Vascular Surgery Residency

Welcome to the University of Minnesota Vascular training program! We believe we have one of the most comprehensive training programs in the United States due to our diversity of locations, patients, and experiences in vascular surgery.  Exposure to different patient populations and unique ethnic groups bring an incredible wealth of experience to our vascular surgery training programs.  We utilize advanced technology to perform complex open, endovascular and hybrid procedures within a vast hospital system that funnels patients into 3 of the 4 main sites you will rotate. The 4th site is the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, which is consistently ranked among the top 5 VA hospitals in the United States and serves veterans throughout the upper Midwest.  Our vascular surgery faculty are highly engaged in ensuring your success in the clinic, the endovascular suite, the operating room, and the non-invasive vascular lab.  We are delighted you are here and look forward to your continued success.

Daniel Ihnat, MD 
Division Chief, Vascular Surgery 
 

The ACGME-approved, five-year residency program at the University of Minnesota leads to certification in vascular surgery. We are approved for one slot in each year of the program, and our first resident began training in July 2020. The program is designed to train expert vascular specialists proficient in medical, endovascular and open surgical treatment of patients over the entire spectrum of vascular disease. The finishing vascular resident will have had broad exposure to cutting edge technologies and research. Graduates will be well prepared to enter practice in the private or academic setting.

Applications to the program are available to fourth-year medical students through the standard application and matching pathways (ERAS and NRMP). The first two years of the program are devoted to core surgical training, during which time the residents complete general surgery rotations. The first two core years also include rotations in colon and rectal surgery, burn, thoracic surgery, and cardiac surgery. The majority of third-year rotations are on vascular surgery, but also includes a rotation in Cardiothoracic surgery. The remaining two years are devoted exclusively to vascular surgery training.

The program includes opportunities for clinical research at all levels. Residents are encouraged to choose a research project before the fourth year of training and to work with a faculty research mentor towards publication. If the project is accepted for presentation at a local, regional, or national meeting, resident authors will be sponsored to attend the meeting and present their work.

For additional program information, please view our expanded listing available on FREIDA Online, search Program ID: 4512600062.

Eligibility Requirements

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Eligibility Requirements Effective July 1, 2023. See page 18.

Application Process
 

Our program participates in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Applicants must submit their application documents electronically.
 

• Required Electronic Application Documents (PDF)
• Application Deadline & Interview Dates (PDF)

The J-1 alien physician visa sponsored by ECFMG is the preferred visa status for foreign national trainees in all UMN graduate medical education programs; therefore, the Program sponsors only J-1 visas. We do not sponsor H-1B visas. More information on the J-1 visa can be found on the UMN-GME J-1/J-2 Visas webpage.

Questions? Please contact the Program Administrator at [email protected].

Each Thursday morning is devoted to didactic training activities in vascular surgery. During this "protected time", fellows and residents are exposed to a series of formal conferences:
 

Journal Club (first Thursday 0700-0800). A regularly scheduled conference is held once each month to review recent literature.

Multidisciplinary Conference (Second Thursdays 0700-0800). These one-hour preoperative planning conferences are held 0700-0800 on the first and second Thursdays of each month. Participants include attendings from vascular medicine, cardiothoracic, interventional radiology, and vascular surgery services as well as vascular trainees. Cases are presented and discussed from the perspective of all four disciplines. The chief or fellow from the VA presents cases on the second Thursday. The conference is held on a city-wide basis and transmitted to all sites via Zoom.

Divisional Morbidity and Mortality Conference (third and fourth Thursday 0700-0800). A review of all current complications and deaths is held 0700-0800 on the third and fourth Thursdays of each month. The University of Minnesota Medical Center and Fairview Southdale services are assigned the third Thursday block, and HealthEast and VAMC services are assigned the fourth Thursday block. The rotating senior resident or fellow is expected to review all complications and deaths from the respective service. Discussion will include the clinical course of the complication, identification of inciting events and causative factors, and additional perspective from the published literature. The discussion will include radiological and pathological correlation of surgical specimens and autopsies as appropriate.

Vascular Conference (Thursday 0800-0900). This is a structured conference that covers basic and clinical sciences fundamental to vascular surgery, as well as in the technological advances that relate to vascular surgery and the care of patients with vascular disease. The course covers the lecture series topics in a planned, two-year curriculum. The one-hour conferences are held three out of four weeks each month, and topics are assigned in advance based on the curriculum outlined in VSCORE. Trainees prepare and deliver approximately 80% of the lectures, while the remainder are given by attendings from the vascular services or faculty from other services who deliver lectures in their particular areas of expertise.

VESAP Review Conference (0900-1000). This one-hour conference is held once each month to review multiple choice questions in VESAP. Questions are grouped by subjects covered in the recent vascular conference lectures. 

Soft Competencies Conference (fifth Thursdays 0900-1000). This one-hour conference is offered in months with a fifth Thursday. The conference will cover competency areas and other topics not addressed in other conferences such as professionalism, patient safety, personal well-being, finance planning, and fatigue mitigation.

Additional formal training occurs at other times:

MHFV Preoperative Conference (Mondays 1600-1800). Fellows and chief residents rotating at UMMC, Southdale, and HealthEast hospitals present patients scheduled for operations during the upcoming week. 

Pulsatile Cadaver Lab (Quarterly). Residents rotating at the VA vascular services will join Dr. Paul Orecchia in the anatomy lab to perform vascular exposures on a pulsatile cadaver training module.

Integrated residents spend their PGY 1 and 2 service rotations alongside our general surgery residents, with additional vascular surgery rotations.

Sample Junior Residents Schedule (PGY 1 & 2)

Service rotations for both independent and integrated programs are based at four hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metroplex:

• The University of Minnesota Medical Center
• Fairview Southdale Hospital
• The Minneapolis VA Medical Center
• HealthEast Hospitals: St. John's and Woodwinds

The vascular surgery residents and fellows manage the vascular surgery clinical service at each hospital. Trainees at all levels are required to attend clinic on a weekly basis, which provides them with continuity of care and the opportunity to evaluate patients both pre- and post-operatively.

The operative experience includes rich exposure to aortic diseases, aneurysms, carotid artery stenosis, peripheral arterial disease, traumatic vascular injuries, dialysis access, and venous pathology including interventional therapy for acute and chronic deep vein thrombosis (DVT). It also provides a balanced mix of endovascular and open procedures, including thoracic aortic pathology. The vascular surgery resident is projected to acquire operative experience in more than 250 cases per year, and fellows are expected to finish the program with more than 700 cases. As trainees progress through the respective program, each is given a gradual increase in direct responsibility for pre- and post-operative patient care appropriate to his or her level, and for the performance of surgical procedures under the direct supervision of the attending vascular surgeon.

PGY-1 integrated program residents begin their training at a Stipend Step 1.

• Base Stipend Rates and Policies
• Stipend Steps by Program Level
• Trainee Benefits

Additional Perks

You will be provided with the following:

• University of MN parking card
• On-site parking at participating sites
• White Coats
• Lead and Loupes
• Pagers
• Hospital on-call meal stipends (UMMC)
• Access to the Vascular Surgical Council on Resident Education (VSCORE) Portal
• One-time reimbursement for select academic purchases (e.g. textbooks, Pegasus, prep course)
• Discounted Technology Products through U of MN Bookstore

In addition, residents have access to the University of Minnesota's on-line biomedical library, which provides free access to MD Consult, UpToDate, Stat!Ref, PubMed, and numerous online textbooks.

Board-certified vascular surgeons serve as core faculty at all four hospitals. In addition, each hospital has assigned mid-level providers that work in tandem with vascular residents and fellows assigned to the care team.

Vascular Surgery Faculty & Staff

General Surgery Faculty & Staff