Training

University of Michigan plastic surgery training programs provide expert clinical instruction in a best-in-class academic medical center where, as a trainee, you’ll have your pick of opportunities to specialize, publish, and grow as a surgeon.

Excellence in Plastic Surgery Education

Here are just a few of the reasons why training at Michigan will facilitate your success:

  • Internationally-known faculty: Faculty leadership is especially strong in our department. While we’re proud of our representation in national professional associations — from the Plastic Surgery Research Council to the American Board of Plastic Surgery — we’re even prouder to pass along what we’ve learned. We emphasize a tight-knit culture, where trainees join faculty in their homes for journal clubs and holiday dinners, so you can develop lifelong mentors during your time at Michigan.
  • Huge volume of cases: Michigan Medicine is a statewide referral center, seeing a clinical caseload far beyond what you’d expect for a small city like Ann Arbor. U-M plastic surgeons see 28,000 patients a year in our outpatient clinics and perform over 4000 major operations annually.
  • Integrated training: Our plastic surgery residency program was one of the first in the country to adopt an integrated training model, meaning that your plastic surgery training starts on day one. Residents participate in every operation we perform. Residents seeking a fulfilling research experience will find that here, too, with opportunities to take time off during your training for academic development.
  • Plastic Surgery Chief Resident ClinicChief Residents in their final year of clinical training in plastic and reconstructive surgery have the opportunity to participate in our Plastic Surgery Chief Resident Clinic, providing consultations, procedures, and treatments for body contouring, breast reductions, and non-surgical procedures such as Botox and filler injections under the guidance of supervising faculty members.

Our commitment to educating the next generation of plastic surgeons begins at the undergraduate level and extends to advanced training for fellows.

Our Programs

We offer an integrated plastic surgery residency program and a variety of fellowships, including craniofacial surgeryhand surgery, and microsurgery. Residents and fellows will become expert in all facets of academic medicine, from exposure to diverse clinical sub-specialties to research opportunities to teaching. 

A few recent annual statistics demonstrate the excellence of our trainees: Residents wrote 60 peer-reviewed publications, gave 42 national or international presentations, and were awarded over $215,000 in extramural funding for the 2017-18 fiscal year. Recent alumni have secured positions at top institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Mount Sinai, Stanford, and Harvard.

Beginning with your first year as a medical student and continuing through your residency application process, you’ll have support from plastic surgery faculty invested in your learning.

We offer lectures and informal events to introduce students to plastic surgery, a comprehensive career advising program for students interested in pursuing the specialty, and robust research opportunities — it’s not unusual for medical students to appear as co-author on publications with section faculty.

As you prepare for the next steps in your career, you’ll gain experience and support by participating in our plastic surgery interest group and our competitive M4 sub-internship.

Undergraduate students passionate about a career in medicine will find a welcoming introduction to the field of plastic surgery, including opportunities to shadow and observe in clinics, learn from department faculty, and get involved in research.

Surgeons in our section serve as mentors to School of Engineering students working on senior thesis projects, offer summer and year-long clinical and basic science research internships, and engage with students in the Health Sciences Scholars Program, a pre-professional learning community at U-M. 

Learn more about what makes our plastic surgery training programs unique at the University of Michigan.