Colon Cancer – Colorectal Surgeon

Transcript

So you may get referred to a colorectal surgeon and you may be asking, “What is a colorectal surgeon?” We are surgeons that, like general surgeons, go through our four years of medical school, and then five years of general surgery, residency, or training. With a colorectal surgeon, we then do an extra year of fellowship in a colon and rectal surgery-specific fellowship. Following this, we also take boards in both general surgery and colon and rectal surgery. We often have what’s called a double boarded certification. So colon and rectal surgeons will actually take the general surgery boards, which is oral and written, followed by the colorectal boards, which are both oral and written as well, and so they’ll have to pass both of them to be a board certified colon or rectal surgeon. We’ll then have to maintain certification to keep that board certification throughout our career.