Introduction
Charlie and Pat Devine, pioneers in
reconstructive urology, founded the Urology Residency Program in 1965,
prior to the start of EVMS, and became a program of EVMS when it started
operations in 1974. Past chairmen include Charlie Devine, M.D.
(1965-1990), Paul F. Schellhammer, M.D. (1990-2000), and Gerald H.
Jordan, M.D. (2000-2003). Donald F. Lynch, M.D., was appointed chairman
in January 2004. Kurt McCammon, M.D., is the program director of the
residency, appointed July 1, 2006.
The Urology Residency of Eastern
Virginia Medical School follows a one-plus-four format—one year of general
surgery followed by four years of urology. The program is fully
accredited by the ACGME. One position per year is available through the
American Urological
Association match program, and one position from the
Department of Defense.
Fellowship programs are available in Adult and Pediatric Genitourinary
Reconstructive Surgery and Endourology/Laparoscopy.
The Urology program at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital has been ranked
in the Top 50 programs the last 3-4 years by U.S. News & World Report
and is the
only urology program in Virginia to make the Top 50 this year.
General Description
The Department of Urology is under the
direction of 20 attending staff urologists, of whom four are
fellowship-trained in oncology, two in endourology/laparoscopy, four in
reconstructive/female urology, three in pediatric urology, and one in
male infertility. Sentara Norfolk General Hospital (SNGH) and the
adjoining Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD) serve as
the primary teaching centers for surgery, inpatient care and
conferences. Residents rotate through Portsmouth Naval Hospital, which
is a new facility and currently has four full time staff, one
fellowship-trained in oncology, and one in renal transplantation.
With the large faculty of 20 active
teaching members, plus six community faculty members, residents have
access to the full array of urologic procedures. Residents generally
finish well above the 50 percent in index procedures, and for over 20
years have had a 100 percent pass rate for the American Board of
Urology.
In addition to general urologic
surgery, residents receive significant exposures to laparoscopic radical
prostatectomy, radical cystectomy with continent diversion, laparoscopic
radical and donor nephrectomy, pelvic reconstruction for incontinence/prolapse,
urethral reconstruction, and microscopic infertility procedures. Recent
chief resident case logs are provided for review during interviews.
Please see the
Teaching Hospitals page for more
information.
Curriculum
The residency is designed around a
single service run by the chief resident(s) at SNGH and CHKD. Residents
round on inpatient consult and surgical patients at the two hospitals in
the morning and meet with the chief resident(s) at 7 a.m. Assignments
are made on a daily basis to cover the spectrum of procedures scheduled
at the various hospitals and are made to match the resident’s experience
with the complexity of the case, i.e., junior residents cover minor open
cases and basic endoscopy, mid-level residents cover advanced endoscopic
cases and some major cases, and senior residents cover major open and
laparoscopy cases.
At various times in the year, junior
residents spend several weeks rotating with nephrologists, diagnostic
radiologists and radiation oncologists. Residents in the first two years
rotate through Portsmouth Naval Hospital clinics. The schedule often
permits residents to travel to surrounding affiliated hospitals to gain
additional index case experience. Our single-service design has some
advantages over strict “rotations” in that residents have flexibility in
their daily assignments so they can balance their case logs and their
personal interests, especially in their chief year.
Outpatient urology takes place at the
Sentara Ambulatory Care Clinic each Thursday morning for adult care, and
Monday afternoons at CHKD for pediatric urology. We recently established
an ambulatory care/clinic (AC/C) rotation for the residents. This is
comprised of a three-month period wherein the resident spends the bulk
of the working day in one of the three main outpatient urology offices
(Hague office, Kempsville office, Virginia Beach office). This rotation
provides much needed educational experience in the outpatient setting.
The outpatient experiences were developed to enhance the half-day clinic
at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital (1/2 day per week) and the limited
outpatient experiences at the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth. These
two clinics have educational limitations in terms of populations being
served, which is enhanced by the addition of the office clinics (Hague,
Kempsville and Virginia Beach). Once a month, residents rotate at the
EVMS Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine to evaluate complex
infertility cases. Once a week, residents rotate at Lake Taylor Hospital
to evaluate urologic issues with long-term care, spinal-cord care and
geriatrics.
The teaching curriculum has three
weekly meetings:
- Monday morning basic science:
Residents take turns reviewing topics from embryology, nephrology,
physiology, anatomy and others
- Monday afternoon X-ray:
Residents present interesting cases with X-rays with staff
radiologists and urologists are in attendance. On the first Monday
of the month, the conference becomes a multidisciplinary uro-oncology
conference, in which urology, radiation oncology, diagnostic
urology, medical oncology and pathology meet to discuss complex
oncology cases.
- Thursday morning didactic:
The chief resident organizes this series, which varies from didactic
attending lectures, visiting professor lectures and morbidity and
mortality conference to pathology case review.
The teaching curriculum has two journal
clubs:
- White/Gold journal club.
Residents meet monthly to review important articles in the
Journal of Urology and Urology.
- Topic-oriented journal club.
Once per month from September through May, a staff member or invited
guest organizes topic- oriented journal club to focus on 8-10
important articles on topics such as oncology, BPH, infertility,
incontinence, etc.
We also have a visiting professor at
least three times a year, i.e., January, June and September.
Clinical research is encouraged and
available for all residents. We maintain an active oncology database
program. All residents present research topics at the Spring Tidewater
Urology Meeting. We support travel to regional and national meetings to
present abstracts accepted for presentation. Other meetings supported
include the Basic Science Review in Charlottesville for PGY3 residents,
and the AUA review courses for chief residents preparing for Part I
Board examinations.
There is no allotted time for resident
basic lab research. However, the department has an active affiliation
with the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Cell Biology and has a
multidisciplinary prostate cancer center—the
Virginia Prostate Center. Three
previous residents have taken time before or after residency to perform
basic science research in these laboratories.
Residents receive standard
EVMS stipend and benefits
 for their PGY- level,
and three weeks leave plus holidays. General surgery call is in-house,
while urology call is from home, covering SNGH, Sentara Leigh Hospital
and CHKD. We are in full compliance with the 80-hour work week
requirements and are phasing in the competency requirements from ACGME.
For more information, contact:
Kurt A. McCammon, MD
Director, Urology Residency Program
c/o Lynn Vass, Urology Residency Coordinator
400 W. Brambleton Avenue, Suite 100
Norfolk, VA 23510
757-457-5175
vasslm@evms.edu
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