Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program
Danbury Hospital's OB/GYN Department designed its training program to enable the graduating resident to assume the role of primary care physician and consultant. The program is a four-year ACGME-accredited residency with three categorical residents per year.
The program is strong clinically, and didactically, with a busy, varied experience, and a conference schedule that includes daily educational sessions protected from clinical activity.
Educational objectives provide training for excellence in clinical and technical skills, development of the ability to critically evaluate the current literature, and to understand the basic principles upon which the specialty is built. Graduates of this program are prepared to enter clinical practice, pursue a fellowship, or join a university faculty.
Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Evaluation
Attending faculty formally evaluate residents after each rotation and then meet twice a year to assess each resident’s progress. Residents also meet periodically with the Chairman to discuss their evaluations. The program participates in the annual CREOG in-service examinations, and the Life Long Learning ABOG examinations, which are distributed to all OB/GYN residency programs every two months.
The Resident Education Committee comprised of key faculty members, meets monthly to review resident performance, revise curriculum and address educational issues.
Didactic Schedule
Obstetrics and Gynecology residents at Danbury Hospital are given protected didactic time to attend our educational conferences:
- There are nine hours of weekly didactics (“Protected Time”) that are protected from clinical duties.
- During this time, staff physicians are assigned to hospital duty to allow resident to attend these educational sessions. These lectures are a combination of pertinent topics, basic science and evidence based clinical reviews.
- Gynecologic Oncology Tumor Boards are held twice a month to review all cases of gynecological malignancy at Danbury Hospital. This is a multidisciplinary conference with participation of Pathology, Radiology, and Yale Gynecologic Oncology.
- Weekly Case Review Conference where cases from the previous week are reviewed with residents and attending staff. Weekly High-Risk Obstetrics rounds where all high-risk patients are discussed with the perinatologists.
- Sessions to review fetal monitor strips, obstetrical and gynecological lectures, and textbook review are held weekly.
Grand Rounds
Grand Rounds are held weekly with speakers from Yale University and other major institutions from throughout the country.
Our program provides an enriching teaching curriculum. Faculty and residents participate in the following educational activities:
- Monthly review of Obstetrics and Gynecologic morbidity and mortality
- Monthly Nurses’ Forum
- Monthly lectures conducted by visiting professors from Yale University or other prestigious institutions
In addition, our perinatologists make daily rounds on the antepartum service with the residents.
The monthly Journal Club and Research and Publication Update is held to provide residents the encouragement, and opportunities and assistance to understand the peer-reviewed literature and establish a pattern of lifelong self-learning.
National conferences
Ob/Gyn residents are given a conference allowance during their four years of training a Danbury Hospital. Residents attend at least two all-day conferences away from the hospital campus each year. They are also funded for national conferences for which their clinical research projects have been accepted.
Monthly Didactic Schedule
|
Week One |
Week Two |
Week Three |
Week Four |
Monday
(2 hrs) |
Case Review
Grand Rounds |
Case Review
Grand Rounds |
Case Review
Grand Rounds |
Case Review
OB/Gyn M&M |
Tuesday
(2 hrs) |
High Risk
Conference |
Perinatal M&M’s
High Risk
Conference |
High Risk
Conference |
High Risk
Conference |
Thursday
(2 hrs) |
Gyn Tumor Board |
Yale Gyn Onc Lecture |
Gyn Tumor Board
|
Gyn Onc Lecture
Journal Club and Research Review |
Friday
(3 hrs) |
Resident Didactics |
Resident Didactics |
Resident Didactics |
Resident Didactics |
Research
Educational Purpose
Our residency introduces residents to the methods of evidence-based, hypothesis-driven research. This curriculum supplements the residents’ clinical experiences by teaching approaches for conducting a clinical research study, as well as interpreting the published literature. Under the leadership of Dr. Shohreh Shahabi, a renowned gynecologist/oncologist, our residency program is dedicated to both teaching and research.
Structure of the Program
The research curriculum is structured to help ensure that residents have a variety of resources available to support research efforts and that residents graduate from our program with at least:
- Experience presenting research methods and findings at a professional meeting
- Peer-reviewed publication authored by the resident
Residents work on their respective research projects throughout the four-year tenure. Residents will also be expected to submit research projects in abstract format to state and/or national professional research conference(s). Projects should also be submitted as a poster or an oral presentation to the Danbury Hospital’s Annual Belsky Research Day, which takes place early May.
New Research Laboratory
Dr. Cristiano Ferlini, Director of Research, from the Catholic University in Rome, Italy, in collaboration with Dr. Shohreh Shahabi, Chair of the Department, has opened a state-of-the-art research facility that will initially focus on women’s reproductive cancers with the goal of bringing research findings to patients in clinical settings as soon as possible.
The $5 million laboratory is in a 17,000-square-foot space and is the largest open-bench laboratory in the United States.
Application Process
Danbury Hospital participates in the National Resident Match Program for its three categorical PGY1 OB/GYN residency positions. Interested applicants must submit an application and all supporting documents online through ERAS. All complete applications are reviewed on an individual basis. To be "complete", each application should contain the following documents:
- Dean's Letter
- Medical School Transcript
- Personal Statement
- Three current letters of recommendation United States Medical License Examination (USMLE) Scores Part I and II and/or NBOME (COMLEX) Level I and II Scores
- Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) Certification (if applicable)
- For those applying on Visa Status, we only accept J-I Visas and will sponsor H-1B Visa.
Applications are accepted until November 30, 2011.
Interviews
Our Program receives approximately 300 applications for the 3 categorical PGY1 slots. We typically interview 40-50 applicants over 4-5 interview days. For 2012-2013 we will be interviewing on November 4th and 18th and December 2nd and 9th.
Interviews are by invitation only. If accepted for an interview, please plan on being with us for the day. The residents will also invite you to attend an informal dinner the night before the interview day, which is always popular with our candidates!
Undergraduate and medical schools currently represented by our residents include:
Brown University, CalTech, Catholic University, Columbia University, D'Youville College, University of Texas-Austin, Tulane University, University of Nebraska, University of Virginia, St. George’s University, Touro, Quinnipiac, Virginia Wesleyan, University of Houston, George Washington University, Georgetown, Ross University, Union College
For More Information
Please contact us if you have questions about the Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program at Danbury Hospital, or would like more information.