Message from the Chair
The Department of Surgery at Michigan State University is dedicated to excellence in patient care, teaching, and academic inquiry. On our Lansing campus, we provide a broad range of clinical services including (although not limited to):
- Acute care surgery
- Bariatric surgery
- Breast care
- Cosmetic surgery
- Critical care management and consultation
- Endocrine surgery
- General surgery
- GI surgery
- Hernia surgery
- Minimally invasive surgery
- Minor surgical procedures
- Plastic and reconstructive surgery
- Microvascular hand surgery
- Surgical endoscopy
- Surgical oncology
- Trauma care
- Wound care management
Our faculty are highly skilled, practicing surgeons with expertise in their respective specialty, demonstrating clinical outcomes of the highest quality. Members participate with quality initiatives developed by the American College of Surgeons, including the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), Keystone Surgery and Keystone ICU, and other benchmark comparatives. Patient safety is fundamental to our core mission.
As an academic unit of the College of Human Medicine (CHM) at Michigan State University, the Department of Surgery includes faculty across the state and has a significant impact on Michigan's population. With its unique community campus-based structure, faculty within the Department of Surgery are positioned in seven communities, serving some of Michigan’s most underserved and vulnerable members of our communities.
- Grand Rapids Medical Education & Research Center
- Kalamazoo Center For Medical Studies
- Lansing Area Campuses
- Flint Area Medical Education
- Saginaw Synergy Medical Education Alliance
- Marquette - Upper Peninsula Campus
- Traverse City
These faculty surgeons supervise the training of MSU medical students and in some cases general surgery residents in the key principles of evaluation and management of surgical disease. Education has long been a key part of the mission of MSU Surgery, in keeping with the land-grant mission of Michigan State University that emphasizes community engagement. Our training program is built upon principles of evidence-based medicine, professionalism, and academic inquiry. Residents train in a variety of simulated experiences, not only for surgical procedures, but also in interpersonal interactions and team responses to patient issues. The MSU Learning and Assessment Center offers an outstanding resource for resident and student training in their regards.
The Department is active in medical student teaching at all levels. Faculty lead courses in Problem-Based Learning Curriculum and provide surgical training throughout Junior and Senior Clerkships rotations. Students may participate also in elective surgical clerkship rotations MSU-CHM Clinical Elective Clerkships by Community Campus (PDF) including Plastic, Orthopedic, Neuro, Thoracic or Colorectal Surgery, and a Trauma/Critical Care experience at our Level I Trauma Center, provided in collaboration with the Sparrow Health System. Opportunities are also available for experiences in surgical research during the fourth year.
Residents in the Lansing-based MSU residency in general surgery currently receive most of their training at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing and McLaren Hospital in Flint, but also rotate through St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids for additional experience in transplant surgery and through Spectrum Hospital in Grand Rapids for experience in pediatric surgery.
Although we emphasize state of the art clinical care and excellent teaching, academic inquiry is also a key part of our mission, whether simply asking and answering questions in an evidence-based fashion or conducting research to generate new knowledge. Faculty and residents are actively involved in research, ranging from protocol-based clinical studies to basic science. Research areas of inquiry include trauma and critical care, minimally invasive surgery, surgical oncology, wound healing, surgical education and quality improvement.
We are proud of our department, and hope that you will find this website useful in learning more about it. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions about the department or suggestions for our site.
Marc D. Basson, MD, PhD, MBA
Professor and Chair