Surgery Chattanooga

The UTHSC College of Medicine Chattanooga is approved as a Sponsoring Institution for ACGME-accredited GME training programs and holds Continued Accreditation and Commendation without any citations (as of November 2021).

University of Tennessee College of Medicine – Chattanooga

All interviews for the 2025 Match will be conducted virtually via ZOOM.  The initial round of interview invitations will be sent between Wednesday, October 23, 2024 and Thursday, October 31, 2024, in keeping with APDS recommendations. We follow APDS recommendations to send the same number of initial invitations as we have interview slots.

Interview dates:

Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Applicants will have 48 hours to accept/reply to an interview invitation. After 48 hours with no response, that interview slot will be offered to someone on the waitlist.

This dynamic Surgery Residency Program is sponsored by the largest department at the UT College of Medicine Chattanooga. The program currently has Continued Accreditation with no citations and has received commendations for compliance with ACGME and Surgery RRC requirements. 

As of July 1, 2022, Benjamin Dart, MD, FACS, Professor, assumed the role of Chair for the Department of Surgery. Dr. Dart is a 1999 graduate of Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans.  He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga Surgery Residency Program (1999 - 2005) and was the first graduate of our Surgical Critical Care Fellowship in 2003 during his Surgery Residency. Dr. Dart is an active member of the American College of Surgeons; Southeastern Surgical Congress; Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma; Tennessee Medical Association; Medical Society of Chattanooga/Hamilton County, Southern Surgical Association; Western Trauma Association; and Alpha Omega Alpha.

R. Phillip Burns, MD, FACS, Professor and Immediate Past Chair of the Department.  Dr. Burns served as Chair of the program for 46 years — since the early affiliation between Erlanger Medical Center and the University of Tennessee in 1976, and was the longest serving chair in the nation.  Dr. Burns is still a practicing Faculty Member in the Department of Surgery Residency Program.  Dr. Burns is a past member of the national Surgery Residency Review Committee that accredits surgery training programs across the country, and has served as President of two nationally renowned organizations:  Southeastern Surgical Congress and the Southern Surgical Association. During 2019, Dr. Burns was appointed to serve on the Board of Trustees of our major affiliated hospital and primary clinical training site, Erlanger Health System, the 6th largest public health system in the U.S. 

Dr. Burns was honored by the American College of Surgeons with the Distinguished Service Award at the Clinical Congress in San Francisco on October 26, 2019.  The ACS Board of Regents honored Dr. Burns for "his innovative vision as an integral engineer of the College's focused initiatives influencing general surgery training, ultimately creating better prepared general surgery residents entering practice with enhanced skills and confidence to further improve the quality of care for their patients." Dr. Burns is also recognized as "a role model to surgeons everywhere to always do the right thing for patients." 

The Surgery Residency Program Director is W. Heath Giles, MD, FACS. Dr. Giles is a 2005 graduate of UTHSC and 2011 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga General Surgery program. He completed a fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at Brigham and Womens Hospital/Harvard Medical School in 2012. Dr. Giles returned to Chattanooga as a member of the Department of Surgery Faculty and was named Program Director of the Surgery Residency Program in 2015.  Dr. Giles is an active member of the American College of Surgeons; Southeastern Surgical Congress; Tennessee Medical Association; Medical Society of Chattanooga/Hamilton County, Southern Surgical Association; and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery.

The Surgery Clerkship Director for medical student education is J. Daniel Stanley, MD, FACS.  Dr. Stanley is also the Program Director of the Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship.  Dr. Stanley is a 1995 graduate of Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Des Moines, IA.  He completed a fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at William Beaumont Hospital in 1996. Dr. Stanley became a Faculty member with the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga, Department of Surgery in 2010.  Dr. Stanley is an active member of the American College of Surgeons; Southeastern Surgical Congress; Tennessee Medical Association; Medical Society of Chattanooga/Hamilton County, Southern Surgical Association; and the Association of Colon and Rectal Program Directors.

Training in our Surgery Residency is quite comprehensive, encompassing all areas of general surgery and related subspecialties.  Because of its Level I Trauma Center designation, the hospital's helicopter transport service, the kidney transplant program, and reputation as the tertiary care center for the Southeast Tennessee Region, Erlanger maintains a robust hospital census. 

Each year approximately 18,000 operative procedures are performed.  Surgery residents are involved in door-to-door care of approximately 90 percent of all patients admitted to the General Surgery, Thoracic, and Vascular Services.  

Residents completing the program have a successful pass rate on the certification examination of the American Board of Surgery.  Every graduate that has re-taken the Certifying Exam has successfully passed. Our graduates are truly "general surgeons" with a breadth of experience enabling them to successfully enter surgical practice or compete for nationally recognized fellowships. Our residents are prepared for any surgery career path.

We currently match 5 categorical surgery residents per year as well as preliminary surgery interns. 

The Department of Surgery also sponsors several fellowship programs:

• Colon and Rectal Surgery
• Surgical Critical Care
• Vascular Surgery
• Neuro-Interventional Surgery (non-ACGME accredited program)
• Mastery in General Surgery (American College of Surgeons approved) 

Our rotations are primarily "under one roof," and there is daily exposure and involvement with the Department Chair, Residency Program Director, and other faculty. The majority of clinical training takes place within the main Erlanger campus, but we also provide a rotation in rural general surgery for each PGY-3 level resident in both Dayton and Athens, Tennessee. Each location is less than one hour from Chattanooga and residents have the opportunity to work one-on-one with 5 faculty members practicing in rural settings within Tennessee. 

Benjamin Dart, MD, FACS

Professor and Chair
Department of Surgery

R. Phillip Burns, MD, FACS

Professor, Department of Surgery

W. Heath Giles, MD, FACS

Program Director and Professor Department of Surgery

J. Daniel Stanley, MD, FACS

Professor, Surgery Clerkship Director, Department of Surgery

Program Director
Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship