Overview
The residency program in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery is a 5 year program in which trainees are exposed to all subspecialty areas within Otolaryngology and presented with the opportunity to work in multiple training environments. The Department is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and is nationally recognized as one of the premier centers for research and clinical care in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.
What to expect year by year
Rotations include Trauma Surgery, Intensive and Critical Care Medicine, Oral Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, and General Surgery.
This is the first year of dedicated Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery concentration. Rotations will include time at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital where outpatient clinical care and trauma management is emphasized. This rotation is an excellent opportunity for early specialty surgical experience. The UCSF Parnassus provides exposure to tertiary and quarternary Head and Neck Surgical Patients with an emphasis on anterior and lateral skull base surgery. An intensive Pediatric Otolaryngology rotation is completed at the new, state of the art UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco and at the Benioff Oakland Children’s Hospital. PGY-2 residents also rotate at the Bakar Precision Cancer Medicine Building at the UCSF Mission Bay Campus where they focus on the surgical care of head and neck cancer patients.
Rotations at San Francisco General Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital provide additional exposure to care in these unique patient populations. PGY-3 Residents rotate through subspecialty specific rotations including rhinology, sleep surgery, laryngology, and facial plastic surgery. PGY-3 residents serve in an early leadership role in the Benioff Children’s Hospitals in both Mission Bay and Oakland. A special course in clinical research training is offered to all residents during protected time from clinical work in the summer of the PGY-3 year and is the catalyst for a future research block in the PGY-4 year.
The PGY-4 year includes a three month dedicated research rotation. Residents are provided with a menu of research opportunities from our faculty and select to work on Otolaryngology-related projects with faculty mentors inside our Department and in the greater UCSF research enterprise. An early chief resident experience is completed at the San Francisco General Hospital. The remainder of the year is spent as the chief resident on the anterior and lateral skull base service at the Parnassus campus and a dedicated block on the Otology service.
This final year includes supervisory, administrative, and leadership roles at UCSF Parnassus, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Rotations are structured with dedicated subspecialty time on the Otology, Rhinology, Laryngology, Facial Plastics, and Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery services. The chief resident’s responsibilities include a busy surgical schedule, direct supervision of medical students and residents, as well as taking charge of the schedule for academic teaching and conferences. Although this is a rigorous year, and the learning curve is steep, the rewards are great.
At the conclusion of the Chief Resident year, our graduates are prepared for an academic position or an independent practice in the community. Many of our residents choose to go on to advanced clinical or research fellowship training. Many of our program graduates have gone on to become chairmen, academic faculty, and clinical leaders throughout the United States.
Salary & benefits
Salary
Our residents are unionized with negotiated salaries and raises through 2024. Salaries for AY23-24 range from $87,890 - $99,479 based on PGY level. There will be a 5% raise in AY24-25.
Relocation & Meals
A one-time relocation reimbursement of $1800 is provided to all incoming residents except for UCSF Medical School graduates. Residents get a $300/month meal allowance that is reset quarterly. Coffee is provided 24/7 at clinical sites.
Health insurance
Residents and fellows are eligible to participate in the University's health, dental, vision, short and long term disability, accidental death and disability, and life insurance plans.
Vacation and Leave
Residents get 4 workweeks of vacation time per year. There are 8 weeks of paid parental leave per birth or adoption. There are 12 days of sick leave credited each calander year.
Academic Training
Our top notch academic program includes 3 hours of specialty lectures on Monday mornings. Wednesday mornings have a rotating schedule of Grand Rounds, Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conference, and sub-speciality conferences.
There are several mini-courses within the residency that include audiology, speech and language pathology, temporal bone course, microvascular course, facial injectables practicum, sinus surgery courses, and simulation opportunities.
Our residents participate in the continuing education programs of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery including attendance at national and regional meetings. A resident travel program underwrites the travel costs of attending national meetings when presenting a poster or podium talk. Our residents are sent to the American Academy of Otolaryngologic Allergy (AAOA) Basic Course to receive high quality didactic education in this field.
Research opportunities
Early in the academic year, there is a faculty research symposium highlighting new research opportunities for resident involvement. Research projects and yearly presentations are an expectation for PGY2-5. There is an abundance of laboratory science and clinical research opportunities.
Global health opportunities
Multiple Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery faculty are involved in global health initiatives that create opportunities for resident involvement. Dr. Lia Jacobson is co-director of UCSF's Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) Fellowship program, which supports physicians and surgeons committed to a career in global health equity in the perioperative space. There are two global surgery fellowship pathways available in OHNS at UCSF - a funded clinical/research fellowship for US-based surgeons and a remote research fellowship available to ENTs from all over the world. Dr. Jacobson also works directly with ENT training programs in Tanzania and Cambodia.
Dr. JoAnn Czechowicz is OHNS co-representative on the leadership council of the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia. Her global health work is focused on pediatric hearing outcomes and the impact of infectious disease on hearing. Dr. Czechowicz's most recent research explores congenital hearing loss and factors affecting access to newborn hearing screening at Hospital San Bartolome, a major birthing hospital in Lima. There are opportunities to become involved in projects with partners at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru.
Dr. Mary Jue Xu has collaborated through the UCSF Global Cancer Program working on ongoing projects in Tanzania assessing head and neck cancer outcomes, HPV-associated head and neck malignancies, and tracheostomy care. Working with her collaborator Dr. Aslam Nkya in Tanzania, they are developing opportunities for multidisciplinary clinical capacity building and education. Dr. Xu is also a co-founder of the Global Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Initiative, an international research collaborative, which has worked on projects including research equity guidelines, global OHNS in national policy plans, and a global OHNS workforce survey. There are numerous and growing opportunities for trainees to become involved in ongoing collaborations in research and capacity building.