Program Contacts

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Important Information

All candidates must meet the Ontario Criteria of Eligibility found here. 

COVID-19 vaccination

Please be aware that most, if not all, hospitals in Ontario have mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies in place that require, in the absence of a valid medical or human rights exemption, proof of vaccination. Acceptable vaccination must be in accordance with Health Canada. You will be required to provide an attestation that you meet this requirement as part of the CaRMS application process and any actual documentation will be collected by the appropriate institution if matched. These guidelines could change at any time in accordance with future direction from the Ministry of Health or the Universities based on information from Public Health.

Failure to meet or provide proof of any of the stated requirements may result in an applicant’s file not being reviewed or removed from the Rank Order List.

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Return of Service

Ontario’s International Medical Graduate (IMG) Return of Service (ROS) program is intended to improve access to physician services across Ontario, particularly in areas with limited physician supply. The IMG ROS program offers participants a postgraduate medical training position in return for a commitment to practise medicine in an eligible Ontario community. The ROS contract is between the Ministry of Health and the successful applicant, and it is the responsibility of the applicant to confirm eligibility with respect to ROS requirements of other provinces. Ontario PGME offices are not involved in this process.

The Ministry requests all ROS agreements before July 1 of the year they were matched. All agreements should be returned to the Ministry prior to the start of residency training.

More information for IMG ROS can be found here: Return of Service Program

If you have further questions, please contact the Ministry of Health at PPUProgramOfficer@ontario.ca

PLEASE NOTE: APPLICANTS ARE REQUIRED TO FULFILL A ROS COMMITMENT IN ONTARIO IMMEDIATELY UPON COMPLETION OF YOUR TRAINING.

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General Instructions

Program application language: English

All candidates must meet the Ontario criteria of eligibility https://www.carms.ca/match/msm/eligibility-criteria/ontario/

Please be sure you have reviewed and understood the requirements for your application before submitting.

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Supporting Documentation / Information

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Review Process

Applications submitted after file review has opened on March 17, 2026

Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened  on  March 17, 2026

Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on March 17, 2026

Selection Criteria

Candidates are selected based on a comprehensive assessment of their application (file review) and an interview. The processes followed for each of these are described in the appropriate section of this Program Description. The file review and interview score are combined in order to generate the final CaRMS rank list.

Program goals

The Ottawa Residency Training Program provides trainees with the essential tools and foundational principles of surgery. This will include trauma, surgical emergencies, fluid balance, nutritional support, intensive care, and the management of pre and post-operative care.

During the Surgical Foundations blocks, the resident will gain experience and proficiency in areas felt necessary to the training of a Plastic Surgery resident, obtained by rotations on assorted medical and surgical services. There is a shared responsibility for patient care in our health care system, which includes the primary care physician, allied healthcare workers such as nurses and physiotherapists, and specialists in other fields of medicine such as Anesthesia, Radiology, Pathology, Rheumatology, Dermatology, Oncology, and other medical and surgical subspecialties.

During the course of the residency the resident must acquire knowledge of basic science necessary to the understanding and practice of Plastic Surgery. They must also acquire the skills necessary for critical appraisal and for continuing medical education. Residents must demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes relating to gender, culture and ethnicity pertinent to Plastic Surgery, and an ability to incorporate gender, cultural and ethnic perspectives in research methodology, data presentation and analysis.

Upon completion of the residency training program, the graduating resident will be competent to function as a physician in Plastic Surgery.

Selection process goals

- Excellent academic record

- Proven interest in Plastic Surgery

- High level of professionalism and ethical practice

- Collegial personality

- Demonstration of intiative, self-direction as well as ability to perform within a team setting

- Engagement in life-long learning/self-directed learning

- Honesty and integrity

- Ability to participate in academic endeavours such as research and teaching for the purposes of both learning and contribution to the Plastic Surgery community as a whole

File review process

Evaluation criteria :

Elective criteria

Interview process

Interview evaluation criteria :

Information gathered outside of CaRMS application

We do not consider any information gathered outside of the CaRMS application and local interview processes.

Ranking process

The behavior(s) exhibited below during the interview process may prevent an applicant from being ranked by our program :
Unprofessional or inappropriate behavior   
Did not attend interview   
Interview performance was not competitive   

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Program Highlights

1. Resident Aesthetic Clinic

There is a comprehensive curriculum in aesthetic surgery. This commences early in training. It involves exposure during the community rotation in the PGY2 year and proceeds in a stepwise fashion until the PGY5 year. The pinnacle is the resident aesthetic clinic in which residents exercise a large degree of autonomy in managing aesthetic patients. There are only three programs of this kind in Canada. This represents a significant achievement for a small program.

2. Microsurgery lab annually beginning in 1st year

Residents participate in 4-6 microvascular simulations on an annual basis as part of a comprehensive microvascular curriculum. Taking place in our state of the art surgical skills centre, a faculty member works with 2-3 residents in a progressive program that incorporates simulated biological tissue, and live animals to perform free tissue transfer and microvascular anastomosis.

3. International electives

This program is unique as multiple faculty participate in surgery and surgical education in the developing world. There are also options to engage in global health rotations closer to home. All residents have the option to participate in this program. This is a superb opportunity to interact with a diverse array of populations.

4. Anatomy dissection labs

Residents spend two months of each year in the anatomy lab to simulate the elevation and transfer of free tissue transfers as well as perform routine surgical exposures. This is designed to provide exposure to microvascular reconstruction and to consolidate and solidify knowledge of surgical anatomy.

5. Division Research Assistant

Residents have access to a division research assistant for resident projects.

6. Funding for courses and conferences. 

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Program Curriculum

This residency program is for 5 years.

Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.

CURRICULUM

The Ottawa Plastic Surgery Program (and all other Plastic Surgery programs in Canada) commenced a Competence By Design (CBD) Framework from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada on July 1, 2020.  All residents hired before this date will continue in the traditional framework.  All residents hired after this date, including the current applicant year, will be evaluated using CBD.

Within CBD there is a Competence Continuum that organizes residency into 4 Stages of Training: Transition to Discipline, Foundations of Discipline, Core of Discipline, and Transition to Practice.  The existing curriculum from prior years has been reviewed and adapted to the new CBD framework to ensure that residents achieve competence in all of the Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) required of a practicing Plastic Surgeon.  All teaching and assessment has been reviewed and modified as needed to achieve this goal.

For practical purposes of scheduling and rotation planning, residency is still divided into 5 post-graduate years, although the CBD stages of training do not necessarily correspond exactly to the PGY levels.  Although under the CBD model, length of training is not necessarily fixed to a specific duration for all residents, it is anticipated that the length of training for Plastic Surgery Residency at the University of Ottawa will continue to be 5 years.  Training may be extended if residents do not achieve all EPAs and competencies by the end of 5 years.  Shorter length of training is possible under CBD, although would likely only be feasible in exceptional circumstances.

Stages of Training 

Transition to Discipline (TTD)

This stage of training occurs primarily during the first 2 months of residency during the PGY-1 year.  Residents rotate on Adult Plastic Surgery for Blocks 1-2.  There is a general orientation to the concepts of CBD and the assessment platform used at the University of Ottawa (Elentra).

Foundations of Discipline

This stage of training occurs roughly during the PGY 1-2 years.  

The rotations during PGY 1-2 have been designed to provide overall comprehensive surgical training, to allow residents to achieve competence in all applicable Plastic Surgery EPAs, and to allow for completion of all EPAs required for Surgical Foundations.  

PGY1&2 - These years are part of the Surgical Foundations Program and it is anticipated that, at the end of them, residents will be prepared to sit the Surgical Foundations and MCCQE II examinations.

Rotations satisfy the specialty requirements and will be selected from:

Emergency medicine

Orthopaedic surgery

General surgery

MOH's 

ICU

Plastic Surgery (12-13 blocks)

Otolaryngology

Vascular

Neurosurgery

Oculoplastic Surgery

Oral Surgery

Burns - 2 blocks in PGY 2 or 3 in a Burn Unit in another city

Core of Discipline

This stage of training occurs roughly during the PGY 3-4 years and first half of PGY-5.

Residents rotate through all teaching sites and services to obtain a comprehensive exposure to all facets of Plastic Surgery.

Transition to Practice

This stage of training occurs roughly during the final 3-6 months of PGY-5. Residents will continue to rotate on Adult Plastic Surgery, although will focus their learning on acquiring additional skills required of a practicing Plastic Surgeon. 

PGY3-5 - These will provide exposure to all domains of Plastic Surgery in tertiary and community settings.  There will be an opportunity for an elective outside the city in a field mutually agreed upon by the resident and program committee. There are 2 one-month elective blocks in the 4th year.  There will be graded responsibility, including chief resident responsibilities in terms of supervision, teaching, and patient management, fulfilling all the Canmeds requirements.

ACADEMIC

In the first 2 years of training, there are weekly Surgical Foundations lectures and structured learning events under the auspices of the Surgical Foundations Program Director.

The weekly academic activities are composed of:

1- Seminar series that occur every Friday morning and are organized following a 2 year cycle so that there will be exposure to the majority of subjects at least twice over the training time. These seminars will be prepared by the resident with a supervising faculty member.

2-Journal Clubs will be held monthly to encourage critical appraisal and evidence-based practice.

3- Microsurgical Labs (Dry Labs scheduled in the morning and periodically in the afternoons (approximately 4-6 total per year).

4- Rounds - Hand and Wrist Rounds are held every Wednesday mornings, Patient Safety (M&M) Rounds held every third Wednesday of the month and Specialty Specific Case-Based Rounds held every Thursday mornings From September to June.

RESEARCH

Second to fifth year residents will be expected to produce a paper worthy of publication in a peer-reviewed journal for presentation at annual Resident Research Days and at national meetings each year. There will be support for this in terms of protected time, finances for meetings, and statistics/study design from within and outside the Division of Plastic Surgery. 

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Training Sites

Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus, General Campus, Riverside (outpatient) sites

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)

Queensway Carleton Hospital

Arnprior Regional Health Centre

Almonte General Hospital

Toronto - Ross Tilley Burn Centre & Sunnybrook 

Private Facilities in both Ottawa and Gatineau 

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Additional Information

Career Counselling

The Ottawa Plastic Surgery Residency Training Program is committed to career counselling and support for all residents throughout their training.