George Fuhrman, M.D., Surgery Program Director

The Surgery Residency Program at Atlanta Medical Center is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The program is designed to prepare physicians for excellence in the practice of general surgery and for certification by the American Board of Surgery. While graduates may choose a variety of career paths, the program is primarily focused on excellence in clinical general surgery.

The program has been successful in achieving its goals by providing extensive experience in primary patient care and clinical surgery. Residents experience an intensive didactic curriculum as well as clinical exposure to a cross-section of socioeconomic patients with common and unusual surgical conditions. Atlanta Medical Center, which serves as a regional tertiary Trauma Center, offers residents experience in trauma surgery and critical care medicine.

Two categorical and four preliminary surgical internships are filled each year and two surgical residents complete complete the full five year program each year. Atlanta Medical Center offers preliminary internships (PG I = 4, PG II = 2, PG III = 1) which are excellent for residents pursuing subspecialty training such as urology, ENT, ophthalmology, plastics, radiology, anesthesiology and neurosurgery with large volumes of subspecialty surgery, due to an absence of fellowships except vascular surgery.

Medical student electives for fourth year students are available in trauma, vascular surgery, and general surgery. Third-year medical students from the Medical College of Georgia rotate through Atlanta Medical Center for core curriculum surgery.

Residents in all five years average on-call duty every fourth night, and work hours are in compliance with recent ACGME guidelines. Their responsibilities include history and physical examinations, surgical "scrubs" on assigned cases, daily conferences and regular rounds. Graded progressive participation on cases is designed to increase the residents technical and management skills. Participation with the faculty in the private office environment provides the opportunity to encounter concepts relative to the clinical practice of surgery.

The program has an integrated educational curriculum that combines faculty lectures with on-line resources to provide the house staff with a through review of all basic science and clinical topics.

Basic laboratory research is not required. Clinical research and publications are expected of each resident. Annual evaluation by the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination assesses each resident's skill, and individual evaluations are done by the Surgery Education Advisory Committee. Oral examinations are conducted near the end of the academic year by the faculty.

Surgery residents acquire a large volume of surgical case load. Resident attendance at regional, national, and international meetings and presentation of pertinent materials is encouraged and financed by the institution. The program provides every resident with membership in the Southeastern Surgical Congress and candidate group membership in The American College of Surgeons.

Surgical Faculty

George Fuhrman, M.D.
Program Director
Department of General Surgery

Michael V. Smith, M.D.
Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Edward M. Mason, M.D.
Associate Clinical Professor, MCG

Vernon Henderson, M.D.
Trauma/ICU Director
Department of General Surgery

John P. Wilson, M.D.
Clinical Professor, MCG
Director Emeritus, General Surgery

Russell Wilson, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor, M.D.

David Rosenthal, M.D. Vascular Surgery

Eric Wellons, M.D. – Vascular Surgery

Mark Walker, M.D.
General Surgery/Trauma

Ignatius Akepele, M.D. – General Surgery/Trauma

Stantson Spence, M.D. – General Surgery/Trauma

Uy Vu, M.D. – General Surgery/Trauma

Mark Crispin, M.D. – Plastic Surgery

Earl Stephenson – Plastic Surgery

John Goza, M.D.
General Surgery

Christopher Lucius, M.D.
General Surgery