Chairman's Message

The Departments of Surgery at the St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospitals were formed as separate entities during the 1850's. Each flourished as independent surgical departments affiliated with Columbia University 's College of Physicians and Surgeons and were each distinguished by innovation and clinical excellence. The Roosevelt Hospital tradition took shape during the latter part of the 19th Century under the leadership of Charles McBurney, MD whose techniques for abdominal surgery were widely adopted throughout the world. During his tenure as Chairman, the Department became recognized for the first time as a "center of excellence" in abdominal surgery, a distinction that continues to the current day. It was also during the McBurney era that William S. Halsted, MD began his career as a young Attending Surgeon at the Roosevelt Hospital .

Many surgical milestones have been achieved at both hospital sites. Among these are included the first pulmonary resection for cancer (1935), the first open heart surgery ever performed in New York (1955) and the description and perfection of the internal mammary to coronary artery bypass (1970's). The first renal transplant service in this region was developed at St. Luke's Hospital in the 1960's.

In 1979, these two distinguished Departments merged into a larger and more successful entity that we know today as the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Department of Surgery. The two surgical residency programs merged in 1985. The affiliation as a major teaching hospital of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons has continued without interruption for more than 150 years. In 1997, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center formed a corporate relationship with Beth Israel Medical Center , Long Island College Hospital Center and the New York Eye and Ear Hospital known as the Continuum Health Partners. This organization of hospitals manages more than 25% of all the inpatient hospital beds in the New York Metropolitan area, has an annual budget of $2.8 billion and employs 18,000.

The past five years have been an exciting time at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. There are newly appointed Chairs in the Departments of Surgery, Medicine, Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation Medicine. This infusion of new talent and energy has yielded an increase in both clinical and research activity. There are more than 44,000 annual discharges at SLR.

The Department of Surgery has been a major part of the excitement and change at SLR. Of the 32 full-time faculty in the Department of Surgery (comprised of General, Vascular, Cardiac, Thoracic and Plastic Surgery), more than half are new to the Medical Center since 2000. Half of the new faculty are from other major medical centers and have brought mature surgical practices to our Center. The other half is comprised of young faculty who have recently completed their surgical fellowship training (advanced laparoscopic surgery-3, breast surgery-2, vascular surgery-2, cardiac surgery-2, thoracic surgery-1, and plastic surgery-2). Nine of our 32 surgeons are less than 40 years of age. More than 50% of the current surgical faculty have been listed among the "Best Doctors in New York ” and several among the "Top Doctors in America ". The Department of Surgery consists of 12 Divisions: Breast, Cardiac, Colorectal, Minimally Invasive, Pediatric, Plastic, Renal Transplant, Robotic, Research, Thoracic, Trauma/Critical Care and Vascular Surgery. More than 18,700 surgical procedures were performed in 2006.

We currently train 37 surgical residents (28 men, 9 women) who come to us from 16 different U.S. medical schools. There are only five fellows (Bariatric-2, Colorectal-1, and Breast-2) in keeping with our philosophy that our training program is focused on training general surgery residents and exposing them to the broadest possible sub-specialty training experience. The program receives more than 700 inquiries about our residency each fall, 100 are interviewed, and five "categorical" residents are selected along with 10 "preliminary" residents. Our applicants are ranked by committee according to their academic record and personal qualifications. The program is highly competitive. During the past three years, an applicant needed to be ranked among our top 15 candidates to gain acceptance into the training program. Medical schools represented in our categorical surgical program during the past three years include: Boston University, Chicago, Columbia P&S, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Drexel, Eastern Virginia, Jefferson, Johns Hopkins, Loma Linda, NYU, Oregon, SUNY – Buffalo, SUNY – Stony Brook, SUNY – Syracuse, Temple, Texas, Tufts, UC – Irvine, and Washington University. During the past five years, almost all of our graduating Chief Residents have gone on to advanced postgraduate surgical training. In 2007, two of our Chief Residents continued their training in Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery (U. Miami, North Shore/LIJ), one in Trauma (Orlando Regional), and two in Colorectal Surgery (Cleveland Clinic, Fla and Grant Medical Center , Ohio ). All of last year's graduating Chief Residents passed both parts of the ABS Examination on their first attempt and during the past four years, more than 90% of our graduating Chief Residents have passed the qualifying examination of the American Board of Surgery on their first attempt.

Since 2001, we have completed 19 capital improvement projects within the Department of Surgery. Our faculty and residents at St. Luke's recently moved into a completely new 7200 sq.ft. clinical/academic facility located within the hospital. Major renovations of clinical space (inpatient and outpatient), laboratory facilities, and resident library/lounge space have been completed during the past four years. The Department of Surgery manages more than 50,000 sq.ft. of clinical and research space.

New programs instituted during the past three years include the Clinical Robotic Surgery Program, the Robotic Surgery Experimental Laboratory and Training Facility, the Center for Surgical Simulation Training, the Department of Surgery Clinical Trials Program, the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Latino Services Program.

Research is an important component of our program. A review of the individual Divisions and Programs in other portions of this website will provide information about the activities within our Department. Our research initiatives are supported by NIH Funding and the private philanthropy of grateful SLR patients. During the past academic year, 10 of our residents published and/or presented their research work at regional, national or international scientific forums.

We who are fortunate enough to be members of the current SLR Department of Surgery are the beneficiaries of the skill, innovation and commitment of those generations who worked in both of these outstanding hospitals during the past 150 years. We enthusiastically accept the responsibility and challenge to strive for a standard of extraordinarily skillful and compassionate care, to teach subsequent generations of surgical leaders and to foster an environment of research and innovation in a manner befitting our surgical heritage.

George J. Todd, MD, FACS

September 2007