Burn Surgery
Burn Surgery-WHC – SURG 563
Department– Surgery/Burns/Critical Care
Instructor– Laura Johnson, MD, FCCP
Contact– Chantell Carswell, chantell.m.carswell@medstar.net
Location– MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Reporting Time and Place– Please go to GME to check-in (6th Floor) at 8am for badging, etc. Then, go to 3B-55 MWHC Burn Center.
Duration– 4 weeks
Description– The MedStar Washington Hospital Center Burn Surgery service is one of the premier Burn Care facilities in the World. Lessons learned on the burn service in skin physiology, wound healing biology, and rehabilitation have broad applicability to every field in medicine.
This very busy operative service has plenty of hands on operative experience for medical students. Suturing, line placement, and splinting opportunities abound. We feature full service critical care as well: vent management, bronchoscopy, hemodialysis all occur within the confines of the burn team. This is a rare opportunity to see true Multidisciplinary Care and comprehensive medical care practiced with a single team.
From the helicopter, intensive care unit, operating room, ward and rehab, and outpatient settings, you can follow our patients every step of the way.
The outpatient clinic is open nearly every day, providing the student exposure to the long term sequalae of burn injury, as well as scar management – be it therapeutic or operative.
Our therapy gymnasium is open daily as well and housed with our inpatient ward. Both inpatient and outpatient rehab occurs amongst our experienced, caring, and fun therapists. Students are encouraged to observe and learn this critical aspect of recovery.
All the team members are very experienced in their fields and love to teach: Nutrition, Pharmacology, Respiratory Therapy, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Outreach/Prevention.
We allow students the opportunity to tailor their rotation to their interests be they surgical, medical, psychiatric, or rehabilitative.
We have a fully functional laboratory where study varies from clinical research, through animal research and bench science. Both tissue and molecular based work is done.
Visiting Students: Interested visiting students must apply via the AAMC VSLO platform.
Burn Surgery Research-WHC – SURG 564
Department– Burn Surgery
Contact– Lauren T. Moffatt, PhD
Location– MedStar Washington Hospital Center- The Burn Center
Duration– 4 weeks
Description-The Burn Center at MedStar Washington Hospital Center is the only adult burn treatment center in the Washington metropolitan area. This 20-bed facility features a multidisciplinary team approach to burn care that provides comprehensive, cutting-edge care for burn-injured patients. With over 700 admissions annually our center cares for an array of thermal, electrical and chemical injuries as well as soft tissue lesions such as those caused by TENS. The Burn Center faculty and staff are involved in a wide range of research activities. Some of these areas include:
- Dressing products evaluation & testing (animal models and human)
- Microvascular assessment in burn wound conversion
- Burn shock
- Novel applications of dermal substitutes
- Laser-guided burn wound excision
- Local and systemic mechanisms that contribute to burn wound conversion
- In vivo studies of electrical injury
- Natural history of hypertropic scarring
- Nutritional requirements in the burn patient
- Sepsis and complications of infection
- Rehabilitation of the burn patient
- Surgical infections
During the 4 week rotation, the medical student will participate in clinical and/or basic science research. They will be expected to understand the principles and practice of clinical research and will design an appropriate project that can be feasibly completed in one month. They will attend weekly lab meetings with the research staff of The Burn Center. Their work will be supervised by research staff at The Burn Center and each student will be expected to complete a report on their efforts at the completion of the rotation. Previous students have gone on to publish papers and present at conferences. This experience can be tailored to the students’ individual goals. Projects are not limited and if a student wishes to continue his/her involvement outside the confines of this elective, special arrangements can be made.