The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency offers a comprehensive training experience with rotations through top-tier institutions and a focus on diverse clinical and research opportunities.
About the Program
Director: Geoffrey Towers, M.D.
The Wright State University Affiliated Hospitals Integrated Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program is based at Miami Valley Hospital with rotations to the USAF Medical Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Miami Valley Hospital is an 848-bed, state-of-the-art tertiary referral hospital, and has the only tertiary maternity/neonatal care facility in a 17-county area of Southwest Ohio. The USAF Medical Center, Wright-Patterson, is one of the largest Joint Service teaching and referral hospitals in the United States.
The chair, program director, associate program directors, faculty, program coordinator, affiliated hospitals, and clinic disciplines are actively involved in the educational program. The program is currently approved to train six residents per year for a total of 24 residents. Three of the residents in each program year are military and are chosen through the Joint Service Graduate Medical Education Selection Board (JSGMESB). The three civilian residents are selected through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).
In addition to inpatient obstetrics and gynecology, the first year of residency provides formal rotations in critical care, outpatient gynecology, ultrasound, emergency medicine and family planning.
Didactic conferences by the full-time and clinical faculty cover all specialty and subspecialty aspects of obstetrics and gynecology, including maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology, gynecologic oncology, pathology, reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and care of special populations. Additional conferences include gynecologic preoperative conferences, fetal monitor strip reviews, tumor board, morbidity and mortality conferences and journal club. A robust Grand Rounds schedule enables inclusion of a wide range of topics from various visiting speakers. Additionally, a specific interest and focus of our training program is to provide education and experience in improving health equity for underserved populations.
Residents in our program are required to complete a research project during their residency, aided by the Director of Research. The topic and study design, as well as IRB approval, should be completed under the advice of a faculty mentor not later than the end of the first year of residency. Residents will present their research at the end of the third year of residency at the Resident Research Day, and the goal of the fourth year is to work toward publication of research. Publication in peer-reviewed literature, though strongly encouraged, is not a requirement for graduation.
The progressive education of the resident is integrated with the participant's clinical experience, utilizing patient clinics, supervised surgery, daily teaching rounds and combined staff rounds. In-depth experience is provided in high-risk obstetrics, ultrasound with both abdominal and vaginal probe exposure, endocrine infertility, laparoscopy, minimally invasive surgical techniques, pelviscopy, microsurgery, coloscopy, general and radical surgery, laser applications with both intra-abdominal and external and gynecologic urology.
The faculty incorporates the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) six competencies into all of their teaching and instruction so that the residents may demonstrate the following:
- Patient Care that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective for the treatment of health programs and the promotion of health;
- Medical Knowledge about established and evolving biomedical, clinical, and cognate sciences, as well as, the application of this knowledge to patient care;
- Practice-based learning and improvement that involves the investigation and evaluation of care for their patients, the appraisal and assimilation of scientific evidence, and improvements in patient care;
- Interpersonal and communication skills that result in the effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, their families and other health professionals;
- Professionalism, as manifested through a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles, and sensitivity to patients of diverse backgrounds; and
- System-based practice, as manifested by actions that demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context and system of health care, as well as, the ability to call effectively on other resources in the system to provide optimal health care.
Progressive skills are monitored by a resident experience recognition program. These recognitions are granted to each resident upon satisfactory documentation and performance of techniques, skills and decision-making in his/her training rotations. Chief residents directly manage their respective services with access to full-time and clinical faculty for supervision, consultation and conferences. The progression of the program is balanced and non-pyramidal.
If you are unable to schedule a rotation with us but are still interested in applying for a residency position, please contact Martha Blankenship, Military Residency Coordinator at: martha.e.blankenship2.mil@health.mil to schedule either an in-person or telephone interview.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Resident Program Manual (PDF)
A Message to Air Force HPSP and USUHS Medical Students
Thank you for your interest in our Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship and Residency Program! Our program has the distinction of being the only fully integrated military and civilian ob-gyn training program in the Air Force. This allows our residents all the benefits of training in Miami Valley Hospital (a Level 1 trauma center) while also training in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center to develop all the skills necessary to be a successful physician and Air Force officer. Unlike several other military programs, residents receive all training in the local Dayton area. There is no need to travel to other distant locations for your residency education.
We’d love to hear from and meet you. We’re more than happy to help arrange a USUHS or HPSP ADT rotation. You’ll not only experience Wright-Patterson Air Force Base during your rotation and interview but you will also rotate and interview at Miami Valley Hospital with our Wright State faculty. All clerkship students interview during their rotation.
To request a USUHS or HPSP ADT rotation, contact Dr. Kelly Nagy at kelly.e.nagy.mil@health.mil . Rotation approvals are very competitive as we regularly have more requests than we have slots available. Requests should include your desired rotation date range and a current CV to expedite the approval process. We do not accept or approve non-ADT rotations.
If you are unable to schedule a rotation with us, but are still interested in applying for a residency position, please contact us to schedule either an in-person or telephone interview.
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine welcomes visiting medical students into the senior elective programs. Electives are for four weeks and are available, space permitting, to full-time students in good academic standing in the final or fourth year at a medical school in North America accredited by either the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Applications from visiting medical students will be considered after March 1 for the following academic year, which runs from July through June.
Boonshoft School of Medicine participates in the AAMC VSLO application services (https://vslo.aamc.org/vslo). Applications must be submitted at least 60 days before the elective begins. We will obtain the approval of the sponsoring department and confirm the elective's starting date, time and location; notify the student about the approval (or non-approval) of the application; and confirm the decision in writing.
Students are required to have malpractice insurance in the amount of at least $1 million per occurrence with an annual aggregate of $3 million to cover the student while taking an elective at Wright State. If your school does not provide malpractice insurance, you will need to acquire it and provide proof of insurance as part of the elective application. Visiting students must provide up-to-date immunization records, a letter of good standing from their home school, a photograph and a copy of an evaluation form, if required by their home school. In addition, the student's home school must verify that the student has completed training for HIPAA and OSHA bloodborne pathogens and has personal health insurance.
Students who are accepted for a visiting student rotation and decide not to accept it or to withdraw from it, are asked to notify the medical student clinical experience coordinator at the address below at least one month prior to the start of the rotation.
Questions about electives for visiting students should be directed to som_scheduling@wright.edu. Questions regarding opportunities specifically in Obstetrics and Gynecology should be directed to Darla Todd, Medical Student Education Coordinator, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at darla.todd@wright.edu.