Login to MyHealth
Login to My HealthMission and Educational Philosophy
The overall mission of the USC Department of Urology is the education and development of the next generation of urologists, emphasizing the principles of evidence-based clinical care delivered in a compassionate and ethical fashion. We strive to deliver the most comprehensive education and training possible to ensure that each resident acquires a sound basis for clinical and research excellence, preparing them for leadership positions in academic urology or clinical practice. Our goal is to provide the opportunity for individuals to enter careers in direct healthcare delivery, research and/or teaching. A commitment to the pursuit of excellence and a tradition of life-long learning are central principles of our program.
The urology program consists of 1 year of general surgery internship, 4 years of clinical urology and 1 year of dedicated research. In general rotations are 4 months in length and are designed to allow the resident to focus for those 4 months on one specific facet of urology (for example neurourology, oncology, or kidney transplant) so that he/she can master that discipline. The program combines experience in a variety of clinical settings, including the largest public hospital in California, an affiliated public rehabilitation hospital with a large dedicated spinal cord injury center, a large pediatric hospital, three private academic and community hospitals, and a very busy comprehensive cancer center.
Three of the hospitals in our program are located on the main health science campus of the Keck School of Medicine of USC (LAC+USC Medical Center, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Keck Hospital of USC with the Doheny Outpatient Surgery Center) and are staffed by the full-time faculty of the Department of Urology. All of the adult urology faculty have privileges at all three hospitals. Residents spend 32 months on this campus, which is the main training site for the residency program. Two of the off-campus sites (Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital and Childrens Hospital) are also directly affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of USC (KSOM) and are staffed by full-time members of the Urology Department. Residents spend 12 months of their training at these two sites. The final four months of training is off-campus at hospitals that are not directly affiliated with the KSOM (St. Vincent’s Hospital and Cedars Sinai Hospital). Those sites were chosen for the unique resident education experiences that are not currently available within the KSOM Hospital system.
The Urology program at USC is in the process of significant change. In the past year we have seen the retirement of Dr. Donald Skinner and we are now under the leadership of Dr. Inderbir Gill, an internationally recognized premier laparoscopic and robotic surgeon. We have two other new faculty and plans to recruit several more. In addition we are expecting some changes in the hospital settings in the near future, with probable consolidation of the Norris Cancer Center into a new wing of the Keck Hospital of USC. In response to these changes we expect to make some corresponding changes in our residency rotations within the next two years. However, we have no plans to change the basic program structure or the length of the training. The description below reflects our current program for 2009 - 2010.
