The University of Toronto offers a Neurosurgery Residency Program to train Medical Students aspiring to become the next generation of neurosurgeons. Toronto Western Hospital at UHN is one of five affiliated teaching hospitals that Residents rotate through. Toronto Western Hospital offers the largest Neurosurgery service in Canada, with distinguishing service in tertiary and quaternary neurosurgical care for patients with complex neurosurgical conditions affecting the brain and spine. Over the course of six or more years, Residents will be trained in the modern medical, surgical and treatment methods. They will be exposed to UHN’s combined neurosurgical and orthopedic spinal program as well as its programs for AVMs and aneurysms, movement disorders, degenerative brain diseases, brain tumours and epilepsy. Resident’s will benefit from the faculty’s expertise in intra-operative navigation and imaging, surgery for peripheral nerve neoplasms, awake craniotomy for brain tumors with cortical mapping, endovascular therapy for aneurysms and AVMs, and stereotactic radiosurgery for tumors and vascular malformations using the Gamma Knife unit.
Residents will be able to apply to the
Surgeon Scientist Training Program (SSTP) to complete a Masters or PhD level research project in preparation for an academic career in neurosurgery. Many of these ‘SSTP residents’ are under supervision of UHN faculty.
Residents are evaluated in the clinical setting by their supervisor(s), and are encouraged to develop autonomy and skills that will help them on their path toward independent practice.
Resident education includes didactic teaching sessions with specific topics presented over the duration of their rotation, simulation sessions, oral exam practice sessions, hands-on practical courses, neurosurgery grand rounds, M & M rounds and journal club rounds. In addition, a weekly three-hour session, Brain School, is dedicated to covering all aspects of neurosurgery theory and practice through lectures and case discussions.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of these formal rounds have been shifted to a virtual format.
Daily Teaching
An important focus of our postgraduate resident education program is the daily teaching, which consists of: informal and formal teaching sessions through resident and Faculty as well as fellow interactions on the ward, in the clinic, the operating room, and on-call.
The entire teaching series has been designed to allow important basic and subspecialty neurosurgery lectures to be completed during each resident rotation.
Most of our staff participate in these teaching sessions. To ensure a comprehensive curriculum, we include teaching by our non-physician health care colleagues, where appropriate.
Further information on application requirements and procedures as well as other details on the Residency Program is provided by the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and the Michener Institute of Education at UHN.
The Residency Site Coordinator for Toronto Western Hospital is
Dr. Mojgan Hodaie.
