Stanford Health Care-Sponsored Stanford University Program

Program Identity & Fit

Stanford's Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgical Training Program is a six-year i-6 pathway that builds future academic cardiothoracic surgeons through three years of prerequisite clinical training, a mandatory two-year academic enrichment block (basic science, clinical research, or advanced degree), and three years of requisite CT clinical training, explicitly designed to produce "world leaders in academic cardiothoracic surgery." Training spans high-volume sites (Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto VA, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center) with deliberate exposure to endovascular, interventional cardiology/radiology, and minimally invasive/robotic techniques, reflecting an identity built around the "cardiovascular specialist" of the future rather than a traditional open-surgery-only track. The department's resident research output (NIH F32 awards, R38 StARR grants, MCHRI fellowships, PhD-track residents in bioengineering) demonstrates that research is not peripheral but structurally embedded and expected, with named faculty mentorship labs (Woo, Ma, Backhus/Berry) driving translational and biomechanical work. The program values residents oriented toward surgeon-scientist careers, technical range across open/endovascular/thoracoscopic modalities, and long-term academic productivity over community practice.