National Capital Consortium

Program Goals

The goals of the NCC General Surgery Residency Program are:

• To assist trainees in acquiring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to be effective general surgeons.

• To prepare trainees for entry into top surgical subspecialty training programs.

• To develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to allow graduates to maintain a program of scholarly research in their area of interest.

• To produce dynamic and effective surgical educators.

• To promote and encourage the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for lifelong learning and improvement.

• To develop military medical officers of character ready to lead surgical teams in support of military operations worldwide.

Complex Surgical Care

The primary clinical site for the NCC General Surgery Residency program is the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, just outside of Washington, DC in Bethesda, Maryland. We are the only DoD residency program where the residents spend the large majority of their training within an MTF. As the world's largest military medical center, we provide care to more than 1 million beneficiaries annually, many referred from all over the globe for world class specialty care. Our John P. Murtha Cancer Center is the only comprehensive cancer center in the DoD.  Our Trauma & Acute Care Surgery service cared for the overwhelming majority of casualties returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That’s why Walter Reed is “Where the Nation Heals it's Hero's.” 

Surgical experiences for our residents at Walter Reed and with our civilian partners include:

• Minimally Invasive GI & Bariatric Surgery

• Surgical Oncology / Breast Surgery

• Trauma and Acute Care Surgery

• Colorectal Surgery

• Cardiothoracic Surgery

• Urology

• Transplant Surgery

• Plastic Surgery 

• Surgical Critical Care and Burn Surgery

• Trauma & Acute Care Surgery
  - R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

• Vascular Surgery
  - Inova Fairfax Medical Center

• Pediatric Surgery
  - Children's National Medical Center

• General Surgery
  - Fort Belvoir Community Hospital
  - Inova Fairfax Medical Center
  - Virginia Hospital Center

Medical Education

Medical education for NCC General Surgery residents is truly second to none.  As the largest surgical residency program in the DoD, we graduate 6 chief residents/year with a total of 40 residents active in the program at any given time.  Our integration with our campus partner, the Uniformed Services University F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, creates a true academic environment that no other military program can match.  NCC General Surgery residents enjoy at least 8 hours of protected academic time each week to ensure well rounded scholarly development.  Clinical learning is supplemented by a robust cadaver-and simulation-based surgical skills curriculum in one of our three state of the art medical simulation centers.  In fact, our National Capital Region Simulation Consortium is not only a member of the American College of Surgeons Consortium of Accredited Education Institutes but is the only institution in the country designated as an ACS/AEI Simulation - Education Fellowship Site, a Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery Test Center, Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery Test Center, and Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy Test Center. 

The Department of Surgery faculty serve as national leaders in these educational programs, and in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET and ASSET +), and the Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) course, just to name a few.  

Opportunities for NCC General Surgery residents’ academic growth can be achieved with the pursuit of a Masters in Health Professions Education (MHPE) degree program or a Masters in Public Health, both offered for free at USUHS. Residents interested in a career focused on medical education or public health can participate in these programs during protected research time. 

NCC General Surgery offers high quality, state of the art surgical education and scholarly opportunities that are unmatched in the DoD and comparable to top tier civilian academic programs.

Translational Research

Bridging the gap between the bench, the bedside, and the battlefield is the focus of our departmental scholarly efforts.  Each NCC General Surgery resident spends at least a year engaged in full time, protected research in an area of his or her interest. Collaborative agreements with the USU School of Medicine, other academic institutions in the National Capital Region, and with national and international partners make our research portfolio second to none.  Currently, the Department of Surgery generates approximately 25 million dollars/year in combined intramural and extramural research funding resulting in more than 100 manuscripts annually.  Prominent programs of research include:

• Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i)

• NMRC Regenerative Medicine

• American College of Surgeons Accredited Simulation / Education Fellowship

• Partnerships with NIH / Georgetown / Johns Hopkins /  R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center / DC-VA

In addition to these programs, NCC residents also participate in translational research at the Naval Medical Research Center, the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, and both the Children's National Medical Center and John’s Hopkins University just to name a few.  NCC research residents have won over 40 awards in research competitions at both the regional and national level over the past few years.