Why UT Southwestern?

Endocrine surgery has a longstanding, rich tradition in the Department of Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. William H. Snyder, III, started the endocrine surgery practice at UTSW in 1971, building a legacy of high-quality care until his death in 2010. Fifty years later, the practice has its own division and employs 5 fellowship-trained endocrine surgeons in North Texas, representing fellowship training from the University of Wisconsin, UCSF, MD Anderson, Johns Hopkins, University of California Los Angeles, and Cleveland Clinic.

The objective of the William H. Snyder Endocrine Surgery Fellowship is to train highly skilled surgeons in the field of endocrine surgery who can confidently manage the breadth, depth, and nuance of simple and complex diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. These principles will be taught in a multidisciplinary university setting.

The Fellowship at a Glance

Clinical

The Section of Endocrine Surgery employs 5 endocrine surgeons (Dr. Sarah Oltmann, Dr. Alan Dackiw, Dr. Ana Islam, Dr. Vivek Sant, and Dr. Megan Parmer) and performs over 1,000 endocrine operations annually and growing. The fellows will be exposed to the full scope of endocrine surgical diseases across our three clinical sites, which provide exposure to complex referrals and re-operations (William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital), county hospital population (Parkland Memorial Hospital), and community-based practice (UT Southwestern Frisco).

Previous fellows have graduated with 350-450 cases, broken down as follows:

• 200 thyroidectomies
• 150 parathyroidectomies
•  35 lateral neck dissections
•  45 adrenalectomies (including laparoscopic, robotic, and open approach) 

Intra-operative adjuncts include use of ultrasound, nerve montioring, parathyorid localization adjuncts, XI and DV5 robotic platforms

Educational

The fellow participates in our multidisciplinary bi-monthly thyroid cancer tumor board, montly adrenal tumor board, and quarterly parathyroid case conference.  Our Endocrine Surgery Fellow will be a monthly participant in the thyroid cancer surveillance clinic at Parkland Hospital, where the long term follow up of our thyroid cancer patients is performed in our safety-net patient population.  The fellow will also have optional opportunities to spend additional time with our colleagues off service to gain exposure to laryngoscopy, fine needle aspiration, ultrasonography, cytology/histology review, nuclear medicine, as well as clinic time with our endocrinology partners to learn about their approach to thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal disease. 

The Bartolucci visiting professor lecture in endocrine surgery takes place every fall, with the fellow inviting a leader in the field of endocrine surgery of his/her choice. Previous speakers have included Dr. Thomas Fahey (NYU), Dr. Tobias Carling (Yale), Dr. Rebecca Sippel (UW), Dr. Electron Kebebew (Stanford), Dr. Barbra Miller (OSU), Dr. Michael Yeh (UCLA), and Dr. Carmen Solórzano (VUMC).

Research/Academic

The fellow is expected to submit an abstract to AAES and produce at least one manuscript during the year. Previous publications have focused on clinical outcomes, endocrine oncology, and artificial intelligence.  Access to national datasets (Optum,TriNetX, MarketScan, Cosmos) and a robust UTSW/Parkland/Texas Health Resources database, statisticians, and data collection assistance will be provided.

Special Considerations

The candidate must be eligible for and obtain a Texas medical license and DEA license prior to beginning the fellowship. The fellow will be required to apply for privileges at the Clements University Hospital and Parkland Memorial Hospital, and Texas Health Resources Frisco.