Surgery Education & Training

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School with the Department of Surgery serving as a primary site for Surgery the Core Surgical Clerkship for the school’s second year students, and Surgery Boot Camp and elective rotation programs for fourth-year medical students

The department offers a wide variety of clinical and research electives, as well as advanced clinical sub-internships for students at Harvard Medical School, from across the nation and abroad. Undergraduate Medical Education in the Department of Surgery is led by Amy Evenson, MD, and Ben James, MD.

Students and trainees at all levels benefit from our academic programs, which include both elective and required research activities, along with opportunities to engage in research projects led by the Department of Surgery. BIDMC's General Surgery Residency, in particular, offers various research opportunities, intensive courses and electives.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ranks among the top three recipients in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. With nearly $27 million per year in extramural (direct and indirect) research support, the Department of Surgery ranks among the top five academic surgical departments in NIH funding. With faculty appointments at Harvard and MIT, our surgical faculty are members of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Harvard-MIT Broad Institute, the Harvard Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, and CIMIT.

We provide education, training, and career development for junior investigators in glycobiology at the Harvard Medical School Center (HMS) for Glycoscience.

We offer educational seminars on obesity and nutrition for researchers and clinicians at Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine (CSNM).

At the Rongxiang Xu, MD, Center for Regenerative Therapeutics, we conduct research and trains and educate physicians on the intricacies of regenerative therapeutics.

The Department of Surgery's Neurosurgery Grand Rounds program offers lectures on a range of important and timely topics for surgeons, residents and other attendees.

The roots of the Harvard Surgical Service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reach back to 1864, establishing it as one of the oldest academic departments of surgery in the nation. Our explicit mission is to provide advanced surgical care of the very highest quality to those in need, improve health through innovation and discovery, and prepare future leaders in American surgery.

Our first Chair of Surgery, David Williams Cheever, MD (1831-1915), the son and grandson of physicians who trained under Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., was recognized as a superb surgeon and a devoted educator. In 1864 Dr. Cheever established the first competitive examination in Boston to select incoming interns or house surgeons from among the very best applicants for surgical training.

We are the central academic hub for a very large and growing healthcare network throughout eastern Massachusetts. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is one of the busiest centers for surgical care in the United States, drawing patients, trainees, and faculty from around the nation and the world. 

Read more about our history in a message from the Chair of Surgery.

"Knowingly or unknowingly the young physician accepts responsibilities and obligations not equaled by those entering any other profession; responsibilities for the maintenance of high moral and ethical standards in his relation to his associates, to the public he serves, and to the community in which he lives.”

Leland McKittrick, MD (1893-1978)
Chief of Surgery, New England Deaconess Hospital
Chair, Council of Medical Education, AMA

Led by Ted James, MD, MS, Vice Chair of Academic Affairs in the Department of Surgery, the Office of Academic Affairs supports academic pursuits and faculty development in surgery.

The Office of Academic Affairs encompasses a wide range of programs, services, and resources that help residents, fellows, and junior and senior faculty develop, succeed, and flourish as clinicians, surgeon-scientists and educators.