Significant Changes Announced for Residency Programs

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo is announcing significant changes in two of the 64 residency training programs that it operates jointly with area hospitals.

The formerly suspended training program in otolaryngology (a specialty focusing on the ear, nose and throat) is being reestablished and the residency in radiology will be closed.

The university will voluntarily withdraw Buffalo's radiology residency training program from the national accreditation process conducted by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

The decision to take this step was reached following extensive internal reviews, an on-site assessment by an independent panel of nationally recognized leaders in radiology education and with the full concurrence of Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Buffalo Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System, the current radiology residency training sites.

David L. Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., UB vice president for health sciences, said the radiology residency cannot meet accreditation criteria with its current structure. Similar problems, he added, are being faced by nearly one-third of the radiology residency programs in the country.

Of the 773 residents in training programs overseen by UB, 14 are in the 4-year radiology residency that will cease operation at the end of the 2007-08 academic year. The office of Graduate Medical Education in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will provide assistance and oversight for an orderly transition as residents in the program complete their training here or are placed in accredited programs elsewhere in the U.S.

Since several components of the radiology residency were judged to be of high quality, UB and its partner organizations plan to develop a new radiology training program with a structure designed to meet the accreditation criteria of the ACGME.

Dunn said UB is confident that the withdrawal will not impact the excellent training in radiology provided to UB medical students or care provided to patients in the community.

"The UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences effectively managed a similar situation with the otolaryngology residency program in 2002 and is pleased to announce the new residency program in this specialty, which has been accredited by the ACGME after being restructured under the new leadership of Dr. David Sherris," Dunn said.

The new residency program in otolaryngology replaces one that was disbanded in June 2002 for reasons that were not unlike those currently faced by the radiology program. Residents are being recruited for the new 5-year program, which will begin in July 2007.

"UB and its hospital-system partners are committed to presenting the highest-quality residency programs across the board to train new physicians, many of whom will remain in the area to meet the health-care needs of Western New York residents," he added.