Trauma and surgical critical care fellowship

Message from
Gary A. Bass, MD, MBA, PhD - Program Director

Penn Trauma is one of the premier Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care training programs in the world. For almost four decades, Penn has been recognized not only for delivering exceptional care, but also for developing the clinicians, scholars, educators, and leaders who have advanced the fields of traumatology, critical care of the surgical patient, surgical rescue, and complex emergency general surgery.

Fellows receive extensive immersive experience on our busy Surgical Critical Care service, caring for the most critically ill surgical patients across the full range of pathologies. Our urban, Level I trauma center in Philadelphia provides fellows with world-class exposure to a diverse spectrum of injury mechanisms, including a large and uniquely complex cohort of patients with penetrating trauma. Our Acute Care Surgery service is the largest surgical service within the institution, caring for a broad population of acutely ill and surgically complex patients.

The breadth and depth of Penn’s clinical experience provide an extraordinary fellowship training. Fellows learn to care for patients across the entire continuum of acute illness and injury, from the initial evaluation and resuscitation of the severely injured patient, through complex operative decision-making and perioperative management, to the prolonged care of the critically ill surgical patient. They also develop the judgment and technical expertise required for surgical rescue: recognizing and managing complications, failure, and complexity when the stakes are highest.

Across each of these domains, education is central to our mission. We are committed to environment which creates master educators: fellows assume meaningful clinical responsibility, develop exceptional judgment and technical expertise, and learn to lead multidisciplinary teams through the most challenging clinical situations. Our goal is not simply to produce excellent surgeons. It is to develop graduates who can transform patient care, build outstanding programs, advance the science of acute care surgery, and lead their institutions and professional communities.

At Penn, fellowship training is the beginning of your leadership trajectory. Performance improvement, research, mentorship, and formal leadership development are integral components of the fellowship experience. We believe that our responsibility extends beyond preparing fellows for their next job; we are preparing them for the full arc of their careers and for the opportunities they will have to influence the future of trauma, surgical critical care, emergency general surgery, and academic surgery.

We offer several training pathways, including a one-year ACGME-accredited Surgical Critical Care fellowship, a two-year American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST)-accredited Acute Care Surgery fellowship, and a dedicated two-year ACGME Emergency Medicine/Surgical Critical Care track.

Gary A. Bass, MD MBA PhD
Program Director, Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Biostatistics and Epidemiology

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The University of Pennsylvania’s Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship is a fully accredited ACGME training program spanning three downtown Philadelphia clinical campuses and the breadth of activity of the Department of Surgery. The fellowship is designed to educate fellows in all phases of care of the critically ill and injured surgical patient.

Our training philosophy rests on several interconnected pillars: clinical excellence, research, academic development, leadership, and integration into the broader trauma and critical care community. Clinical training is centered on cutting-edge, evidence-based experiences in traumatology, emergency general surgery, surgical rescue, and surgical critical care. Fellows graduate with exceptional technical expertise and a sophisticated command of the strategies, principles, and systems required to care for the most complex surgical patients.

Fellows have clearly defined goals and objectives, with close attention to the quality of their educational experiences. Roles and responsibilities are clearly differentiated from those of resident learners, allowing fellows to develop as independent surgeons, educators, and team leaders while remaining embedded in a highly collaborative learning environment. Graduated autonomy, close mentorship, and exposure to world-class faculty allow fellows to develop the confidence and capabilities required to lead in high-acuity clinical settings.

Research is a defining strength of Penn’s Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery. The Division produces more than 100 peer-reviewed publications annually, spanning trauma, surgical critical care, emergency surgery, outcomes research, injury prevention and violence recovery, health services research, education, and military-civilian trauma readiness. Fellows identify research mentors early in training, and those mentors help establish milestones that support successful completion of meaningful projects by the end of fellowship. In addition to their individual scholarly work, all fellows participate in a longitudinal research didactic series that provides the foundational skills needed to join, develop, or lead a basic science, translational, or clinical research program in their next position.

Fellows also leave Penn with a strong academic and leadership framework. They gain an understanding of how to establish themselves as academic surgeons, identify meaningful opportunities for growth, and contribute to local, national, and international organizations. Formal administrative and leadership didactics, combined with individualized mentorship and exposure to our world-renowned faculty, prepare fellows to lead programs, institutions, professional societies, and the field itself.

Our commitment to leadership is reflected in the remarkable careers of Penn-trained surgeons. Graduates have gone on to become department chairs, division chiefs, trauma directors, ICU directors, deans, chief executive officers, researchers, educators, and national and international leaders in acute care surgery. The fellowship’s enduring purpose is to ensure that each trainee is prepared not only to succeed, but to make a lasting contribution.

Integration into the broader trauma and critical care community is further supported by Penn’s extensive network of graduates practicing throughout the United States and around the world. This community provides current and former trainees with enduring mentorship, collaboration, and professional opportunities across a wide range of academic, clinical, and leadership settings.

History

The Penn trauma training program was founded by C. William Schwab, MD, in 1989. Since that time, more than 150 fellows have completed the program and gone on to practice around the world. Among our graduates are leaders in American medicine, including deans, chief executive officers, department chairs, division chiefs, trauma directors, ICU directors, and many others who have shaped the field of acute care surgery. This legacy is a testament to the vision and ideals established by Dr. Schwab and carried forward by each generation of Penn faculty and trainees. The impact of the program is measured not simply by the number of fellows who have completed their training, but by the lasting influence they have had on patient care, education, research, institutional leadership, and the continued advancement of acute care surgery.

Military-civilian partnership

Of particular note is Penn’s longstanding commitment to training military trauma surgeons. Beginning with Dr. Schwab, who spent many years as a Naval surgeon, more than 20 military surgeons have served within the Penn trauma faculty and fellowship program. This commitment continues through N-SHARP (Navy-Strategic Health Alliance for Readiness and Performance), Penn’s fully embedded, team-based military-civilian trauma training partnership with the United States Navy. N-SHARP prepares Navy medical teams for combat casualty care, deployment, and high-acuity trauma care. It also reflects Penn’s broader commitment to developing expert teams, strengthening trauma readiness, and preparing leaders who can perform in the most demanding clinical environments. Together, Penn’s fellowship program and military-civilian partnership embody an enduring commitment to excellence, service, leadership, and the advancement of care for the most severely injured patients.