Welcome letter
Thank you for your interest in UHCI/St Mark's Hospital program in Colon & Rectal Surgery. The Colon & Rectal program is under the umbrella of the sponsoring institution, Utah Healthcare Institute, but is based at the private practice of the Associates in Colon and Rectal Surgery. The program was founded in 2005 and has maintained full accreditation from the ACGME Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Colon and Rectal Surgery.
The Colon & Rectal training program offers the most innovative surgical care and techniques in the area of colon and rectal surgery to improve the quality of life for patients with any condition affecting the colon, small bowel, rectum, or anus. Our colorectal training program includes in-depth knowledge of all aspects of anorectal and colorectal disease including but not limited to office practice, hospital rounds, outpatient surgery, major abdominal surgery, endoscopic procedures, and anorectal physiology.
Our physicians specialize in minimally invasive approaches for colon and rectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease using laparoscopic surgery, hand assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS), and robotic procedures. In addition, our specialists are experts in lower endoscopy screening procedures and endoscopic removal of complicated polyps, eliminating the need for surgical intervention. In addition to innovative minimally invasive techniques, our faculty strongly believe that it is in the best interest of the patient and training surgeon to be facile in all approaches to the surgical management of complex abdominal pathologies. There is also a focus on how to approach complex re-operative pelvic operations and complicated diverticular or inflammatory bowel diseases using an open approach.
The teaching focus is also on advanced specialized training to evaluate functional disorders of the anal sphincter, rectum and pelvic floor including sacral nerve stimulation. An anal physiology lab is utilized that includes evaluations of anal manometry, defecography, colonic transit studies and therapeutic modalities including biofeedback with an on-site therapist. Exposure to rectal and anal endosonography is available.
Lastly, UHCI is a member of the greater HCA GME network. HCA offers assistance with long term employment placement.
I hope you find our website informative. Thank you for considering our program.
Michelle E Murday, MD, FACS, FASCRS
Program Director
Colon & Rectal Program
Program Curriculum and Schedule
Mission statement
As part of HCA Healthcare we are driven by a single mission: Above all else, we are committed to the care and improvement of human life. We are committed to training colon and rectal fellows committed to delivering healthcare as it should be: patient-centered and for the good of all people, no matter their circumstance. The strength of our training program is the tremendous depth and breadth of our clinical care. We provide an academically and clinically rigorous training program in colon and rectal surgery. Our dedicated faculty supported by the significant resources of HCA Healthcare GME provide our trainees with the basic and clinical knowledge, procedural skills, clinical judgment, professionalism, and the interpersonal skills necessary for a successful career and to develop as a leader. The curriculum is designed to provide a broad clinical exposure in acute and chronic care occurring in the inpatient and outpatient settings, as well as extensive experience in appropriate procedures. We are also committed to nurturing a robust interest in scientific investigation and evidence based practice
Program aims:
- Provide a comprehensive curriculum to develop compassionate, highly competent, patient-centric, and ethical surgeons with expertise in disease prevention, and expertise in the diagnosis and management of patients with various conditions.
- Develop the skills necessary to accurately diagnose and treat patients with acute and chronic illness.
- Provide fellows with the tools to develop relationships and collaborate with colleagues across the professional continuum.
- Provide fellows with the tools to have a strong impact on public health through community education and to become advocates for disease prevention.
- Graduate well-rounded physicians who successfully incorporate scholarly activity into their evidence-based practice.
- Establish a strong foundation and promote lifelong collegial mentorship to help develop the future leaders.
Why choose our program?
The goal of the colorectal fellowship is to educate the next generation of colorectal surgeons to become compassionate and competent specialists in this exciting and evolving clinical discipline. Our program is rooted in all ACGME competencies. In this program, you will learn to provide compassionate, appropriate, and outcome-based patient care by learning about the latest advances in the clinical sciences relating to colon and rectal surgery and through practice-based learning and improvement. We train our physicians to lead with professionalism, competency, and care.
Primary full-time teaching responsibilities are shared by attending physicians Michelle E Murday, MD, Abby Crume, DO, and Joseph Melvin, MD Adjunct faculty include Peter Bossart, MD, H. Tae Kim, MD and Ute Gawlick, MD All faculty members are board certified or board eligible in the specialty of colon and rectal surgery. Residents participate directly in surgical cases at MountainStar/HCA Hospitals (St Mark's Hospital and Lone Peak Hospital) and Intermountain Healthcare Hospitals (Intermountain Medical Center, Latter Day Saints Hospital and Alta View Hospital) under the immediate direction and supervision of their assigned attendings for the month.
There is protected time for didactic conferences specifically tailored to the education of the residents, which include core curriculum lectures, morbidity and mortality conferences, research meetings, pelvic floor conference, NAPRC tumor board, and journal club.
Rotations are delineated by the residents assigned faculty members rather than by institution. The resident rotation functions as a preceptorship with their assigned attending who provides supervision of the residents' activities.
List of leadership and faculty
Program Director - Michelle E. Murday, MD
Dr Murday is a board certified Colon and Rectal Surgeon. She is an expert in all surgical aspects of colorectal disease including colon cancer, rectal cancer, anal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, and rectal prolapse. Dr. Murday also performs colonoscopies and manages all aspects of anorectal diseases, including hemorrhoids, fissures, fistulas and fecal incontinence. She provides consultative services to patients and providers throughout Utah.
Background
Dr Murday received her Bachelor of Arts with distinction from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical College where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. She completed her General Surgery residency at the University of Florida Gainesville where she won the Ray Biersted intern award and was the inaugural administrative chief resident. She concluded her advanced surgical fellowship training at the Colon & Rectal Clinic of Orlando.
Expertise
Dr. Murday has a passion for education having spent 5 years as a hands on science teacher for elementary school children and has been the program director for the UHCI St Marks Colon and Rectal Fellowship since 2016. Periodically she provides educational lectures for the nursing staff, the hospital chaplain residency, and will provide a rotation for University of Utah medical students. She has served as an associate board examiner for the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery. She has written questions for the board, the in service training exam and the colon and rectal self-education program (CARSEP). She has served on the Wasatch Endoscopy Center Medical Executive Committee, the St Marks Hospital Joint Governance, St Marks Hospital OR Committee, Association of Program Directors in Colon and Rectal Surgery and served as the women's liaison for the Utah Chapter of the American College of Surgeons.
She provides expert surgical management of colon and rectal cancer and inspired St Mark's hospital to work toward their National Accreditation in Rectal Cancer through the Committee on Cancer. She has worked with the St Marks tumor board to provide multidisciplinary comprehensive care for over 15 years.
She offers the opportunity for cure of ulcerative colitis with preservation of the anal sphincter and avoidance of permanent ileostomy through the use of minimally invasive J pouch surgery. She has a personal interest in multidisciplinary management of Crohn's with her gastroenterology colleagues throughout the state and offers surgical expertise when appropriate.
Dr. Murday specializes in the management of all aspects of anorectal disease and proctology including hemorrhoids, anal pain, anal fissures, rectovaginal fistula, abscess and fistula. As a proctologist she offers the complete range of treatments managing the majority of anorectal problems in the office setting using painless, nonsurgical options. Beyond her expertise and experience, Dr. Murday takes the most pride in providing high quality care with great compassion; her greatest accomplishment is not just gaining but keeping the trust of her patients
Getting to know Dr Murday
Dr. Murday enjoys spending time with her husband and their sons hiking, cycling, traveling, gardening and cooking. She was trained as a classical pianist and enjoys "noodling" on the piano when she finds a moment of spare time.
Abby Crume, DO
Dr. Crume is a board certified Colon and Rectal Surgeon practicing in Salt Lake City and Utah County. She treats all aspects of colorectal disease including colon and rectal cancer, anal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, colonoscopy for cancer screening, and all aspects of proctology including hemorrhoids, anal fissures, fistulas and anal warts. She also specializes in pelvic floor treatment focusing on fecal incontinence and rectal prolapse.
Dr. Crume is originally from Texas. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas and her medical degree from The University of North Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. She did her general surgery training at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. She completed her colorectal fellowship in Salt Lake City.
Dr. Crume is one of the few colorectal surgeons in the state of Utah who performs sacral nerve stimulation for fecal incontinence. She also has a robust practice treating recurrent rectal prolapse.
She is a skilled laparoscopic and robotic surgeon providing minimally invasive surgery for a variety of diseases including colon and rectal cancer, diverticulitis, and inflammatory bowel disease. She also performs transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) for rectal lesions saving some patients from larger bowel resections.
Dr. Crume is a Texan at heart but loves her adopted state of Utah. When not practicing medicine, she can be found hiking, skiing or playing golf.
Joseph Melvin, MD
Background
Dr. Melvin received his Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College, and his medical degree from Rush Medical College of Rush University in Chicago. He completed his General Surgery residency at the University of Missouri. He concluded his advanced surgical fellowship training in colon and rectal surgery at the University of Wisconsin.
Expertise
Dr. Melvin has a broad focus on management of colon & rectal diseases. Beginning with colon and rectal cancer and the goal of cancer cure, he utilizes minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery where beneficial for colorectal surgical disease.
Dr. Melvin is specialty trained in all surgical aspects of colorectal disease, including colon cancer, rectal cancer, anal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, and complex proctology including rectal prolapse and fecal incontinence. He provides consultative services to patients throughout Utah and surrounding states.
He offers the opportunity for cure of ulcerative colitis with avoidance of permanent ileostomy through use of minimally invasive J-pouch surgery. Additionally, he is able to offer an S-pouch procedure for some patients who are unable to receive a J-pouch. His interest and expertise in the surgical problems afflicting his patients with Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's disease developed during his training at the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Melvin specializes in the management of all aspects of pelvic floor and anorectal disease including rectal prolapse, fecal incontinence, hemorrhoids, anal pain, anal fissures, infection and abscess, rectal fistula, anal itching, pilonidal disease, anal warts, and anal HPV.
He offers trans-anal and minimally invasive/robotic assisted trans-abdominal approaches to rectal prolapse repair. He also offers specialized surgical options for fecal incontinence including sacral nerve stimulator implantation. Additionally, he provides diagnostic and surveillance procedures for anal HPV.
Dr. Melvin provides expert surgical management of diverticulitis, including the complications of diverticular abscess, and diverticular fistula communication to the bladder or vagina. Surgical management includes goals of minimizing need for a colostomy and the use of minimally invasive access which often affords a smaller wound incision, quicker return to normal activities and less post-operative pain.
As a proctologist he offers the complete range of treatments for hemorrhoids, including in-office procedures using painless, nonsurgical options. These include hemorrhoid banding, medical and diet management. Surgical options include traditional hemorrhoidectomy which can sometimes be performed in combination with screening colonoscopy. He understands the importance of minimizing post-operative pain, while also limiting narcotic use and utilizing a multi-modal strategy to pain control.
Getting to Know Dr. Melvin
Dr. Melvin is married and has two daughters. He and his family enjoy the outdoors and love to take advantage of all the Wasatch mountain range has to offer including camping, hiking, skiing and snowboarding.
Matthew C. Bobel, MD
Background
Dr. Bobel is originally from Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biology and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He taught first grade in Minneapolis with Teach for America before returning to Madison, where he obtained his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Bobel trained in general surgery at the University of Minnesota. During this time, he completed the American College of Surgeons-MacLean Center Surgical Ethics Fellowship at the University of Chicago and a surgical education research fellowship through the Association for Surgical Education. He completed his colorectal surgery fellowship at Trinity Health Ann Arbor/University of Michigan (formerly St. Joseph Mercy Hospital).
Expertise
Dr. Bobel specializes in the full spectrum of colon, rectal, and anal diseases, including colon cancer, rectal cancer, anal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), diverticulitis, colonoscopy for cancer screening, and all aspects of proctology including hemorrhoids, pilonidal disease, anal fissure, anal fistula, anal pain, anal itching, anal warts, anal HPV, rectovaginal fistula, rectal prolapse, and fecal incontinence.
He has a particular interest in minimally invasive operations, specifically robot-assisted surgery. He completed over 100 robotic colorectal surgeries during his fellowship year and looks forward to increasing access to minimally invasive surgery for patients throughout Utah and surrounding states. He was trained to perform natural orifice extraction—removing the diseased colon through the vagina or rectum—to minimize the size of incisions, thereby reducing the risk of post-operative hernias, decreasing post-operative pain, and speeding up the return to normal activities.
Dr. Bobel’s approach to colon and rectal cancer is preventative screening through colonoscopy. When cancer is found, his goal is to cure using a multi-disciplinary approach. When clinically indicated, he offers minimally invasive trans-anal surgery (TAMIS) to avoid rectal resection. If cancer resection requires abdominal surgery, he prefers a minimally invasive/robot-assisted approach, which can decrease recovery time.
Dr. Bobel is interested in the surgical management of diverticulitis, including the complications of diverticular abscess and diverticular fistula with communication to the bladder, vagina, or intestines. His specialty training enables him to minimize the need for a colostomy.
As a proctologist, Dr. Bobel offers a complete range of treatments for managing anorectal problems, from diet and lifestyle modification to painless, nonsurgical options in the office to short, same-day procedures at a surgery center. He performs trans-anal and minimally invasive/robot-assisted trans-abdominal procedures to repair rectal prolapse. Additionally, he offers specialized surgical options for fecal incontinence, including sacral nerve stimulator implantation. He also provides in-office diagnostic and surveillance procedures for anal HPV, including high-resolution anoscopy (HRA).
Dr. Bobel understands that surgery is a journey. He partners with his patients and their care team(s) from pre-operative preparation through post-operative recovery to ensure the best possible outcome. He aims to optimize each patient’s health before surgery, so they are ready to undergo the stresses during and after surgery. This includes increasing physical activity, diet modification to decrease inflammation around the time of surgery and minimizing post-operative pain through a multi-modal pain control strategy to limit or eliminate the need for narcotics.
Dr. Bobel has a passion for education. He was a first-grade teacher before returning to medical school. During his fellowship year, he was one of the co-leaders of the Colorectal Surgery Virtual Education Series. He is now the faculty mentor to the surgical education fellowship he created for the Series. He is fascinated by the potential role of social media in surgical education for trainees in the United States and worldwide. He is also interested in leveraging social media for patient education and professional outreach. He looks forward to training colorectal surgery fellows.
Dr. Bobel is an active American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons member, working on the visual abstract team for the society’s medical journal, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum (DCR). He also serves on the American College of Surgeons Committee on Ethics as liaison to the Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons (RAS-ACS). In this role, he regularly speaks at national conferences on issues in surgical ethics.
Getting to know Dr. Bobel
Dr. Bobel loves spending time with his family, hiking, skiing, and camping. He loves gardening, cooking, baking, cycling, and traveling for food.
H. Tae Kim, MD
Medical School: University of Nevada School of Medicine Reno, NV in Doctor of Medicine, 1998 - 2002
Residency: University of Utah Medical Center Salt Lake City, UT in General Surgery, 2002 - 2007
Fellowship: Western Pennsylvania Hospital Pittsburgh, PA in Colon and Rectal Surgery, 2007 - 2008
Ute Gawlick, MD
Medical School: University of Illinois College of Medicine Urbana, IL in Doctor of Philosophy, 1996 - 2005
University of Illinois College of Medicine Urbana, IL in Doctor of Medicine, 2005
Residency: University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT in General Surgery, 2005 - 2011
Fellowship: Oregon Health Sciences University Portland, OR in Colon and Rectal Surgery, 2011 - 2012
Bryce Haac, MD
Medical School:University of North Carolina School of Medicine Chapel Hill, NC, in Doctor of Medicine, 2008-2013
Residency: University of Maryland Medical Center Baltimore, MD, in General Surgery, 2013-2020
Fellowship: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY, in Colon & Rectal Surgery, 2020-2021
Austin Cannon, MD
Medical School: University of North Carolina School of Medicine Chapel Hill, NC, in Doctor of Medicine, 2010-2015
Residency: University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT in General Surgery, 2015 - 2021
Fellowship: Oregon Health Sciences University Portland, OR in Colon and Rectal Surgery, 2021-2022
Valeta Stigers - Program Coordinator
If you have any questions, or would like to speak to someone directly about our program, please contact our Program Coordinator Valeta Stigers, or call (385) 274-7468.