SUMMER 2025 GENERAL SURGERY RESIDENCY UPDATE

University of Utah General Surgery Residency

It is hard to believe that another academic year has come and gone – and what a year it has been! We recently had our Residency Update grand rounds and there was much to celebrate – no citations or areas of concern from the ACGME, an astounding number of cases done and EPAs generated, papers published, presentations given, certificates earned, grants funded, and awards won. We saw a significant expansion of our simulation program under the guidance of Dr. Marshall Baker and Karen Porter, RN. We had a 100% pass rate on both the qualifying and certifying exam last year with 3 of our PGY5s taking the American Board of Surgery qualifying exam in July last year and 4 planning to take it this coming July. In May we had the 4th Annual Department of Surgery Resident/Fellow Research Retreat directed by Dr. Anna Ibele. Resident, fellow and medical student research abstracts were presented with cash prizes awarded to the top 3 resident/fellow presenters and for the top medical student presenter. All of this while doing lots of skiing, hiking, running, and biking! We had the Annual Ski Day in March and a first ever resident Easter egg hunt for the 14 children in the program.

As in years past, we said goodbye to some faculty and welcomed new faculty, and we watched an amazing group of talented, bright, young doctors take one step closer to being fully trained surgeons. Among those who will be leaving us in July, we congratulate Dr. Markus Boesl who will be joining Intermountain Health as a general surgeon;  Dr. Emily Collaer who will be doing a trauma/critical care fellowship at Washington University; Dr. Stephanie Iantorno who will be doing a pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Washington; Dr. Molly Leonard who will be doing a colorectal surgery fellowship at the University of Louisville; Dr. Alex Trinh who will doing a trauma/critical care fellowship at Cook County Hospital; and Dr. Andrea Williamson who will be doing a colorectal surgery fellowship at Washington University. We are incredibly proud of each of them and look forward to watching their lives and careers unfold. We know that they will all be amazingly successful in the years to come!

While it is hard to say goodbye to people with whom we have worked so closely for the past 5-7 years, we are also excited to welcome our incoming interns -  Dr. India Burdon from Dartmouth; Dr. Annelise Long from the University of Washington; Dr. Joseph Maestes from the University of Southern California; Dr. Jacob Slagle from Dartmouth; Dr. Sydney Vincenti from the University of Utah and Dr. Evan Watkins from Dartmouth. It was a competitive match, and we are excited to have this talented group of people joining us for the next 6-7 years. 

It is also a very exciting time for all of our residents as they either move up in the clinical years or over for some professional development time. We acknowledge all the hard work and dedication that each of our residents has provided over the past year in taking such great care of a lot of surgical patients, the surgical faculty and their colleagues. 

The program would also like to remember and acknowledge Dr. Mark Savarise who passed away much too early for his incredible support and education of our residents during his long tenure at the University of Utah as well as his leadership within the Department and at the level of the American College of Surgeons. In grateful recognition, the residents have created a new mentorship award in his name. Dr. Ram Nirula is the inaugural recipient of this prestigious award. 

The program would like to thank Dr. Ram Nirula, chief of the Division of General Surgery, for his continued invaluable support and guidance for the general surgery residency program, and Dr. Fiemu Nwariaku, chair of the Department of Surgery, for his personal engagement with the residents and commitment to taking our program to the next level. We would also like to acknowledge the ceaseless efforts of our program coordinators and managers – Lori Bybee, Janell Clements and Michelle Adsitt. The program simply would not function without the support of this dedicated group of administrators.

We look forward to the coming year during which we will be engaging with a new general surgery residency program at Intermountain Health. We will also be adding a new rotation at the Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele to offer our residents a genuine general surgery experience in a more rural, community setting. We will continue to explore new ideas in surgical innovation and surgical education and we will continue our efforts to attract the best and brightest talent to the best possible training program in the world. This is Surgery+. This is Utah Surgery!