UPMC Medical Education Farrell Program

Program Identity & Fit

UPMC Horizon's General Surgery program is a small, community-based residency (2 residents/year) rooted in an osteopathic legacy dating to 1973, now ACGME-accredited, based at UPMC Jameson and UPMC Horizon Shenango Valley in rural western Pennsylvania. Residents get early hands-on operative and perioperative responsibility in a community surgical practice while supplementing training with structured rotations at UPMC tertiary/quaternary sites (Presbyterian, Montefiore, Hamot, Children's Hospital) for trauma, transplant, burn, pediatric, and hepatobiliary exposure. The program explicitly frames itself as producing graduates ready either for community general surgery practice or competitive fellowship placement (trauma/acute care, MIS/bariatric, vascular, cardiothoracic, plastics, breast), reflecting a dual-track career orientation rather than a research-driven identity. Its small, close-knit structure with one-on-one attending supervision and early operative autonomy signals that it values residents comfortable in a low-density community setting who want broad hands-on general surgical exposure supplemented by intermittent tertiary-care rotations.