University of California San Diego Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a young (established 2021/22), academic 0+5 integrated vascular surgery residency at the region's only major academic vascular referral center, drawing on a multi-site network spanning the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Hillcrest's Level 1 trauma/burn/stroke campus, the VA Medical Center, and Kaiser Permanente San Diego. The program emphasizes comprehensive exposure across the full breadth of open, endovascular, and complex aortic pathology, limb salvage, dialysis access, and carotid disease, with structured pathways for outcomes, translational, data science, or device-development research embedded into training. Residents highlight strong faculty mentorship, close mentor-mentee relationships, and case diversity as defining features, and the department funds dedicated student/resident research (e.g., ISP awards) tying into a broader academic surgery research enterprise and annual symposium. As a newly established, single-institution 0+5 program in a competitive academic market, it appears to value applicants drawn to comprehensive vascular training paired with genuine scholarly productivity rather than pure clinical volume alone.