Harvard Program in Plastic Surgery

The Harvard Program in Plastic Surgery allows residents to optimize their educational experience by rotating through five of Boston’s best teaching hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children’s Hospital, and the Shriners Hospitals for Children-Boston. These five teaching hospitals provide 8,000 plastic surgery cases per year and offer experience in aesthetic, breast, craniofacial, cleft lip and palate, hand, oncological and burn reconstructive surgeries in both adults and children.

While on rotation at the MGH, residents have the opportunity to learn from expert surgeons on the private service, as well as gain independent operating experience on the ward service. Residents also attend a number of weekly educational conferences, including Hand Conference on Tuesday mornings, Grand Rounds on Wednesday mornings, Attending Rounds on Thursday mornings, and Ortho/Plastics Joint Hand Conference on Friday mornings.

The ACGME-accredited Harvard Program in Plastic Surgery offers two tracks:

Advanced Program (PG-Y-4 through PG-Y-6)
The advanced program is an independent three-year program open to applicants who will have completed at least three years of general surgery or other prerequisite surgical specialty in an ACGME accredited program prior to entering this program at the PGY-4 level.

Application Overview:
The plastic surgery residency program matches with two new residents for the three-year advanced program that starts each year in July.

Residency positions for this track are matched via the advanced plastic surgery match sponsored by the San Francisco Matching Programs. Residency applications for the advanced program are submitted through the Plastic Surgery Central Application Service. Click here for information on registering with the Central Application Service and the San Francisco Advanced Plastic Surgery Matching Program. Our faculty will review all applications for the advanced program during the months of December and January. Those who are invited to interview will be notified in February. The two-day interview session for the advanced program takes place in March.

Integrated Plastic Surgery/General Surgery Program (PG-Y-1 through PG-Y-6)
This integrated six-year program is open to applicants who have completed medical school. During the first three years of the program, residents will have exposure to basic concepts in plastic surgery as well as completing the general surgical prerequisites in the Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals under the supervision of plastic surgery faculty. Upon completion of the first three years, the residency training during the PGY-4 through PGY-6 years will focus on plastic surgical residency training as outlined in the advance program information.

Application Overview:
The plastic surgery residency program matches with three new residents for the six-year integrated program that starts each year July.

PGY-1 positions for this program will be matched through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Information regarding registration for the NRMP is available from the Dean's Office at your medical school or by clicking here. The residency application process for the integrated plastic surgery program goes through the AAMC ERAS electronic residency application system. The deadline for applications to be completed (except for Deans' letters) is November 1st. Our Faculty review all completed applications for the integrated program during the month of November. Those who are invited to interview will be notified by late November. The two-day interview session for the integrated program takes place in December.

What We Look for in Applications:
Each application is reviewed in its entirety with an eye toward a combination of overall academic excellence, leadership ability, career development potential and personal character.

Although we receive applications from many well-qualified candidates, it is not possible to interview all who apply. Every effort is made to notify applicants of their interview status in a timely manner, however our application review process for the integrated program often continues through late November due to the large number of applications received and the late release date for Dean's letters.

Interviews:
Each two-day interview session takes place from early Friday afternoon through late Saturday afternoon. Any applicants who are invited to interview will need to plan to be present for the entire two-day session. We do not schedule any individual interviews outside of these group interview sessions.

Any candidate who is invited to interview must contact the surgery education office to confirm their acceptance of the interview offer. If we do not receive a confirming phone call or e-mail from you by one week prior to the interview date, we will not be able to schedule you for the interview.

Interview Format:
On Friday afternoon the applicants will participate in a general orientation session during which they will meet the residency program director and the chiefs of plastic surgery from each of the teaching hospitals. Individual interview sessions between applicants and the faculty may begin on Friday afternoon, with additional interviews being scheduled throughout the day on Saturday. On Friday evening the applicants will have dinner with the Harvard plastic surgery residents. Faculty members do not attend the dinner so that applicants may talk freely with the residents in a non-interview environment.

Tours of the teaching hospitals will take place throughout the day on Friday and Saturday. For purposes of scheduling travel arrangements, any invited applicants should plan to be here by noon on Friday. It is anticipated that all interview activities will be completed by 3pm on Saturday.

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