Residency Program

Program Director, Residency Training
Dr. Najma Ahmed

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The residency training program in General Surgery at the University of Toronto is the largest and most diverse training program in Canada and, likely, in North America. Our vision is simply to provide the best training experience for General Surgery residents in North America. We, at the University of Toronto, pride ourselves on ensuring that our program equips each of our residents to achieve their own individual career goals. We know that we are preparing tomorrow’s leaders in General Surgery.
The training Program boasts nearly 70 geographic full time faculty members spread over 7 core and 3 non-core hospitals. Our faculty members represent opinion leaders and experts in essentially every subspecialty area of General Surgery. Under the leadership of Drs Andy Smith (University Division Chair) and Najma Ahmed (Program Director), faculty members exemplify their commitment to the educational mission by engaging fully in the resident teaching activities, selection processes and by creating a learning climate where residents are safely initiated into their professional lives as surgeons.
The University of Toronto teaching hospitals are fortunate to provide surgical care for a large urban population as well as patients arising from a vast catchment area and referral network. This fact provides outstanding learning opportunities and a breadth of clinical volume that is unsurpassed.

Core Training Sites
• 5 Academic adult 
   o Mount Sinai Hospital
   o University Health Network - Toronto General
   o University Health Network - Toronto Western
   o St Michael's Hospital
   o Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• 1 Academic paediatric
   o The Hospital for Sick Children
• 2 Community
   o St Joseph's Health Care Centre
   o Toronto East General Hospital

Non-core Training Sites
• North York General Hospital
• Humber River Regional Hospital
• The Scarborough Hospital (General Campus)
• Trillium Health Centre
• William Osler Health Centre

Educational Opportunities

The residency training program is aligned with the Royal College accreditation requirements (see: Specific Standards of Accreditation (SSA) for Residency Programs in General Surgery,  Objectives of Training in the Specialty of General Surgery, Specialty Training Requirements in General Surgery and FITER/CCR) and was granted full accreditation in the last cycle. The educational programs are based in sound pedagogical principles and informed by adult learning theory. We are continuously evolving our education programs to integrate best practice in residency education. The Program ensures that our resident members are engaged in the design and delivery the various curricula described below.
In addition to a rich offering of site-specific teaching activities, there are a large number of centrally organized educational programs. The University of Toronto possesses a state of the art surgical skills laboratory, housed at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

A faculty-run surgical skills curriculum is integrated into the PGY1-2 years to assist learners to master fundamental surgical skills in a safe, collegial environment.
In addition, the General Surgery training program utilizes a number of human patient simulators in which residents can practice trauma resuscitation, team and leadership skills with real-time feedback. PGY2 residents participate in a dedicated cadaver-based Anatomy for Surgeons review course. A rigorous 24 month curriculum spanning the breadth of General Surgery topics occurs every Thursday afternoon. The curriculum is divided into major topic areas, lead by a faculty block leader. These seminars have been very highly rated and are attended by all PGY1-5. All PGY4 residents complete an advanced laparoscopy course and we have developed novel methods to teach and evaluate the various non-medical CanMeds competencies including the use of portfolios and crisis resource management techniques.
PGY5 residents participate in a tailored competency-based rotation in their final 4 months of training intended to prepare for independent practice and the certification examinations in General Surgery.

The General Surgery residency training Program has a long tradition of supporting the development of leaders in surgical science through the Surgeon-Scientist Program. In this program, residents are supported to pursue an advanced degree in basic Science, Clinical Epidemiology, Surgical Education or Public Health or in another area of endeavor such as law or business under the auspices of the Scholarship in Surgery program which is available to highly selected candidates. For more information about these two programs, contact Dr. Ben Alman (Director of the SSP Program [Benjamin.alman@sickkids.ca], or visit our website.

For specific details about our rotation structures, please visit the CaRMS website. Further information about the residency training program in General Surgery can be obtained by contacting Dr. Najma Ahmed, Program Director at ahmedn@smh.ca  or Stacy Palmer, B. Comm Clinical Education Program Coordinator at Palmers@smh.ca