Cleveland Clinic Akron General Expands Resident Education Program

AKRON: Cleveland Clinic Akron General is expanding its resident education program and will be welcoming 56 new residents into its program on July 1, eight more than in previous years.

“We are pleased to be growing our already-robust graduate medical education program,” said Titus Sheers, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.P., chairman of medical education and research at Akron General. “We are fulfilling our commitment to prepare future physicians, especially in the important and in-demand area of primary care.”

The eight new residency spots are in Family Medicine and Internal Medicine – two each in the first year and two each in the second year of each curriculum. This growth was made possible through the receipt of federal funding that previously went to Affinity Medical Center in Massillon, Ohio, which closed in 2018.

Overall, 163 residents and fellows will be training at Akron General in the 2019-2020 academic year.

Akron General’s Family Medicine residency program will grow by two more spots in the summer of 2020, as the Transformative Care Continuum program, a partnership with Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUHCOM) that offers a compressed training program (three years of medical school and three years of primary care residency), with emphasis on teamwork and care management, kicks off.

Akron General offers residencies in a number of specialty areas, and fellowships are available in breast surgery oncology and vitreo-retinal & ocular trauma. Multiple pharmacy residency programs, including critical care, are also offered.

Emergency Medicine has been the largest residency program, with 11 residents in each year of the three-year program. The program offers unique opportunities to learn at a Level I Trauma Center – which is also an accredited Stroke Center and accredited Chest Pain Center – as well as at stand-alone emergency centers and Akron Children’s Hospital.

The other residency programs offered by Akron General include:

• Internal Medicine – 30 residents in the three-year program before this year’s expansion, with four more in its one-year preliminary program.
• Family Medicine – 15 residents in the three-year program, before the expansion.
• Obstetrics & Gynecology – 16 residents in the four-year program.
• General Surgery– 15 residents in the five-year program.
• Orthopaedic Surgery – 15 residents in the five-year program.
• Urology – 10 residents in the five-year program.

Akron General also hosts more than 750 medical student rotations each year, with students participating from local medical schools Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) and OUHCOM, as well as from across the country.