Program Summary

The Harvard Combined Plastic Surgery Residency Training Program is a result of a merger of three pre-existing Harvard affiliated plastic surgery residency training programs in 1999.  Those three programs, based at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Children’s Hospital (BWH/CH), and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), were fully accredited and independent training programs prior to the merger. The result is a combined training program that benefits from the tremendous and complimentary resources of each of these historically strong teaching institutions. Current residents in the combined program rotate among five of Boston’s finest teaching hospitals: the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Shriners Burns Hospital, Boston. These teaching hospitals have over 2,400 cumulative inpatient beds and over 8,000 resident-staffed plastic surgery cases per year. The diverse case mix covers the breadth of aesthetic surgery, breast, craniofacial reconstruction, cleft lip and palate, hand and upper extremity, lower extremity reconstruction, oncologic reconstruction of the head and neck, and the application of microsurgery in a number of these fields.

The mission of the Harvard Combined Plastic Surgery Training Program is to provide the highest quality plastic surgical care to patients in need, to provide the most comprehensive level of education and best training program for residents, students, and fellows in plastic surgery, and to further the science of plastic surgery through research. The aim of our residency program is to train residents in the art and science of plastic surgery through a comprehensive and well-rounded balance of structured education, research, and clinical experience. The ultimate goal is to produce excellent, ethical plastic surgeons capable of managing a wide spectrum of problems that can function at a superior level of competence throughout their careers, become leaders in our field, and further the course of our specialty.