Training & Curriculum

The 6-year program starts with a one-year core surgery curriculum offering broad grounding in critical care and trauma, and early exposure to cardiac and thoracic surgery, fully integrated within the highly competitive Cedars-Sinai ACGME General Surgery Residency Program.

The next five years of the I-6 program builds on these foundational skills to provide a thorough grounding in the complete spectrum of adult and congenital cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, including mechanical circulatory support, heart and lung transplantation, minimally invasive, transcatheter, endovascular and robotic approaches and pediatric cardiac surgery.

The I-6 curriculum provides comprehensive educational experience in core surgery, and the complete spectrum of adult and congenital cardiovascular and thoracic surgery including mechanical circulatory support, heart and lung transplantation, minimally invasive, transcatheter, endovascular and robotic approaches and pediatric cardiac surgery.

Graduates will meet the requirements to certify for the American Board of Thoracic Surgery Cardiac or Thoracic track

The PGY-1 year of our six-year program is fully integrated within the highly competitive Cedars-Sinai ACGME General Surgery Residency Program: It provides a one-year core surgery curriculum offering a broad grounding in:

• Critical care and trauma
• Colorectal surgery
• Plastic surgery
• Vascular surgery
• General surgery and ENT
• Cardiac and thoracic surgery

The PGY-2 year focuses on adult cardiac surgery leveraging the extremely high-volume Heart Transplant Program, and gaining experience on the following clinical rotations:

• One month with our transplant fellows gaining independence in organ procurement, heart transplant, mechanical circulatory support and advanced cardiac critical care management
  
• Cardiac and thoracic surgery
• ICU and SICU
• Critical care and trauma
• Colorectal surgery
• Hepatobiliary surgery

The PGY-3 year comprises four blocks of one to five months each:

• General thoracic surgery at Cedars-Sinai with the general surgery chief resident
• Cardiac surgery
• ICU
• Cardiac anesthesia

The PGY-4 year comprises three blocks of two to six months each:

• Transplant surgery (organ procurement, heart transplant, mechanical circulatory support and advanced cardiac critical care management)
• Cardiac surgery
• Six-month block of extensive cardiothoracic surgical experience at training site 2 at Huntington Hospital, Pasadena

The PGY5 year comprises two blocks of six months each:

• Aortovascular surgery at Cedars-Sinai 
• Adult cardiac surgery supported by a PGY2 I-6 resident

The chief year comprises three blocks of four months each:

• Thoracic surgery with the opportunity to focus on robotic skills acquisition
• Heart and lung transplant and mechanical circulatory support
• Adult cardiac surgery

The mission of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai is to become a discovery engine for cardiovascular disease and therapeutics, leveraging the rich clinical expertise, diverse patient population and advanced cardiovascular research in translational, clinical and data science. Relevant Smidt Heart Institute expertise includes specialty leadership in transcatheter and surgical mitral repair, highly experienced investigators in comparative outcomes registry studies and clinical trials in valvular heart disease, and several continuously NIH-funded laboratories focused on large dataset analysis, population health and epidemiology.