University at Buffalo School of Medicine Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is an independent (post-general surgery/ENT/ortho/urology/neurosurgery), ACGME-accredited plastic surgery residency based at Erie County Medical Center, a safety-net tertiary referral hospital in Buffalo, with training spread across multiple affiliated institutions. The clinical identity centers on major reconstructive work—head and neck cancer reconstruction, large-volume microsurgical free flaps, lymphedema surgery, and obstructive sleep apnea surgery—alongside breast, extremity, and aesthetic surgery experience, positioning it as a reconstruction-heavy rather than aesthetics-first program. The existence of a dedicated, funded one-year research fellowship (Loree Research Fellowship) for medical students between M3/M4 years signals that the department actively cultivates a research pipeline feeding into its residency and values scholarly output alongside operative training. The program emphasizes producing an independently competent surgeon across the full breadth of plastic surgery rather than steering explicitly toward a single fellowship pathway.