General Surgery Residency Update Summer 2026

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 continue to see an ongoing expansion of our simulation program under the guidance of Dr. Marshall Baker, Karen Porter, RN, and Suzy Han, RN. We had a 100% pass rate on both the qualifying and certifying exam last year with four of our PGY5s taking the American Board of Surgery qualifying exam in July last year and additional rising chief residents planning to take it this coming July. In May we had the 5th Annual Department of Surgery Fellows, Resident, and Medical Student Research Retreat directed by Dr. Erin Ward. Fellow, resident, and medical student research abstracts were presented with cash prizes awarded to the top three fellow/resident presenters and for the top medical student presenter. Congratulations to Dr. Hall and Dr. Hegeholz for their first and second place finishes respectively. We saw the start of a new General Surgery residency program at Intermountain Health and very much appreciate the ongoing collaborative effort that we have with our colleagues at that location. We also added a new rotation at the Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele which offers our residents a genuine general surgery experience in a more rural, community setting. All of this while doing lots of skiing, hiking, running, and biking! We had the Annual Ski Day in March and actually had snow! 

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. Becca Empey who will be doing a surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Utah; Dr. Kartemus Heary who will be joining Dubuque Surgery in Dubuque, Iowa as a general surgeon; Dr. Cecilia Im who will be doing a breast fellowship at the University of Southern California; Dr. Fidel Lopez-Verdugo who will be doing a minimally invasive surgery fellowship at Mass General Brigham; Dr. Lauren McGuire who will be joining the Hospice and Palliative Medicine faulty at the University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute as well as doing locums in general surgery until her partner completes his Plastic Surgery training; and Dr. Hannah Wilcox who will be joining Logan Regional Medical Center as a general surgeon. 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. Elliot Ballato from Oregon Health & Science University; Dr. Trevor Glad from East Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University; Dr. Kylee Maxfield from the University of Utah; Dr. Chinedu Nwaduru from the University of Ibadan; Dr. Emerald Toth from the University of Washington; and Dr. Ryan Trus from the University of Vermont. It was a competitive match, and we are excited to have this talented group of people joining us for the next 6-7 years. 

We want to acknowledge, thank, and say goodbye to our previous Program Director, Dr. Laura Lambert, and wish her well with her new endeavors at New York University, Long Island. We have so much gratitude for her as an educator, colleague, friend, and a strong supporter and leader of the Program during her tenure. She continued and improved upon the bar of excellence that was set by those before her, and we are forever indebted to her service. She will always be a part of this team and family. We also want to welcome Dr. Devi Krishnamurty as our incoming Program Director. With her steadfast leadership, the General Surgery Residency Program will continue to flourish for many years to come.

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 like to thank Dr. Ram Nirula, Chief of the Division of General Surgery, and Dr. Clark Gamblin, Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, for their 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, Michelle Adsitt, and Stephanie Ostendorf. 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 continuing our collaboration with the new general surgery residency program at Intermountain Health. We will also continue the Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele collaboration that offers 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!