Fellowship Training
"Excellence is an art won by training."
~ Aristotle
Fellowshop Training
Dr. Colette Salm-Schmid is the only fellowship-trained breast surgeon serving northeast Wisconsin. What does “fellowship training,” mean?
Extra Training,
Exposure to Experts,
Expectations to be an Expert
Many specialists have received fellowhip training in their particular field. However, breast care is an emerging field, and a fellowship is not yet required.
As a general surgeon, it is increasingly difficult to stay current with breast care, in addition to the trends of general surgery. The amount of new and complex information regarding breast health is immense. Out of this difficulty arose the need for breast fellowships. Currently, there are only 20 (approximate) fellowship-trained breast surgeons graduating each year.
In my case, I was chosen through a competitive process to complete a breast fellowship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago at the Lynn Sage Breast Center, under the direction of Monica Morrow, MD, one of the premier breast surgeons of our time. During this training, I was exposed to more intense instruction on not only surgery of the breast, but multi-disciplinary care of the breast patient, imaging of the breast, pathology of the breast, treatments of breast cancer including chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and radiation therapy. I was also privledged to participated in cutting-edge breast cancer research. The goal of the fellowship program, ultimately, was to create well-rounded breast specialists.
Essentially, fellowship-trained breast care specialists are doctors who are better equipped to understand and participate in the decisions made with other breast care team members.
My goal was to undergo the extra training so I could best serve my patients. Why? Research shows breast cancer patients fair better when cared for by fellowship trained breast surgeons (see Newsletter Volume 1, No. 1)
There is no doubt specialists who limit their practice to only the breast are single minded in focus and can concentrate their meeting time and energy to breast-related activities. This optimizes a doctor’s exposure to new information. Specialty training makes a difference