Residency Match Canada · Program Research Profile
University of Alberta
Plastic Surgery 2026 Match
What the research profiles of this year's 3 incoming residents actually look like, by specialty relevance and notable activity, not just publication count.
Program Director: Dr. Jay Zhu
3
spots filled this match cycle, unchanged from 3 in 2025. Every stat below describes this full cohort (n=3).
5.3
avg. confirmed publications
3.0
avg. first or second authored
1.0
avg. plastics relevant
Program context
Source: CaRMS program descriptions
Selection weights
Selection weights not published
What the program says it looks for
- Strong academic and clinical performance on rotations
- Reference letters that support the file
- A good showing at interview
- A CV that includes research experience in any medical field
Where research appears
File review expects previous research experience in medicine, the interview may ask about scholarly work, and supporting documents ask for abstracts only, not full publications.
51 to 200
applicants per year
0 to 25%
interview invite rate
Inference, not the program's wording
The program does not publish exact weights, and research has no separate weight. It appears in file review and at interview, and with a low invite rate the file review is selective, so research in the file could affect who is invited, but no research share can be assigned.
Gaps: The program does not state an interview count, and some of its goals text could not be read in full.
Where this cohort came from
University of Alberta
Dalhousie University
University of Manitoba
All 3 residents in this cohort are Canadian medical graduates. Schools are shown as a set only and are not matched to the individual research profiles below, since with a cohort this small that pairing would make individuals identifiable.
Per resident breakdown
Plastic surgery relevant
Other medical
* Includes 1 paper published after match day.
Four confirmed papers, all in basic science and medicine outside plastic surgery, led by a first authored islet transplantation exercise study in AJP Endocrinology and Metabolism and a second authored paper in Pharmaceutics. The others are a Circulation paper from undergraduate years and a middle authored review in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes. The 2026 paper was published after match day, so it was most likely listed on the original application as in preparation or pending publication, which is worth keeping in mind when benchmarking against this profile.*
Notable: first authored a conference abstract on machine learning for burn scar assessment, the only plastic surgery related work in this profile, and contributed to three further abstracts in transplant biology. Former varsity athlete.
A preprint is excluded from the counts above because it has not been peer reviewed. Abstracts are described here but not counted.
Seven confirmed papers, six of them first or second authored, with three directly in plastic surgery: a retrospective cohort study in Plastic Surgery (Oakville), a content analysis of surgeon social media in Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum, and a craniofacial systematic review in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. The other four sit in dermatology, urology authorship patterns, and women in surgery, including a case report and an AI melanoma screening study.
Notable: presented one of the first authored papers as a conference abstract and serves as an ambassador for an open access dermatology curriculum resource. Former varsity athlete.
Five confirmed papers, all in neurocritical care and neuromonitoring from a single research group, so none count toward plastic surgery relevance. One study on sedation depth and brain physiology is first authored in Neurotrauma Reports, and the other four are middle authored in journals including the Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing, Bioengineering, and Frontiers in Physiology.
Notable: no presentations, leadership roles, or other activities were found in public sources.
Reading this data
Plastic surgery specific research was the exception in this cohort. Only PGY1-B had directly relevant work, 3 of 7 papers, while PGY1-A and PGY1-C built their records in other medical fields, basic science and transplant biology in one case and neurocritical care in the other.
Total volume was fairly close, from 4 to 7 confirmed papers, but authorship role was not: PGY1-B was first or second author on 6 papers, against 2 for PGY1-A and 1 for PGY1-C. A sizeable record does not have to be specialty specific, and leadership on papers varied more than output did. Program weightings may change from year to year.
All data on this page was gathered from publicly available sources and verified to a high but not absolute degree of confidence. This profile is intended to give prospective applicants a general sense of what previously matched residents looked like, not to serve as a definitive or exhaustive record.
