Name: Shannon Wong, MD
Medical school attended: St Georges University, True Blue, Grenada
Location of your residency/fellowship training:
- General surgery: Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wisconsin
- Plastic Surgery: UNMC
What program at UNMC are you serving as program director for?
Plastic surgery independent pathway
Number of trainees:
One per year. Total of three.
How long have you been the program director?
Three years
What made you choose to become the program director?
I wanted to play a meaningful role in resident education and thought that I would serve as a strong resident advocate, helping them to successfully navigate through their plastic surgery training.
What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future?
Specific to plastic surgery would be the national trend of plastic surgery programs to transition from the independent model of training to the integrated model. Although both have their strengths and weaknesses, if we lose the independent model completely, it would preclude surgery residents who decided their intended specialty later in their medical career from pursuing a future in plastic surgery.
What are the strengths of your training program?
- Autonomy
- Case volume
- Case variety
- Technically excellent staff
List some accomplishments that you are proud of:
- Developing and maintaining the only DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) flap program in the state of Nebraska.
- Raising two children who, for the most part, are well behaved and a joy to be around.
- Winning the resident golf tournament one out of five years.
Tell us three things about you that others may not know:
- French is my second language.
- I am an avid skier and grew up with Whistler in my backyard.
- I have my piano performer's degree.