The burn fellowship at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics provides an exceptional opportunity for an in-depth experience in the management of the entire spectrum of care surrounding burns, complex wounds in a critical care setting.
UI Hospitals & Clinics is Iowa’s only comprehensive burn center, with pediatric and adult burn and wound admissions averaging 500 annually. Our burn treatment center has been verified by the American Burn Association since 1996, and the hospital has been designated by the American College of Surgeons as a Level 1 Trauma Center for both adult and pediatric patients.
Many of our past fellows have combined the one-year burn fellowship with an additional one-year surgical critical care fellowship. This comprehensive program offering provides our fellows with the training to sit for the American Board of Surgery Examination in Surgical Critical Care.
Here are our further considerations for the burn fellowship:
UI Hospitals & Clinics and the Iowa City area make for an unbeatable place to do your training.
The environment at UI Hospitals & Clinics is optimized for patient care, teaching, and research. You will have a rich exposure to a variety of surgical and critical care disciplines. You’ll have the convenience of finding all these resources in one place.
That one place is located in a vibrant community setting, where it’s possible to bike or walk from a comfortable neighborhood to our medical center. Because we’re part of a vibrant Big Ten university campus, you’ll find arts, sports, entertainment, and recreation activities abound.
The fellow will have clinical duties exclusively caring for patients on the Burn Surgery Service or patients on the Plastic Surgery Service for whom the burn fellow has provided surgical intervention. Under the supervision of the faculty member(s), the fellow will be responsible for guiding the junior residents in all aspects of burn care. Burn care lectures to the residents, medical students, and other staff members are encouraged.
The Burn Service performs approximately 375 operations each year at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. The staff assists on all operations. Each fellow can expect to perform over 200 major procedures during their fellowship. Although the preponderance of surgical cases involves acute burn surgery, complex wound care and burn reconstruction procedures are also part of the surgical cases. Procedures such as escharotomies, bronchoscopies, and conscious sedation are all performed in the Burn Treatment Center on a regular basis.
The Burn Surgery Service at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics consists of three faculty members, one burn fellow, one second year resident and one intern. The call coverage is from home and is primarily back up.
The fellow will round daily with the resident team providing close supervision, and will round with the charge nurse and rehab when available. Weekend rounds will be limited to weekends when the R1 is rounding. Nighttime/weekend call responsibilities include backing up the R1 when s/he is on call.
The Physician Assistant on the service ultimately works directly with the faculty; however, their input should be included in patient care. The residents and fellow have no supervisory role over the Physician Assistant.
Multidisciplinary educational lectures are held weekly, providing instruction on burn resuscitation, inhalation injuries, electrical and chemical burns, necrotizing acute soft tissue infections, and wound care. Morbidity and Mortality conference is held weekly within the Department of Surgery. The Division of Acute Care Surgery holds a monthly Morbidity and Mortality conference where Burn Surgery Service cases are discussed. Journal Club is presented once a month as is the Research Conference. The burn surgery fellow is allowed one national meeting per year that is financially supported by the Burn Treatment Center. Additional meeting time if the fellow is making a scientific presentation is negotiable.
The Burn Treatment Center is one of the 50 burn centers in the United States officially verified by the American Burn Association and the American College of Surgeons. The center includes a 16-bed critical and intermediate care inpatient unit plus the Burn Surgery Clinic, which has approximately 2,500 outpatient visits annually. All acute burn patients are evaluated within the Burn Treatment Center.
The fellow will round daily with the resident team providing close supervision, and will round with the charge nurse and rehab when available. Weekend rounds will be limited to weekends when the R1 is rounding. Nighttime/weekend call responsibilities include backing up the R1 when s/he is on call. We strictly adhere to RRC guidelines regarding work schedules and duty hours.
The Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioners on the service ultimately work directly with the faculty members; however, their input should be included in patient care. The residents and fellow have no supervisory role over the Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioners.
The fellow is encouraged to participate in research projects throughout the year by participating on projects currently underway or by creating new projects. The faculty on the Burn Surgery Service are continually conducting clinical research. In addition, there are animal research laboratories available with University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.
Ideal candidates for our program must have completed or be completing an ACGME approved General Surgery or Plastic Surgery residency and be eligible for certification by the American Board of Surgery. Applicants interested in stepping out of their General Surgery or Plastic Surgery residency for fellowship are reviewed on an individual basis. J-1 and H1b visas are encouraged to apply. Our program selects one candidate each year.
To apply, forward the following material to the University of Iowa Surgical Education office at surgical-education@uiowa.edu:
Our burn surgery fellowship position for July 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024 have both been filled. We will begin recruitment for July 1, 2025 in 2024.
Lucy Wibbenmeyer, MD
Professor of Surgery
Director, Burn Fellowship
lucy-wibbenmeyer@uiowa.edu
Brandee Baker
Program Coordinator
Burn Surgery Fellowship
brandee-baker@uiowa.edu
| Ghassan Al-Ramahi, MD | 2015-2016 |
| Hadi Shaaban, DO | 2012-2013 |
| Nicole Bernal, MD | 2009-2010 |
| Gaurav Chandra, MD | 2008-2009 |
| Shady Hayek, MD | 2007-2008 |
| Joseph Chung, MD | 2005-2007 |
| Roy Danks, DO | 2001-2002 |
| David Robinson, MD | 1992-1993 |
| Timothy Bower, MD | 1989-1990 |
| Mary Jeanne Krob, MD | 1983-1984 |
| Maja Sandberg, MD | 1982-1983 |
Thomas Granchi, MD, MBA
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Director, Burn Treatment Center
Lucy Wibbenmeyer, MD
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Director, Burn Fellowship
Linda Ahrens, Division Secretary