Re: State of the Department of Surgery -  November 2012

I am very pleased to report that the Department of Surgery at the University of Virginia is in good shape. We have had a long outstanding tradition and our new faculty and residents continue to make our department great. From a research standpoint NIH support is fortunately very good. Grants continue to come in and I would place our department in the top 10% for research support. We publish approximately a 100 major manuscripts a year and this has been an ongoing effort.

The teaching mission is also going quite well. The General Surgical Residency of which most of you have been a part of is truly an outstanding program. Bruce Schirmer and his leadership have continued to make it terrific. We have had a record number of applicants and continue to be very selective. There continues to be multiple teaching awards for the faculty and residents.

Finally the clinical effort has continued to grow. Our quality is carefully measured these days through data sharing with the University Health Consortion. An observed to expect mortality of one is considered the norm. Ours this past year was .76 which puts us among the top 5 or 6 academic programs in the United States. This relates to the quality efforts of the faculty and residents and their continued devotion to excellent care. I couldn’t be more proud of this effort. Our total number of operations continues to be outstanding as well. Despite the fact that we have a very small faculty our total number of cases is well above the mean for the University Health Consortion. This includes many institutions with multiple hospitals.

I am very proud of the Department of Surgery in 2012. We all long for the good old days and certainly things were great when many of you were residents here. I have to tell you that this generation of faculty and residents have maintained your traditions for excellence.

Sincerely,

Irving L. Kron, M.D.

S. Hurt Watts Professor and

Chair Department of Surgery