Residency Program

Most obstetrics and gynecology residency programs in the U.S. have a rigid and fixed curriculum that largely focuses on training in obstetrics, with a lesser focus on gynecologic training. The major strength of Cleveland Clinic’s program lies in the breadth and depth of exposure to gynecologic surgical training while still maintaining core training in obstetrics.

By the end of your first year, you can choose to concentrate your training in general Ob/Gyn or you can choose to concentrate your training in one of the following subspecialty tracks:

• Gynecologic oncology including breast surgery
• Female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery
• Reproductive endocrinology and infertility

View our Ob/Gyn residency curriculum diagram here.

Program Track Themes

Each Ob/Gyn track involves five themes, which are:

• Primary and Preventative Ambulatory Health
• Obstetrics
• Gynecology
• Reproductive Endocrinology
• Gynecologic Oncology

There are several rotations within each theme, some of which are core for specified levels of the program. The remainder of rotations contributes to a wide menu of options from which residents select as the most appropriate to their needs.

Flexibility

In this "trainee-centered" program, you have the option to track into a curriculum specifically designed to give you more extensive experience in the gynecologic subspecialties. By self-selecting into areas of career interest, you will naturally demonstrate a greater focus on your training. This flexible training concept also allows you to spend more time within your subspecialty areas of interest, thereby gaining increased proficiency in advanced procedures and becoming more active in surgical management of patients and complex decision making.

Outcome-based approach

The outcome-based approach provides a useful framework for all rotations, thereby guaranteeing that all residents are held to the same standards. It emphasizes the technical aspects of clinical responsibilities as well as the scholarship and professionalism of Ob/Gyn practice. This approach also identifies what the physician should take responsibility for in terms of further professional development.

Credibility

The curriculum has been developed by a group of practicing obstetricians and gynecologists, many of whom are innovators in the field. This not only gives the curriculum credibility, but it also ensures that the material is at the cutting edge of Ob/Gyn education.

What’s more, Cleveland Clinic is consistently named as one of the nation's top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, and we are ranked among the top 5 in gynecology.

• View U.S. News & World Report Rankings.

New State-of-the-Art Simulation Center

Cleveland Clinic’s Education Institute is unveiling a new multidisciplinary simulation center designed to enhance the clinical learning experience for healthcare professionals. All physicians, nurses and allied health providers can engage in high-fidelity, team-based interventions to learn specific clinical skills or to practice new technical skills such as laparoscopy through the use of state-of-the-art task simulators. The Simulation Center provides an interactive learning experience in a low-stress, risk-free environment.

• Visit the Center for Multidisciplinary Simulation.

Training occurs in a large referral-based medical center in Northeast Ohio. Most training will take place at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. However, you also will train at Hillcrest and Fairview hospitals, both of which are Cleveland Clinic health system hospitals that provide obstetrics care. General and subspecialty operative gynecology are also performed in these locations. Additionally:

• Fairview Hospital features a level III perinatal center, a level III NICU and a level II trauma center.
• Hillcrest Hospital features a level III NICU and level II trauma center.

In each year of training, you will rotate on the Hillcrest and Fairview hospitals' high-risk labor and delivery service and the maternal-fetal medicine clinics.

• View a map of Fairview Hospital.
• View a map of Hillcrest Hospital.

Schedule of Activities

One morning per week is departmental-protected conference time for faculty and trainees. The first Wednesday of the month is morbidity and mortality conference, the second Wednesday is journal club, the third and fifth Wednesdays are Grand Rounds, and the fourth Wednesday is administrative time.

Resident-protected education time occurs every Wednesday morning following departmental-protected times. During these sessions, various didactics, small group activities, simulation and hands-on activities are conducted.

Patient rounds are scheduled at various times depending on the service and clinical volumes. Continuity clinics take place at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus and regional sites, and all are precepted by full-time Ob/Gyn generalist faculty members who have training and interest in outpatient clinical teaching. One faculty member is assigned to each half-day clinic. Patients are scheduled so that residents see an average of six patients during a half-day session at the beginning of the PGY 2 year. Residents do not have a continuity clinic in their first year, and no resident will go longer than two months without a continuity clinic during their second through fourth years.

Educational activities are monitored through semi-annual program reviews, rotation-by-rotation specific feedback, program surveys and attendance at conferences, rounds and journal clubs.

Collaborative Learning

You will have opportunities to collaborate on clinical cases with supervising attending physicians and subspecialty fellows in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, Gynecology Oncology and Reproductive Endocrinology. The supervising attending physicians and subspecialty fellows oversee the gynecology subspecialty services.

The obstetrics services and many of the community-based gynecology services do not have fellow involvement. The obstetrics services are overseen by the Obstetrics Chief Resident, and the gynecology service is run by the Gynecology Chief Resident. This gives the chief residents the autonomy needed to develop into supervising physicians as well as to select the most valuable clinical experiences for the resident teams.

As a resident, you are required to demonstrate at least one scholarly product during your training. To help support your research endeavors, the Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute has six full-time and four part-time research staff including six RN research nurse coordinators, three non-RN research coordinators and an RN nurse manager. The clinical research team is responsible for all patient-related aspects of your research project with respect to regulatory compliance.

Preventive Oncology International, Inc. is a 501 c3 public charity affiliated with the Women’s Health Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. It was originally founded in 1997 with a mission “to blend humanitarian care with good science”. Currently POI has projects ongoing in China, Peru, and Mexico. The “Preventive Oncology International Inc. Research and Education Fund,” established in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cleveland Clinic in 2009, continues to provide research and educational opportunities in international public health to students, residents, fellows and staff, not only from our local community but, when appropriate, from around the world. Students, residents, gynecologic oncology fellows, NIH Fogarty fellows have worked in many of the POI project sites, resulting in MPH degrees, as well as serving as the board approved theses for subspecialty certification.

• Zhao, FH, Lin, MJ, Chen F, Hu Sy, Zhang, R, Belinson JL, Sellors, JW, Franceschi, S, Qiao, YL, Castle, PE. Performance of high-risk human papillomavirus DNA testing as a primary screen for cervical cancer: a pooled analysis of individual patient data from 17 populations-based studies from China. Lancet Oncol. 2011 Jan;12(1):11.
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• Gravitt PE, Belinson JL, Salmeron J, Shah KV. Looking ahead: a case for HPV testing of self-sampled vaginal specimens 1 as a cervical cancer screening strategy. International J Cancer, 2011: Aug 1, 129(3) 517-527.
• Pretorius RG, Belinson JL, Burchette RJ, Hu S, Zhang X, Qiao YL. Regardless of Skill, Performing More Biopsies Increases the Sensitivity of Colposcopy. J Low Genit Tract Dis. 2011 Mar 23. [Epub ahead of print]
• Belinson JL, Wu R, Belinson SE, Qu X, Yang B, Du H, Wu R, Wang C, Zhang L, Zhou Y, Liu Y, Pretorius RG. A Population Based Clinical Trial Comparing Endocervical High-Risk HPV Testing using Hybrid Capture II and Cervista from the SHENCCAST II Study. 2011 May, Am J. Clinical Pathology.
• Belinson JL, Du H, Yang B, Wu R, Belinson SE, Qu X, Pretorius RG, Yi X, Castle P. Improved sensitivity of vaginal self-collection and high-risk human papillomavirus testing. Int J Cancer. 2011 May 31. doi: 10.1002/ijc.26202. [Epub ahead of print]
• Du H, Yi J, Wu R, Belinson SE, Qu X, Yang B, Wang C, Yi X, Belinson JL. A New PCR based Mass Spectrometry System for High-Risk HPV Part II – Clinical Trial. Am J Clin Pathol. 2011 Dec;136(6):920-3
• Smith JS, Lewkowitz AK, Qiao YL, Ji J, Md SH, Chen W, Md RZ, Liaw KL, Esser M, Taddeo FJ, Pretorius RG, Belinson JL.Population-based human papillomavirus 16,18, 6 and 11 DNA positivity and seropositivity in Chinese women. Int J Cancer. 2011 Nov 28. doi: 10.1002/ijc.27367. [Epub ahead of print]

Related Content:

• Ob/Gyn Clinical Trials
• Ob/Gyn Publications
• Ob/Gyn Research

The curriculum ensures that residents progress toward the exit learning outcomes in a coherent and cohesive fashion.

Resident progression during the first year involves increased breadth, which extends resident learning to more or new topics in Ob/Gyn, to different practice contexts and to building on existing knowledge to attain new learning. Residents also experience a variety of subspecialties early in their training to expose them to future career options.

Increased difficulty during the second year involves more in-depth and advanced consideration of Ob/Gyn topics. Second-year residents also begin to apply learning to more complex situations and deal with subtle situations in clinical encounters.

Increased utility during the third year involves applying learning to more complex and less clear presentations in Ob/Gyn practice.

Finally, fourth-year residents demonstrate increased proficiency by becoming more accomplished. Performance becomes more efficient and more like second nature as residents hone their skills.

View the specific outcomes plan here.

Ob/Gyn Residency Program Curriculum Committee

• J. Eric Jelovsek, MD, Program Director
• Natalie Bowersox, MD, Associate Program Director; Site Director, Fairview Hospital
• Jonathan D. Emery, MD, Site Director, Hillcrest Hospital

Ob/Gyn Academic Appointments
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine

• Michael Anderson, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Cynthia Austin, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Matthew Barber, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Jerome Belinson, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Michael Bloomfield, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Natalie Bowersox, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Nina Desai, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Natalie Drake, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Jonathan Emery, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Pedro Escobar, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Tommaso Falcone, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Ruth Farrell, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Gretchen Fisher, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Pascal Jarjoura, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• J. Eric Jelovsek, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Robert Kiwi, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Margaret McKenzie, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Chad Michener, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Tyler Muffly, MD, Clinical Instructor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Marie Paraiso, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Elliot Philipson, MD, Clinical Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Vicki Reed, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Beri Ridgeway, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Peter Rose, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Womack Stokes, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Sharon Sutherland, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Holly Thacker, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Center for Specialized Women’s Health
• Mark Walters, MD, Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn
• Diane Young, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Ob/Gyn & Women’s Health Institute, Ob/Gyn

Warning: The surgical videos below contain graphical content