Meet Our People

Get to Know Our Residents and Alumni

In the videos below, hear from some of our current and past residents about their experiences training in the Duke General Surgery Residency Program.

Resident Spotlight: Elishama Kanu, MD

On why Dr. Kanu chose Duke for General Surgery residency, "What drew me to Duke was their emphasis on academics, on training thoughtful clinicians and not just surgeons while we do train very capable surgeons here. I've noticed that especially just in rounds how we talk about patients in the patient plan, how we're very thoughtful about their overall disease state, how we really are physicians who also operate. And I appreciate that part of my training here."

Resident Spotlight: Christopher Jensen, MD

On the General Surgery Residency program's strengths Dr. Jensen says, "The greatest strength of the program is its people. I would say I'm very close to the people in my own class, and they are people who I enjoy seeing every day. I think being in the trenches together in the hospital breathes a lot of solidarity, and the fact that we've all had the same responsibilities and gone through the same challenges has really helped bring us together and made us really cohesive."

Alumnus Spotlight: Konstantinos Economopoulos, MD

On research opportunities, Dr. Economopoulos says, "Research is an integral part of the residency program and has been since Dr. Sabiston was chair of the department. What's unique at Duke is the wide variety of research opportunities ranging from clinical research, basic science, translational work, global health, economics, social sciences, education, but even out of the box, like history of medicine and medical device design."

Alumnus Spotlight: Brian Gilmore, MD

On misconceptions about Duke Dr. Gilmore–who has since returned to Duke Surgery as a member of our faculty–says, "The most common misconception about the Duke [General Surgery] program is that it's a malignant program. I think that it really couldn't be any further from the truth. I don't think that you could ask for a more supportive group of co-residents and people who will go out of their way to help you with anything, be it taking call shifts, relieving you from a case when you need it, or helping you with research projects."

Alumna Spotlight: Megan Turner Turley, MD

On what it's like living in Durham Dr. Turley says, "It's really easy to live in Durham. When I was looking for a residency program, I was looking for a place where I could work really, really hard at work, but always find a parking spot at the grocery store and everything here is 10 minutes away. That may seem small depending on where you come from, but I promise you the clinical work fills your days and you wanna be able to spend your time outside of work, doing the extracurricular activities, not commuting to them."

Resident Profiles