William Stewart Halsted
It was William Stewart Halsted in the early twentieth century who introduced the format of a residency program to USA as a tool to improve clinical practice. As a surgeon teaching at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, his aim was to guarantee a well-organized training period for young medical doctors to finally become qualified surgeons—and this model is still considered the standard for education in any medical specialization 1).
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Long DM. Educating neurosurgeons for the 21st century. Neurosurg Q. 1996;62(2):78–88.