University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School Program

Program Identity & Fit

The Dell Medical School General Surgery Residency is a relatively young academic program (categorical track since 2009, preliminary since 2017) built around Dell Med's signature "Advancing Care Transformation" curriculum, requiring all residents to complete Foundations in Care Transformation training in value-based care, quality improvement, health equity and health systems science. Training occurs primarily at Dell Seton Medical Center at UT, a safety-net teaching hospital operated by Ascension Seton, with additional rotations at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin and Dell Children's Medical Center, giving residents exposure to a public-hospital, systems-level patient population rather than a traditional quaternary referral base. The program explicitly frames its graduates as "systems-ready leaders" prepared for community practice, academia, or competitive fellowships, reflecting an identity oriented toward health-systems reform as much as operative training. Dell Med's broader research infrastructure (Office of Research, translational partnerships, strategic research programs) is available to residents but is not described as a mandatory or central component of the surgical curriculum itself.