The Department
Welcome to the University of Missouri – Kansas City program for Anesthesiology. We are a 4 year training program located at Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City. We offer exceptional clinical experience that produces graduates who are ready to enter any realm of anesthesia practice or continued training. Our graduates would tell you that they left training well prepared to practice from the East to the West coast, in private and academic practice, in large and small hospital settings, and in a number of fellowship settings. Recent graduates have pursued fellowship training at Cleveland Clinic, the University of Florida, the University of Nebraska, Mayo Clinic, and Washington University. Common training programs include CV, ICU, pediatrics, and chronic pain. The level of preparation that our residents achieve is made possible through a strong curriculum of clinical learning.
Saint Luke’s Hospital is the home of the Mid American Heart Institute where our residents gain experience in heart transplantation, VAD placement and management, ECMO management, and more. They see these high acuity cases in volumes that are not matched in most training programs. In addition, our residents gain strong experience in non-cardiac surgery, in our Neuroscience institute and high risk Labor and Delivery suite, and through other clinical areas including acute pain and regional. In their chronic pain rotations, our residents have a great deal of hands on procedural experience that is also unique and not universally available to trainees. During fellowship interview discussions with other candidate and peers, our residents find they far surpass training experiences of many other candidates.
Our residents train in two other hospitals in Kansas City: University Health and Children’s Mercy of Kansas City. Truman Medical Center is the main hub of the medical school and is a busy level 1 trauma center close to the heart of downtown. There, our residents gain experience in regional anesthesia, OR management, and trauma. At Children’s Mercy Hospital, our residents learn from a dedicated group of pediatric anesthesiologists who have prepared many of them for success in pediatric anesthesia fellowships.
Since joining this department 4 years ago I’ve been consistently impressed at what strong clinicians our residents become, and how ready they are for practice even from the beginning of their CA3 year. We believe strongly, and I will most certainly reiterate to anyone I have the pleasure to interview, that the most important contributor to the education of a resident is what that residents brings to work every day. Didactics, clinical experience, one on one learning, and other teaching formats are exponentially more effective to the resident who comes prepared to own his or her education and put him or herself in a position to learn. We love to watch our residents through their training journey, and those who approach their training with such a degree of ownership will most certainly thrive. I look forward every year to the opportunity to meet the next class of anesthesia residents, and that will hold especially true during this exciting virtual-only season we have ahead!
With warm regards,
Michael Duncan, M.D.
Program Director
Welcome to the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology! Our training program offers a curriculum that encompasses all areas of anesthesia-based care and gives trainees extensive exposure to the diverse subspecialties within anesthesiology. Whether practicing general anesthesiology is your interest, or you desire to ultimately pursue a career in an anesthesia subspecialty, you will receive comprehensive training in a wide variety of clinical settings. I encourage you to review our webpage to get an appreciation of what our training program offers.
Members of the Department of Anesthesiology faculty have come to UMKC from renowned training programs across the country and a large proportion of them have attained board certification in anesthesiology subspecialties. The faculty are eager to instill the knowledge, skills, and experiences needed to become a superb consultant in anesthesiology. Our program will provide ample opportunities to acquire skills in airway management, regional anesthesia, ICU care, neurosurgical and cardiac anesthesiology, obstetric and pediatric anesthesiology, and pain medicine.
As a native of Kansas City, I also want to highlight the abundant cultural, recreational, and culinary opportunities available locally. Kansas City is a wonderful place to live whether you are single or raising a family. It offers a wide variety of attractions to suit nearly every interest and a very reasonable cost of living. We hope you will take the opportunity to explore our program and our town. We look forward to helping you to become the anesthesiologist you aspire to be!
Jennifer Elliott, M.D.
Professor, Chair