Residency Positions: 6
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**Please note** The application deadline is 12/31/07 for the 2008-2009 academic year.
This is a consortium program based at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the largest of the osteopathic medical schools and one of the five largest medical schools in the United States. Among the benefits of this consortium are access to the College?s vast resources including use of campus physical facilities such as meeting and class rooms, computers and computer laboratories, anatomy, physiology and biochemistry laboratories, anatomical museum, live animal research laboratories and a comprehensive medical library with Index Medicus service. The College also offers access to staff personnel resources including the entire faculty of the clinical and basic sciences, academic services office, the graduate medical education offices, audio-visual communications department, research staff and the Dean?s and Associate Dean?s offices.
This residency is approved for six training positions. Six positions are currently filled and there are six major services, each four months in duration. PCOM itself does not own any full-service hospital facility. The clinical services comprising our consortium, through which each resident rotates, are considered the ?base? program.
Service I consists of a rotation at New York University Upstate Campus in Valhalla, New York. This is a major university service with a department of seven full time plastic surgeons headed by Roger Salisbury, M.D. The experience at Valhalla includes all major areas of plastic surgery including general reconstruction, trauma, maxillofacial surgery, hand surgery, microvascular surgery, aesthetic surgery, a major burn unit and a cleft lip and palate clinic.
Service II is based at Frankford/Torresdale Hospital, the more than 30 year surgery practice of service director Sherman N. Leis, D.O., and the practice of George Zavitsanos, M.D. These busy private practices cover a large variety of aesthestic and general reconstructive surgery. In addition to Frankford/Torresdale Hospital, the service utilizes Mercy Suburban Hospital and ambulatory surgery facilities in Bucks County and Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. This rotation also includes learning the fine points of office management, organizing and managing an out patient surgery center, and marketing an aesthetic surgery practice.
Service III is based at Hahnemann University Hospital. Service Chief is Paul Glat, M.D. It consists of a variety of general reconstructive cases and trauma, including maxillo-facial surgery and head and neck reconstruction from the referral base of a large urban university hospital as well as aesthetic surgery from Dr. Glat?s private practice.
Service IV consists of rotation on the plastic surgical service at St. Christopher?s Hospital for Children. This large well-established pediatric hospital is associated with the Tenant Hospital system. Chief of Service is Paul Glat, M.D. Plastic surgery at St. Christopher?s includes coverage of an emergency trauma service, a cleft lip and palate service and clinic, craniofacial service, pediatric burn center, and a variety of other general reconstructive surgery cases such as soft tissue tumors, vascular anomalies and other congenital defects.
Service V is based at Wykoff Hospital, Brooklyn, New York. Chief of Service is A.C. Rau, M.D. This service, with three board certified plastic surgeons and two head and neck surgeons covers a busy emergency department with a significant amount of trauma, hand surgery and general reconstruction.
Service VI is based at Frankford/Bucks Hospital. Chief of Service is Robert Skalicky, D.O. Surgical case load is trauma, general reconstruction, hand surgery and aesthetic surgery. Three plastic surgeons and two head and neck surgeons, all board certified, participate as trainers on the service, which also utilizes the facilities of St. Mary Hospital in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.
In addition to rotating on six major surgical services, residents are required to participate in an intense academic program. They are expected to study the anatomy and surgical techniques of operations scheduled on their service on a daily basis. All residents are required to attend weekly plastic surgery conferences which include textbook and Selected Readings chapter review, Journal Club, morbidity/mortality/case review and weekly service reports. Also, when on Service II, residents review approximately 45 videos covering a variety of aesthetic and reconstructive procedures performed by some of the country?s most experienced plastic surgeons. By the end of each year, by means of this process, residents will have completed review of all chapters in Grabb and Smith?s Plastic Surgery and the associated subject chapters in Selected Readings, as well as review of selected journal articles and plastic surgery videos.
Each January through June a cadaver in the College?s anatomy lab is made available to plastic surgery residents to perform anatomic dissections and cadaveric surgeries of major plastic surgery procedures. This presents an excellent opportunity for the resident to perform entire procedures on their own and to study in detail complex and less commonly performed procedures.
Residents are required to research and write a minimum of one paper suitable for publication each year. During the first year of the program, a surgical exhibit prepared for the Annual Clinical Assembly may be substituted for the paper. Scientific research is encouraged and College facilities and personnel are available to assist and guide the resident in these endeavors.
During the two year program residents are encouraged to enroll in as many as possible of the following special courses and meetings: the Dallas Rhinoplasty Course, the PCOM Microsurgery Training Course, the Philadelphia Maxillo-Facial Surgery Course, one or more laser courses, a breast reconstruction course, the annual Temple University Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Symposium, the annual University of Pennsylvania Plastic Surgery Conference, the Annual Clinical Assembly of Osteopathic Specialists., and the American Society of Plastic Surgery annual meeting.
Adequate funding has been a challenge since the establishment of this residency program. Fortunately, we have recently established additional funded, quality rotations which add to the financial support of the program and permit the residents to receive satisfactory income.
Since this residency began we have been constantly trying to upgrade its quality from every possible perspective. At this time, we have a program with clinical rotations covering all major areas of the specialty and organized through a consortium agreement with an osteopathic school of medicine. The clinical and academic aspects of the program are good and funding has recently improved significantly. At this point in time, we believe this training program to be close to a model program, comparable to the best training programs available in this specialty in the United States.
Sherman Leis, D.O.
Program Director, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Education/Training
BA, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1963
DO, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1967
Internship: Zeiger/Botsford Hospitals, 1967-68
Resident: Metropolitan Hospital, 1968-70
Resident: Albert Einstein Medical Center, 1970-71
Chief Resident: Albert Einstein Medical Center, 1971-72
Fellowship
Hospital St. Louis, Paris, France, September 1972 - March 1973
University of Lund Hospital, Malmo, Sweden, April 1973 - June 1974
Hospital Foch/Clinique Belevedeere, Paris, July 1974 - October 1974
Certifications/Memberships
Board certified, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 1981
Board certified, General Surgery, 1994
Member in Good Standing: AOA, POMA, American College of Osteopathic Surgeons, Pennsylvania Osteopathic Medical Association
Teaching Appointments
Professor and Chairman, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, PCOM, 1974 to present
Director, Residency Training Program in Plastice and Reconstructive Surgery, PCOM, 1991 to present
Adjunct Clinical Faculty, Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine, 1976 to present
Lecturer, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1980 to present
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