Wake Forest Department of Anesthesiology is excited to announce a new one-year fellowship in perioperative medicine. This novel program offers advanced training in preoperative optimization, prehabilitation, quality improvement, leadership and outcomes research. Our fellows rotate through a variety of clinical settings to ensure a breadth of clinical experiences while maintaining critical intraoperative skills. They are encouraged to lead clinical activities in the preoperative assessment, perioperative surgical home and surgical navigation center while engaging in ongoing quality improvement initiatives and research to ensure a breadth of academic and advancement opportunities. Regularly scheduled conferences and didactic experiences, in person and virtual (asynchronous), guarantee expanded clinical learning through a variety of settings.
Perioperative medicine is an emerging specialty that emphasizes the care of patients from the time surgery is contemplated until full recovery. Evidence supporting the value of best practices in this area is rapidly expanding. Yet the full spectrum of this domain of medicine is not entirely covered in any core residency program. Throughout this fellowship program, many medical specialties work in concert to optimize patients and minimize risks prior to surgery. Teamwork, effective leadership and medical knowledge distinct to this field are all elements included in training. Knowledge of surgical and anesthesia risks, patient-specific complications related to co-morbid medical conditions, and methods by which to reduce risk will be key elements of training. Our fellows leave the program with the skills required to design and lead a preoperative optimization and prehabilitation program whether at an academic center or the community setting.
Program Goals
- Develop a practical understanding of preoperative evaluation and perioperative risk management, prehabilitation and enhanced recovery programs as well as the perioperative surgical home model of care.
- Gain expertise in health care quality, patient safety, business operations and change management leading multidisciplinary teams.
- Build, develop and monitor evidence-based clinical pathways.
- Acquire leadership skills essential for initiating and managing change in various healthcare systems while developing and leading multidisciplinary teams.
- Achieve proficiency in the recognition and management of problems commonly encountered in the preoperative, intraoperative, post-operative and post-discharge phases of surgical care.
- Gain experience coordinating care and serving as a consultant in a multidisciplinary environment while supervising medical students, residents, advanced practice providers and nurses.
- Foster a thorough understanding of the breadth and depth of the specialty of preoperative medicine while developing leadership, teaching and research skills.
- Prepare fellows to function as well-qualified, independent consultants in perioperative medicine.
Why train at Wake Forest
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is a multi-hospital academic health system. The fellows rotate at our outpatient preoperative evaluation centers and surgical home in Winston-Salem, Davie Medical Center, and Lexington. These facilities all have in-person appointments, telehealth and care coordination services designed to accommodate specialty surgical service lines available in those areas. In addition, each center has quality improvement initiatives connected to our surgical navigation center and perioperative surgical home. Leadership, research and quality improvement form the foundation of each rotation.
