IT Blog

Throughout the history of modern surgery, training has been accomplished as a one-to-one apprenticeship in the operating room. High-volume surgical training programs offer the best opportunities to see surgery and experience rare cases. But the challenge is most surgical training programs only take a handful of applicants per year.

For instance, Seattle’s University of Washington Department of Neurological Surgery, where I work, only takes three applicants per year for its seven-year training program. Residents learn the full breadth of neurosurgery subspecialities from 20 faculty members in 5 facilities: vascular, skull base, tumor, spine, functional, trauma, and pediatrics. With about 7,000 operations a year across our entire training program, our residents graduate having participated in 2,000-3,000 operations beginning as observers and later as assistants.

Neurosurgery is a good example of how location, size, reputation and available training…