OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) OMFS Program Overview Update (2024)

OHSU OMFS Program Overview​

OHSU has not had a full program update on here for a while now, so we wanted to share this information on behalf of our program. We will share some general info first, and then take you through our program chronologically. We do hope this program update provides a clear breakdown on how diverse our case load is (i.e. not just oncology), clearly defines our OHSU/Legacy relationship, and characterizes the unique culture of our program. In addition, we hope future OMFS applicants, who might have thought this was not the right program for them, may consider OHSU after reading this detailed breakdown. We embedded some links for more info and photos.

: Portland, OR - Oregon Health and Science University campus is located on a hilltop overlooking the city of Portland, Mt. Hood, and Mt. St. Helens. OHSU is no doubt one the most beautiful medical campuses in the country and offers a truly amazing landscape. Nowhere else in the country can doctors and medical staff take an aerial tram up to the hospital after parking their bike in the free bike valet at the waterfront at the base of tram. Don’t worry you can also just drive to the hospital. OHSU received a one billion dollar donation from Phil Knight (CEO of Nike) a couple years ago, which has spearheaded a lot of development in research and construction of new buildings including a state of the art surgical center on the waterfront.

Year 1:

• WE GET A FULL RIDE TO MEDICAL SCHOOL (including health insurance)
  • We graduate from medical school in February of our 2nd year
  • This is the second shortest time spent in medical school of all OMFS programs
  • OHSU is an incredibly progressive medical school, a leader (top 3) in primary care (important metric for medical education), and incredibly nurturing. OMFS students have a very strong reputation at the school and, as such, are treated very well. This affords us a very streamlined, personalized curriculum that is quite unique compared to other OMFS programs. Brand new medical school building built in 2014.
• Take Step 1 in early August, prior to starting medical school
• Start medical school in mid-August with 2 months of didactics and clinical skills training
• Complete six 4-week core rotations, of which we do Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, OB-Gyn, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry
• Take one 4-week elective surgery rotation of our choice (lots of options)
• Many residents moonlight 1-2x month except during gen surg year and busy months on service. Jobs handed down year to year to new residents.

Year 2:

• Finish up whatever rotations you have left from above
  • 6-8 weeks of built-in study time for Step 2 and Shelf exams
• 2-3 months of OMFS serviceas a medical student in fall of year 2
  • Can split time between OHSU/Shriners and Legacy/Providence
• Graduate from medical school at the end of February
• Start anesthesia in March
  • Paid PGY-1 resident salary
  • 4 months to finish off the academic year

Year 3:

• 9 months as an R1 on general surgery
  • Includes one month of pediatric anesthesia (CODA requirement)
  • OHSU is considered one of the strongest General Surgery programs in the country. OMFS has a great relationship with the General Surgery department (i.e., good rotations)
• 3 months on OMFS service

Year 4:

• 3 months as an R2 on General Surgery
  • Get 2 years of ACGME General Surgery certificate. A 2-year certificate is needed to be licensed as an MD in nearly 20 states (with more requiring this each year). This is a new trend that has affected graduates from 1-year certificate programs. You cannot just petition the medical board for an additional year
• 9 months on OMFS service
  • 3-4 months of which are with HNSA at Legacy-Emanuel, Providence Portland, and Good Samaritan hospitals

Year 5:

• 12 months on OMFS
  • 3-4 months of which are with HNSA at Legacy-Emanuel, Providence Portland, and Good Samaritan hospitals

Year 6:

• 12 months on OMFS
• 6 months of which are with HNSA at Legacy-Emanuel, Providence Portland, and Good Samaritan hospitals

Total time spent on OMFS service: minimum of 38 months

Hospitals We Cover:

• Oregon Health Sciences University
  • Level 1 trauma center
  • We share facial trauma with ENT, PRS 1:1:1
  • Located on the hill
• Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
  • Level 1 children’s trauma center.
  • Located on the hill
• Shriners Hospital for Children
  • Located on the hill
  • No ENT/plastics residents rotate here
  • We cover all head and neck cases which include cleft orthognathics, primary and secondary CLP repairs, rhinoplasty, staged otoplasty, etc.
• Legacy Emanuel Medical Center
  • Level 1 trauma center
  • No ENT or Plastics residency programs, so we take face call 365 days/year
  • We cover all head and neck emergencies including those which ENT may cover at other hospitals. This includes all airway emergencies, peritonsillar abscesses, epistaxis, anyone needing airway scopes
• Providence Portland Medical Center
  • Located in NE Portland
  • We recently began covering level 2 facial trauma at this site as part of the HNSA rotation
• Providence St. Vincent Medical Center
  • Located in Beaverton
  • We somewhat rarely go here for cancer or trauma cases that can’t be covered at OHSU for insurance reasons
• OHSU Dental School Clinic
  • Located at the base of the hill
  • New building and surgical suites built in 2014
  • Where we do our sedations for implants and outpatient dentoalveolar
  • We do not cover predoc clinic. Dental school clinic days are only high quality procedures/sedations/implants/etc for resident level. No point and pull that clogs up resident time
  • We have a resident clinic ~7 half days per week
  • Resident clinics are covered by a combination of OHSU full-time faculty as well as part-time community oral surgeons.
• Head & Neck Surgical Associates (HNSA)
  • https://head-neck.com
  • Private practice setting
  • In-office GA cases performed here such as zygoma implants

OHSU Faculty:

• Engelstad, M.D., D.D.S, M.H.I.: Full scope OMS, alveolar clefts, orthognathics (orthognathic fellowship trained)
• Hughes D.D.S.: Full scope OMS, TMJ replacement, orthognathics
• Petrisor, D.M.D., M.D., F.A.C.S.: Oncology, nerve repair (did oncology fellowships at both Shreveport and Jacksonville)
• Mann, D.D.S., M.D.: Implant director at the dental school, also in trauma pool
• New full scope OMS faculty will be starting this July at OHSU
• Stavropoulos D.D.S.: Pre-doc OMS director

HNSA Faculty:

• Bell, M.D., D.D.S, F.A.C.S.: Oncology, orthognathics, very active in immunotherapy research, TMJ, craniofacial, TORS (robotic surgery). Director, Providence Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Program and Clinic, Providence Cancer Center
• Dierks, M.D., D.M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.C.D, F.R.C.S.(Ed): ENT dual boarded, oncology, zygoma implants, facial cosmetics, truama, craniofacial. A godfather of OMS
• Cheng M.D., D.D.S, F.A.C.S: Oncology + full scope OMS: orthognathics, TMJ, craniofacial
• Patel M.D., D.D.S, F.A.C.S: Oncology + full scope OMS: orthognathics, TMJ, TORS, craniofacial
• Amundson D.D.S.: Full scope OMS, trauma. Former trauma fellow
• Main point: HNSA does not just do oncology. Truly a full scope practice. Growing area of practice is pediatric craniofacial surgery
• Fellows at HNSA
  • 1 trauma fellow at LEH (who we share call with at Legacy)
  • 2 cancer fellows (1 ablative, 1 microvascular)

Shriners Faculty:

• Nguyen M.D.: Plastic surgeon but also OMFS trained. Cleft lip/palate, pharyngoplasties, rhinoplasty, otoplasty, basically does everything. We are the only resident team that rotates with him. 1-2 operating days per week
• Johnson M.D. D.M.D.: OHSU grad from 2013, orthognathic fellowship trained, comes once a month to do cleft orthognathics

Program Culture: We have an incredibly down to earth and friendly service. Classic PNW culture. It’s not uncommon for the entire service including attendings, fellows, and significant others to go to a local brewery on Friday nights. Residents take weekend trips to the coast, go backcountry skiing, backyard BBQ, and home brew together. Our program director loves to load up his Sprinter Van with mountain bikes on weekends and hit the trails with residents. One of the driving factors for many of us choosing OHSU was the culture. It is very unique. Disclosure: we did have unmatched spot last year. This was the first time in the programs history per our PD. In the past, we had interviewed a select group of applicants (12-14). This year, we only ranked 8 people. Obviously, we learned our lesson. This had nothing to do with program culture, malignancy, etc as this program is the opposite of that. Just bad luck like applicants choosing other areas of country due to significant others, family, etc.

Portland, Oregon:
TripAdvisor: “You’ll wonder why you don’t live in Portland after you’ve visited this laid-back and friendly city. With a reputation for manicured parks, eclectic nightlife, fine micro-breweries and distilleries, and nature that cuts right into the city, Portland’s a Pacific Northwest must-visit. Don’t miss the famous Japanese Garden, one of the largest and most beautiful of its kind outside of Japan.”
Lonely Planet: “One of the world's great towns for beer, weirdness, cheap food, funky neighborhoods, forest hikes and much more, Portland is the kind of city you visit for two days and then move to. Endlessly entertaining and intriguing, it's easily walked and explored by bike.” “Portland has an almost unfair abundance of natural beauty – perfect parks, leafy trees, vibrantly flowering shrubs lining pretty residential streets, the Willamette River meandering through town, and Mt Hood on the horizon.”
Travel Portland video

Scope: We do it all and more. Broad of the broad scope. And, yes, that includes dentoalveolar. More importantly, we are at the frontier of our specialty given the caliber of attendings on both sides of the river. We are busy enough to be trained the full scope of OMS. However, certain things like no flap checks, PA’s and NP’s for our service, strong faculty relationships, and no predoc point and pull clinic allow us to still enjoy all that Portland and the greater PNW area have to offer. Our program director is incredibly focused on resident education, has written several op-eds in OMS journal articles regarding resident education, and makes it his priority to have residents get the highest caliber/quality training.

Research: 1 required submission focused on craniomaxillofacial trauma. Dr. Dierks works directly with you on this project. There are plenty of research opportunities on both sides of the river, but they are otherwise not required. Dr. Bell is an excellent resource and is at the forefront of OMS research, specifically looking at immunotherapy and oncology. Whether it is resident education, immunotherapy, trauma, oncology, or surgical planning, all of our attendings are involved in some aspect of research.

Alumni: In the past couple years, we have had residents go on to complete craniofacial fellowships in Oklahoma, England, and Australia, orthognathics fellowships in North Carolina, head and neck fellowships, and ENT micro fellowships. At the same time, we have had other residents start or join successful private practices throughout the country. OHSU has an incredible network. Some of the biggest names in the field, including several program directors, fellowship directors, and research leaders, have been in Portland for residency or fellowship. This definitely gives us a huge advantage in fellowship and job networking.

Externship: Want the OHSU experience first hand?
More information on applying to externship can be found by clicking on link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and feel free to contact me directly with any questions or concerns regarding this update.

Best,
Residents of OHSU