Educational Activities

CT Resident Teaching Conference is held Tuesday morning and is mandatory for all residents and attending faculty. This conference uses the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association (TSDA) Curriculum, which encompasses topics in thoracic surgery, adult cardiac surgery, congenital cardiac surgery, and critical care. Additional topics on professional development and mock oral exams are incorporated into this curriculum. Residents are expected to review assigned reading material each week, which is then reviewed with an attending surgeon in the Socratic method during the teaching conference.

Department of Surgery Grand Rounds is held monthly and includes all divisions within the Department of Surgery.  Each division is responsible for identifying one speaker within their specialty each year to give a presentation of interest to the surgical community.  Attendance at Grand Rounds is mandatory for all surgical faculty, house officers and students on service. 

Service Conference is held every Tuesday morning, where all operative patients over the previous week are discussed.  Specific attention is paid to patients who have had complications or who have died.  Pertinent history, imaging, data, and autopsy findings are presented when appropriate.  Attendance by CT attendings and residents is mandatory.

Cardiothoracic Surgery Journal Club is hosted monthly. These are typically held off campus at area restaurants, and are frequently attended by additional, non-faculty cardiothoracic surgeons in the State of South Carolina.  Recent articles from Annals of Thoracic Surgery and Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery are selected by faculty and are presented by residents. Articles are critiqued for their scientific and statistical validity.

Heart & Vascular Morbidity and Mortality Conference is held monthly. This conference for the Heart and Vascular Service Line is attended by the faculty and residents from Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cardiology, and Vascular Surgery. Attendance by CT residents is required unless patient care emergencies do not permit.

Service-Specific Multi-Disciplinary Conferences

Structural Heart and Valve Conference is held every Wednesday morning. This conference is attended by all residents, fellows, and faculty in cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology, and cardiac anesthesiology. Patients scheduled to undergo endovascular valve interventions each week are discussed in detail including history, echocardiography, catheterization data, and vascular anatomy. Valve selection, sizing, and endovascular approach are reviewed extensively. Complex patients undergoing evaluation for surgical, minimally invasive, or endovascular valve intervention are discussed on a rolling basis. Each week, a pertinent publication is selected by a faculty member and presented by a resident or fellow.

Advanced Heart Failure Therapies Selection Committee is held every Wednesday afternoon. This conference is attended by residents, fellows, and faculty in cardiac surgery and heart failure cardiology in addition to a multi-disciplinary group of allied health professionals. Patients undergoing evaluation for durable mechanical circulatory support or heart transplantation are discussed in detail for development of a treatment plan. Postoperative patients with complications are also discussed in this multidisciplinary setting.

Lung Transplant Selection Committee is held every Wednesday morning.  This conference is attended by residents, fellows and faculty in Thoracic surgery and Transplant Pulmonology, in addition to a multi-disciplinary group of allied health professionals.  Patients undergoing evaluation for lung transplantation are discussed in detail. 

General Thoracic Preop Conference is held every Tuesday afternoon. This conference is attended by residents and attendings on the General Thoracic Service. The senior resident(s) on the service present each operative case for the following week.  Rationale, approach and supporting literature are reviewed

Thoracic Surgery Tumor Board is held every Wednesday afternoon.  This multidisciplinary conference includes the general thoracic surgery faculty as well as medical oncology, radiation oncology, and pulmonology.  Attendance by the resident assigned to the General Thoracic Service is mandatory.  At this conference, patients with thoracic cancer are discussed for development of complex treatment plans.

Pediatric Cardiology Conference is held on Monday and Thursday afternoon.  Patients scheduled to undergo surgery during the following week are discussed in detail including history, laboratory data, echocardiography, and catheterization data.  Attendance by the CT resident on the congenital heart rotation is mandatory and optional for the other CT residents.