Colorectal Surgery

Program Director
Dr. W. Donald Buie
Department of Surgery
Foothills Hospital
1403 – 29th St. NW
Calgary  AB  T2N 2T9

Program Coordinator:
Sabine MacKinnon
Phone: (403) 944-8023
Fax: (403) 270-0148
e-mail: sabine.mackinnon@albertahealthservices.ca

Note:  Applications must be made between August 1 and September 30
for a start on July 1 of the next academic year.

Background
The University of Calgary offers a postgraduate training program in Colon and Rectal Surgery. The program is fully accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The University of Calgary provides a certificate indicating completion of a Royal College accredited program in Colon and Rectal Surgery. By 2006, we anticipate that graduates of the program will be eligible for certification by the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery following the upcoming Royal College accreditation in 2009.

Our program graduates one resident each academic year. The primary goal of the program is to produce colorectal surgeons who are dedicated to the pursuit of an academic surgical career.

The program has two major components: a research year aimed at providing the trainee with experience in basic science or in clinical investigation & clinical epidemiology, followed by a clinical year aimed at providing the trainee with the necessary skills to perform colon and rectal surgery at the consultant level. For those candidates wishing to be trained to carry out independent research, opportunities exist to purse either a Master’s Degree (two years) or a Ph.D. (three or more years).The program is university based, and the faculty consists of six colon and rectal surgeons working in two teaching hospitals and one community hospital. The staff surgeons who are involved in the training program in colon and rectal surgery also have responsibilities for the training of general surgery residents. We anticipate no significant difficulties in satisfying the education components of both programs. 

The program is fully accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The University of Calgary provides a certificate indicating the completion of a Royal College accredited program in Colon and Rectal Surgery. The Royal College does not currently offer a certification examination in Colon and Rectal Surgery.  As of 2009 the Royal College will be offering a Certification Examination in Colon and Rectal Surgery and all of our residents will be eligible to sit this examination. Successful candidates will be awarded a certificate by the Royal College designating Fellowship status in Colorectal Surgery.

Requirements of the Candidates
Each candidate must have completed a minimum of five years of training in an approved General Surgery program and be eligible for certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The candidate must be eligible for educational licensure in the province of Alberta (Graduates of American Board of Surgery approved residency programs in General Surgery will meet these requirements). 

Structure of the Program: Research Year
One year of research training is offered as part of the Colon and Rectal Surgery Residency Program. The goals of this year are to introduce the resident to the concepts of basic science and clinical research and to provide the resident with an exposure to the skills necessary to conduct independent research. For those residents wishing to pursue more advanced research training, degree programs at the Master’s or Ph.D. levels are available and would require one to two extra years. During the research year, the resident is primarily assigned to the laboratory for basic science research or an ongoing clinical research project of a clinician investigator. 

The activities of the group include research in the following areas: 

a) mechanisms of anastomotic healing
b) colorectal cancer therapy
c) colorectal cancer prevention
d) clinical trials in inflammatory bowel disease
e) clinical epidemiology
f) surgical treatment of incontinence. 

Structure of the Program: Clinical Year
The clinical year is spent meeting the speciality training requirements of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. The program is structured to allow the resident to participate in the spectrum of activities of the six staff surgeons. During the course of the academic year, each colorectal surgery resident will perform approximately 250 colonoscopies, 80 flexible sigmoidoscopies, 175 anorectal operations, 250 open abdominal operations and 75 laparoscopic procedures. The resident is a full participant in outpatient clinics and is given the opportunity to run outpatient clinic independently with staff support. The residents are exposed to the full breadth of our speciality, including inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal oncology, minimally invasice colorectal surgery, anorectal pathology, diagnostic and interventional endoscopy, intestinal motor disorders, pelvic floor pathology, fecal incontinence, and sexually transmitted disease. 

Resident Responsibilities
In addition to clinical responsibilities, the Colon and Rectal Surgery resident is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. The resident is active in teaching clinical and operative skills to general surgery residents. The resident will participate in a clinical project during the clinical year and is expected to present that work at meetings such as the Royal College, American College of Surgeons, American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. Attendance at one major meeting per year is mandatory, but the resident may present his / her work at as many meetings as there are abstracts accepted. 

The resident is responsible for documenting the operative experience during the clinical year.

Faculty 
Anthony R. MacLean MD, FRCSC, Foothills Medical Centre
John A. Heine. MD, FRCSC, FAC, Peter Lougheed Hospital
Doug R. E. Johnson MD, MSc, FRCSC, Peter Lougheed Hospital
Wayne Rosen, MD, FRCSC, Peter Lougheed Hospital
Daryl A. Jenken MD, FRCSC, Rockyview General Hospital
David L. Sigalet, MD, PhD, FRCSC, Foothills Medical Centre (Research)
and Alberta Children’s Hospital 

Clinical Teaching Units
Foothills Medical Centre
Peter Lougheed Hospital
Rockyview General Hospital