Welcome From The Chair

I am delighted to welcome you to the Department of Surgery website. I invite you to peruse the many facets of our department described in this site - including our nationally and internationally respected faculty, the nature and scope of our surgical programs, our highly regarded residency programs and our exciting research endeavors that include basic, translational, outcomes and clinical research.

Department Statistics

Presently, the Department of Surgery has 161 clinical and research faculty, covering eight specialties and numerous sub-specialties. Many of them hold joint appointments in other departments such as Bio-engineering, Orthopedic Surgery and others. The department currently has 108 residents and 20 ACGME accredited, research and non-accredited fellowship positions and numerous visiting scientists throughout the year. We are fortunate to also have 145 academic faculty from throughout the community who, among other things, help us fulfill our education mission, training UW School of Medicine students around the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho). In 2021, our surgical procedures and clinical visits were approximately 86,400 and clinical revenues were approximately $34.7 million.

Patient Care

Patient care is carried out on nine (9) locations:

• UW Medical Center - Montlake
• Harborview Medical Center
• Fred Hutch Cancer Center
• Seattle Children's Hospital
• UW Medical Center - Northwest
• Valley Medical Center
• Mary Bridge Children's Hospital
• Veteran's Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System (VA)
• Eastside Specialty Center

Within the Department of Surgery, our specialties cover:

• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• General Surgery
• Healthcare Simulation Science
• Pediatric Surgery
• Plastic Surgery
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma, Burn & Critical Care Surgery
• Vascular Surgery

The Trauma Burn and Critical Care programs are located at Harborview Medical Center, the premiere (and only) Level 1 Trauma Center in the region and a leading Trauma Center in the USA and internationally. Each of our specialty areas is on the leading edge.

With premier faculty, expanding facilities and technology and superb teamwork, we are able address every part of our Mission: to deliver excellent care to our patients, the finest education to our residents and fellows, and using research to advance medical care.

Our statistics tell one story, but perhaps the heart of our department is found in the dynamics of change, balanced by the ongoing commitment to provide quality healthcare. This is truly a balancing act; "new" is constantly in the air, and anything new both titillates and challenges. As surgeons, we proceed to find new - that is, better - ways to provide superior and cost-effective outcomes for our patients. It is exciting to hear and read about the "new" work that is being done in our field; at the same time, we are responsible for evaluating and assuring the efficacy of these new advances.

Research

We strive to do innovative and high-impact research, and our numbers speak to our success. In Fiscal Year 2021, department of Surgery received 40 awards from 34 different sponsors totaling $10.4 million. Basic science research in DOS is well-funded and nationally recognized, and continues to be a major area of focus of the research enterprise in the department. Bench research has led to the better understanding of vascular biology, wound healing and ischemia reperfusion, and cancer to name just a few. The department has also developed an outstanding program in health services research. Health services and outcomes researchers help identify the best evidence to guide patient care, and "translate" this research into practice and policy by working with surgeons, payers and policy-makers. This area of research has become a transformative agent in surgical care and within the surgical community over the last several years; the department of Surgery has been at the forefront of this work and has a nationally recognized and growing center devoted to this work, the Surgical Outcome Research Center (SORCE).

At all times, we work to carry out the clinical applications of our research in a responsible manner and to provide the kind of research training that will both inspire and prepare the next generation of surgeons to continue this important work.

Medical Education

Teaching future surgeons is at the heart of our academic mission. Our residency and fellowship programs are vigorous and we continue to fill our program with the best and brightest surgeons. Our programs have engaged in innovative restructuring opportunities to better meet the needs of graduate medical education. As in the other parts of our mission, we are devoted to innovation in teaching that meets the demands of society, the needs of our students, and takes advantage of new technologies that assist teaching and learning. To that end the WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare (WISH) was established and has just completed its 13th year. WISH is a multi-disciplinary Center, located on multiple campuses, that has, as its primary goal, to provide leadership in the use of simulation technologies to improve the quality of health care education and improve patient safety and outcomes. The department of Surgery is proud to be the Administrative home of WISH and to provide it with substantial faculty involvement in addition to administrative support.

As you peruse our website, we trust you understand the story of the department of Surgery and will find information you might need concerning our department.

Thank you for visiting our website.

Douglas E. Wood, MD, FACS, FRCSEd
The Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair
Department of Surgery
University of Washington