of the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. He completed his general surgery residency in 1987 at New York University and a trauma/critical care fellowship also at New York University Medical Center (NYMC) in 1988. He then remained two years on the faculty of the Department of Surgery at NYMC. After completing his vascular fellowship at the University of Iowa in 1991, he joined the University of Iowa Vascular Surgery Faculty. He has obtained focused endovascular training in New York, Michigan and Europe. His major areas of research interest are endovascular surgery, infrainguinal revascularization and skeletal muscle reperfusion injury.
Timothy F. Kresowik, MD, FACS
Professor
Dr. Kresowik is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed his general surgery residency and peripheral vascular fellowship at the University of Michigan under Dr. Lazar Greenfield and Dr. James Stanley receptively. He joined the University of Iowa faculty in July of 1988. His major areas of research interest include intraoperative assessment of vascular reconstruction's, iatrogenic vascular trauma, cardiac assessment of peripheral vascular patients and health care delivery.
W. John Sharp, MD, FACS
Associate Professor
Chief of Vascular Surgery at VAMC, Iowa City
General Surgery Residency Program & Fellowships Director
Dr. Sharp is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed his general surgery residency and peripheral vascular surgery fellowship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 1988. Following completion of his vascular fellowship he entered private practice in Port Huron, Michigan for one year. In June 1989 he returned to join the vascular faculty at the University of Iowa. He took a sabbatical year from 1995-1996 to study molecular biology. His major areas of research interest are endovascular surgery, surveillance after endovascular procedures, recurrent stenosis after arterial reconstruction, and vessel wall biology.
Melhem J. Sharafuddin, MD
Assistant Professor
New as of 2/08
Current Vascular Fellows 2007-2008
Rachael Nicholson, MD, First Year