News & Events

  Visit the Parenting in Surgery website   Annie having a great time at the Mentorship event. Becoming a parent is hard work, especially when balancing the new role as a parent with surgical training. We have created a New Parent Mentorship Program in the UCSF Department of Surgery to provide a support network of trainees and faculty. The Mentorship program was successfully launched with a social gathering at Spark Social SF. The event included a kid's play area, an abundance of food, and the opportunity for medical students, trainees, faculty, and their families to meet, mingle, and [...]

The Exceptional Physician Awards recognizes select physicians for exemplary demonstration of UCSF Health's values in their clinical practice and interaction with patients, faculty and staff. The Department of Surgery wants to congratulate Dr. Hillary J. Braun, one of our Chief Residents in General Surgery and future transplant surgeon, for receiving an Exceptional Physician Award for the academic year 2022-23.     Watch the 2023 Exceptional Physician Award Winner Hillary Braun Acceptance Video:

The Department of Surgery is pleased to announce the selection of Shareef Syed, MBChB, MRCS, assistant professor in the division of Transplant Surgery, as the new Associate Director of the UCSF Surgical Skills Center.  Dr. Syed is a general surgeon specializing in abdominal transplantation. After earning his medical degree at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, Dr. Syed completed 3 years of medical and surgical residency in the UK National Health Service (NHS). During this time, he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons, UK.  Dr. Syed completed his general surgery residency [...]

Matthew Y.C. Lin, M.D. has been named the UCSF Surgery Clerkship Director, starting January 2, 2020. Dr. Lin is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery. In his clinical practice, he cares for patients with conditions of obesity, gallbladder, intestines, stomach, and complex hernias. Dr. Lin is also a member of the acute care surgical service at the Parnassus campus. Dr. Lin received his medical degree at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, followed by a general surgery residency at Harbor – UCLA Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in minimally [...]

Hueylan Chern, M.D., an associate professor in the Section of Colorectal Surgery, has been named the new Director of the UCSF Surgical Skills Center. The UCSF Surgical Skills Center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons, and it is one of the crown jewels of the Department's teaching enterprise. It provides simulation based longitudinal and structured curricula, enabling learners to master both basic and advanced operative techniques. The lab also supports educational scholarship in teaching, curricular development, and research as a pathway to an academic career in surgical [...]

James M. Gardner, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Transplant Surgery, has been awarded an appointment to the prestigious Physician-Scientist Scholar Program (PSSP), part of the UCSF Sandler Fellows Program. All of the Departments in the University are invited to nominate candidates who compete for the award, only one of which is given per year. Dr. Gardner was nominated by Chris E. Freise, M.D. and Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS, and is the first surgeon to receive this award. The appointment provides $1.25M in direct research funding over five years. The [...]

Edward "Ed" Kim, M.D., an associate professor of surgery in the Division of General Surgery and Bian Wu, M.D., a clinical fellow in the Division of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery, are the recipients of prestigious teaching awards, reflecting their outstanding didactic skills and abiding commitment to the education of medical students and residents. Each were nominated by Ogonna Nnamani, a 3rd year medical student at UCSF. Ed Kim, M.D. - The Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching  Dr. Ed Kim, a colorectal surgeon, who is also Director of the UCSF Surgical Skills Center, was [...]

Patricia S. O'Sullivan, EdD, professor of Surgery and Medicine at UCSF, received the 2018 Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award from the Faculty Mentoring Program at an award celebration on June 13th at the Lange Room in the UCSF Parnassus Library.  Dr. O'Sullivan is director of the Office of Research and Development in Medical Education (RaDME) and holds the Endowed Chair for Surgical Education at UCSF. Her teaching and mentoring excellence have enriched the careers of faculty and trainees spanning a multitude of programs in the Department of Surgery including Resident Research, Medical [...]

UCSF was recently ranked No. 4 nationally for the surgery curriculum taught in medical school, placing it in the top 2.5% of the 177 medical and osteopathic schools surveyed in the U.S. News & World Report survey of best graduate and professional schools.   The curriculum, developed by highly acclaimed Department of Surgery faculty, encompasses didactic in-class learning fused with early longitudinal immersion in clinical teams, and an inquiry-focused learning environment that encourages medical students to ask questions that push the frontiers of science and understanding of human [...]

The Department of Surgery warmly welcomes our seven new categorical residents comprising the Class of 2025. We congratulate them in matching with our program. This is a diverse group of highly accomplished individuals that bring a wide array of life experiences and academic excellence to UCSF. We look forward to these newly minted residents' arrival and to providing them an enriching and rewarding experience over the next seven years as they train to become future leaders in academic surgery.   UCSF DEPARTMENT OF SURGERYPGY-1 Categorical General Surgery Residents (2018-19)

UCSF general surgery research fellow Courtney A. Green, M.D. was recently interviewed by Daniel Seeger of Surgical Products Magazine about changes in the surgical instruction model heralded by the advent of robotic surgery in the operating room.  It's well understood that robotic-assisted surgical systems are transforming the work that happens in the operating room. But does the increasing prominence of the devices in the healthcare field also require a transformation in how surgical instruction takes place? Courtney Green, MD, a research fellow in the general surgery program at the [...]

Courtney A. Green, M.D., research fellow in the General Surgery Residency program, has been awarded a CSERT (Center for Excellence in Surgical Education, Research and Training) grant from the Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Foundation. Her research project is entitled, "Investigation into the Perceptual Expertise of a Robotic Surgeon: How do we learn to feel what we see?" Surgical education grants are among the most difficult to obtain. Moreover, this grant has historically been awarded to faculty affiliated with academic institutions, underscoring Dr. Green's achievement here as a [...]

The October 2017 Update of the UCSF Bridges Curriculum highlights a project of UCSF medical students Ammar Joudeh and Carolyn Rennels to reduce surgical site infections by distributing chlorhexidine wipes to patients before elective surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. The project is part of a Bridges Curriculum Clinical Microsystems Clerkship (CMC). Jennifer Kerns, MD, MS, MPH, assistant professor in obstetrics and gynecology at ZSFG, serves as coach.  Surgical site infections (SSI) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality associated with surgical procedures. [...]

Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. and Yeranuí Ledesma, M.D. are among this year's recipients of the 2017 UCSF Health Exceptional Physician Award. Dr. Kratz, now a member of the Thoracic Oncology Program and Assistant Professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Dr. Ledesma, a Senior Resident in General Surgery, were among 8 winners out of 61 nominees, notably the only clinical fellow and resident, respectively, at UCSF to receive the award, and the only recipients not on the faculty.  The official announcement reads: We are delighted to announce the 2017 UCSF Health Exceptional [...]

James M. Gardner, M.D., Ph.D. and Nicole Conkling, M.D. have been awarded prestigious research grants by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) for its 2017 funding cycle.  Dr. Gardner, who just completed his Chief Residency in General Surgery at UCSF and is a rising fellow in the Division of Transplant Surgery, was the only transplant fellow in the country to receive the prestigious ASTS-Astellas Fellowship. The award will fund Dr. Gardner's research, which he pursued throughout his residency with the support of Department of Surgery funding, during his clinical fellowship [...]

The online physician network Doximity and U.S. News & World Report ranked UCSF's General Surgery Residency Program, led by Linda M. Reilly, M.D., among the top 2% in the U.S. out of more than 250 accredited general surgery residency programs. The goals of the surgical residency program are two-fold. The first is to prepare residents to become safe, qualified, board-certified surgical practitioners. The second is to train residents to be future teachers and leaders in surgery. A review of graduates from the past 30 years indicates that greater than 80% continue in fellowship [...]