POLAND — Northeast Ohio Medical University College of Medicine students graduated this month and will head to the next level in their chosen field. For Poland native Robert DeVito, that means a residency at the University of Virginia for plastic surgery.

“My goal in my career is to be a safe and effective plastic surgeon who is a valuable resource to the health of my community,” he said.

Residency matches take place in April of each year, and the students get to announce their match at graduation.

“Each fourth-year college of medicine student creates their list of five top residency choices prior to graduation,” NEOMED marketing strategist Jared Slanina said. “The residency locations receive these lists, and make their selections accordingly. If a student is not placed into any of their five residency choices, staff members within the college of medicine work to find an alternative match that will fit their specialty that was not on their initial list.”

Slanina added that students made their residency selections based on their preferred specialty and location. The residency is typically four to seven years. This year’s residency match celebration was done virtually because of COVID-19 restrictions.

DeVito, a 2015 Poland Seminary High School graduate and son of Peter and Cynthia DeVito of Poland, will be in residency for six years. After that, he said about half the graduates in the plastic surgery field will do one-year fellowships in one of the subspecialties, such as pediatric plastic surgery, microsurgery, aesthetic surgery, hand surgery or burn surgery.

“I’m not sure about a fellowship after residency, but if I did elect to do one it would end up being a seven-year process in total,” DeVito said. “After training, I’m also not sure about going into private practice. Typically, about 50 percent of graduates in plastic surgery go into private practice, with the other half working in ’employed-models.’ I really do not have a leaning either way yet. I’ve worked with surgeons in both practice settings and enjoyed both thoroughly.”

He said he chose the medical field because he likes the idea of helping people, specifically with their health. It is something he knew a lot about since his family is so involved in one form or the other and NEOMED seems to be a school that his family favors as well.

“My mother, Cynthia, was a labor and delivery nurse at St. Elizabeth Youngstown for a long time,” DeVito said. “She is now the office manager for my father, Peter, who is a solo private practice general surgeon in Youngstown / Warren. My father graduated from NEOMED in 1991, trained in general surgery at St. E’s, and has been in private practice in the area since 1996. He also serves as the program director of the general surgery residency at Trumbull Regional Medical Center.

“I have an older brother, Peter Jr., who graduated from NEOMED in 2018 and is in his third year of vascular surgery residency at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I also have a cousin, Gregory, who graduated from NEOMED in 2011 and is a private practice orthopedic surgeon in Fredericksburg, Va.”

As for the recent year, DeVito said it hasn’t really changed much with the COVID-19 restrictions.

“We were pulled from hospitals for about 10 weeks last spring, and since our return, other than masks and social distancing, I think in some ways surgical specialties anyway have gone back to business as usual,” he said. “I know medicine as a whole has and will continue to change in the post-COVID world, but third- and fourth-year medical school didn’t change significantly in my mind, curriculum-wise.”

In looking to the future and his chosen field, he said the biggest challenge is getting patients access to the care a plastic surgeon can provide. He said the field is wide and covers areas such as breast reconstruction, skin cancer, head and neck surgery, cleft lip / palate, abdominal wall reconstruction, hand surgery, flap reconstruction, burn surgery, congenital deformities, gender-affirming surgery and aesthetic surgery, just to name a few.

“It’s important that the health care system knows how to best utilize a plastic surgeon’s skill set, and also that plastic surgeons themselves are advocates for patients and their access to health care,” DeVito said.

No matter what the disease process or indication for surgery, happy patients are a great thing to DeVito. “Anything from breast reduction to cleft care to trauma reconstruction, I want to be someone who helps my patients and gets them the care they need, he said. ” My other major goal is to be a program director of a plastic surgery residency and teach residents and medical students. I’ve always enjoyed teaching, and if I hadn’t gone into medicine, I would probably be teaching a high school history class.”