Welcome and thank you for your interest in Tufts Anesthesiology! We are thrilled that you have decided to pursue a career in Anesthesiology. Similar to all other ACGME accredited Anesthesiology Residency programs, our ultimate goal is to provide you with all of the requisite knowledge and skills to be an outstanding consultant Anesthesiologist. Our program offers a challenging and comprehensive educational experience with broad clinical exposure across all subspecialties, an extensive and learner-centric didactic program, a robust resident research and QI program, and an excellent track record of graduate success.
Tufts Anesthesiology is ACGME accredited and offers ten categorical positions with an intentionally designed Clinical Base Year that includes exposure to and experiences in general surgery, internal medicine, otolaryngology, emergency medicine, critical care medicine, acute pain medicine, chronic pain medicine, addiction psychiatry, and foundations in Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. The surgical case mix is skewed towards complex and high-risk, resulting in challenging clinical experiences for residents throughout their training.
Despite our increasingly complex and growing patient population, we remain a medium-sized program. As a result, the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine maintains an intimacy and familiarity amongst faculty and residents that fosters an ideal learning and working environment for both personal and professional development. Over the years, residents and faculty have chosen to be a part of Tufts Anesthesiology because of this unique mix of high-caliber clinical training in a psychologically-safe and supportive environment.
Tufts Medical Center also differs from other local academic centers in that it provides adult, outpatient pediatric, and obstetric care all under one roof. This offers our residents the considerable advantage of continuous and intermittent exposure to these areas throughout their training.
We are proud of the diversity we have in our department. Our department is comprised of different races, ethnicities, languages spoken, nationalities, sex, gender identities, sexual orientations, religions, disabilities, and ages.
We aim to provide consistent, daily, formative feedback to residents through the use of an app-based platform that allows trainees to request an assessment of their performance on a variety of entrustable professional activities, including technical skills, clinical reasoning and management, and non-technical skills. In addition, the Clinical Competency Committee reviews the progress of each resident at least bi-annually using ACGME milestones. Residents also anonymously evaluate the faculty and the program on a regular basis. Each resident is paired with a faculty mentor to help guide them through their training.
While the extent and the intensity of scholarly activity productivity is trainee dependent, each resident is required to complete at least one academic project over the course of their training. Editorial assistance and academic mentoring is provided by faculty mentors to ensure success. The Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and other Tufts University resources are readily available for support. Tufts Anesthesiology Residents have consistently presented at regional, national, and international meetings each year.
On average, approximately 80% of our residents choose to complete fellowship training. Tufts Anesthesiology Residents consistently match at top-tier, competitive fellowship programs across the country each year, including in Pain Medicine, Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesia, Critical Care Medicine, Pediatric Anesthesia (including Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia), Obstetric Anesthesia, and Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine. Consistent with national trends, a growing percentage of our most recent graduates are choosing to go directly into practice, both academic and private.
Our first-attempt board certification rates are consistently well-above the national average.
A busy, yet reasonable, work schedule, collegial working and learning environment, and world-class educational infrastructure are the hallmarks of resident life at Tufts. Our attention to clinical mentorship, work-life balance, feedback, and a resident-driven wellness program helps to create an environment where trainees can thrive. Graduating residents remember their time at Tufts with a sense of pride, satisfaction, and fondness. A significant percentage of our faculty, including department and program leadership, are alumni of Tufts Anesthesiology training programs. We are committed to nurturing a dynamic environment that promotes the learning, teaching, and practice of the clinical, intellectual, and ethical aspects of Anesthesiology. Tufts Anesthesiology provides innovative educational opportunities for our residents and aims to produce tomorrow’s leaders in Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, and Pain Medicine.
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The Golden Laryngoscope is a monthly recognition program to highlight the above-and-beyond contributions of a resident and provide an opportunity to laud exemplary professionalism or performance. The highlighted resident will receive a golden laryngoscope pin and recognition for their efforts. Thank you again for learning more about our program. We are honored by your interest and hope to meet you in your journey towards a career in Anesthesiology. We look forward to learning more about you.
Maurice “Frankie” Joyce, MD, EdM, FASA Program Director Email: Maurice.Joyce@tuftsmedicine.org
We were deliberate and intentional in the design of the Tufts Anesthesiology Clinical Base Year to be multi-disciplinary in nature with a focus on the development of foundational skills in patient evaluation and assessment, clinical reasoning, and clinical management that will provide trainees with a strong base as they ultimately transition to their training in Clinical Anesthesiology. In addition to spending time with the faculty and residents of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, PGY-1 Anesthesiology Residents also rotate within the Departments of Surgery, Internal Medicine, Otolaryngology, Addiction Psychiatry, and Emergency Medicine. Foundational experiences in Critical Care Medicine are provided in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and the Medical Intensive Care Unit (one month each). Rotations within the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine include: 1) Center for Preoperative Assessment, working collaboratively with a CA3 resident to develop the skills in obtaining a focused anesthetic preoperative history and physical exam; 2) Foundations in Pain Management, including experiences in the Pain Management outpatient clinic, on the Acute Pain Service, and on the Addiction Psychiatry Service; 3) Research, including completion of Tufts required research training and establishing an area/topic of interest for further investigation; and 4) Community Immersion, a year-long, longitudinal volunteer experience to learn more about and give back to the community surrounding Tufts. All PGY-1 Anesthesiology Residents end their intern year with a Clinical Anesthesiology rotation that serves as the transition point to their Anesthesiology training.
The last month of the CBY/PGY-1 year and the first month of the CA-1 year are comprised of the "Foundations in Anesthesiology" curriculum. This curriculum introduces trainees to the fundamentals of Anesthesiology and consists of four primary components:
Approximately one week of administrative-related and work-flow didactics, simulation (task trainers and high-fidelity simulations), and equipment training. Operating Room assignments start after the completion of this initial training period.
Starting in October, the CA-1 residents benefit from early subspecialty exposure in anesthesia for ambulatory surgery, neuroanesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, critical care medicine (2 months in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit), and cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia.
During the CA-1 year, emphasis is placed on airway management, monitoring, life-support, and the basic sciences underpinning the field of Anesthesiology. Under close faculty guidance, residents are given progressive responsibility and autonomy for total anesthetic management of patients in the operating room, in procedural units, as well as on the labor and delivery floor.
During the CA-2 year, residents are afforded an appreciation for the expanding role of the anesthesiologist outside the operating room as well as responsibility for management of more complex patients and procedures in the operating room, including liver and heart transplantation.
In addition to performing cases in the 15-room inpatient operating suite, 8-room ambulatory surgery operating area, residents complete one month of obstetric anesthesia at Tufts Medical Center and an additional month of obstetric anesthesia at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Residents also complete a required 2-month Pediatric Anesthesia rotation at Boston Children's Hospital. In-house subspecialty rotations continue in neuroanesthesia, cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, regional anesthesia, and anesthesia for ambulatory surgery, as well as 1 month in our outpatient pain management center.
CA-3 residents have approximately four months of electives that are customizable to each resident's career goals. During the remainder of the CA-3 year, residents continue to gain experience caring for complex patients by continuing to rotate through subspecialty areas. Senior residents are also provided with the valuable experience of supervising and teaching junior residents in addition to learning and practicing vital OR management skills through the role of "Junior ACIC".
The current options for electives are:
On-campus:
Off-campus:
Our academic mission is built on the philosophy of capturing the maximum breadth of educational content through optimal resource utilization while always remaining learner-centric. By recognizing that comprehension of material occurs best when the teaching modality is congruent, we strategically incorporate lectures, simulation, in-training preparation, oral board practice, OSCE practice, and skills labs (echocardiography, POCUS, regional, vascular access) to provide the most high-yield educational experience for each of our residents. We strive to match the topic and format to create a synergistic learning opportunity where mastery of the content can be achieved.
The strength of our training program in Anesthesiology lies in the commitment of our faculty to resident education. A carefully designed and well-organized didactic educational series is integrated into the clinical experience. It is a priority of our department that residents be uniformly relieved of their clinical duties to be fully present for didactic sessions. The curriculum is learner-centric and is based upon the American Board of Anesthesiology Content Outlines for the BASIC, In-Training, ADVANCED, and APPLIED exams. Both junior and senior residents are scheduled for four hours of didactic activities per week, which unlike many programs is scheduled within the normal workday.
Each academic year, the resident didactic education program commences with a daily lecture series specifically for the CA-1 residents in July to mid-August (the "Foundations in Anesthesiology" curriculum). From September onwards, CA-1 residents have a faculty moderated didactic program, the BASIC Pathway, that is based upon the ABA BASIC Exam content outline. The ADVANCED Pathway is a lecture/seminar series that covers all the major advanced topics and subspecialty areas of Anesthesiology in a 2-year rotating curriculum.The ADVANCED Pathway is conducted immediately following Grand Rounds from 8AM until 12noon each Thursday. Specialty blocks are coordinated by Division Chiefs and cover respiratory, cardiac, pediatric, obstetric, and pain topics in addition to physics, pharmacology and renal/endocrine blocks. Additionally, residents participate in journal club sessions, mock Standardized Oral Exam sessions, high-fidelity simulation sessions, POCUS sessions, and wellness sessions during their protected didactic time. The BASIC Pathway follows a similar structure and is conducted each Thursday from 12:45 until 4:45PM.
Departmental Grand Rounds are held each Thursday, 7-8AM. Grand Rounds sessions consist of visiting speakers, faculty lectures, monthly QI/M&M sessions, annual trainings, and administrative meetings.
Selection to our residency program is highly competitive. Listed below are the requirements for entrance to the core residency program in anesthesiology at Tufts Medical Center.
Applications are accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), which is administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges. AAMC developed ERAS to transmit residency applications, letters of recommendation, dean's letters, transcripts, and other supporting credentials from applicants and medical schools to residency directors using the Internet.
Additional requirements and documentation are as follows:
Please contact Maddie Cornell and Chris-Ann Walker if you have further questions about our program.
Madison Cornell Program Coordinator, Anesthesia Residency Program Department of Anesthesiology, Tufts Medical Center 800 Washington Street, Box 298 Boston, MA 02111 Phone: 617-636-9303 Fax: 617-636-8384 Email: Madison.L.Cornell@tuftsmedicine.org
Chris-Ann Walker Program Coordinator, Anesthesia Residency Program Department of Anesthesiology, Tufts Medical Center 800 Washington Street, Box 298 Boston, MA 02111 Fax: 617-636-8384 Email: Chris-ann.Walker@tuftsmedicine.org
