{"id":3717,"date":"2020-12-01T14:52:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T22:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/rethinking-residency\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:32:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:32:33","slug":"rethinking-residency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/rethinking-residency\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Residency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Rethinking Residency<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n \n December 01, 2020<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Marshall Ge, Marta Kulich, Rodrigo Mondero, Peter Kim, Janet Choi, Alison Yu, Shane Zhou, Ido Badash<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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While no one in the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head and Neck Surgery was the least bit surprised, it\u2019s worth noting that earlier this year, the Otolaryngology Residency Program earned full reaccreditation. With flying colors, actually.
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\nAfter a self-study process painstakingly documenting adherence to roughly 80 pages of requirements set by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and after a ruthlessly self-critical \u201cSWOT\u201d (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges) analysis, the program welcomed an ACGME site reviewer to the USC Health Sciences Campus late last year. The good news arrived in February.
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\n\u201cWe had a glowing accreditation\u2014both from the ACGME and the LAC+USC Graduate Medical Education Committee, which oversees all USC residency programs,\u201d says Niels Kokot, MD, who has directed the Otolaryngology Residency Program since 2013.
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\nOtolaryngology has been a part of USC medicine since 1933, and its residency program has a proud legacy, according to Kokot, who received his own training here between 2002 to 2007. Now an Associate Professor specializing in head and neck cancers, he joined the faculty in 2008 after a yearlong fellowship at University of Pennsylvania.
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\nUnder Kokot\u2019s watch, and with the full backing of USC Caruso Department Chair John Oghalai, MD, the Otolaryngology Residency Program has recently undergone big changes. Traditionally known for producing rock-solid surgeons, it is retooling as a training ground for academic surgeon-scientists.
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\nIn the past seven years, the department has added six clinician-scientists and 13 basic scientists to its faculty. The USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head and Neck Surgery now boasts 55 faculty members, including 24 surgeons who, as attendings, devote much of their time and attention to training and mentoring the program\u2019s 20 residents.
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\nThe improvements are tangible.
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\n\u201cWe really have seen a change in the type of residents we\u2019re recruiting and the quality of residents we\u2019re getting,\u201d Kokot says. \u201cWe used to be a small department that was very clinically oriented. Now some of the new faculty we hired are more research-minded, and we\u2019re recruiting residents interested in academic careers. We\u2019re still getting people who are excellent clinically. That\u2019s always going to be a part of our program. But now they also are having a great experience on the research side.\u201d
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\nThe faculty expansion has made the Otolaryngology Residency Program more robust in measurable ways. The USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head and Neck Surgery now ranks 10th<\/sup>\u00a0among the nation\u2019s 104 otolaryngology programs in terms of NIH funding. It currently places 28th<\/sup>\u00a0in Doximity and 44th<\/sup>\u00a0in\u00a0U.S. News & World Report<\/em>\u00a0rankings, and Kokot expects to see those numbers continue to improve.
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\n\u201cWe\u2019re a small but very competitive specialty,\u201d he says, of otolaryngology in general. The field naturally attracts a stellar pool of candidates. Forty percent of all residency applicants in otolaryngology are members of AOA (Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society) with board scores above the 90th percentile, excellent letters of reference, outstanding grades and substantial research experience already under their belts.
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\nNationwide, there were just 315 residency positions available in 2018. Last year, the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head and Neck Surgery received more than 400 applications for its four PGY1 spots. The admissions committee\u2014which, in addition to Kokot, includes faculty members Tamara Chambers, MD, Michael Johns, MD, and Eric Kezirian, MD\u2014winnowed those applicants down to 36 serious candidates, whom they invited for interviews. In recent years, the majority of \u201cmatches\u201d have come from the committee\u2019s top 10 picks.\u00a0
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\nAmong the department\u2019s attractions is a training model that takes full advantage of the Keck School\u2019s tight connection with LAC+USC Medical Center. \u00a0
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\nFirst-, second- and fifth-year residents spend the vast majority of their time at the 600-bed facility, one of the nation\u2019s largest publicly funded hospitals, where they deliver emergency and urgent care services to about 20 patients a day and perform up to 40 scheduled surgical procedures a week. Residents also staff a large otolaryngology outpatient clinic at LAC+USC, where up to 100 patients are seen on a daily basis.
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\n\u201cOur residents get a great experience as the primary providers of otolaryngology care to the people of Los Angeles. And they get a lot of independence. Right away, they\u2019re seeing their own patients,\u201d Kokot says. \u201cBy the time they\u2019re chief residents in the last year of training, they basically run the show, treating everyone that walks through the door in a subspecialty tertiary manner, with the oversight of the faculty.\u201d
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\nThird- and fourth-year residents mostly rotate through Keck Hospital and Children\u2019s Hospital Los Angeles, working shoulder-to-shoulder with faculty surgeons in a high-volume \u201coperating camp\u201d for private patients. This experience prepares them, in their last year as chief residents at LAC+USC, to \u201cspread their wings and become independent surgeons,\u201d Kokot says.
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\nThe fourth year also includes a three-month block for focused research, on top of yearly research projects completed by all residents and presented at the Resident Research Symposium in June. Graduates finish the program with \u201ca track record of publishing between three and eight papers, making them very competitive for top fellowship positions,\u201d Oghalai says.
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\nThe evolution of the residency program is in line with sweeping changes across the department.
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\n\u201cWhen Dr. Oghalai came in three years ago, he presented a very clear vision of how to grow the department\u2014by hiring new faculty and expanding our clinical sites,\u201d Kokot says.
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\nOghalai is a very well-respected scientist with a stellar research background, Kokot explains. \u201cHe has been very successful at running labs and getting grants. As far as I can tell, he\u2019s had NIH funding basically since birth,\u201d Kokot says, with a grin.
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\n\u201cAnd he has been supportive of our efforts to make sure we\u2019re running the best training program possible. He\u2019s committed to optimizing resident education, and he has been gung-ho about growing the residency program.\u201d
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\nPlans are underway to increase the program complement from 20 to 25 residents. Oghalai and Kokot have applied for grants to support the proposed increase. The new spot may include an extra two years of research\u2014effectively creating a residency and fellowship rolled into one.
\n\u00a0
\nBacking Kokot\u2019s efforts is a team of passionate professionals, including Clinical Assistant Professor Tamara Chambers, MD, who serves as Associate Residency Program Director and Chief of Otolaryngology at LAC+USC, where she oversees all trainees.\u00a0 Program Administrator Kim Schultz provides yet another support system for the residents. She runs the logistical aspects of the educational program, including grand rounds.
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\nSchultz calls the 20 residents \u201cmy focus and my pride and joy.\u201d
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\nKokot welcomes this kind of emotional investment.
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\n\u201cMedicine is a team sport,\u201d he says. \u201cOur residents need the support of classmates, faculty and staff to help get through it.\u201d
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\nTo promote camaraderie and peer support, Kokot and Chambers have created \u201cresidency families\u201d mixing trainees from different class years. These mentoring-trees help junior residents navigate the hospital system.
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\nThe Residency Program also now includes a Wellness Committee spearheaded by Michael Johns, MD, which provides counseling services to help reduce stress and stave off burnout.\u00a0
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\nResidents meet every semester with a faculty mentor to discuss changing goals and career paths. They\u2019re also assigned a research mentor; those interested in pursuing a subspecialty receive informal mentoring from faculty in that subspecialty. For fourth-year residents aiming for academic jobs, Kokot, Chambers and faculty advisors work hard to land research fellowships\u2014writing letters and making phone calls to colleagues at other top programs.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve really tried to make all aspects of the residency better,\u201d Kokot says.<\/p>\n

\u2014 By Diane Krieger<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":3719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[628],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-usc-caruso-department-of-otolaryngology-head-and-neck-surgery"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRethinking Residency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/rethinking-residency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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