Our Anesthesiology Chief Residents
Welcome to sunny Tucson and the University of Arizona Anesthesiology residency program. Our program has a history of graduating strong residents who are well-prepared to provide excellent care for complicated patients in any setting. Our recent graduates have secured positions in a variety of competitive fellowships including critical care, cardiothoracic, chronic pain, and pediatric anesthesia. University of Arizona graduates are represented in both academic and private practice groups across the country.
The University of Arizona / Banner University Medical Center (BUMC) is the busiest Level-1 trauma center in Southern Arizona with trauma services in acute care surgery, neurosurgery, and orthopedics. We have a robust otolaryngology department, exposing our residents to complex airways and ENT pathologies. Our hospital is also a major transplant center, with active liver, lung, heart, kidney, and pancreas transplant programs. As one of the first centers to use a total artificial heart as a bridge to cardiac transplant, we have an active program for mechanical assist devices and ECMO. Our neurosurgical cases include a wide variety of intracranial procedures, endovascular surgical neuroradiology, as well as complex spine surgery.
The main hospital campus includes Diamond Children’s Medical Center, which helps provide us with a large volume of diverse pediatric cases. This includes complex congenital heart repair, neonates, and specialized pediatric procedures in neurosurgery, opthalmology, and otolaryngology. For residents who desire additional neurosurgical or pediatric case-exposure, senior electives include rotations at Barrow Neurological Institute and Phoenix Children's Hospital to provide additional exposure in other high-volume specialty hospitals. Residents graduating from the program have no problem meeting and exceeding index-case minimums prior to graduation.
The anesthesia subspecialty opportunities found at the University of Arizona are also plentiful. As a medium-sized program without many subspecialty fellows, our program provides its residents the full spectrum of patient care while on their non-operating room rotations. These rotations are described in depth in our subspeciality webpage.
In addition to our comprehensive clinical training, the University of Arizona is located in a culturally diverse and unique region of the United States, where residents care for a number of patients from neighboring reservation sites and Mexico. In total, the anesthesiology training program at the University of Arizona is distinct, providing our residents a wide array of tertiary-level cases in multiple surgical and medical specialties. Above all else, our program fosters a supportive, and collegial environment. Our residents and faculty are a close-knit group, a department that welcomes diversity, autonomy and clinical excellence.
Ariza Martinez, MD Piyathida Obert, MD Andrew Russell-Cheung, DO