Osteopathic Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Reviews *Post Merger Version*

[TheBoneDoctah]

P.S. PLEASE DO NOT POST REPLIES ON THIS THREAD THAT ARE NOT REVIEWS. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION REGARDING THE AVAILABILITY OF A PROGRAM REVIEW, PLEASE DM ME AND I CAN TRY AND FIND ONE FOR YOU. THE THREAD SHOULD BE A CATALOG OF REVIEWS ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT HAVE CONVERSATIONS ON THIS THREAD AS IT IS FOR REVIEWS. THANK YOU!

The way osteopathic orthopedics works is that you will primarily get interviews from the programs you audition at, and depending on your application, maybe a few more from programs you did not audition at. That being said, choosing programs to rotate during your limited time is extremely important. Some websites have reviews of orthopedic programs, but the last reviews are from 2008, not applicable anymore, etc, especially after the ACGME-AOA merger. I will ask around to all the students/residents I know that applied orthopedics and try to get a great resource together for those applying in the future.

If anyone here rotated at a program and is willing to provide a review, please either post your review on this thread or, if you want to be anonymous, contact me via DM with the review and I can post it here. If you post a review, please try and include the BOLDED points below. I have added some clarification of some things you could include, but add whatever you would like if it fits! Thank you!

Program: Program name?
Residents per Class: How many residents per year?
Hospital: What hospitals do you work at? Talk a little about the location and the facility in general (ex. #beds, size, quality, food, etc).
Location: City and state? Talk about the general area the facilities are.
Attendings: Impression of the attendings at the program?
Residents: Impression of residents at the program?
Didactics/Education: How was this run at the program?
Operative Experience: Experience in the OR for you and the residents. Autonomy? Is teaching going on? Did residents/attendings include you?
Clinic Experience: Experience in the clinic for you and the residents. Were you able to see patients? Is teaching going on?
Rotations: What are the rotations and where? How many months and which years?
Research: Is anything required? Research rotations? Are residents/attendings working on research?
Lifestyle: As a student and a resident (from what you saw).
Pros: Main pros that draw you towards the program.
Cons: Main cons that pushed you away from the program.
Student-Specific Experience: This is specific to you as a rotator. How was your experience? Was it a tough rotation where you worked a ton of hours? Did you learn a lot? Were you included in the daily grind of the program? This is a really important section!

Index of Programs:

Ascension Genesys Hospital (Grand Blanc, MI): 1, 2, 3
Beaumont- Farmington Hills/Dearborn Hospitals (Farmington Hills, MI): 1, 2
Broward Health Medical Center (Fort Lauderdale, FL): 1, 2
Case Western University Hospitals (Cleveland, OH): 1
Community Memorial Hospital (Riverside, CA): 1, 2
East Tennessee State University (Kingsport, TN): 1
Good Samaritan Hospital (Corvallis, OR): 1, 2
Henry Ford Macomb Hospital (Clinton Township, MI): 1, 2, 3
Jersey City Medical Center (Jersey City, NJ): 1, 2
KCU/HCA Research Medical Center (Kansas City, MO): 1, 2, 3, 4
Larkin Community Hospital (Miami, FL): 1
McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital (Lansing, MI): 1, 2
McLaren Macomb Hospital (Mt. Clemens, MI): 1, 2
McLaren Oakland Hospital (Pontiac, MI): 1, 2, 3
Mercy Health-St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital (Youngstown, OH): 1
Ohio Health- Doctor's Hospital (Columbus, OH): 1
Oklahoma State University (Tulsa, OK): 1
PCOM (Philadelphia, PA): 1
Plainview Hospital/Northwell Health (Plainview, NY): 1
Riverside University Health System (Moreno Valley, CA): 1
Rowan (Jefferson, New Jersey): 1
South Pointe Hospital-Cleveland Clinic (Warrensville Heights, OH): 1, 2
Valley Hospital Medical Center (Las Vegas, NV): 1

P.S. PLEASE DO NOT POST REPLIES ON THIS THREAD THAT ARE NOT REVIEWS. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION REGARDING THE AVAILABILITY OF A PROGRAM REVIEW, PLEASE DM ME AND I CAN TRY AND FIND ONE FOR YOU. THE THREAD SHOULD BE A CATALOG OF REVIEWS ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT HAVE CONVERSATIONS ON THIS THREAD AS IT IS FOR REVIEWS. THANK YOU!

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[DNC127]

Program: Oklahoma State University Medical Center - Tulsa Oklahoma

Residents per Class: 2 per class (but word is they will move to 3-4 a year shortly). The residents are perhaps the biggest pros of this program. The guys here are truly a family. They hangout together all the time, their SOs hangout all the time, and the sense of family because of this is very real. If you want to go to a tight knit program there isn't one I personally saw that is more tight knit. However, the caveat is that it seems they rank fit above all other categories here. It doesn't matter how good your app is, if you do not fit in well with the group you will get bumped by someone who does. The residents are all very surgically competent (more below under operative experience), and feel comfortable in the OR doing most things, especially trauma. One example of how cool this group is, every Wednesday at didactics they have the "Fantasy Football Rundown" where the intern in charge of the fantasy football league gets up and commentates on the matchup and games and interjects their opinion on the moves and trades made that week in the league, never saw anything else like this on the trail.

Hospital: OSU-MC, St. Francis Medical Center, St. John Medical Center, Oklahoma Surgical Hospital. OSU-MC is the base hospital, but in reality very little of the surgeries happen there. The true "base hospital" is St. Francis medical center, a very large trauma hospital that covers trauma from the northern half of Oklahoma, eastern Arkansas, southern kansas, and southwest Missouri. The trauma here is simply unmatched in comparison to other DO programs (more below in operative experience). You also do pediatrics, sports, and a little bit of joints here as well. St. John is the other trauma hospital, very good and broad trauma exposure as well. Oklahoma surgical hospital is a very large private practice surgical hospital in which you do joints, foot and ankle, and sports.

Also, the food at Francis, Johns, and OSH is the best food I had on any DO rotation. They give you 350$ a month at Johns and similar at francis. OSH is catered food for the attendings everyday that students get to eat. Best food of any place I rotated hands down.

Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa is a great mid-sized town, with most things you could ever want to do besides major pro sports. Very cool restaurant / bar seen, low crime, super low cost of living, and nice people. Typical mid-sized midwestern town really.

Attendings:

Trauma: Trauma is ran by the ortho-trauma group in town and they are pretty universally the best attendings I came in contact with and also the most willing to let residents operate. They allowed me to do hip pinnings cut to close, and other things you wouldn't even think about doing as a student. Very cool group. They let the residents do as much as they can, and coach them through the process until they need help or hit a snag. They are also present at every didactics pretty much and are very involved in resident education. The PD Dr. Norris is senior in the group, and he is shock trauma / unc trained. He is very passionate about education, and lets students get in on cases and participate. Dr. Norris is very well regarded in the trauma world, and as such one of the 4's applying trauma has had a VERY successful interview season, and a prior chief matched at Duke.

Pediatrics: They have 2 peds ortho attendings (peds is in house at OSU which is a HUGE plus), the peds attendings are at St. Francis and very cool dudes. One of them just joined in November, but he was previously with the Riverside program to my understanding. They handle all your typical peds stuff, I saw a scoli and peds trauma when I was on rotating.

Sports: Sports attendings here are super cool, and let residents get involved more as they get comfortable with them. They have 2 sports attendings who are your typical DO sports attendings (ie: general ortho) which is what you see at most DO programs. However, one of the newest attendings just finished at the James Andrews Clinic and is pure sports only. Multiple ACLs a week, peds ACLs, Laterjet etc. This was rare to see in a DO program because most of them don't have high volume sports guys, and their sports medicine surgeons are really just general ortho.

Foot and Ankle: 2 foot and ankle attendings, students don't work with these attendings typically so I can't comment on much besides that the residents LOVE this rotation because the surgeons let them be very involved and really care about education. This was noticed as both attendings are frequently at didactics and very engaged.

Joints: As of now 3 joints attendings. One of them is VERY particular and the residents don't do much. The others are much better about getting the residents involved. Joints attendings are not as good as the rest of the subspecialties at this program.

Upper Extremity/Hand: One attending, who is top 3 in the nation for number of total shoulders completed in a year. This guy is a wizard, and has CRAZY volume. Being in his OR is basically an ortho party, and is super enjoyable for students. Lower level residents don't do much with him (due to volume and speed) but upper levels get involved a lot more. One of the coolest attendings you will ever meet honestly.

Oncology: Oncology attending Dr. Maale is out of dallas and is world renowned in the ortho oncology research, especially biofilms. He comes and gives a presentation every-other month or so, and residents have the opportunity to rotate with them if they want, but it isn't a set rotation that is required (similar to a lot of DO programs).

Spine: Students don't rotate on spine so I can't comment much, besides that the residents really like the attendings and that they get to be involved in the cases to a degree that it makes them want to do spine. The recently matched their chief last year to spine at Syracuse.

Didactics/Education:

Didactics are every morning with the residents (typically orthobullets on M,T,THR), and main formal education on Wednesday and Friday. Pretty typical didactics sessions, I didn't really notice any DO programs that had differing level of didactics. Lots of attending participation here though, more so than other programs.

Operative Experience:

9.5/10

You will complete more cases here than 95% of the programs out there. For sure. These guys operate LITERALLY all day, every day. The only time they really go to clinic is on peds and foot and ankle. Other than that, it is OR all day every day from day 1 of intern year all the way until graduation. The intern in July was doing most bread and butter trauma cases by himself by the end of his second month. Pretty crazy stuff.

The reason for this is they do FIFTEEN MONTHS of dedicated trauma which is NUTS. And whats crazier, is it is more actually 21 months of trauma because when they are on pediatrics at francis they do a ton of peds trauma, and when they get done with the peds day they go help the trauma service. On trauma they are very RARELY double scrubbed, and it is mostly 1 attending and 1 resident even as an intern. This program is really a trauma focused program, and as such they are studs in the OR. The current trauma fellow was a chief last year, and he had his own room from day 1 of fellowship and completes tabs and pelvis work way higher than his pay grade. This place will set you up to handle any trauma you could ever see, without really having to do a trauma fellowship (obviously you would want to fellowship if you want to perfect pelvis/tab). At the interview they stated they are clearing 5 thousand cases in their residency which is absolutely bonkers. The MD programs I interviewed at were lucky to get 2k.

They are also very involved on peds, Foot and ankle, sports, and spine.

I cannot overstate enough how important it is (especially if you have a family) that all rotations are IN HOUSE at OSU. It really would take a toll to leave for 3-6 months in the middle of a residency and it is so nice they don't have to do this.

On sports, they have to prove themselves before they get the scopes, but they have really good sports volume now that the Andrews clinic dude is there so they should all be studs at sports as well.

The only big operative con of this program at the moment is Joints. They have 1 attending that doesn't let them do a lot, but the other 2 do so its kind of like a 4/10 on joints if that makes sense. This is the only service that is not above average at this program.

Clinic Experience:

As said above, they don't do a lot of clinic LOL. They do on foot and ankle and pediatrics, but other than that they complete the bare minimum for ACGME and then operate all day every day.

Research:

Research here is MUCH better than most DO programs. The medical school has students and teams ready to rock and roll and complete the grunt work, and the residents heavily benefit from this. Most residents get multiple publications per year. Dr. Norris is also very active in trauma research now, and they have several prospective studies and were working on starting a randomized trial.

Because this is a community-university program you still have a lot of involvement with the school and medical students, which I really liked because is felt more collegial.

Lifestyle:

These guys work HARD. But, they also play HARD. Most days as a 1 or 2 start at 4:30 am and are done around 6-7. Obviously there are some days that you are done at 2-3 and some where you don't get to sleep but overall I didn't feel like it was excessive or that they got abused even in the slightest. Most have SOs and they get plenty of time with them and they all hangout as a big group after work.

Pros:

Trauma!!! If you like trauma this is the place for you.
Resident cohesiveness
Caring attendings who let you get involved in the case
Tulsa is a great city to live in.
Work hard, play hard mentality
Food at the hospitals
Research
Collegial community-university dynamic
No out rotations
highest operative volume I have personally seen

Cons:
Joints
Work hard (you will hate this if you are lazy)
Tulsa (if you are a big city NYC person you might not like tulsa)

Student Specific Experience: Very good rotation as a student, I got very involved in the surgeries and felt like everyone really cared to get to know me. I can't recommend this place enough.

If you want to match here, you really need to rotate. They do interview non-rotators, but seem to give preference to rotators according to the residents.

As such, I ranked this program above MULTIPLE university MD programs.

 

[DNC127]

Program: Henry Ford Macomb

Residents per Class: 2 per year (they want to move to 3 though). The residents here are AWESOME very tight group, with very diverse personalities and background that mesh very well together. The are by far the nicest group I worked with, in the sense that they are very humble and down to earth and did a good job of making each student feel very welcomed. Because of how great the residents are, most people that I know of that rotated here LOVED HF macomb, and ranked them highly as such. The residents here are very surgically competent, and very well rounded. They see a good number of all cases besides heavy trauma at their home base (they do an out rotation for trauma where I am sure they see this). This program in my opinion is the best served that I rotated at to produce a high quality general orthopaedic surgeon. What I mean is, you could leave this program and feel comfortable with all aspects of ortho to a degree you could practice day 1 without fellowship in Idaho or wherever and be very competent.

Hospital: Henry Ford Macomb is a pretty nice hospital where they do most of their rotations. They also go about 45 min south to Wyandot to work with one of their attendings, as well as surgical centers and off rotations. I really enjoyed HF macomb and the faculty and staff here really treat you well. They make you feel at home, which is very nice because as a student sometimes you feel like you are a bother to everyone lol. The BIGGEST con of this program has to do with the food at HF macomb. The food isn't great at all, which isn't a big deal I guess but its really the only big con I can come up with which speaks to how highly I liked this program.

Also, one of the cons for me with this program was a lack of Collegial feel which is not something I knew I wanted initially. There are medical students who have it as a base hospital, but it is a very community program and although affiliated with michigan state it didn't seem to have very close ties.

Location: Macomb, Michigan. I was really worried about location because you hear a lot of bad things about Detroit but this is 45 min out of Detroit and the area is really nice, and would be really nice for someone with a family or SO. It seems like there was plenty to do, and if you needed a big city vibe or pro sports you can drive 45 min south to Detroit. Cost of living wasn't too high, and you could easily buy a house here if you wanted to.

Attendings:

The attendings here ranged from amazing - meh. Like most places. However, most of the attendings here I worked with were absolutely amazing, super nice, and let their residents do a ton in the OR. Most of the attendings it seemed were general ortho, and so they had a good variety of cases for the residents to choose from. Most of the attendings at this program trained here or near here, so they know what it is like to be in the residents shoes and treat them REALLY well. As such, residents are a large part of every case from second year up it seemed, including total joints.

Dr. Scott is the PD (his sons are also attendings) and is a super nice guy. You can tell that he really cares about his residents, and that he treats them all super well.

They also work with the attendings at Grady hospital (Emory) for their trauma rotation and supposedly they are great and really let the residents get a very solid trauma experience. Of note, the residency has an apartment you can stay at that is supposedly super nice and is a big +. I can see this being very attractive if you are single.

They also do 3 months of peds in Cincinnati, which is pretty common for DO programs and I have heard nothing but good about this experience from multiple programs that go there.

Didactics/Education:

They have didactics every morning, if I remember correctly, mostly resident prepared lectures and orthobullets questions. Pretty standard for DO program didactics.

Operative Experience:

Operative experience here is VERY strong, and was the best "general ortho" operative experience of any place that I went to. All the residents are very competent and comfortable in the OR, and one of their 5th years is the best resident surgeon I have ever seen. He will be an attending there next year, which will be a big + for the program.

The rotations here are less service based and more assigned morning of your first couple years. The second years here run the show, and as such their second year is BRUTAL and they earn it heavily. However, there is a large amount of solidarity between residents and they are all willing to step in and help when needed to ease the burden on each other. For the whole second year you are on general ortho, and you basically just manage all the ortho patients in the whole hospital, which is nice because I think it sets you up to be a baller later in residency and as an attending.

Clinic Experience:
I was only able to go to clinic once or twice, but it seems the residents go pretty regularly but not a ton which allows for a good operative experience.

Research:
Research is lacking here, obviously like most programs they want to increase it in light of the merger but they only have a few projects going on it seems and most attendings are really that interested in research. This can be a pro or a con depending on how you look at it.

Lifestyle:
They seem to have a great lifestyle in years 3-5, however they EARN it during second year, and first year seems pretty difficult as well. Hours are pretty frequently 4:30-7 or so. Sometimes later, not very often sooner.

They do seem to be a tight knit group, and hangout outside of work when they aren't earning it though which helps.

The seniors also step in frequently to ease the burden on their juniors in order to make everyone elses life easier when they very easily could have just went home.

Pros:
Amazing group of genuine people
More diversity than many programs
Very good operative volume, autonomy, and breadth
Macomb is a chill city with good cost of living, and detroit is close enough if you need big city feel
Very nice attendings
Years 3-5 are chill
They don't have a lot of rotators, which increases your odds of matching

Cons:
No significant research (maybe a pro for some)
No collegial feel
Food at hospitals
Out rotations

Student Specific Experience: They only rotate 15-20, and interviewed 14 of them. Very high yield rotation, with good bang for buck. Highly highly recommend this place.


OVERALL: I loved this place, loved the residents, and would be STOKED to match here. Highly recommend

 

[florida835]

Program: East Tennessee State University

Residents per Class: 2

Hospital:
Johnson City Medical Center and Holston Valley Medical Center. JC is the new level 1 trauma center. Holston Valley, which was their old base hospital hospital, is now a level 3. They have recently transitioned to being mainly based out of JC, but still go with attendings and operate out of HVMC. Call is at JCMC. I did not get to experience JC during my rotation, but from what I have heard, it is a good setup. They are still working out some logistics from what I understand, but overall, the move seems to be going well and seems to be a great decision for the long term.

Location:
Johnson City, TN and Kingsport, TN. Kingsport is pretty small and not as many things to do besides outdoor activities. Johnson City has a lot more to do and see, plus ETSU is located there, meaning a larger population of younger adults. There is an abundance of outdoor activities in the area such as fishing and hiking. It is also located close to North Carolina and Virginia state lines.

Attendings:
Attendings seem on par with other programs. They seem willing to teach residents, some having more patience than others. The PD is trauma trained along with one of their associate PDs who was a former resident of their program. They have a spine attending who was also a former resident. They have added more attendings due to the move to JC, but I did not work with any of them. I thought the attendings were respectful to the residents and to me as a student. The residents also seemed pleased with the selection of attendings. From my experience, the one potential con about their attendings is the amount of general orthopedists. I did not work with any during my time and am not sure how many generalists are a part of the faculty. However, they did recently graduate a resident who is doing general and has joined as an attending.

They have one out rotation, pediatrics, in Greenville, SC. But if you want more pediatric experience, they also have some peds faculty at JC.

Residents:
Very hard working group of residents. They all pitch in and help each other out. For example, they live by an unofficial rule of staying around the hospital to help out until 6PM when the night float resident arrives. It is not mandatory but they do this to be available to help the busy residents out with their workload. Many times I would see residents staying past 6 to help the night float resident/other residents with admission orders, H&P's, etc. I also saw residents taking on new admissions for the on call resident without asking, just because they knew the on call resident was busy doing something else. There is a great sense of camaraderie due to managing a level 1 trauma center with just 10 residents. Residents are laid back and down to earth. They treat others with respect and made me feel welcomed as a student. Overall, a great group of people.

Didactics/Education:
I believe didactics are the same at JC as they were at HVMC. While at HVMC, they would meet every morning for an 1-1.5 hours (cannot remember exact length). They would run the list as a team. There were always attendings present. Krenk and Henkel were usually always there along with 1-2 other attendings. They would also have fracture conference each morning. Interns were responsible for reading the x-rays (I was asked to read one of my last day). The 2-4's usually would walk through treatment plans. 5's would usually assist with pimping and help teach the other residents. They would either have an attending lecture or a resident lecture. As a group, the residents followed an orthobullets curriculum, but they did not do questions together during my time there. It seemed more like a personal responsibility. Didactics were not necessarily a strong point here, but I would not say it was garbage either. It was a lot like most DO programs.

Operative Experience:
There is plenty of OR experience here. Due to being a level 1 center, there are always trauma cases going on. There are no fellows so residents do not have to worry about sharing OR time. I did not see many double scrubbed cases. When it did happen, the upper level residents were always willing to teach and let the younger residents operate. Attendings were willing to teach as well and let the residents operate. Some gave the residents a certain amount of time to do the case independently before stepping in, some worked alongside the residents, and some did not scrub. The residents all seemed pleased with their opportunities and training.

Clinic Experience:
This program is pretty balanced regarding clinic and OR. You get ample time in both settings. In the clinic, residents get a lot of independence to see patients and dictate.

Research:
To be honest, I cannot speak a lot about research here, not because of the lack of research, but more because I tend to do a poor job finding out about research and asking the right questions. I do know that there are opportunities and many of the attendings do participate in research. The partnering with ETSU has also opened the doors to using their resources for research.

Lifestyle:
They work hard and stay busy. Year 2 seems to be the toughest year like many other programs. They have a lot of volume to manage with only 2 residents per year. Despite all this, they seemed happy and do get time to enjoy life outside the hospital. They spoke about trips and activities they did as a group. Every year there is a festival in July which includes a 8km run that the residents and attendings have competed against each other. While I was there, the residents went out together as a group to eat. This may seem like a minor event, but I did not see this at a lot of other programs. Overall, the residents seemed healthy and happy.

Pros:
tight group of residents who genuinely wanted to help each other and be supportive of each other
level 1 trauma center that provides a good amount of surgical cases
diverse set of attendings who seem invested in training residents
history of matching to good fellowships (Duke- spine, Missouri- trauma, Andrews Clinic- sports, etc.)
being partnered with ETSU

Cons:
level 1 trauma center (can be a pro or con depending on the lifestyle and environment you want as a resident)
cultural expectation to help out (will not be regularly going home early just because your work Is done)
2 main hospitals (roughly 30min apart) + 1 out rotation (6 months in Greenville, SC)

Student Specific Experience:
I believe they interviewed everyone who rotated, although they did not rank everyone who interviewed. If you want to match here, you need to rotate here. I was treated with respect and taken care of by residents. They do not overvalue board scores, but seem to care more about character. I was specifically told by one attending that if I met the cutoff score for boards then they do not care what my score was. The residents in this program kept the most in touch with me out of any of the other 6 programs I rotated at and seemed to genuinely care about how I was doing and where I would end up.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Henry Ford Macomb
Residents Per Class: two currently, it was communicated to me that once ACGME gave 10-year accreditation they would be looking to expand.
Hospital: Henry Ford Macomb
Location: Clinton Township, Michigan (Northern Suburb of Detroit)
Attendings: Dr. Fremont Scott (PD/general), Dr. Ryan (general), Dr. Ken Scott (General), Dr. Callan (general), Dr. Pampatti (sports), Dr. El yussif (joints), Dr. Mike Maceroni (PGY-5 transitioning to attending/general)
Residents: Look at lifestyle and didactics section for this.
Didactics/Education: Starts every day at 630 am, a topic is assigned to a resident to which they will present after the days prior fractures have been reviewed. The topic can be found in the schedule given to the students which allows for you to read ahead and be able to put educated guesses and answers toward possible pimp questions. Students will be expected to read fractures if asked and will be pimped accordingly. If there is a student-level question within didactics they will also ask. Non-malignant in every way and purely for learning purposes. Out of all the places I attended, by far one of the most developed educational experiences. Usually once a week one of the attendings will come and lead a lecture.
Operative Experience: Top-notch OR experience, usually an upper running the case skin to skin with an attending on copilot letting them fly if they are comfortable. Watched a PGY-5 do a reverse revision skin to skin as well as diaphyseal fitting Vancouver B2 revision without much input from attending other than final fit and confirmation. As a student, you don’t get to see the specialty rotations as much but as far as the general main ortho service all attendings are focused on teaching. As a PGY-2 you will be in the OR on the daily with usually one day of clinic, depending on the number of uppers that are on electives/out on could be just a PGY-2/3 and attending with attending letting the resident do as much as they are comfortable with. All trauma call cases are run by the resident on call for the most part.
Clinic Experience: Residents will say its 1x a week but doesn’t always happen as OR is busy for the number of residents. If this is more of a priority for you I’m sure it could be a different experience if wanted.
Research: Partnered with HF downtown which allows all stats and things of that sort to be outsourced. Something that is getting “developed” as the Med-ed expands within HFM. Currently, there is OB-gyn, podiatry, gen-surg, IM, Family, ER, ENT/facial plastic residencies so I assume there will be more resources put towards this area as more and more stress is put by ACGME
Lifestyle: Close to some of the upper scale suburbs of Detroit always things to do. Affordable housing in the area and not in a tough part of town as far as where the hospital is located. Very easy to find housing <10 min from the hospital. Residents are usually done by 5-6 pm. Call just depends on what comes in, it is home call. Residents do have their own room within the resident lounge that has bunk beds and a computer. Rounds start at 5-530am with students getting there at 430-445 to update the list. A good balance for home life/family and work. All the residents get along and are a close-knit group to work with and make residency enjoyable.
Pros: Can’t say enough good things about the program. Essentially set the bar for comparison against all the other programs I auditions
Cons: Maybe class size? Call can be heavy but given the chemistry between the residents seemed to be a non-issue. I would have no problem being apart of this residency.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Ascension Genesys
Residents Per Class: three per year, discussions on expansion
Hospital: Ascension Genesys Hosptial, super nice, look up pictures...looks like a hotel inside.
Location: Grand Blanc, Michigan
Attendings: Frederick Schreiber, DO – Program Director will be retiring 2021, Mark Dyball, DO(general/retiring), A. George Dass, MD (hand), Lisa Guyot, MD, PhD (spine), James Heming (sports), DO, Amir Kianoosh M Fallahi (Hand/UE), MD, Bruce Lawrence, DO (General/Joints), Edward Lis, DO (general), Ryan Nelson, DO (sports/possible PD), Todd Sandrock, DO (General), Michael Sorscher, MD (Joints), Ajay Srivastava, MD, Tudor Tien, MD (Foot and Ankle)
Residents: review lifestyle and didactics for this
Didactics/Education: Start at 0630 with signout from the person on nights. All fractures from day/night before will be reviewed and read by a student and asked associated pimp questions. Topic will then be presented by a resident with a hand attending usually presenting on Thursday.
Operative Experience: Most cases will be double scrubbed with a 4/5 and a junior resident. PGY-2/3s will sometimes get cases to themselves. Very strong in general joints, sports, and hand.
Clinic Experience: Residents are expected to go to the clinic with whichever attending they are assigned to unless there are attendings uncovered in the OR to which uppers will get the first pick at. Usually works out to 1-2 days of clinic a week.
Research: Dr. Nelson has a background in doing quite a bit of research and is continuing to do so. He reviews for a couple of different journals so can help steer residents. Getting projects put together and published didn’t seem to be an issue for the program.
Lifestyle: PGY1-3 are expected to stay at the hospital and help with pager until 6-7 pm depending on how busy the main ortho service is. Any Ortho consults in the ER is seen by a resident and is usually casted if a fracture resulting in one resident essentially always being present in the ER. Night resident comes on at 6 pm and jumps in while other residents stay around till it calms down. There are usually enough calls/consults to keep the night resident busy but overall is light vs. working during the day.
Pros: Very well-rounded residency, strong in general, sports and hand. Lots of casting/splinting experience. As a 4/5 probably one of the prime OR experiences.
Cons: Work to life balance can be hard at times as you will be at the hospital 5-530am to 7 pm PGY1-3 daily. It is balanced with the night float but something to consider.

 

[DNC127]

Program: Cleveland Clinic South Pointe

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: CC South pointe hospital, various CC satellite campuses, CC main. The hospitals are the biggest pros and cons of this place. South pointe hospital is not very nice, and the food options are not great. Also, they give you a room in this hospital which is very kind, however its ALMOST worth paying to be in a hotel rather than the room. The rotation is only 2 weeks so you can get over it really. The residents also do rotations at cleveland clinic main, and some of its satellite campuses which are very nice. Because of their affiliation with Cleveland clinic main they obviously have the opportunity to get really good letters and have great connections which will result in great fellowships. However, there is a LOT of driving in this residency.

Location: Cleveland Ohio. Location is another one of the big cons of this program, I have never been to cleveland and always heard it sucked... it does lol. Not much else to say.

Attendings: Attendings are a mix of private practice general orthopods, and academic orthos from Cleveland clinic. The attendings are very nice overall, and I had nothing but good experiences with them. However, I never really worked with the same attending more than 2 days because of the short 2 week rotation so I didn't get to know them very well either. Dr. Hampton is the PD, and he is a super nice guy. The caveat is with resident selection is that he wants to KNOW you will rank them highly. As such, they only interview ~10-15 of the 60+ rotators that come through.

Residents: Super cool / nice group. Very interested in teaching students and very interested in helping you become a better rotator. However, because of the short rotation outside of didactics you really only work with a handful of them a meaningful amount of time.

Didactics/Education: Didactics are resident lead, and usually consisted of a lecture and then orthobullets questions where you go around the room and answer questions (even students). The residents made it pretty light hearted and nothing to really stress about. Attending involvment in didactics is minimal, which was disappointing.

Operative Experience: Hit or miss. I saw one 3rd year taking the lead on a total knee in a big way, and a 5 struggling with where to put the ports for a shoulder scope. Because they work with the CC guys, some are more willing than others to let the resident operate, and some are more "watch and learn". However, the residents seemed really competent so I imagine (again) that the 2 week rotation was limited in the amount of information for this category that could be gathered.

Clinic Experience: They do a good amount of clinic. You will be in the clinic with Dr. Hampton as a student one day, and he likes to ask questions and get to know you. Clinic that I experienced was pretty chill.

Research: Because of their affiliation with CC you could do as much or as little research as you wanted, which is probably the biggest plus of this program (if you like research). I can see how you would develop a pretty competitive fellowship application from here.

Lifestyle: Didn't seem to bad, the residents always seemed well rested and the days here did not go as long as other places I rotated at. Seems to really slow down the last couple years of residency. The residents always seemed to talk about going to pro sports and other activities together which shows they have pretty good comrarderie and time to spend together.

Pros: Cleveland clinic affiliation, research, letters, residents are cool

Cons: Lots of driving, south pointe hospital isn't very nice, no attending involvement in didactics, 2 week rotation, don't interview a large portion of their rotators.

Student Specific Experience:

I went on this rotation because I heard if you got the rotation it was really high yield from the start... WRONG lol. This place is ideal for Ohio residents or those who do not have a home program and have 2 weeks to burn because they REALLY want to know you want to be there. Obviously every place does, but moreso here. The odds of getting an interview are really low, and I know MANY MANY people who did not get an interview here despite having great apps, being awesome people, and getting tons of interviews elsewhere. I cannot emphasize this enough, I think this would be an AMAZING place to train, but I CANNOT recommend rotating here at all unless you have 2 weeks to burn because it is so "low yield". I would actually recommend rotating at an MD place over here if you really want a low yield rotation.

 

[florida835]

Program: Valley Hospital Medical Center


Residents per Class: 2

Hospital:
Valley Hospital Medical Center + a bunch of other hospitals in the area. This is actually one of my cons for the program. There is a lot of travel throughout Las Vegas. The home hospital did not really feel like a home hospital either. I would not say this was a disadvantage in terms of learning or becoming a better surgeon, but it is an inconvenience to me to have to drive around so much.

Location:
Las Vegas, NV. Besides the commonly known abundance of gambling, entertainment, and sporting events, LV has a bunch of other things to do as well. Plenty of opportunities to do outdoor adventures. The weather is unique if you are not from this area. Super-hot and dry to pretty cold. Culture is a mixed bag. It seemed like a lot of people migrate to LV. One common misperception that I had before this rotation was that I would always be in the thick of the party scene even if I did not want to. There are actually a lot of areas where you can live and almost forget that you live in "Las Vegas."

Attendings:
This program had my favorite set of attendings. Everyone was extremely hospitable and helpful, even to students. They all seem very invested in teaching the residents and are very down to earth. Collectively, they had the most laid-back personalities. The PD, Dr. Watson, is new to the program. He took over last year and has been hard at work improving the program. He was by the far the most detailed PD I met. He has a vision for the program and truly wants to keep improving it. My favorite attending I met on my auditions is a hand specialist here. He was letting me go skin to skin on cases such as carpal tunnel releases by the end of my week with him. They have a wide variety of attendings and are constantly looking to improving their faculty if a deficit presents itself. They are well connected into the local sports teams if sports medicine is an interest.

Residents:
All were very friendly and welcoming to students. They seem very happy with their program and fairly close knit. I often heard them talking about doing various activities together outside of the hospital. It was a laid-back group of people who all were self-motivated and independent, something required for this program due to the structure (more on this later).

Didactics/Education:
Every Friday for 4-5 hours they had didactics. They would all meet up at the main hospital and work through orthobullet questions and cases. They had an attending or guest lecture come by and work through cases with them. It was very interactive learning, using questions to guide conversation and naturally lead to teaching points. The chiefs would often take time to teach and explain to the younger residents if they missed any questions.

Operative Experience:
Residents were often 1 on 1 with attendings. Every attending I worked with seemed like they were willing to let residents operate, especially if the resident showed competence. This program seemed like the place where you can get what you put in. If you want more responsibility, then you can earn it. They have a resident clinic where they get to run any cases that they schedule while in clinic. So, you get early operative experience even as an intern and get to experience the responsibility of having your own patient. The only negative aspect of operative experience I saw was that the PD takes a foot and ankle fellow, so there is some operative time taken away from the residents. Residents still get plenty of foot and ankle exposure. Trauma is done at UMC, only level 1 in Nevada. Tons of good experience. Peds is done At Childrens Hospital Orange County (CHOC). Heard lots of good things about this rotation.


Clinic Experience:
There is a lot of clinical experience. It is structured much like traditional curriculums, splitting time between clinic and OR. Pretty standard experience. They do have the resident clinic I mentioned above. This was something cool because if you scheduled a case while in clinic, you got to take lead during the case.

Research:
With a new PD taking over within the last year, research seems to be more emphasized now. Dr. Watson is an MD from USC and is heavily involved in the foot and ankle field. During the interview research was mentioned and asked about. The other attendings appeared to be on board with the vision of creating more research projects.

Lifestyle:
Very nice lifestyle. There are rough times during the 5 years, but overall the residents seemed to have more free time than many other programs. They do not meet every day at a home hospital to round like many programs. Everyone just went to their respective rotations. After their days were done, residents were not required to go to the hospital unless they were on call. I mentioned earlier that you need to be self-motivated and independent for this program because of the free time. It is your responsibility to read and study and prepare for upcoming cases. There will not be a lot of babying and people constantly making sure you are being productive. Outside of the hospital, the residents seemed to enjoy Vegas. There is a lot to do and they often met up with other residents to do things together.

Pros:
amazing attendings
Freedom/independence
Diverse operative experience
Current PD and his vision for future growth
Las Vegas resources


Cons:
foot and ankle fellow
Don’t regularly see your coresidents except for Friday didactics
Living in las vegas (could be con for some)


Student Specific Experience:
This was a sneaky good program. I heard a few negative things about the program heading into my rotation, but believe this was due to the previous PD. The new PD seemed very motivated to make this program the absolute best it could be. He was very committed to improvement and had already changed many things by the time I got there. For example, joints used to be considered a weakness, but many residents told me that they added new attendings and restructured their curriculum to make joints now one of their stronger rotations. During the interview the attendings thanked us many times for taking the chance on them and rotating there despite them not having accreditation at the time. Little things like this made me realize that they do care about people and do not take for granted the risk and work we put in on these rotations. I believe this program is well equipped to train excellent residents and provide resources to succeed after residency.

 

[florida835]

Program: KCU- HCA Midwest Research Hospital (Kansas City, MO)

Residents per Class: 4

Hospital:
North Kansas City Hospital is the hospital they spend the most time at. They also travel to a few other hospitals/surgical centers. The farthest hospital is Cameron Regional which is roughly 45-60min away. NKCH is huge and is where students spent the majority of time. The main clinical office for the attendings is located here as well. Cameron is tiny and very rural. Only 3 operating rooms, but extremely nice staff. As a student, it gets a somewhat bad rep to have to go to (probably because of traveling distance), but it was my favorite place to go.

Location:
There are tons of things to do in KC. Sports, entertainment, outdoor activities, etc. Traffic can suck but this is to be expected in larger cities. Overall, there is something for everyone here.

Attendings:
The main core group of attendings is based out of one private group, OSI. Most of them are generalists, but they do a ton of joints. They also have adult recon, two trauma surgeons, shoulder/elbow, and sports with talks of adding a spine, hand and another sports. The PD, Dr. Orth, does not operate as much as the other attendings. As a student, you will try to spend a day or two in clinic with him to get face time. There are 2 Dr. Pauls (brothers) who operate the most. They do a ton of joints. David Paul doesn’t really let residents operate and can be quiet/serious in the OR. Robert Paul lets residents operate and is much more talkative. Dugan was the most enjoyable to work with. Walker is foot and ankle. Justice is sports trained. One of the most controversial aspects of this group is that many of them are graduates of the program. Some people like this as there is a certain level of continuity and dedication to the program, but this also means there is not a very diverse approach to surgeries. You will see many of them do things the same way and think the same ways.

Residents:
Pretty easy-going group of residents. They all seemed pretty smart and there seems to be an emphasis on knowledge at this program. This was easily the most knowledgeable group of interns I saw. Many of the residents are from the Midwest. Hard working group.

Didactics/Education:
They had 2 educational things a week. One fracture conference and one didactics session. Fracture conference involved Dr. Kesl/Black and Dr. Orth. Students read x-rays and then interns would get pimped on treatment. Much like other places, the senior residents would ask many of the questions and junior residents were expected to answer. Didactics usually involved something from orthobullets or a presentation. They would then go through questions. Students were given the anatomy or more bread and butter type questions. While their didactics were not anything unordinary, they do have a culture of studying on your own. There seemed to be an expectation for them to know things that unless you were staying on top of your readings and questions, you would not know the answers to.

Operative Experience:
Once you become a senior residents, this program has tremendous operative experience. They do not do traditional rotations, but instead, have residents pick from the weekly schedule of where they are going to go and what cases they want to do. One of my initial impressions of the program before I rotated here was they produce very good general orthopedists, and after seeing their curriculum, I now understand why. You can do a joint heavy day one day and then do all foot and ankle the next. Your first couple years are different though. They are expected to man the clinic. They do get in the OR but it is significantly far less than as a PGY4 or PGY5. There were many many cases that were double scrubbed or even triple scrubbed, especially at NKCH. The senior residents seemed fairly very well trained.

Clinic Experience:
There is a lot of clinic, especially as early on. Like I mentioned above, the younger residents are expected to man any open clinic spots. You will not see a senior resident go to clinic over a junior resident. Many of the senior residents did not step foot into clinic. When they did it was often to just help out or provide another voice of authority.

Research:
I did not inquire much about this so honestly do not know.

Lifestyle:
Lifestyle is not bad here. They do rounding early, especially during your first 2 years. They had to print the list and lookup any information on the patients such as labs, PT, etc. This means they often show up to the hospital around 5am. The senior residents show up a little later to join in with rounding, if necessary. So early on, your days will be long but they tend to shorten some as you progress. There is home call but I believe their ER is pretty self-sufficient. I did not venture down to the ER once. So, this may mean they don’t have to come in much but can’t guarantee that. Much like other programs, you will work hard and often, but there was nothing noticeably different lifestyle wise.

Pros:
Good training for general ortho
Freedom to tailor your later years to work on surgeries you want to do
Will be surrounded by other residents who value book knowledge
Kansas City

Cons:
Inbreeding
Very hierarchal nature of program
Daily travel to various clinics/hospitals

Student Specific Experience:
You are also responsible for gathering gloves for each resident scrubbing the cases you are a part of. This includes proper size and type of glove. Most of your time will be spent in the OR helping, but when there are down days, you will also go to clinic. When your day is done, you can meet up in the main resident room called the fishbowl. You may or may not be told to get out of there and go home. One last word of caution is that I believe they are big on board scores. This was not necessarily spoken about, but judging how interviews were sent out, many people I have talked to believe this is emphasized. So, if your board scores are average or less, I would highly caution you to think twice about rotating here unless you have strong connections.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren Oakland
Location: Pontiac, MI
Residents per Class: 3
Summary: Residents are a chill group of people. They all know each other pretty well and many of them hang out together outside of residency. Basketball games 6 am Saturday mornings and golfing when possible. A typical day of student looked like: 5 am pre-round and shared notes with other auditioners. 6-7 am didactics. 7-7:45 am rounds. 8 am-5 pm clinic or surgery (depending on which preceptor you were assigned to for that week). Return to hospital after 5 pm if needed or if on call. Home call but was rarely called while on-call, mostly just stayed late in ED. Attendings were cool but some were difficult to connect with. Seemed as though they valued their residents and spent more time connecting with them than the students. They were more focused on the operative experience than research involvement. Residents had many opportunities to scrub in. Mostly total joints and trauma during my time there.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren Greater Lansing
Location: Lansing, MI
Residents per Class: 3
Summary: If you like sports, this is a great program. If you don’t, they still have lots of exposure to trauma and joints. The program will definitely create a well-rounded orthopedic surgeon. During daily AM didactics, it seemed like they enjoyed pimping one another but as soon as that was over, everyone was very friendly to each other at breakfast. The vibe I got was: seriousness while working, but enjoy life (i.e. Michigan football) when not working. There is an opportunity for research if sought out.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Ascension Genesys
Location: Grand Blanc, MI
Residents per Class: 3
Summary: Residents were intelligent with a strong work ethic and good critical thinking skills. Likely one of the most difficult student audition schedules. 6-7 ortho didactics. 7-8 am medicine didactics. 8 am-5 pm clinic or surgery depending on the schedule given. Call is overnight, must stay at the hospital in the call room. Not allowed to take a post-call day as a student (thus, turns into a 36hr shift). Students alternate call days depending on how many auditioners rotating (i.e. 2 people rotating, you are alternating 36hr shifts…). There was a good mix of clinic and surgery. Lots of OR time for 2nd years and up. I did not see the 1st years getting as much OR time as other places I auditioned. PD puts research articles into didactics as much as possible and another attending seems to be very interested in research. They have one of the biggest and coolest gyms across the street from the hospital. Unfortunately, I did not get the sense that all the residents hang out together outside of residency. Overall, if you want to become a competent orthopedic surgeon, this program is designed to mold you into one.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: South Pointe – Cleveland Clinic
Location: Cleveland, OH
Residents per Class: 3
Summary: Residents are a cool group of people and seem like they hang out together outside of residency. This is a tough rotation to impress because it is only 2 weeks long. There are many students in the Cleveland area (3rd and 4th years) who show up to morning didactics outside of their 2-week audition (while you are on your audition). Talked with some of the residents and they matched with only 2wk exposure though. So, this is just my personal opinion: if you have two weeks and it is not going to mess up the timing on any other auditions, then it is definitely worth doing this rotation. Attendings were awesome. Everyone is involved with both clinic and surgery. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and am sour that it didn’t work out. The lifestyle looked really good as a resident. Seemed like there were days where residents were easily done by 5 pm (sometimes earlier!). They are focused on operative skills, not so much/if at all on research. Overall, a great program with residents who develop great surgical skills while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: St. Elizabeth’s
Location: Youngstown, OH
Residents per Class: 3
Summary: Really enjoyed my time with the residents during this rotation. They are a close group of guys and definitely hang out with each other outside of residency. Some of the best overall surgical skills I have seen. More operative focus than research. PD is friendly but can be very intimidating in the OR. The program was set up at three different hospitals, with the main hospital being a level 1 trauma center (Youngstown). Lots of good trauma cases, joint replacements, and hand cases. Bonus: meal card provided, none of us were able to spend it all. Overall, I thought this place was a hidden gem.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren Oakland

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: McLaren Oakland and surrounding surgery centers/clinics. The hospital itself is pretty nice with a newer area and an older area. Level-2 trauma center.

Location: The hospital is located in downtown Pontiac, MI. Kind of a run-down area about 30 minutes from downtown Detroit. Some nice living areas within 10-15 minutes from the hospital.

Attendings: The attendings here were hard to connect with for me. Of the 9 surgeons on staff here, I only operated with 3. They have 2 general, 2 sports, 1 foot/ankle, 1 spine, 1 adult recon, 1 hand, 1 trauma. It really felt like I was only there to hold retractors in the OR. By this, I mean there was no “trying to get to know me” or pimping/teaching going on. In the clinic, the program director and another general doc let me see patients and present, but other than that it just felt like I was in the way and wasn’t really organized.

Residents: Cool group of guys. They have their own boat on Lake Pontiac that they go out on and hang out. Tight-knit for sure. The 4/5 years were awesome in the OR.


Didactics/Education: Meet at 6 am on the ortho floor to help round. Basically, you go round on 1-2 patients, write up a note, and then the residents don’t really use the note you wrote (at least that was my experience). You then go to the ortho call room and do sign out/read a few Xrays. They do education on Fridays I believe and usually do resident made lectures or watch Orthobullets lectures. Education was definitely more organized at other programs.

Operative Experience: For residents, it seemed like the 4/5s got to do quite a bit depending on the doc. 4/5 seemed to be comfortable with cases and taught the junior residents. As a student, again you are just standing there holding retractors. Also, at McLaren Oakland there weren’t a ton of cases going on, so a lot of standing around not scrubbed in, or standing behind 2-3 other residents in the OR. The residents go to other hospitals so it’s not that there is low volume, but students aren’t allowed to go to these hospitals.

Clinic Experience: Depending on the attending it differed greatly. For example, with the sports guys, it seemed like they didn’t even know I was there. They just did their thing and I kinda just stood around and saw patients when I could. With the PD and the older attendings, they allowed me to see patients and present them to them. Attendings are in different clinics 5-15 minutes from the main hospital.

Research: None that I saw and didn’t seem to be important.

Lifestyle: Lifestyle felt pretty laid back and friendly. Seemed like the residents were happy there.

Student Specific Experience: Again, as a student, it wasn’t my favorite rotation. I felt I had a tough time connecting with residents/attendings because I only worked with 3/9 attendings and wasn’t really involved in what was going on. Felt like the rounding in the morning could be a little more student involved so our notes could be used/evaluated. Good ER experience though with casting/splinting. The call was split up for students basically one student every night.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren Macomb

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: McLaren Macomb is the main hospital where most of the surgeries are. Residents go to 3 other hospitals in the area for certain rotations. All are in the Detroit area though.

Location: Mt. Clemens, MI

Attendings: 15 attendings on staff. The program director is super nice and allows every student a half-day with him to get to know him. They have 7 general, 2 adult recon, 3 spine, 2 trauma, 1 hand. Most of the attendings are really nice and take interest as you as a student. When I was there, I made my own schedule basically and just tried to be with as many as possible in the OR and in the clinic. A solid group of attendings.

Residents: This program had some of the coolest guys around. Felt at home from the first day I was there. They include students in things and treat you as one of them which I thought was really cool.

Didactics/Education: Meet at 6 am for morning signout where they go over the list and the Xrays from overnight. Then everyone goes and grabs breakfast before heading to the OR or clinics. They do education every day that includes lectures from attendings or residents. Solid education.

Operative Experience: Junior residents got a good experience in the OR and were in there early (even as first years). Senior residents were awesome and seemed very comfortable in the OR. As a student, you were included in the OR with minimal pimping.

Clinic Experience: Great clinical experience for students. Basically, you choose when to go with attendings and see patients/present.

Research: Not much that I saw.

Lifestyle: Frontloaded. As a 2, you basically handle the ED. But then it gets much easier as the years go on. Very tough year 2. Shorter days than most other programs. Sometimes residents were done by noon.

Pros: Super cool residents and attendings. Nice hospital with good ED and OR experience.

Cons: Paper charts on the floors which can be cumbersome and kinda annoying.

Student Specific Experience: Awesome. I had a great time on my rotation.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: KCU/HCA Research Medical Center (KC)

Residents per Class: 4

Hospital: North Kansas City Hospital (~80% of the time, 451 beds), Research Medical Center, Overland Park MC, and a few surgery centers

Location: North Kansas City, Research Medical Center, Overland Park, and the surrounding KC area

Attendings: 12 attendings (6 general, 1 foot/ankle, 2 trauma, 2 sports, 1 joints). Cool group of attendings that include students in the OR and clinic for the most part.

Residents: Awesome group of guys that were very well-read. The seniors like to pimp the junior residents a lot in fracture conference, but it seemed like a good learning environment as they pushed each other to study up on the material. In the OR, the seniors were really good and ran cases from start to finish. Residents hang out outside of work and go to the local bar after work sometimes. Lots of the residents were married/had kids. Super smart group.

Didactics/Education: They hold a fracture conference for a few hours 1x/week and go over cases. 3 attendings regularly attend. They also have protected time for education which is watching orthobullets videos, resident lectures, and doing questions. I felt like the residents knew a ton and were expected to study on their own a lot. If you like to study on your own, you will like the way they do education here.

Operative Experience: Varied depending on the attending. Some attendings let the senior resident run the case and some let you do a majority depending on what year resident/your competence, others don't let you do as much. Felt like the residents were very good in the OR and confident. A good mix between hospital and surgery center. A ton of joint reconstruction and sports cases. As a 4/5 you are in the OR all day basically and these residents get a TON of hands-on experience and a ton of cases. As a student, you grab the resident's gloves, help position, etc. You hold retractors and get pimped sometimes, but overall a good experience in the OR. Some of the attendings let me cut a bit and close which was pretty cool. The students pick where they are going to go for the day. The students get the OR schedule for the week and basically split up cases between themselves so you can try and be with as many attendings as possible.

Clinic Experience: Clinic is basically for 1-3 year residents. As a 4/5, you are in the OR all the time. You work 1 on 1 with an attending, see patients, etc. As a student, it's hit or miss with the attending. About half let you see patients and the other half you will shadow. As an auditioner, make sure you go with the PD a few days, and then to the clinic with the attendings you know let you see patients. There are four clinics- one in NKC, RMC, Cameron and OPR.

Research: They participate in the KCU Research Day every year and residents are expected to have a poster ready, plus all the residents have their own projects going. KCU anatomy lab is 10 minutes down the road and I am sure they have some sort of connection with that.

Lifestyle: Awesome. 1-3 years get to NKC around 5:30 am and round on the patients, then around 7 they split for cases. Most residents were done by 5 pm. Call was super light compared to other programs.

Pros: KC area (cheap housing, good BBQ, cool people), NKC hospital is awesome-you get free snacks from doctors lounge, free food at OPR/RMC hospital, awesome residents, cush schedule

Cons: In the clinic a lot as a young resident

Student Specific Experience: Good experience as a student. Sometimes felt a little confused as to where to go and if I should leave or stick around in the resident area.

 

[JJacobsDO152]

Program: Broward Health Medical Center

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Broward Health is the main hospital site. Residents also travel South to Memorial Hospital for tumor. Travel 30 minutes north for their sports and spine rotation.

Location: In South Florida located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 45 minutes north of Miami, and 45 minutes south of West Palm Beach.

Attendings: Several attendings, approximately 15. Dr. Rush is the program director of the program and Dr. Cross is the associate program director who is double fellowship trained in both trauma and pediatrics.

Residents: Really enjoyed my time with the interns, PGY3, 4, and 5. Learned a lot from them and felt confident going on my other rotations. Did have difficulty with the PGY2 residents mostly with either their lack of communication, not wanting to teach, and overall toxic persona.

Didactics/Education: Fracture conference is every Friday morning from 6:45am to 8:00am where they go over the cases of the week. The attendings are present sitting in the back with a PGY-2 going over the cases. Residents associated with the case will go over the background, pathology, and approach and any pitfalls they encountered during the case. Attendings will give their feedback. Education is held every Tuesday afternoon going over OITE questions that the chief resident has made.

Operative Experience: Mixed level of autonomy for the residents depending on which attending they're currently working with. Being a level 1 trauma center most of their experience is with trauma cases that are coming from senior citizens in the surrounding area or people exiting from the cruise ships. As a student you can expect to scrub into 4 - 5 cases per day holding retractors, suturing at the end, and making small talk with the bot the residents and attending. OR schedule is printed the night before and distributed between the rotators.

Clinic Experience: Clinic is run by the residents with the cases being presented to the attending. During your time here you can perform injections under the supervision of the resident and/or attending. Felt slightly disorganized as I recall one time I was told by a junior resident to help in the OR, however the 2nd year resident called me to help in the clinic. I missed her call as I was already scrubbed into the case and reprimanded by her. I would make sure things are clearly defined on your day to day responsibilities.

Research: I know they recently had a new IRB department and one of the PGY3s is pushing to have research done, but I do not see this becoming a strength anytime soon. They recently hired a new attending who is involved in research, but with the ACGME-AOA merger, this is a strong and major weakness of the program compared to other places which I rotated through. This is also evident by their fellowship match with most residents not going to prestigious places for fellowship.

Lifestyle: From what I could tell lifestyle was okay, but not as great as some of the other places. Interns would get in at 5:45am to run the list. Juniors and chief would come in by 6:30am and go over the overnight consults. Residents would operate till 6pm and then go home. I took call twice per week working with different PGY-2 residents. Had mixed feelings as one was not very confident in her skills and ability. Would often send me home instead of allowing me to help them.

Pros: Living near the beach for the next 5-years in warm weather that stays above 80 degrees. Autonomy while in the OR as you move up each year. If you're interested in adult reconstruction, the residents also train at Cleveland Clinic, however, I do not think any of the residents have matched there for residency.

Cons: With the ACGME-AOA merger I would think ahead on how to make yourself a strong applicant for fellowship. Wanting to go into sports, this program very much lacked a strong sports curriculum. Additionally, not sure why there is not mention or posting regarding where the residents go for fellowship compared to other programs. Dr. Rush can have mood swings depending on how is he feeling. Residents don't appear to respect him as much as they do Dr. Cross, which is a big flag in terms of leadership.

Student Specific Experience: Decent experience. As mentioned, sometimes confused on direction per different residents telling me to do different things. Most residents were great with an exception to a PGY2 resident. Not a lot of research opportunities and could certainly be a factor for fellowship placement.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Ascension Genesys

Residents per class: 3

Hospital: Ascension Genesys

Location: Grand Blanc, Michigan

Attendings: They pimp the most out of any residency I went to and ask you some questions to get to know you. I especially really liked the hand docs. Try to get a day at Dr. Das clinic. It’s a really good time to show off what you know and its ok to get his questions wrong. He loved talking about his residency or fellowship (I don’t remember) at the Cleveland Clinic. He also runs the Flint MD program.

Residents: I LOVED the second years from my year 2019. Very personable and relatable. The interns were solid too. I have heard from others they didn’t have the same experience as I did so take this with a grain of salt.

Didactics/Education: Didactics every morning. The residents would be assigned each day to go over a topic and make their own slides. You as a student will be required to make a 10-15 min PowerPoint based on a fracture or something you saw there.

Operative Experience: Students may or may not get to scrub in every day. Two times I was allowed to suture. First years were retractor holders, second years got more responsibility on hand but were retractor holders for the most part, third year you get to do more if the 5th year lets you, 4th and 5th year you get the most.

Clinic Experience: Shadowing the doc around and being pimped. Good time to get 1 on 1 and show what you are made of.

Research: Required to do some but I really didn’t focus on that while I was there.

Lifestyle: Grand Blanc is a great place to raise a family.

Pros: You will be very well educated and do well on the OITE. I really liked the gym set up they have. It’s a mega gym type thing with classes, courts, and equipment. Favorite one on the audition trail.

Cons: Personally I don’t think they get enough early hands-on experience. You are stuck in the suburbs. They send out a lot of complicated cases to Detroit.

Student Specific Experience: I went in not knowing how to read an XRay and by the end I had a pretty solid grasp of what people wanted. I also gained a ton of ortho knowledge while I was there because the residents and attendings really love to pimp you.

Days started off with early morning didactics every day. Students were not required to go round on patients but I always offered and did whatever the resident I was with said. The residents would be assigned each day to go over a topic and make their own slides. You as a student will be required to make a 10-15 min PowerPoint based on a fracture or something you saw there. You will be assigned a different service each day or so and either watch them do surgery or watch them do clinic.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Jersey City Medical Center

Residents per class: 3

Hospital: Jersey City Medical Center

Location: Jersey City, New Jersey

Attendings: They are all rockstars. They are there to let you learn and get hands-on experience. Dr. Liporace is a hotshot trauma guy from NYU who got sick of driving to the city so he and Capo started this program. I felt like the attendings really took the time to get to know me and vice versa. People come from all over the country to see them. NYU residents drive down to scrub in if he lets them just to watch.

Residents: Like a little family. Morning didactics with them was so entertaining because I felt like each resident was their own person with their own quirks.
Operative Experience: As a student, this is where I got to do the most. You are required to get the room set up and everything ready to go. I really liked the responsibility and made me gain skills I didn’t on any other rotation. I know if I would have matched here I would be a solid surgeon no matter which field I decided to go in to. One of the reasons I ranked this program high was that they always got the intern involved in the cases and I got to see an intern do an entire femoral rod by himself with the coaching of the senior residents. Liporace will run three rooms at a time and pop in and out of each one making sure everything is going smooth.

Clinic Experience: If you are invited you will go one day with Dr. Shamash. Just stay quiet and don’t be annoying and you will get his “blessing”… otherwise, I did two days of clinic helping the intern out at their free clinic which the attending doesn’t show up to. It’s pretty nuts but worth volunteering for so you can get more 1 on 1 time with the resident. Residents are only required to do one day of the week in the clinic.

Research: Required to graduate. Their soon to be 5, Ariana published a ton of stuff. Its very impressive.

Lifestyle: This is a program where you really don’t get to have a life outside of work. Jersey City is about 10 min from Manhattan by The Path subway so if you do get time there is a lot to do. Some of the residents complained there aren’t that many outdoor activities to do. While I was there they had a volleyball league once a week but half of them couldn’t go because of the long work hours.

Pros: Trauma heavy program and you are getting taught by the best (Dr. Liporace). It's right outside Manhattan so lots of nightlife and the city is actually really cute and clean.

Cons: I lost 10 pounds on this rotation because there are no sustainable eating options. You would have to get Whole Foods delivery/Ubereats or have a significant other help get your meals because it would be impossible to have time to not only get food but make it. Their cafeteria closes at 2 and it's not that big of a deal bc the food is so bad and you only get $3 off a meal with a coupon that you’re given. The lack of any free time concerned me as well and by the time you are a 5th year you are pretty burned out. I would have ranked this one as my top DO program if it wasn’t for that. Also, I am interested in Spine and they really really lack in that area.

Student Specific Experience: You will get worked at JC not only as a student but as a resident. However, it is progressive autonomy and I thought it was really well done. The residents are friends and I enjoyed them A TON. As a student, you are treated as an intern and as an intern you are expected to know a lot more than you would have at other programs. This is another program that is a personality fit. I enjoyed the humor they had and jokes but some of the other rotators were not as entertained as I was. I highly recommend rotating here and giving it a shot. Regardless if you want to match here it will make you an amazing rotator elsewhere.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Community Memorial Health System

Residents per class: 4

Hospital: Community Memorial Health System and Ventura County

Location: Ventura, California

Attendings: Most were very welcoming and want to get to know who you are. I really liked Dr. Golden and he really went out of his way to show me the program and made sure I had a good experience there. I honestly have all good things to say about every attending. There was only one who didn’t really acknowledge me but it was just his personality.

Residents: Solid group. This is a very personality dependent program. They are looking to match people who are like them. They value working out, surfing, and playing sports. They like to joke around, have a good time, and just enjoy being with each other. They have a softball league and hockey league that is fun and a good break from work.

Operative Experience: Dependent on how proactive you were. One intern got to place a rod because he stayed late. Progressive autonomy is the best way to put it. However, at CMH they do A TON OF KNEES AND HIPS. A TON. If you want to do joints or sports in your future this is the place to go. As a med student, you are there to hold retractors, maybe get to suture, but just get to know everyone and share about who you are. I only got to go to County two times and the residents got a lot more autonomy there.

Clinic Experience: I was assigned one day a week as a student to go to the resident clinic. The residents go 1-2 times a week. Maybe even a little more as an intern.

Research: One project required to graduate but not a huge research program.

Lifestyle: This is what I like to call a country club program. The residents were not burned out. They have free food that’s actually good. They get their work done and then can go surfing or have some time to study. It is an hour away from Santa Barbara and 1.5 depending on traffic from LA.

Pros: You feel wanted if you are a good fit. You cannot beat this location if you are looking for a traditionally DO program. Great beer, food, and a few bars for nightlife. They do an ortho oncology rotation in East Hollywood at Cedar Sinai where they house you there and it is incredible from what I hear. Get trauma experience from County and they are starting a new trauma rotation at Cottage in Santa Barbara. CHOC (Children's Orange County) is where you do peds and it is also a great experience. It's during 2 and 4 year so you get early exposure!

Cons: Housing is expensive. A lot of joint surgeries. If you are not the right personality fit this will not be an enjoyable experience for you.

Student Specific Experience: These residents are looking for someone who will fit in well with them. They are active, play sports, love to joke around, work out, and are bros. Days would start with each one walking in smiling and greeting each other by saying “BRO!”. It was a relaxing student rotation and I really enjoyed that the residents were not burned out. Ventura would be an amazing place to live and they do a good job of covering all specialties. I ranked this one highest of all the DO programs because when it came down to it, by year 5, they were at the same surgical level as the other work-horse programs and match the same and maybe even better fellowships. Life was a bit slower-paced than other hospitals I visited but you would become used to it. The residency takes really great care of their residents physically and mentally. However, I have some friends who rotated here and did not fit the personality type and they did not even get an interview invitation. Make sure you don’t waste your time if what I have described isn’t the fit for you. If this is a place you are interested in make sure to reach out and get this one booked in the September-November area. They want to see what you are made of and would not be a good place to first start out at.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Good Samaritan in Corvallis

Residents per class: 3

Hospital: Good Samaritan

Location: Corvallis, Oregon

Attendings: The attendings value teaching and were nice. They were good coaches in the OR and always present. They have Dr Tedesco there who is ortho onc and its incredible. I didn’t get to experience a lot of ortho onc on my rotations so it really was great to be with him and learn about it. He is a great teacher, respectful to residents/students as learners, and is so pleasant to be around.

Residents: These residents seemed the most human to me. They really cared about each patient and took their time to get the best results. They were very welcoming and I always compared their humor to that of Parks and Rec the tv show. They are a happy group that are not burned out. They respect each other which is something I didn’t see at a lot of other residencies. In general, they were such a nice group of people who were very welcoming. They also have the best bedside manor I have seen out of residents. I was very impressed!

Operative Experience: More responsibility starting third year where you get to start operating. I thought the attendings were good coaches but did not let the residents have a ton of autonomy.

Clinic Experience: Shadowing the doc as a student and the residents had the doc see every patient with them.

Research: I did not learn much about what they do for research but this is also something I could care less about.

Lifestyle: Great place to be if you like being outdoors and the rain. I got some hikes in. The town is great since it is a college town. Its a college town so there are a lot of food options. The residents don’t seem to be burned out and really enjoy themselves there.

Pros: The residents are all so great. Corvallis is beautiful and there are so may outdoor activities to do.

Cons: Slow pace. Not a lot of autonomy.

Student Specific Experience: In all, I liked it there but it was not a good fit for me. I realized while I was there that I wanted somewhere that allows me to have more autonomy. Personally I wanted a place that had a larger flow of patients than this program. However, the lifestyle these residents have and their mental health was the best out of any residency. The residents all get along which is HUGE.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Case Western University Hospitals/ Regional

Residents per class: 1-2

Hospital: You rotate at UH main 6 months the first year and 2 months every year thereafter. Other main hospitals are UH Geauga and Bedford. They are working on UH Ahuja. Fracture conference is at Richmond which is a slow hospital for operating. The majority of operating is at Geauga. All of these hospitals are 20-30 minutes away from Cleveland heights. They do out a rotation for trauma third year at Chandler in Phoenix, Arizona and do Peds at Cincinnati Children’s.

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Attendings: Absolutely phenomenal group of physicians. A mix of MDs who trained at UH and DOs who trained at South Pointe. There is a new PD, Dr. Shroyer, and he’s an absolute gem of a human. He loves talking about skiing in Breckinridge and playing golf at country clubs. He let the intern there do an entire hemiarthroplasty skin to skin. I actually did a TFN skin to skin while there. They have every specialty covered and the sports guys at UH main are the team docs for the Cleveland Browns. The sports docs at Geauga are top tier in the nation, multi lig knees and PCLs are common.

Residents: This group feels like a family. Fracture conference honestly feels like the dinner table and everyone joking around before the business gets started. They have drinks together and commonly have dinners and BBQs. One of the chiefs is doing trauma at Duke. No shortage of potential letters of rec when you work with world renown surgeons at Case Western.

Didactics/ education: They do something almost every day. Monday and Tuesday are Skype Orthobullets and presentations. Wednesday is M&M/ grand rounds at UH main with the MD program. Friday fracture conference/ lecture and journal club 1-5 pm. These guys know their stuff.

Operative experience: Early autonomy and early high expectations. There are fewer residents then there are cases so if a chief is out somewhere else, the junior will get a shot at the case until they mess up or lose the attendings confidence. I scrubbed 40 cases in my month there. As I mentioned earlier I actually did a TFN skin to skin. An intern did a hemi. These attendings reward knowledge. 3s are clearly better than 2s/ 1s and it seems like a lot of that comes from the experience at Arizona. After year 3 though, entire cases seem to belong to the seniors. It is dependent on the attending, however. But these chiefs know their stuff.

Clinic experience: Ortho clinic is ortho clinic. Not a ton of clinic days and you’re not expected to write notes, mostly even as residents. The attendings dictate their notes so you just do injections, review imaging, etc.

Research: Access to UH main/ Case Western. Research is there. Everyone is working on something but it’s not super emphasized. Totally up to you how much this matters.

Lifestyle: Lots of driving. Start the day at 6 for education and cases at 7. Finish around 5 unless on call. There’s a ton of call because there are 4 main hospitals they’re covering and they take 1-2 a year. TY residents interested in ortho help out with this. This means tons of reductions and being great at running floors. It also means lots of driving around tired.

Pros: This program is essentially combining with UH main. It’s gonna remain separate but lots of rotations that the MDs do. Access to phenomenal attendings to write letters. Early autonomy and operative experience. Family environment. Cleveland is actually an underrated city.

Cons: Lots of driving. Lots of call. This program just got a new PD. The old one was kind of malignant, but that’s water under the bridge. This new guy is a boss. Also, because of the merger, for the years 2019 and 2020, they only took one resident fearing they wouldn’t get ACGME. Here on out they’re taking 2 residents and hope to eventually take 3/ year because they have the volume.

Student specific: Don’t be a gunner here. The residents notice when students try to take all the call or try to take all the cool cases. They want team players with a little grittiness. Most of the residents had 600-700 COMLEX scores but they respect grit way more than that and they would easily take a 550 person over 700 if all the residents liked them. Residents have a big say in rank list.

 

[Thack20]

Program: Jersey City

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: JCMC

Location: Jersey City, NJ

Attendings: Liporace is one of the best ortho trauma guys around. That being said he is unhinged. The rest of the attendings are great too even if many of them aside from Dr. Urquhart couldn't give less of a **** about the students, you're essentially an extra set of hands for them and if you're lucky you'll just get ignored, if not you will be pimped or chewed out for moving a retractor 1mm.

Residents: Very tight knit group, but they make sure that you know that you're a student and not part of their crew. Without naming names some residents suck, but a couple are pretty chill. Most of them don't have families though so the program would appeal to the younger, single applicant.

Didactics/Education: Resident ran lectures with grand rounds on Thursdays. Not terrible, but not great if you compare to Rowan or others.

Operative Experience: 10/10 The only residents that could operate as well as the ones here are the ones at Riverside. Liporace runs 3 rooms on Tuesdays and if you're a 4 or a 5 you run a room with him simply supervising usually from the hallway. That being said there is literally nothing that a resident can screw up that he can't fix. Junior residents are often times given as much autonomy as they seem comfortable with. Nonstop trauma so it's inconceivable to not be a good surgeon at the end of 5 years. Let students do a lot here from screws to helping close. Make the students do a bunch of scut work that includes setting up the room and pulling up x-rays. Cases run late almost every day especially Tuesdays. They don't do much spine and don't necessarily have dedicated rotations, but between Liporace, Capo, etc they cover most subspecialties. Long story short if you do this as your first rotation you will see that you don't get to do **** at most other places.

Clinic Experience: Resident run free clinic, required to go one day a week. Liporace office hours are like 12 hours long on Mondays. Probably the worst day on a rotation that one could have because you are just in the way the whole time. One day of the month is spent with Shamash where you do clinic with him and some cases at a surgery center. As long as you know basic hand stuff you should be good.

Research: Decent amount of research, this area is expanding with Dr. Yoon, but they don't have much time for research due to case load.

Lifestyle: No real life outside the hospital. 5AM start everyday and they end late af. If a case runs late the whole team needs to stay late to wait for it to end so everyone can run the list. This may be the single most ridiculous thing I've seen as its completely unnecessary and no other programs do this. You start taking call the first day of your intern year so good luck. The call is split up between 1s, 2s, and 3s for the most part with the occasional call being taken by a 4. 4s and 5s alternate backup call for the weekends. PAs take call with the residents to offload some of the work. Everyone in the program is constantly tired and I think that if the program was run more efficiently everyone would be able to work a little less regardless of case load. For example Grant had a longer patient list, but they seemed to run like a well oiled machine. That being said it's across the Hudson from NYC so if you wanna go out there aren't a lot of places that are better. Jersey City itself has some great bars so you will be able to have fun during the few days off that you have.

Pros: Liporace, case load, location, complete autonomy by 4th year, probably some of the best training that you can get especially in trauma or joints. They give you post call days as a student. Best OR music of any program that I've been to.

Cons: Liporace, cafeteria is trash and it closes early so you're screwed if you're on call, no time outside of work even to run simple errands due to the absurd hours and inefficiency of the program, low salary for the area. They look at MD applicants.

Student Specific Experience: Not a single person that I rotated with felt wanted by the program. It seemed like they were merely tolerating us and using us for free labor as if on some strange power trip where they knew we would do whatever they wanted to appease them so they would make us throw out the trash or do other bull**** for no apparent reason. Essentially the whole time rather than trying to learn some ortho or about the program, you need to be thinking 4 steps ahead to anticipate what any given resident may need in the OR or for an ED consult. And I get that ass kissing is the name of the game, but I think that if they at least tried to make an effort to get to know the rotators or talked and joked around during cases it wouldn't have been such a big deal. It isn't a personality thing here they're just all miserable and take it out on the students. Essentially the whole time I felt like they were looking down on me, which I think is bull**** because they were in our shoes a couple years ago. Even when they invited us out for drinks they wouldn't even make small talk with us. I can say that every other program I rotated at made me feel more welcome than I felt here. As opposed to other programs where some of the residents try to make you look good in front of the attendings, on numerous occasions I was asked some absurd vague question by a resident in front of Liporace, which I would inadvertently get wrong and then would get bitched out by Liporace because "he knows the answer so I should too." The call schedule here is q however many students there are, but it's a great chance to get some one on one time with some residents and stay late with the attendings. They made our group do a power weekend where each of us spent 2 nights in a row on call which equaled approximately 57 hours by the end of the shift, which is not only extremely illegal, it's completely unnecessary, every rotator looked completely defeated after that experience. Be prepared to work 90-100 hour weeks so this isn't for anyone looking for a chill rotation. I learned a lot here and honestly I'm happy that I did it because it prepared me for my other rotations and showed me exactly what I didn't want in a program.

 

[OrthoBoneWizard]

Program: OhioHealth – Doctor’s Hospital

Residents per Class: 5 (Will likely move to having 6-7/yr due to the program becoming the “OhioHealth” ortho program and covering call at Doctor’s main, Grant trauma center, Nationwide Children’s, and now Riverside Hospital [1k+ beds] in addition.)

Hospital: [Rotating students spend a week at each main hospital – Doctor’s, Grant, Nationwide, 4thweek can be either riverside vs. private practice F/A, Hand, Spine, Sports, etc]

As listed above, the program is named after the original osteopathic hospital (Doctor’s) which is a smaller community hospital (170+ beds) on the outskirts of Columbus. However, residents spend only 4-6 months here outside of intern year (month of day/nights each as a PGY2 and then chief coverage as a PGY5). Nice resident lounge/call rooms. Small gym in the back of the lounge, big plus obvi haha.

Dedicated trauma months are spent at Grant Trauma Center in downtown Columbus. Grant is the busiest trauma center in the state of Ohio for orthopedic trauma by volume. This is also where the Ortho Trauma Fellowship is based (3 fellows/yr). You’ll see some of the craziest trauma/procedures here, something that was echoed by multiple other auditioners I met along the trail. (Will discuss cases/attendings below). Due to Columbus being a large city you’ll get plenty of your typical inner-city gun & knife club trauma but with their large encatchment area they’ll have plenty of “rural” ortho trauma, ATV’s/MVA/Farm injuries, flown in from out of town. They run 2 dedicated ortho trauma rooms every morning.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in Columbus, is where peds is done which is a huge plus as the vast majority of DO-ortho programs are not all in-house mostly due to going out for peds and/or Ortho-Onc. It is ranked as a top 10 ortho peds hospital in the nation. (Will discuss cases/attendings below). Huge referral center for anything pedes ortho related (Scoli, limb length discrepancies, trauma, onc, etc). In-house gait lab. Tons of clinical & basic science research available. Work alongside Ohio State and Mount Carmel residents here. A unexpected perk of the hospital, being a huge children’s center, is that the cafeteria has an amazing selection of food.

Ohio State Wexner Medical Center is where Ortho-Onc rotation is done for a month. Did not rotate here but all of the residents speak very highly of it. I think it’s a huge plus that they do a true Onc rotation vs. some programs OITE review courses so that you can experience clinic/Onc cases in case you wish to pursue that fellowship. I feel that commitment would be difficult to do if you never experienced a true Onc rotation as a resident. Again, did not rotate thru and can’t speak of any specifics.

OhioHealth - Riverside Medical Center is a new addition to the program’s coverage. It was added to the program just a few months before I rotated through because Ohio State/Mount Carmel’s programs used to cover the hospital but as the Doctor’s program became “the” OhioHealth program they assumed the cases/coverage at the hospital. This seemed to have caused a little bit of strain on the program as Riverside is a 1k+ bed Level-2 trauma center that is very busy for call and cases (both trauma & elective) but they’ve still got the same # of residents for call/case coverage. The silver lining of this is that there are dedicated Ortho PA’s for the hospital that see all Ortho consults in the ED and do most bread/butter stuff (splints, lacs, board cases, etc.) and they just call the resident at home to clear everything or if there’s a complicated reduction or something emergent the resident would only then have to come in. So even though there’s added call, most of the residents I talked to did not come in most nights and just answered the phone a few times during the night and would come in 30-60 mins early to see the new admits. The addition of the call though has added the chiefs back into the primary call pool to help cover Riverside. Which is unfortunate but with the mid-level coverage, not the worst thing. There is plans to expand the class size to help with this call coverage although with the recent ACGME/AOA merger there isn’t really a firm date that they’ll likely get approved for more spots. The hospital itself is huge and new/renovated. Will do sports/trauma/joints/general cases here.


Location: Columbus, Ohio was a huge surprise to me. Having spent no time in the Midwest prior to auditions I had no idea what to expect. Columbus has a very cool restaurant/bar/brewery scene with multiple little districts throughout the city such as Short North, Grandview, German Village. Lots of young professionals moving to the city too from what we could tell when me and the other rotators were able to go out to dinner/bars. It’s passed Cincinnati and Cleveland as the largest city in OH. Lots of great golf in/around the city (Jack Nicklaus is from here) if that’s your thing. At the end of the day though it is in the middle of landlocked Ohio, so housing is pretty cheap whether you want to buy a house in the burbs or rent an apt in one of the bar districts. Have the Blue Jackets and Columbus Crew for pro sports. Everyone here lives and breaths for “TTHHE” Ohio State Football team too of course. Overall a great city whether you want to live in the burbs with family or you’re single and want to stay downtown. Downside is in the Midwest if you’re from/want to stay on the coasts.

Attendings:

Doctor’s: Dr. Baker is the PD and practices general ortho. He’s slowly moving to part-time in a clinical aspect but on his OR days you’ll see everything pretty much except for spine and pelvis/tabs. The residents have great autonomy in his rooms as most of them are boarded out of the resident-run clinic that he oversees so his ‘policy’ is that if the “residents book the case, the residents do the case”. This is a great example of the mentorship-model amongst the residents. In Baker’s rooms usually a chief, 2, and intern will scrub and each resident teaches the level below. Most bread & butter cases will have the chief guiding the 2. More complicated cases / risky parts of case (ie. Acetabulum screws in THA) the chief will perform it however talking the 2 through the process. Dr. Baker would usually not-scrub for most bread/butter cases which was impressive to see how much autonomy he gives the residents but I thought it spoke heavily that he trusts the chiefs that much & that the chiefs weren’t “craving” for cases like I saw at other programs where they were happy to take their hands off the wheel and let the 2’s do the majority of most cases with their guidance.

You’ll also work with a variety of other sports/joints/generalist attendings at Doctor’s main who were all very cool. Most of them will scrub and they all had a varying range of hands-on/off but regardless were all very pleasant to be around/teach the residents and students.

Grant: Lots of different attendings from the Grant trauma group & 3 ortho trauma fellows. Dr. Ben Taylor is the trauma fellowship director and the APD for the Doctor’s ortho program as well. He’s one of the founders of OrthoBullets too which is pretty nice as the residents get to go over trauma cases at Fx conference that eventually go out to the rest of the country on OB (more below in didactics). Highly involved in trauma research and has plenty of projects for residents to get involved in.

You’ll also work with plenty of other trauma attendings. Most of which are your typical trauma personality -sarcastic, easy going but can get **** done when it hits the fan. Most are very hands-off except for one. Grant was previously known to have one rather malignant attending however he recently left the group. Not exactly related to the attendings but there are 3 trauma fellows there. Some will see this is as a pro vs. con (discussed further in ‘Operative experience’). There are also other residents from other DO programs that travel to Grant for their trauma rotation (this is honestly pretty nice as they help split the call).

Riverside: Did not get to work with all of the attendings as there are a ton at this hospital but every single one I met were all fantastic and enjoyed having students in the OR. There were fewer residents covering here and often times it would be a student and an attending and many of the attendings would let the students close at the least but often times I got to make cuts in total joints/ drill & screw/ make incisions etc. The residents all seemed to get along very well with all of the attendings but all of these were new relationships as they just began covering there.

Nationwide: Variety of personalities amongst the peds attendings here. All of whom seemed to really enjoy teaching though. Some big names in the peds ortho world are here and the residents spend a month here as an intern and 6 months during PGY3. Would be great connections/letters if someone wanted to do peds fellowship. Did not notice any bias amongst the attendings between the Doctors vs. OSU/Mount Carmel residents at all.

There are plenty of other attendings for Spine, F&A, Hand, Shoulder/UE, etc. that are private practice and operate at surgery centers that most rotators do not get to meet however talking to the residents that were on those services they all seemed to love working with them & have better hours on those rotations than when at the main hospitals.

Residents:

One of the bigger pros of the program. All of them are tight knit and a family, hangout a lot outside of work and go to dinner/games etc. Their SO’s hangout with each other a lot too. I was told they were “all very bro-y” by reputation and only partially agree with that. Definitely a lot of stereotypical ortho types but it’s such a large program that there’s residents that have all sorts of interests/personalities/backgrounds. Some are married with multiple kids, others single and go out often. Regardless though, these residents were my favorite on the audition trail and told students that they were there to “hopefully have you come to Doctor’s, but ultimately, we want to help you guys match ortho in any way we can”. They would often sit us down whenever we had any down time to help answer any of our questions about ortho/interviews/applying/etc whatever at all.

An interesting thing about the program is that compared to a lot of other programs, the residents have the majority of say in selecting rotators for interviews/ranking. Dr. Baker’s logic being that as rotators you’ll spend the vast majority of your time interacting with the residents and probably collectively talking to attendings individually for < 60 mins. I think this shows heavily in how well all of the residents work together and the overall “vibe” of the program. Plenty of guys who are smart and work their asses off but love getting together to hang out.

Will say that the program has a bit more of a “hierarchy” compared to other programs, just because of how many residents it is but did not see any sort of malignancy where the seniors would **** on the juniors like I did at some other programs.

Didactics/Education:Didactics are Wed & Fri’s, a few hour sessions each. Wednesdays are “Trauma Conference” where complex cases are presented; these are led by one of the trauma fellows each week. Students aren’t pimped at all which is nice. The Interns are usually responsible for answering any questions that the fellows ask, and if they don’t know it they ‘pimp-up’ to the PGY2’s, 3’s, etc. Many of the trauma attendings come to Wednesday conference which is nice to get their insight into how they would’ve approached a case differently/etc. Which I liked as many DO ortho programs’ didactics are completely resident-led, getting input from attendings and fellows made didactics useful even for the chiefs.

Fridays were split between attending lectures or resident lectures on whatever subject they were covering that month. Will do some OB questions as a group sometimes.'

Interns will do a month "Ortho bootcamp" in the afternoons in the fall alongside the Ohio State and Mount Carmel interns which is pretty cool.

Operative Experience:There are a ton of cases/volume at this program. I felt that operative autonomy seemed to vary depending where you were rotating/attending you were with which is pretty true of all the programs I went to. Initially I was worried about operative autonomy here as residents were often double/triple scrubbed (5 or 4, 2, and sometimes an intern). But looking at the chiefs, all of them were very confident, fast, and had great hands in the OR. Operatively I feel that the program follows a mentorship-model of senior residents teaching juniors both in the OR and outside of it. Versus many DO programs being more apprenticeship attending-resident style. This is a pro or a con depending on your personality and learning style.

At the end of the day, although the residents aren’t “cut loose” as a junior they still get a ton of operative experience and the program’s end products, their chiefs, all were phenomenal in the OR compared to others at the other programs I rotated at.

Clinic Experience:Ortho clinic is ortho clinic. Rotators usually only go to resident-clinic and clinic at Nationwide so can only speak on those. But resident clinic is really chill, run by the interns with a chief there to oversee, and they all seem to really like it as they get a good bit of autonomy & cases boarded from the clinic are “resident cases” with the PD.

Overall it seems that residents don’t spend that much time in clinic and are able to get plenty of OR time.

Research:

Research here seems very strong from my limited exposure. Residents all seemed to be involved in on project(s). One of the PGY4’s applying shoulder/elbow had 40+ pubs. They have support from the hospitals’ research departments for IRB/data and there are plenty of medical student at the Ohio U DO school that are wanting to pitch in on projects. Dr. Taylor and the other trauma attendings have tons of projects that residents/fellows help out on. Nationwide has plenty of clinical and basic science projects that residents interested in peds can help/get their name on. I’m not sure if there is any “requirement” by Dr. Baker for research other than what is required by ACGME but from what I saw the program far exceeds that.

The program also sends all of their PGY4/5’s to AOAO Fall which I thought was pretty cool.

Fellowships:

Doctor’s has a very solid fellowship match list placing people in all sub-specialities including hand/peds/onc if they’ve wanted it. Probably the best places/specialties of the places I rotated/interviewed regardless of MD or DO. Their fellowship placements included places such as HSS-joints, Mayo-sports, Cleveland Clinic-joints, Rush, Harvard, Andrews-sports. Two of the chiefs this year were doing hand, one matched at the “Green” fellowship in San Antonio.

Much of their strong fellowship list probably can be attributed to their research/publication resources & well-known letter writers. But a lot of the seniors said that having access to alumni helped them out a ton and Doctor’s has a a lot of alumni being such a large program and the second oldest osteopathic ortho program.

Lifestyle:Depends a lot on what service you’re on it seems. Trauma is lots of long days with 24hr call scattered in between which you’re up all night pretty much because of how busy Grant is. Riverside call is better, most of it being home-call fielding questions from the ortho PA’s at night most of the time. Doctor’s has a PGY2 on “nights” so there is no overnight call during the week.

Mentioned above, but with the addition of Riverside to the call pool they’ve brought back in the chiefs to take occasional primary call (no weekends) which is a downside of the additional cases/attendings to cover.

Hours seem to be much more lax on the sub-specialty rotations like F&A, Hand, Shoulder UE, etc. where they pretty much work attending hours + rounding if there are any in-pts post-op.

All of the residents work very hard, but seem very happy and get to enjoy spending time with family/SO’s and enjoying the city.

Pros:
- Amazing group of residents. Very cohesive, personable, have each others’ backs

- Trauma. Huge # of cases and variety

- Columbus is a cool/young city compared to a lot of other places DO programs are

- Lots of attendings to learn a variety of techniques for the same procedure

- Tons of research opportunities

- Fellowship placements/ Alumni / Letter-writers

- Didactics only 2 times a week (con for some)

- No rotations outside of the city including peds/onc (all hospitals within 15 mins of e/o)

- Top pedes hospital

- Good food at the hospitals except Doctor’s

- Location (dependent on what you want)

Cons:
- Not having early operative autonomy

- Lots of rotators

- Trauma can be very busy/ball-busting (con for some)

- Addition of Riverside means chiefs occasionally take primary call now

- Large program (5/yr) may not be the best for people looking for small tight-knit residency

- Location (dependent on what you want)

Student Specific Experience:

Due to the reputation of the program there are a lot of rotators every year (90+ this past cycle). Strongly recommend doing a 4 week rotation here if you want to have a chance to match. Only 26 people were invited back to IV, and only one did a 2-week rotation.

There’s on average 15-20 rotators per month, 16 when I was there. However, they do a really decent job of spreading the students out at the different hospitals/services. So usually only 2-4 students at each hospital. Only time it felt crowded was at Doctor’s main where there’s usually only 1 or 2 rooms going so all the students are there just standing watching cases with one getting to scrub alternating. But the residents do a good job of keeping the students engaged by asking questions/explaining things as they’re happening. Definitely felt it was a good rotation ,even if you didn’t get invited back for an interview, as the residents take time to teach you so much about ortho that you can take with you to your other rotations. I definitely got a lot of pimp questions right at other places/interviews because of what some of the guys here taught me.

It’s a bit of a stressful rotation compared to others simply because every Monday you’re starting at a new place entirely and have to re-establish yourself with new attendings/scrub techs/finding the damn bathroom even; but you get to see all of the different environments you’d work in as a resident which is nice compared to some other programs where you never see some of the hospitals they work at.

As mentioned above, the interview/ranking is done mostly by the residents and in addition to your application/boards a lot of it is based on perceived fit amongst the residents. I’m sure it’s likely not deliberate but program is all male & white if that matters to anyone. Although the upcoming intern class has slightly diversified, but is still all male. However, there was a female chief last year, so the program has previously had female residents.

Overall I think that the program lives up to it’s reputation as being one of the best DO-Ortho programs because of its residents, resources, location, and fellowship opportunities.

 

[Thack20]

Program: Northwell - Plainview

Residents per Class: 6

Hospital: LIJ Valleystream, Huntington Hospital, Northshore University Hospital, Plainview Hospital, Southside Hospital, others in the Northwell system

Location: Long Island, NY

Attendings: Huge variety of attendings from general old school ortho guys, to Dr. Scuderi master of the knee, fellowship trained guys in all fields. All allow the residents varied amounts of autonomy, but overall a great mix of academic guys and community surgeons. Dr. Katsigiorgis is the PD and you'll get to scrub with him at Valleystream at least for a couple of days. He lets the senior residents do most of his cases and makes an effort to get to know you. As far as the other attendings go, Dr. Cohn is the APD, sports guy you'll scrub with him at Valleystream too, he'll pimp you a little, but he let me drill a tibial tunnel for an ACL reconstruction so that was cool. At Huntington Dr. Alpert is by far the coolest, he's mainly a joints guy, he'll ask you some softball pimp questions and let you close. Dr. Gurtowski is the Chair at Huntington and has a say in who gets in so it's beneficial to scrub with him. He's a strange guy and will ask you some weird questions about being stuck in a blender. Dr. Bitterman is a Plainview grad and cares a lot about the program, he's a foot and ankle guy and scrubbing with him was a great experience as well. Overall pretty positive vibe from all of the attendings.

Residents: Huge program as far as DO ortho goes. Certainly not the most tight knit group. Probably the only real downside to the program is that the 1s are terrified of the senior residents, the 2s loath them, and the 3s just kind of tolerate them. You can tell that there are a bunch of cliques in the program and they definitely don't all hangout, but that's what you get in a big program. I personally think Albano gets a bad rep, I liked him and the other 5s the most even though a lot of the junior residents would apologize for their behavior and tell me that they would be gone by the time I matched, but I think they are the last class in the program with that old school grit and they just kind of look down on the rest of the program for not following suit. I heard that a second year resident recently dropped for being "overworked", but I don't have a lot of information on that. It seemed that the interns and 2s all got along with each other and I'm sure you'll be able to find some friends among your co interns. All of the residents were super nice to the students and took time to answer any questions that we had and made sure we learned during most of the cases and consults.

Didactics/Education: Weekly conference 4-8 at Plainview on Tuesdays. Resident run lectures, with variable guest speakers, journal club, workshops, skill labs. They have an unlimited budget for all this stuff so it's usually pretty good. May occasionally pimp the students, but it's more of a chance to impress them, they didn't seem to care if someone got something wrong.

Operative Experience: They work with literally dozens of attendings so each gives them a different degree of autonomy. Katsigiorgis, Cohn, Bitterman, Gurtowski, Healey, etc. let the upper level residents do most of each case. Scuderi doesn't even let junior residents in his room. I heard that at southside hospital the attending lets the residents do whatever they want. Trauma is at northshore, which is pretty decent from what I know. They have plenty of attendings in each subspecialty so they're exposed to pretty much everything out there. I can't say the residents here were as good as the ones that had unlimited autonomy at other programs, but they all seemed pretty confident and I believe its one of those programs where if you work hard the attendings will reward you. As a student what you do depends on the attending and resident there, if the attending isn't around and you're confident in your skills, just ask the residents they'll more than likely let you get your hands dirty.

Clinic Experience: Clinic varies based on what hospital you're at. This actually was something I forgot to ask about both during my rotation and interview, but it didn't seem like the residents were ever bogged down in clinic. As a student you spend a day with Dr. Cohn (he loves the Islanders and Mets) and Dr. Katsigiorgis one on one so it's a good time to impress them.

Research: They self reportedly churn out the most research out of any of the DO programs. Back to the whole unlimited Northwell budget and resources. If you have an idea for research they will help you make it happen. Probably most MD esque in this sense when it comes to DO programs. Tons of great fellowship placement.

Lifestyle: Highest salary by far so you'll have plenty of money to blow or even save some up to pay off loans or whatever. Long Island is cool, people live all over and you won't have any problems paying rent. The city is just an LIRR ride away so you can easily go out there on the weekends. You will spend a lot of time driving between hospitals. Interns take buddy call with 2s until the spring then they are eased into the schedule. 2s and 3s take most of the call anywhere from q2 to q4. Valleystream isn't very busy, Plainview is home call also not too busy, Huntington gets very busy, and I hear that Northshore is wild. 4s intermittently take some call. 5s don't take primary call. This all varies between hospitals though. 6Am sign out on average I believe.

Pros: Pretty white collar program, salary, free food at valleystream, location if you like the Northeast, Northwell name and resources, dozens of attendings to work with, research/fellowship placement, they interview almost everyone that rotates. All of the hospitals are relatively close together. Didactics once a week. There is this mythical Sgaglione guy that apparently you visit as a 4th year and tell him what fellowship you want to go into and he tells you where he can get you in.

Cons: Program is too big with too many different personalities for everyone to be friends or even get along, less autonomy than I would have liked, too many students lurking around and coming to didactics even as first years, it was clear that there were some students there that all of the attendings and residents knew and it was already a given that they were getting in. Have been taking MDs for a couple years now. Attendings have a much greater say in who gets in than residents.

Student Specific Experience: This is a good rotation to do if you're set on doing the "Northeast Tour." You do 2 weeks at LIJ Valleystream and 2 weeks at Huntington Hospital. The residents are all pretty cool and will joke around and talk with you, they'll also teach you and try to help you impress the attendings. Valleystream is quite slow so you'll have a lot of time to study there. Huntington can be super busy so you'll get a bunch of OR time there. There are usually 3-4 students at each hospital which makes about 8 total so it's not overly crowded. You'll do a weekend at each hospital which is nothing crazy, you come in and do cases and see some consults then go home. No overnight call with the residents, but one person usually stays late to help out everyday. The hours aren't bad at all and if there's nothing going on the residents will send you home. You'll do minimal scut work here and I got to tap some knees and splint, it all depends which resident you're with. It helps if you or someone you know lives on Long Island because I heard getting an AirBnB is annoying. It's best to do this rotation somewhere in the middle so that you have some decent knowledge and can impress the residents and attendings. Despite the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed this rotation, I think that all things considered it's relatively low yield for a couple of reasons. Everyone knows about this program and wants to rotate here so they have a ton of rotators. For whatever reason they always interview and take MDs without them rotating, in the past it was 3 and 3. In my opinion it's trash because there is an MD Northwell LIJ program, but what can you do. Also I can't overstate the fact that there are people here from NYIT and other schools who hang around the program for years and everyone knows them and there are people who do multiple rotations here during the audition trail, so if you're pulling up from Kansas City or something you better bring it to stand out. If you really want to stay in the Northeast, this program is probably the best around, but if you want to increase your chances of matching go to some Michigan programs or Ventura, they don't get too many rotators there.

 

[LongDucDong]

Hey all, I matched last month in ortho, and it's definitely tough finding this information, so I'm pretty happy to see this updated list start up. I'll try to write a few more reviews of places that I rotated as I get time and contribute for those of you who are finalizing audition schedules, but here is the first. I rotated for a month here.

Program: Riverside University

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Riverside University Health System

Location: Moreno Valley, CA/Riverside, CA

Attendings: A mixed bunch. PD is Dr. Faerber, who is a staple in the DO ortho residency community. I believe he is the first and only PD of this program, which has been around quite a while. He gives off a bit of an old school vibe, which can be good and bad. He can certainly be abrasive and will rub some people the wrong way, and is tough on his residents in the OR, but the month I spent there I never saw anything worrisome or out of the norm. Dr. Schlechter is a very high energy, high intensity peds ortho attending. He is the driving force behind their didactics and research. A good guy overall, and certainly is an asset to have him as a member of the RUHS program because RUHS, Ventura, and Las Vegas all go to CHOC for peds ortho rotations, so having Dr. Schlechter means they get support while they’re in OC for peds. Dr. Sherman and Dr. Robinson are each trauma attendings and are comically opposite of one another. Both are very good, but Dr. Sherman is super loud and abrasive and will rip you apart, but he dishes it out evenly among the residents… everyone gets picked on, and he’s actually pretty funny sometimes. Dr. Robinson is very quiet and methodical. A good teacher and a great asset for the program. Dr. Drinhaus and Dr. Ellis are both peripheral attendings. Dr. Ellis is like Dr. Faerber, but worse. Dr. Drinhaus is a super nice guy. Dr. Powers is a solid guy. Not what I would call a great teacher, but a cool guy who won’t rip you apart and gives you autonomy. Dr. Caputo is a hand guy who does a lot of general (including pelvis trauma). He does crazy surgeries and gives lots of autonomy. I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but overall I thought the attendings were good. Their best qualities are that they all give huge amounts of autonomy to the residents.

Residents: A fun group. They work hard at this program and really get their ass kicked with the workload and a lot of institutional crap. To call a spade a spade, though, there was more strife between this resident group than any other rotation I was on. That’s not to say it was super bad or anything, it wasn’t, but I honestly felt like they were overworked and a little burnt out. When they weren’t stressed, they were super fun, but it felt like everyone was just a little more on edge than other programs I went to. Don’t get me wrong, I like these people, and I would have been happy to train with them, but I do think that they had a lot of crap to deal with and it showed from time to time in their relationships with one another.

Didactics/Education: Pretty standard, resident led. Nothing special. Dr. Schlecther gave lectures once a week and they were the most informative. Otherwise, fracture conference was about average and the other days of the week it was haphazard. Didactics certainly takes a back seat to operating here. If there are cases going, the residents will leave didactics whenever they want to go to the cases.

Operative Experience: Through the roof. These guys operated more than every other program I went to. The only place that could give them a run for their money in volume was Modesto. This place has a reputation for operating a ton, so I was expecting it, but I really was surprised. The only downside to their volume is that they don’t have a lot of direction. One attending might be running a couple rooms and that means that the resident doesn’t always get the teaching and attention they need. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but it happened quite a lot. I got the vibe that the resident was self-taught often times. Again, I don’t think this is necessarily bad, but it takes the right person to thrive in this environment. A plus for some, a minus for others.

Clinic Experience: Standard. A couple days a week. Busy clinics where 3-5 residents are essentially reporting to the one attending. Nothing out of the norm in either direction.

Research: Not sure. RUHS apparently is getting some good research funding, so I expect there will actually be a rise in research. I would rate this aspect better than the average DO program, but not on par with a university MD ortho program.

Lifestyle: Pretty rough. Years 1-3 are full, and 2 is brutal, but it seems to really lighten up years 4 and 5. They are working long hours and pushing the 80 hours most weeks for the first few years. Most of the residents seemed totally okay with this and I wonder if that’s just because this program attracts that type of person.

Pros: Great operative experience/volume. Great autonomy in every aspect, not just operative. The attendings are very hands off and if you come to them with a surgery/idea/anything they will likely let you run with it and just be peripherally managing. Fun group of residents who do what they can to manage the toughness of the program, even if this spills over into a little strife from time to time.

Cons: Too much autonomy for someone who is looking for more directed and personalized teaching. Lifestyle is pretty rough and you need to be ready to really give your first 3 years to your program, almost entirely. Southern California is cool (most of the time) but Moreno Valley sucks. Really fun stuff within a 2 hour drive or less (mountains for snowboarding, beach, golf, even Vegas isn’t far), but Moreno Valley is kinda crappy.

Student Specific Experience: If I matched here, I would’ve been happy. Ultimately, this is a program that will give you great operative experience and you will land a fellowship due to their great established network. You will also be put through a rough residency with attendings that aren’t particularly supportive. This place has a reputation for being malignant, but it isn’t. It’s rough around the edges, to be sure, but they also take pride in this and realize that it’s a gritty residency that will put you to the test to train you well. Ultimately, they ended up around halfway down my list, not my number 1, but definitely not at the bottom. Dr. Faerber seems pretty committed to taking DO's for the time being. We'll see how long that lasts (especially with UCR being an MD school), but that was my impression from the interview.

 

[LongDucDong]

Program: Good Samaritan

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center

Location: Corvallis, OR

Attendings: Probably the nicest group of attendings at any program. One of the major positives here. They didn’t grant a ton of autonomy, which was a little bit of a bummer to see, but the attendings were very positive and supportive of the residents. They took an active role in educating the residents in the OR and in clinic. Dr. Krumrey is the PD. She’s trauma trained and was probably the best teacher of the program, and demanded the most of her residents, and allowed them autonomy when they proved themselves. I never saw her blow up on someone or cut people down. She was appropriately demanding but stayed positive. I really liked her and think she’s a huge asset for the program. Dr. Vela is the former PD, but he’s still involved with the program pretty heavily. He’s a hand guy. I liked him a lot. He’s a little quirky and can seem standoff-ish to the students, but he will pull you aside at some point and really wants to get to know you. He’s a genuinely good guy who wants to do right by his patients and really cares about the character of the program as much as he cares about the quality of training. Dr. Noonan and Dr. Ghacham were the spine guys. They are both very academically inclined and the residents say they learn a ton on their spine rotations. Both were cool guys who everyone had nothing but good things to say about. Dr. Passanise is sports trained and was fun to work with. She’s got a dry sense of humor, which is pretty fun if you can get it, and she gets the residents really good sports exposure. She’s the team physician for Western Oregon university, and the residents get to be involved in those cases. Dr. Campaigniac is a fun general surgeon who is hand trained. She’s got a good personality and keeps positive and seems to let the residents do as much or as little as they want. Overall, these attendings are really cool people who treat the residents with respect. They don’t give a ton of autonomy, which is the biggest downside, but I honestly think this is more due to the fact that this just isn’t a high volume place and the attendings don’t really need the residents, so the attendings seem to be pretty hands on. But great people overall.

Residents: Just as the attendings were all good people, the residents were even better. This place seems like they choose their residents based a lot off of what type of people they are. They don’t necessarily want the smartest, they want the people that are going to fit in with them and with their families. Very supportive group who got along well and hung out outside of the hospital together. Very friendly and welcoming. This program has the most females (attendings and residents) out of any program I was at. Not sure whether this influenced their positive culture or not, but this program had one of the best overall cultures of any program.

Didactics/Education: Primarily resident led, but with attending involvement about 2 days/week I would say. The had a fairly regular journal club with the whole program, and then frequent journal reviews within each rotation. Slightly stronger than the average program I rotated at, but still with the typical DO setup in that residents had to take charge of their own didactics for the most part.

Operative Experience: A bit lacking here. The slower pace and a little less volume of the hospital starts to show in how much the residents get to operate, and how much of the case they take ownership of. It was pretty uncommon to see a resident do a case from start to finish with no attending involvement. They were definitely doing the bread and butter stuff without any help, and without an attending even scrubbed, like a CMN or something, but otherwise I would have liked to see just a little more resident operative autonomy. The chiefs were definitely good and knowledgeable when it came to the specialties that they were pursuing fellowship in. They’re doing joints, trauma, and peds I believe, and they all were good.

Clinic Experience: Pretty good. Lots of one-on-one attending time in clinic. Occasionally I felt like the resident should have taken a more leadership role on the cases, but I think they were getting good clinic exposure so that they aren’t lost when they get into practice.

Research: Not really sure, wasn’t talked about much. Got the impression that it’s pretty much on par with most DO programs. No big funding or anything and didn’t seem like a big push from the attendings.

Lifestyle: Great. These residents really had it figured out when it came to getting time to do the things they want to do and still have lives/families outside of the hospital. Perhaps this is just the trade-off that you get with a lower volume place, but this is one of the best lifestyle programs of any that I rotated at.

Pros: Awesome people and culture. They really care about who you are as a person and care about your character. It shows in their residents and their attendings. Lifestyle is very good and manageable to have a family while in residency. Corvallis is a sneaky cool college town in the Willamette Valley that was a ton of fun.

Cons: Operative experience is a little lacking. Trauma is primarily done in Portland at OHSU, so I can’t speak to the quality, but I heard good things.

Student Specific Experience: Really enjoyed my time here. Good people that I would be happy to spend 5 years working alongside. Very supportive. Strong female presence that I think is an underappreciated asset to the program. Not enough operative experience for me to put them #1, but otherwise I have nothing bad to say about this program.

 

[DreamChaser7]

***********THIS IS AN ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE TO THE ABOVE BROWARD HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER REVIEW***************
*******WITH UPDATED FACTUAL INFORMATION AS OPPOSED TO OPINION**********​

My experience was much different from the original posting student. Audition rotations will differ for each individual. In summary the culture of Broward is "Work hard and have fun" I have added or changed parts of the review which were much different for me. I also updated the facts as far as research and fellowships.

Program: Broward Health Medical Center

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Broward Health is the main hospital site. Residents also travel South to Mercy Hospital for tumor. Travel 30 minutes north for their sports and spine rotation. Broward Health North is being added this year 2020.

Location: In South Florida located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 45 minutes north of Miami, and 45 minutes south of West Palm Beach.

Attendings: Several attendings, approximately 15 but this year with the expansion to Broward North there will be more. Each attending comes from a different training program and the main hospital traumatologists each trained at different fellowship programs, making it a very well rounded and unique teaching environment. Dr. Rush is the program director of the program and Dr. Cross is the associate program director who is double fellowship trained in both trauma and pediatrics.

Residents: Really enjoyed my time with the interns, PGY-2, PGY-3, 4, and 5s. Learned a lot from them and felt confident going on my other rotations. The residents are all extremely hard working and they do value teaching and offering opportunities to students if those opportunities are earned. If you are someone who is willing to work hard and be patient with earning trust, this could be an extremely autonomous rotation with lots of learning.

Didactics/Education: Fracture conference is every Friday morning from 6:45am to 8:00am where they go over the cases of the week. The attendings are present sitting in the back with a PGY-2 going over the cases. Residents associated with the case will go over the background, pathology, and approach and any pitfalls they encountered during the case. Attendings will give their feedback. Education is held every Tuesday afternoon going over a variety of topics taught through presentations and OITE questions that the chief resident has made. The residents typically answer the orthopedic questions and the students get involved by answering basic science questions. Journal clubs take place 1-2x/month in the evening typically.

Operative Experience: Mixed level of autonomy for the residents depending on which attending they're currently working with-again, all trust is earned not given so autonomy increases with time spent with the attending. Being a level 1 trauma center, a large portion of the resident's experience is with high energy trauma cases that are coming from busy highways like I-95, I-595, Marina Mile Blvd as those are all adjacent to the hospital. They also get patients from FLL airport and cruise ports but those come in waves and increase with travel season. If you are someone who is looking for an amazing trauma experience and a ton of experience with pelvic trauma, this is the place you want to rotate to see all of that pathology. As a student you can expect to scrub into 4 - 5 cases per day assisting in cases, suturing at the end, helping with hardware installation, and conversing with the attending and resident. Definitely expect to be pimped but this was never a guarantee so its always best to be prepared. OR schedule is reviewed by the students the night before and split up amongst yourselves. You can always log in to the system and preview the cases for the week to prepare for elective procedures ahead of time.

Clinic Experience: Clinic is run by the residents with the cases being presented to the attending. During your time here you can perform injections under the supervision of the resident and/or attending. This is a great time to really showcase your abilities that you have learned as a 3rd year medical student by interviewing patients, presenting the cases, and discussing treatment/follow up plans directly with the attending or senior resident. The hospital clinic serves the underserved population so you will definitely see a wide range of post operative compliance. You will be expected to help with writing notes, which is also a great opportunity to practice and showcase abilities while helping the residents.

Research: As a Level 1 trauma center, there is a lot of research opportunities for the residents and the residents are now planning to include medical students for opportunities to help with turning out published research. Recently one of the PGY-3s at Broward brought OTA funding to one of the large projects and it has grown to include all of the trauma attendings and even includes collaboration with the trauma department. There are also many smaller active projects currently being worked on by both residents and students, in addition to that large scale project. The PGY3, 4, and 5s all have enough research to stand out amongst other applicants on the fellowship interview trail and land prestigious positions at places like Yale and Harvard.

Lifestyle: The lifestyle is what you would expect from a Level 1 Trauma center. Interns would get in at 5:00am to update the list. Juniors and chief would come in by 6am and then the entire team would run the list. Depending on the volume of traumas that day, residents would typically operate until 6pm and then go home. We split the call schedule up amongst the rotating students (at that time there were 4 of us) and worked with a different resident depending on the day of the week. This was a great opportunity to have some one-on-one learning opportunities and help manage the late night traumas that would come in. I stayed in the hospital for all of my call nights and it definitely paid off in experience! Again, you get what you put in. Residents are not required to take call from the hospital but most of them choose to. The schedule lightens up as the residents progress through the years.

Pros: A tight nit hard working family feel. A program director that is extremely dedicated to his residents and is very involved in both Nova medical school and AOAO which opens up opportunities for the residents and students. The obvious of living near the beach for the next 5-years in warm weather that stays above 80 degrees. Autonomy while in the OR as you move up each year but I've seen their PGY-2s do entire cases skin to skin plenty of times.
Broward's out rotations include: Sports- Dr. Ross is one of the most skilled sports surgeons in the country. He does a ton of high level hip scopes, osteotomies, cartilage transplants, multi ligament knee repairs, etc
Foot and ankle- Dr. Weatherall is extremely well trained and a great mentor, he also operates a ton at BHMC in addition to up in Boca. He practices the full scope of foot and ankle surgeries as well from scopes to ankle replacements.
Spine- Dr. Norton for spine is the busiest spine surgeon in South Florida. He does everything from one level lami to revision spine deformity. A lot of minimally invasive also. Plus they get spine from the neurosurgeons at Broward. Additional spine from the Peds rotation at Nicklaus children’s with some of the best scoli surgeons in the country. They do 300-400 scolis/year which is above 90th percentile.
Miami peds- Tertiary center. Great fracture care, neuromuscular, tumor, general peds and limb deformity experience. Attendings from a lot of prestigious places.
Hand- mixed with both plastics and ortho hand surgeons. Can be a little plastics heavy. Will soon be expanded to North Broward which will add two more attendings, with one of them being very well known in the hand community/literature.
Trauma- just hired a full complement with 4 full time ortho traumatologists. Level 1 trauma center, that speaks for itself. One of the traumatologist is a women, which adds to the program's unique diversity.
Recon at Cleveland Clinic- high volume facility. 1000 primary hips/knees per year from Dr. Patel. Dr. Riesgo is essentially a tertiary care center for revisions. Complex cases, great volume. Sure the residents do tend to take a backseat to the fellows but the cases and complexity make it worth it.
Tumor- Dr. Temple down in Mercy is a world renowned msk tumor surgeon. High volume, complex rare cases, lots of hands on experience for the residents.

Recent fellowships include: 2021 Class- Yale (Spine), Harvard (Sports Medicine), UMiss (Trauma); 2020 Class- UIC (Sports Medicine), Allegheny (Sports Medicine), Virginia Arthritis Institute (Adults Recon); 2019 class- U Minnesota (Hand), Wake Forest (Adult Recon); 2018 class- Baylor (Peds), Core Institute (Adult Recon)

Cons: Students do not get to see a lot of other procedures other than joints and trauma while on the audition. Therefore if you do not ask or read up on the program then you could be misinformed bout its well rounded nature. This is similar at other programs such as Franciscan Chicago. If you are not self motivated and internally driven then you can definitely fall through the cracks, but on the contrary, if you take charge of your education and learn to be helpful without annoying the residents, this could be the most exciting rotation you'll do.

Student Specific Experience: I was very involved in patient care the entire time along with my fellow student rotators. Make sure to develop a solid communication between yourselves because your organization will make it easier for the residents to communicate with you. This applied to all ortho auditions but it is especially easy to get lost at Broward because it is so busy and the residents always have a ton of tasks to complete during the day. As long as you are on top of the schedule, and take initiative to communicate with the residents, and are easy to get along with: the rotation will be very rewarding and enriching.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Program: KCU/HCA Research Medical Center (Kansas City, MO)

Residents per Class: 4

Hospital: North Kansas City Hospital (main site for procedures and large hospital), Research Medical Center, Overland Park Medical Center, other community hospitals covered: Cameron

Location: Kansas City, MO

Attendings:
Dr. Orth: Program Director, General Orthopedics. He has a wide scope practice and takes trauma depending if he is the attending on call. Important to go to the clinic with him as he will let you go see the patient, put together a plan, and then present the patient to him. Allows resident to have quite a bit of autonomy.

Dr. Barnhill: General ortho centered around joints. Lets the resident run the room without him there when at Cameron hospital. Great attending to get to know and allows the residents to run the show for the most part.

Dr. Robert Paul: Pretty close to a pure joints practice with some scopes and carpal tunnels thrown in. Does the most teaching concerning joints and will let the resident do the majority of the case.

Dr. David Paul: Practice centered around joints.

Dr. David Dugan: General ortho but has training in hip scopes, true generalist.

Dr. Alan Cornett: General ortho

Dr. Angie Walker: Foot and Ankle trained at UCLA. Will do an occasional joint here and there but generally only does foot and ankle.

Dr. James Kesl: Trauma trained at York, PA. Also does some general ortho but generally does all the trauma cases for the group.

Dr. Molly Black: Trauma at Duke

Dr. Michael Justice: Sports trained, does all the sports cases for the practice with an occasional joint case.

Dr. Terry Presley: Joint reconstruction at Louisville

Dr. Michael Boin: Shoulder elbow


Residents: Good group of residents who all work well with each other. They all hang out with each other outside of the hospital.

Didactics/Education: Much more resident-led and on your own. Didactics include fracture conference once a week as well as a couple of hours for general study or lectures. Education is based around Orthobullets schedule, residents keep each other in check on staying up with studying. Didactics with Truman/UMKC have also been established to increase education time for residents.

Operative Experience: Years 3-5 are all extremely hands-on with the upper resident running the case for the most part. On-call cases are usually a lower running the case while the upper is teaching. Majority experience is joint/general related but new rotations are being developed to increase exposure to other specialties. Foot and ankle, as well as sports exposure, have increased dramatically recently with a new trauma rotation.

Clinic Experience: Generally, where most of the time will be spent as a 1 and 2. Most clinics are seeing 30-50 people a day. Fast-paced and see as many patients as the resident can see. Some attendings have PA’s which decreases the workload for some residents. Twos are mainly in charge of running the floor with the help of the interns and oversight of the uppers.

Research: Residents are required to publish a paper. All seemed to be working on projects.

Lifestyle: Great work/life balance. While the days can be busy and full of cases it is traded with lighter, in comparison to other programs, on-call time. Kansas City is a great family-friendly community to live within. There are multiple different suburbs around the hospital to live within with most of the residents living north of the river in what is called the Northland/Gladstone/Liberty area. Great food, as well as low cost of living, are common perks stated by residents. Most residents have significant others +/- kids.

Pros: Lifestyle, operative experience, autonomy, location/cost of living

Cons: Can be lots of driving and time in the clinic early on but is traded with lots of OR time later.

Student Specific Experience: Great rotation. I got to scrub a ton of cases and learned a lot. Cool group of residents.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Beaumont- Farmington Hills/Dearborn Hospitals

Residents per Class: 4

Hospital: Beaumont-Farmington Hills (330 beds, used to be called Botsford, but they merged with the mothership of Beaumont Royal Oak), and Dearborn Hospital (632 beds), both are level 2 trauma centers.

Location: Farmington Hills, MI. Farmington Hills is a nice area with some cool areas to hang out. Dearborn not in a great area.

Attendings: Attendings here were awesome. A few of them have been at the program for a LONG TIME and some are in their first few years at the program. They have a good mix of specialties here. Spine, trauma, joints, sports, general. Most of the attendings are super nice and willing to teach. Very funny and one of my favorite groups of attendings. The PD (Dr. Finch) is probably one of the coolest guys I met on the trail and really made you feel welcome and involved in cases. Does some sweet cases as well.

Residents: Laid back group of guys. Seem to pick residents based on fit more than application. If you don't fit in with the guys, you are most likely not going to rank high here. They hang out sometimes outside of work and get along really well. Felt a good team vibe here.

Didactics/Education: Strong point here. They have cadaver dissection run by 2nd years once per week, they do signout and a "mini fracture conference" every morning to review the cases from the prior day/night, and they do lectures for like 5 hours on one of the days led by residents and attendings. I really liked this.

Operative Experience: Really ranged depending on the attending. Some of the newer trauma guys would let the residents do a good deal of surgery, where some of the older guys were rather hands-off with the residents (even the 5th years). As a student, you stood there and held retractors like every other rotation, but I never felt like they were grilling me. The attendings like to mess around a ton in the OR and crack jokes. You need to have tough skin here. The PD let me do a ton when I was with him. They do a lot of rotations over at Beaumont Royal Oak which is a plus.

Clinic Experience: Again, attending specific and kinda the same as the OR. Try and see patients and take initiative. Stay with the resident and go see patients, present to the resident, and then to the attending. Try and go a few times with each attending. There aren't that many attendings that actually have their clinic next to the hospital, so you should be able to go 2-3x with each attending to the clinic. 2 of the docs have their clinic on hospital property so these are the main clinic hours you will do.

Research: They do have required research, but it was not something they harped on here.

Lifestyle: Lifestyle as a student here was pretty good. You were texted the night before by the fourth year resident and told where you would be the next day. Usually started at 6:30 am with fracture conference and then headed to cases. I was done around 4-5 pm usually. You would either be at Farmington or Dearborn for the day. The food at Beaumont is horrible. Not sure what the deal is with that. Honestly, I felt like the cafeteria staff thought you were inconveniencing them when you asked for food. They also give you a stipend to eat which was nice. For residents, they all seemed to love the program and had a good balance. Some have families with kids.

Pros: Cool residents and attendings, good rotations at Royal Oak, not too much driving required (only two hospitals). The cost of living is good and Farmington Hills is a good place to raise a family. Some of the coolest scrub techs I had seen. I really liked their didactics and education. The Detroit airport is pretty sweet and efficient.

Cons: The autonomy here was something I did not like. I didn't feel the residents (even the 4/5 years) got to do a ton with some of the generalists. Beaumont food is horrible. Michigan weather is not the best.

Student Specific Experience: Awesome. I would have been very happy matching at this program as long as I brought my own lunch.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Beaumont- Farmington Hills/Dearborn Hospitals

Residents per Class: 4

Hospital: Time is split roughly 50/50 between Beaumont Farmington Hills (more community based, level 2, 300 bed, most of it has recently been redone) and Beaumont Dearborn (level 2 but very close to level 1,600 beds, very nice). Very nice OR support staff.

Location: Farmington Hills and Dearborn, Michigan, close to Detroit and some of the better surrounding suburbs.

Attendings: The program director gives residents great exposure to difficult revision joint cases, very involved and supportive of residents. A few younger attendings graduated from the program. Very involved in education and supportive in general. Always felt welcome and involved as a medical student.

Residents: The program has slowly been growing and is now up to 4 residents per year. As the program grows so does the camaraderie. Very inclusive and a very supportive learning environment. Go out of their way to make co-residents and students feel comfortable.

Didactics/education: Once per week with fracture conference every morning. Well organized and great attending input.

Operative Experience: Great trauma, joints, and spine exposure. Middle of the pack for early operative experience.

Clinic Experience: NA

Research: Finding opportunities is the resident’s responsibility and will be supported by attendings with projects.

Lifestyle: Very conscious of wellness and burnout. The best program I saw with respect to treating residents well.

Pros: Great community and attendings, great atmosphere, and very conducive to learning. Good mix of community-based and bigger hospital settings. Comprehensive education.

Cons: Not busting at the seams with research but still has plenty.

Student Specific Experience: My year they were mainly doing 2-week audition rotations. It can be more difficult to get a feel for a program vs 4 weeks, but even in my 2 weeks, I saw what I needed to see. Great experience overall. I was included more here and was more comfortable in the atmosphere here than any other program.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: Henry Ford Macomb

Residents per Class: 2

Hospital: Community-based hospital; the hospital is very nice except for the cafe and food, great people

Location: Far from Detroit, very suburban feel

Attendings: Core attendings are very involved, very supportive, and at education every morning.

Residents: Great group of residents, very much a team approach with help available from everyone. Very good with medical students and very helpful. The smaller group taking only 2 a year makes the call schedule heavier.

Didactics/education: Education every morning, lower-tier education but test scores are good and you get your knowledge with hands-on experience, very little pimping

Operative Experience: Very good, the best I saw as far as early operative experience, the most autonomy I saw, trauma consists of a lot of elderly falls (hip, wrist, prox humerus, etc.). Fewer residents and more attendings so not as much double scrubbing.

Clinic Experience: Very relaxed

Research: Will have to seek out opportunities but will be supported

Lifestyle: Heavier call schedule and very busy ER and OR schedules, could use a 3rd resident but very supportive co-residents

Pros: Great operative experience

Cons: Great operative experience at the cost of education/research/lifestyle.

Student Specific Experience: Great experience here, I learned a ton, was very impressed with resident surgical skills, very inclusive, and good to students.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren Macomb

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Community based, partially re-done, still uses paper charts in some areas, getting a new wing with resident lounge

Location: Far from Detroit, very suburban

Attendings: Very involved, a few core attendings. Really look out for your best interest. A few young attendings graduated from the program.

Residents: Good group and good camaraderie, very good at top-down teaching.

Didactics/education: Every morning, not the best organization or emphasis on education, rarely attendings present, very little pimping

Operative Experience: Some double scrubbing, good trauma, joints, and hand exposure.

Clinic Experience: Very teaching-oriented in the clinic, have a resident-run clinic one day a week as well, attendings are very interested in teaching

Research: Will have to seek out opportunities but will be supported

Lifestyle: Middle of the pack, spend a lot of time in the ER doing hand injury work

Pros: Very supportive attendings

Cons: Sports, education, ER is hand heavy

Student Specific Experience: Very friendly and laid back when it comes to students, go out of their way to teach, not busy enough for the number of students, spent a lot of time in the library

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren Oakland

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Not the best, small, not very busy, floors are re-done, old OR and ER, the worst I saw as far as call room

Location: Close enough to Detroit, close to good suburbs, immediate location is poverty-stricken

Attendings: Great group of attendings, some young attendings graduated from the program, very helpful and very much a family with the residents. A fun group of people. The program director is a phenomenal person and surgeon (general ortho).

Residents: Great group, inclusive outside of work

Didactics/education: Well organized, every morning, primarily ran by second-year residents and get great knowledge from this. Pimp-heavy

Operative Experience: The Program director’s service is very busy, other services are less so. Some double scrubbing.

Clinic Experience: Resident-run clinic once a week, split patients with PAs in most attendings offices

Research: Will have to seek out opportunities but will be supported

Lifestyle: Good lifestyle, hangout with co-residents outside of work. Intern year consists of 6 months of night medicine call regardless of service.

Pros: Education, the residents, and attendings

Cons: Area, less busy, in house medicine call as an intern

Student Specific Experience: Good experience here, great people, the hospital could use some work and the volume was low, very small ER and ship a lot of trauma, spent some time in the library but residents were inclusive and liked teaching

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Program: McLaren- Greater Lansing

Residents per Class: 4

Hospital: Split time between 3 hospitals, McLaren Lansing (smaller old community hospital), a strictly orthopedic hospital (small and old but cool with respect that OR staff and floor nursing staff strictly deal with ortho patients), Sparrow (level 1 trauma center, big nice hospital, very busy, huge very busy ER)

Location: Get the Michigan State University feel being very close to campus, East Lansing is nothing more than a college town but get the Big Ten sporting events which are great. Downtown Lansing has more to offer with regards to restaurants and things to do etc.

Attendings: A ton of attendings, didn’t meet them all. Very good surgically.

Residents: More on the strict and disciplined end with regards to perfecting the younger residents, one-on-one very nice people, don’t go out of their way to make you feel included as a student

Didactics/education: Every morning, a second-year prepares a big fracture conference every week and hears about any mistakes, very pimp heavy, very education heavy

Operative Experience: Very busy, every service seems to be busy and the call between the hospitals is very busy, you see a lot, some double scrubbing

Clinic Experience: Work with PAs in clinic

Research: Very research-heavy with a lot being done

Lifestyle: The college atmosphere is something to note, not much else going on besides that, a very busy program, and a lot is expected outside of the hospital as well as preparation-wise.

Pros: Great operative experience, learn from a variety of attendings, good research

Cons: Call schedule is very heavy

Student Specific Experience: Saw a lot and learned a lot here, but not a ton of guidance for students and a lot of gray areas as far as what is expected. The residents are very busy and therefore students are more in the background.

 

[JH555]

Program: Wellspan, York PA

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: York Hospital, Level 1 trauma center. You will spend time in a nearby surgery center or an office for clinic.

Location: The least exciting part of this program is the location. Nearest big city is Baltimore which is 1 hour away. There isn't anything to do other than eat at some chain restaurants.

Attendings: Impressive attendings, all very experienced and enjoy teaching the residents.

Residents: Overall the attitude towards students that residents have is the worst aspect of this program. They are very dismissive and treat students as dispensable and do not treat them with any respect. Certain residents would laugh or roll their eyes at students who got questions wrong and on a number of occasions they would openly talk badly about students which was awkward and unprofessional. This was the impression I got from a number of students who spent time there.

Didactics/Education: Early morning didactics, standard.

Operative Experience: Probably the most impressive part of this program is the early exposure to surgery that they have, though this is the trend with most D.O programs.

Clinic Experience: Good 1 on 1 experience with a number of very qualified and impressive attendings.

Research: They've made an effort to ramp up research by bringing in a number of research oriented attendings.

Lifestyle: Non-existant as a resident in the first few years. As a student, you are expected to be there more than the residents, plan on working 80+ hour weeks as a student. You are expected to take call as much as possible by the residents.

Pros: Surgical exposure, busy trauma center

Cons: The location and the malignant attitude residents have towards students

Student Specific Experience: Busy trauma center which will keep you busy and give you plenty of exposure. However, I think the residents need to think about how they treat students because every student i've spoken to felt openly disrespected and put down. There are plenty of other level 1 trauma centers you can rotate at and I would suggest doing that before coming here (unless the location is important to you)

 

[Osteoguy1994]

Program: Ascension Macomb Oakland
Residents per Class: 2

Hospital:

-St John Hospital and Medical Center (trauma 1): Trauma, Sports, Shoulder, Hand, Joints

-St John Providence Southfield: Joints, Sports, Spine, Shoulder & Elbow

-St John Providence Park: Joints, Sports, Spine, Shoulder & Elbow

-Ascension Crittenton: Joints, Sports

-DMC Children’s: Pediatrics

-Henry Ford Macomb: Hand
Location: SE Michigan. A mix of city and suburban communities

Attendings: The program at Ascension St John is unique in that it has both an MD and DO orthopedic surgery residency program (DO program with initial ACGME accreditation). The faculty is ~ 50/50 MD/DO split and the programs are run as a hybrid by program directors Benjamin Best DO and David Markel MD. Faculty train all residents across both programs



Faculty includes well published and fellowship trained physicians. Many trained at academic medical centers including HSS, Rush, and Wake Forest. Areas emphasized include trauma, sports, and joints.



Residents: The MD and DO programs exist as a hybrid and the residents work as such. Strong camaraderie exists amongst the residency classes and the training environment is supportive.



Didactics/Education: Weekly didactics that consist of one full morning session and cover the programs longitudinal core curriculum



Trauma conference: Held Thursday mornings while on trauma service (conducted at a level 1 trauma center St John Hospital and Medical Center). Active and upcoming cases discussed with fellowship trained trauma faculty



Joints / sports conference: Held Thursday mornings while on joints/sports service. Active and upcoming cases discussed with fellowship trained joint and sports faculty



Anatomy Lab: Run by junior residents during the summer months. Goes over relevant MSK gross and surgical anatomy



Monthly orthopedic surgery educational conference (COGMET) held through the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Statewide Campus System



Bi-monthly journal club



Operative Experience: Excellent. Early operative involvement for interns. Senior residents given independence for cases. Seniors confident in OR and prioritize teaching juniors (residents extend this toward students)


Clinic Experience: Clinics are busy and several are located at the programs’s main teaching sites in SE Michigan through the Ascension system. They are usually led by fellowship trained attendings. Junior residents and students are involved early in clinical care



Research: Many attendings were trained at academic medical centers. This carries over to their current work and there are several opportunities available to join new or existing research projects.



Lifestyle: Call is split amongst the residency classes with senior backup. Call is tied to the service the resident is currently on.



Student Specific Experience: Strong. A valuable experience as a student with good operative / clinical exposure.

 

[DoYouEven?]

Program: Oklahoma State University - Center of Medical Sciences - Tulsa Oklahoma

Residents per Class: 2 per class (but word is they will move to 3 a year soon). The residents are perhaps the biggest pros of this program. The guys here are truly a family. They hangout together all the time, their SOs hangout all the time, and the sense of family because of this is very real. If you want to go to a tight knit program there isn't one I personally saw that is more tight knit. However, the caveat is that it seems they rank fit above all other categories here. It doesn't matter how good your app is, if you do not fit in well with the group you will get bumped by someone who does. The residents are all very surgically competent (more below under operative experience), and feel comfortable in the OR doing most things, especially trauma. One example of how cool this group is, every Wednesday at didactics they have the "Fantasy Football Rundown" where the 2nd year in charge of the fantasy football league gets up and commentates on the matchup and games and interjects their opinion on the moves and trades made that week in the league, never saw anything else like this on the trail.

Hospital: OSU-MC, St. Francis Medical Center, St. John Medical Center, Oklahoma Surgical Hospital. OSU-MC is the base hospital, but in reality very little of the surgeries happen there. The true "base hospital" is St. Francis medical center, a very large trauma hospital that covers trauma from the northern half of Oklahoma, eastern Arkansas, southern Kansas, and southwest Missouri. The trauma here is simply unmatched in comparison to other DO programs (more below in operative experience). You also do pediatrics, sports, and a little bit of joints here as well. St. John is the other trauma hospital, very good and broad trauma exposure as well. Oklahoma surgical hospital is a very large private practice surgical hospital in which you do joints, foot and ankle, and sports.

Also, the food at Francis, Johns, and OSH is the best food I had on any DO rotation. They give you 350$ a month at Johns and similar at Francis. OSH is catered food for the attendings everyday that students get to eat. Best food of any place I rotated hands down.

Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa is a great mid-sized town, with most things you could ever want to do besides major pro sports. Very cool restaurant / bar seen, low crime, super low cost of living, and nice people. Typical mid-sized midwestern town really.

Attendings:

Trauma: Trauma is ran by the ortho-trauma group in town and they are pretty universally the best attendings I came in contact with and also the most willing to let residents and students operate! They allowed me to do traction pinning, distal radius screws, perfect circles, and even got to use the RIA once. They let the residents do as much as they can, and coach them through the process until they need help or hit a snag. They are also present at every didactics pretty much and are very involved in resident education. The PD Dr. Norris is senior in the group, and he is shock trauma / unc trained. He is very passionate about education, and lets students get in on cases and participate. Dr. Norris is very well regarded in the trauma world, and as such one of the 5's matched into a Trauma fellowship with the local trauma group.

Pediatrics: They have 2 peds ortho attendings (peds is in house at OSU which is a HUGE plus), the peds attendings are at St. Francis and very cool dudes. One of them just joined, but he was previously with the Riverside program. They handle all your typical peds stuff, I saw a scoli and peds trauma when I was on rotating.

Sports: Sports attendings here are super cool, and give the residents graduated autonomy. They have 2 sports attendings who are your typical DO sports attendings (ie: general ortho) which is what you see at most DO programs. However, one of the newest attendings just finished at the James Andrews Clinic and is pure sports only. Multiple ACLs a week, peds ACLs, Laterjet etc. This was rare to see in a DO program because most of them don't have high volume sports guys, and their sports medicine surgeons are really just general ortho.

Foot and Ankle: 2 foot and ankle attendings, students don't work with these attendings typically so I can't comment on much besides that the residents LOVE this rotation because the surgeons let them be very involved and really care about education. This was noticed as both attendings are frequently at didactics and very engaged.

Joints: As of now 3 joints attendings. One of them is VERY particular and the residents don't do much. The others are much better about getting the residents involved. Joints attendings are not as good as the rest of the subspecialties at this program.

Upper Extremity/Hand: One attending, who is top 3 in the nation for number of total shoulders completed in a year. This guy is a wizard, and has CRAZY volume. Being in his OR is basically an ortho party, and is super enjoyable for students. Lower level residents don't do much with him (due to volume and speed) but upper levels get involved a lot more. One of the coolest attendings you will ever meet honestly.

Oncology: Oncology attending Dr. Maale is out of Dallas and is world renowned in the ortho oncology research, especially biofilms. He comes and gives a presentation every-other month or so, and residents have the opportunity to rotate with them if they want, but it isn't a set rotation that is required (similar to a lot of DO programs).

Spine: Students don't rotate on spine so I can't comment much, besides that the residents really like the attendings and that they get to be involved in the cases to a degree that it makes them want to do spine.

Didactics/Education:

Didactics are every morning with the residents that are not on Trauma service (typically orthobullets on M,T,THR), and main formal education with all residents on Wednesday and Friday. Pretty typical didactics sessions, I didn't really notice any DO programs that had differing level of didactics. The thing that stuck out the most to me was the number of attending participation. I typically didn't see much attending involvement at other DO programs.

Operative Experience:

You will complete more cases here than 95% of the programs out there. For sure. These guys operate LITERALLY all day, every day. The only time they really go to clinic is on peds and foot and ankle. They still meet their ACGME requirements of clinic hours. Other than that, it is OR all day every day from day 1 of intern year all the way until graduation. The interns in October were doing most bread and butter trauma cases by themselves. Pretty crazy stuff

The reason for this is they do FIFTEEN MONTHS of dedicated trauma which is NUTS. And whats crazier, is it is more actually 21 months of trauma because when they are on pediatrics at francis they do a ton of peds trauma, and when they get done with the peds day they go help the trauma service. On trauma they are very RARELY double scrubbed, and it is mostly 1 attending and 1 resident even as an intern. This program is really a trauma focused program, and as such they are studs in the OR. The upcoming trauma fellow is a chief this year, and I believe he will have his own room from day 1 of fellowship and will complete tabs and pelvis work, way higher than his pay grade. This place will set you up to handle any trauma you could ever see, without really having to do a trauma fellowship (obviously you would want to fellowship if you want to perfect pelvis/tab). At the meet and greet virtual session they had, they stated they are clearing 5,000 cases in their residency which is absolutely bonkers.

They are also very involved on Peds, Foot and ankle, Sports, and Spine.

I cannot overstate enough how important it is (especially if you have a family) that all rotations are IN HOUSE at OSU. It really would take a toll to leave for 3-6 months in the middle of a residency and it is so nice they don't have to do this.

On sports, they have to prove themselves before they get the scopes, but they have really good sports volume now that the Andrews clinic dude is there so they should all be studs at sports as well.

The only big operative con of this program at the moment is Joints. They have 1 attending that doesn't let them do a lot, but the other 2 do so its kind of like a 4/10 on joints if that makes sense. This is the only service that is not above average at this program.

Clinic Experience:

As said above, they don't do a lot of clinic. They do on foot and ankle and pediatrics, but other than that they complete the bare minimum for ACGME and then operate all day every day.

Research:

Research here is MUCH better than most DO programs. The medical school has students and teams ready to rock and roll and complete the grunt work, and the residents heavily benefit from this. Most residents get multiple publications per year. Dr. Norris is also very active in trauma research now, and they have several prospective studies and were working on starting a randomized trial.

They also have journal clubs where they will have educated group discussions about articles, and where and if they can make improvements in their current practices based on new literature.

Because this is a community-university program you still have a lot of involvement with the school and medical students, which I really liked because is felt more collegial.

Lifestyle:

These guys work HARD. But, they also play HARD. Most days as a 1 or 2 start at 4:30 am and are done around 6-7. Obviously there are some days that you are done at 2-3 and some where you don't get to sleep, but overall I didn't feel like it was excessive or that they got abused even in the slightest. Most have SOs and they get plenty of time with them and they all hangout as a big group after work. While I was there I had the pleasure of having my wife meet some of the SOs and residents and we had a great time. The group felt like a family.

Pros:
- Trauma! If you like trauma this is the place for you. Even if you just want to know how to handle trauma well, so that whenever you are an attending and have to take trauma call, you can handle it yourself
- Resident-Resident and Resident-Attending Camaraderie!
- Attendings that allow for group decision-making with residents. This is key, because it allows the resident to have input and teaches them how they need to start thinking.
- Tulsa is a great city to live in. The food and people are amazing. Big city with small town feel.
- Work hard, play hard mentality
- Food at the hospitals
- Research
- Collegial community-university dynamic
- No out rotations
- Highest operative volume I have personally seen

Cons:
- Joints
- Work hard (you will hate this if you are lazy)

Student Specific Experience: Excellent rotation as a student, I got very involved in the surgeries and felt like everyone really cared to get to know me! At other rotations residents sometimes wouldn't even talk to you or pretend that you aren't there. But here, the residents actually took me to where I needed to go and showed me where to go. This is huge. No other program had residents that actually cared to show/tell students where to go and how to get there, especially when there are multiple different hospitals, ORs, etc. I can't recommend this place enough.

If you want to match here, you really need to rotate. They do interview non-rotators, but seem to give preference to rotators according to the residents.

Overall: 10/10

 

[DoYouEven?]

Program: Wellspan, York, PA

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: York Hospital Level 1 trauma center, Apple Hill Surgical Center, Wellspan Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospital

Location: York, Pennsylvania. This location is very close to lots of bigger cities. 45 min to Baltimore, 2hr from Philadelphia and Washington DC, 3-4 hours from New York City and Pittsburg,

Attendings:

• Dr. D: amazing surgeon; trusts you with everything. 4th/5th years operate under guidance of the fellow. Upper level does the entire case while the fellow teaches and guides if needed. He has an amazing personality and cares about his residents. He will fight for them no matter what. Showed the programs deep comradery during journal club.
• Dr. Muccino: intimidating personality. Treats his residents like they’re colleagues. Allows 5th year and fellow to operate with full autonomy.
• Dr. Kaplan: Funny guy. Scrubs in and assists the fellow/5th year. He asks the fellow on their opinion of the next best step and why they would do that.
• Dr. Rashidi: Didn’t work with him much. Treated residents nice. Noticed me and would talk to me now and then.
• Dr. Kopinski: very nice surgeon, she is good at what she does. She is fun. Told me to create something out of cement my first day. Made a pretzel and loved it. Talked about pretzels the rest of the week. She reviewed my presentation and thought it was good. Gave helpful advice.
• Dr. Trevio: intimidating and hilarious, yet an amazing surgeon. Went to Mayo clinic for residency. Does some crazy surgical stuff. Allows you to operate. Treats residents well. Teaches them. Disregards students for the most part, will ask a couple questions, but that is all. First day you will introduce yourself and try to shake his hand, he will so “no I’m not going to shake your hand”
• Dr. Hall: hilarious! Teaches you a lot. Takes time during surgery to teach and even draw out concepts on the drapes. Allows you to do 99% of the procedure as a 5th year.

Residents: Didn't get to meet many of the interns as they were on off service rotations. 2nd year residents were really cool, probably my favorite class. 2nd years have the most amount of call and decreases each year. 3rd, 4th, and 5th years were nice. They would put together presentations for student education.

Didactics/Education: Morning didactics every day and 4hrs on Fridays

Operative Experience: It's a level 1 trauma center with in-house call. They have rooms for you to sleep in. Their hours were tough, they worked hard and gained tons of experience by doing so. Several of the attendings allow for graduated resident autonomy. Attendings are great they teach when possible. Residents would include me in the surgery by allowing for questions and/or asking questions. They also allowed me to get hands on in a few cases.

Clinic Experience: I experienced hand clinic and foot/ankle clinic. Residents would discuss the patient outside the door and then go in together to see the patient. They allowed for any questions you might have. Bring something to read while the resident is typing up the note.

Research: As far as I could tell you could do as much or as little research as you like. There were numerous poster presentations hung up throughout the Orthopedics department.

Lifestyle: As a student, the rotation was tough. Long hours. Residents encourage you to take as much call as you can. But don't take so many that you can't recall information if pimped. Hours for the residents were tough as well. But this can be viewed as a strength in my opinion, you want to have lots of experience in residency.

The program as a whole was pretty good. The hours were tough. Worked about 100hr/wk as a student. All the 2nd years looked very tired all the time because they were taking so much call, but they worked hard and gained tons of experience by doing so. Each subsequent year has less amount of call and as a 5th year they can do whichever procedures they want. This program will make an excellent trauma, hand, foot/ankle, spine surgeon. The resident lifestyle is poor, however you learn so much. Lots of ER consults/joint reductions/splinting. Residents are treated great by the hospital; food stipend and pay is very well. Events with Dr. D and attendings is like a family. Pimping wasn’t huge, but was still there to assess knowledge. The main thing they looked at was how much/hard you worked and how late you stayed.

Overall 9/10.

 

[DoYouEven?]

Program: UPMC Pinnacle, Harrisburg, PA

Residents per Class: 5

Hospital: UPMC Pinnacle Community Osteopathic Hospital, UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg downtown, UPMC Pinnacle West Shore

Location: Harrisburg, PA. 30 min from York, PA. This location is very close to lots of bigger cities. 45 min to Baltimore, 2hr from Philadelphia and Washington DC, 3-4 hours from New York City and Pittsburg,

Attendings:

• Dr. Lippe: treated his residents very well. Joked around with them. His impression on students was intended to threaten/scare them. Not welcoming. He wants a resident that will persevere even through his negativity. Allowed the resident to do almost all of the surgeries. He will call you by the wrong name on purpose and then ask you in interviews what he called you.
• Dr. Ackerman: amazing attending, pimped on sports medicine and 80s/90s music. Wanted to get to know you as a person. If you were able to hold conversation about different things, he wouldn’t pimp you as much on music. He allowed the residents to do most of the scopes. When I was scrubbed in he allowed me to use the mallet and screw in an anchor for rotator cuff repair.
• Dr. Dahl: great attending, allowed you to operate almost fully as a 2nd year. Was a good teacher. Very thorough and help teach tips and tricks. Wanted to get to know me as a person.
• Dr. DeLuca: great attending. Was very help and tried to teach and engage student.
• Dr. Grandrimo: Hilarious! Wanted to be in and out so let the 4th year resident do maybe 70% of the scopes
• Dr. King: pimped a little and allowed you to help in surgery. Don’t be too forward though bc he won’t let you touch his lights; particles fall. He didn’t allow the residents to do as much as the other attendings
• Dr. Kim: intimidating, notices the fine details (I used my left hand to release an instrument and noticed/commented on it). He doesn’t let residents do that much. He does most of the procedures himself. 5th year was scrubbed in and allowed her to only do a few things.

Residents: They definitely like to pimp. A lot of them seemed nice, they would teach as they went and were open to questions. I was only there for 2 weeks in person bc of COVID. And the other 2 weeks was a virtual rotation which consisted of just virtual didactics and an educational course they created with readings and videos.

Didactics/Education: Every morning. Mondays also had an afternoon session

Operative Experience: The residents seemed to get great experience in joints. 2nd years were doing approaches with some attendings and 4th year residents were doing 95% of cases with attendings. Residents seemed to know how to operate well by 5th year. They have sent residents to many top notch fellowships. A lot of the attendings come back to the program fellowship to teach.

Clinic Experience: Did not spend any time in clinic since I was only there for 2 weeks.

Research: Don't remember

Lifestyle: The resident lifestyle seemed pretty good. Call was home-call, and they didn't seem to get crazy amounts of calls. Only thing that concerns me is if there is enough trauma experience. But their bread and butter was joints and they did those surgeries well.

The program as a whole was nice. They are big into joints so it would be a great program if that is what you're interested in. 4 out of 5 5th years are going to Joints fellowships. Call is chill, nothing crazy. Resident-resident dynamic was pretty good. This program will make an excellent joints, sports, and hand surgeon. Education is huge, education every day and then 4hr once/wk. They like to pimp and ask questions. It was the students job to figure out where to go, what to do, etc.

Overall 7.5/10

 

[goneriding]

Program: Valley Consortium Orthopaedic Residency (Modesto)

Residents per class: 3

Hospital:
Doctors Medical Center: their primary site in Modesto, CA. DMC is a Level 2 trauma center that gets a fair share of high energy trauma. Saw more crazy orthopaedic pathology here than anywhere else.

San Joaquin General Hospital: Level 3 trauma in Stockton, CA (30 min from main site). SJGH is the county hospital for San Joaquin County, and is one of my favorites places in a sick and twisted kind of way. It’s a total dumpster fire, but the autonomy the residents get is outstanding. Unfortunately, students can’t go here during the audition rotation. There are so many cases here, that a good number go uncovered by a resident. If I remember correctly you will spend about 3 months per year here.

Kaiser Oakland: Oncology (shared with UCSF and St. Mary’s). You get a housing stipend provided for this rotation. Resident’s seem to really like this rotation and also work on research projects with some of the attendings there. Most got to get in on a number of hemipelvectomies from what I could gather, which many DO residents do not get a chance to do. You will also take trauma call here.

Valley Children’s: Peds (6 months total during PGY3 in two 3 month blocks). This rotation is awesome from everything that I have heard. Very, very busy call here. It's a shared site with UCSF Fresno. There will be a PGY2 and PGY4 from UCSF Fresno there with you to share call responsibilities.

Side note on UCSF Fresno: 8ish (forget exact number) DO’s auditioned at Fresno this year and they also interviewed a few other strong DO candidates that I knew who did not rotate. None of us matched, and I think most of us ranked them very highly. Although, some of these students were successful at getting other MD spots. It was my favorite Ortho Sub-I by far, but I wouldn’t rotate here again, as it is more high yield to go to another DO program for a month. I’m just not sure that they have an appetite for a DO resident at this time. They also had a separate interview day for all the DO rotator’s as a ‘warm up’ for their real interview which I thought was a bit of a slap in the face.

Location:
Modesto straight up sucks. But, it is 1.5 hours to everything (skiing, summer lakes, awesome climbing, SF, etc).

Attendings:
Trauma— The residents own the trauma cases here. Every attending will take trauma call and do the case if it is their day unless it is a pelvis or TAB. Of the DO programs I rotated at, no program had more high energy trauma than DMC. PGY2’s do a lot of the trauma cases here with PGY 4/5’s mentoring them through the cases +/- an attending in the room. No trauma fellow so you get to do the pelvis/TAB cases with the new PD.

Joints: Saw PGY2’s skin to skin TKA’s and THA’s with minimal coaching. Very impressive. Honestly, the PGY2’s were better than many PGY4s I saw at other programs. That’s really saying something. Primarily do posterior hips here. Weak anterior hip experience unless something has changed.

Sports: Did a week of sports here. I was impressed with the autonomy the attending’s gave the residents on sports cases, and the residents' overall arthroscopic skill set. There are multiple fellowship trained sports attendings at this program, which is something many DO programs lack.

Spine: Didn’t get to see, but heard good things and have no reason not to believe it.

Hand: The previous PD is hand trained, and there are 2 other hand surgeons that you will work with (1 ortho and 1 general surgeon who is hand fellowship trained). You run the previous PD’s clinic, and do all his cases for 2 months in PGY2 and again in PGY4. I didn’t see this level of autonomy anywhere else on hand cases. You will be held you to a very high standard, and this is quite a stressful rotation. When you are a student on this service you better know Pocket Pimped forearm/hand stuff in and out, and be overly prepared for cases.

Foot and Ankle: There are 2 F&A trained attendings. Only did 1 call case with each of them. Residents did both cases. 1 of them was a particularly nice guy.

Residents:
This was my favorite group of residents on the trail. Incredibly smart, humble and have each other’s backs. Of the DO programs I went to, these residents in each year of training were the most impressive. They also seemed interested in getting to know all of the rotators and making sure that each of us had a good experience.

There is a research fellow each year. Some research fellows have matched into the residency in the past.

Didactics:
Best of the DO programs I rotated at. Resident run lectures daily. However, you have to make these lectures yourself, so it is a bit of a time sink. There is also a journal club every Friday. These guys know their literature.

Operative experience:
Unparalleled and early. You work hard, but the experience you get is provided by few DO Ortho programs in the country. If you want to operate early and often, and be prepared to be a general orthopedic surgeon without doing a fellowship-- this is a program that should be near the top of your list. One unique aspect of this program is that you get 2 elective months during your 4th year to go “audition” for a fellowship spot. I think that is the main reason this program’s fellowship matches have been so impressive.

Research experience:
An area of improvement. They used one morning didactic session a month to discuss what research projects are ongoing, and what work they need to get each project published. Seemed like they were working hard to establish a research pipeline.

Lifestyle:
Definitely not easy. I’ll leave it at that. Call at DMC is home call, and the call burden runs into your senior years. As a student you just text the resident who is on call on your day, and they will call you if they want you to come in. I only had to come in once the entire month, as most of the residents will only call you for something interesting and let you sleep.

Student Specific Experience:
This was my top DO program and I hoped to match here. These residents are smart, humble, and love to teach and involve medical students. After seeing the operative experience these residents got, every other DO program I went to was a bit of a let down in comparison. If you can handle the location, this is a very special place.

Of note, the original PD was replaced by a MD this year, and they matched a MD this year. Not sure if Modesto will now become more of a MD program in the future, but it is something to consider when choosing places to rotate. They also interviewed and strongly considered non-rotators. In the past, they were big on board scores (650+ COMLEX), but what was true in the past may now be different with the new PD.

 

[goneriding]

Program: UPMC Pinnacle

Residents per class: 5

Hospital:
During PGY 1-2, residents rotate through Community General (CG), Harrisburg Hospital (Downtown), West Shore Hospital, and also at Penn State for 2 months during intern year (for Plastics and MSK Radiology). All of these hospitals are within 15-20 minutes of CG, which is the home base. During PGY3, residents spend time at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburg, and during PGY4 UPMC Presbyterian for trauma in addition to the 3 main hospitals. Overall, you will spend about 9 months of residency in Pittsburg. CG is the primary site where most of the residents are based out of at any given time, followed by Harrisburg and then West Shore. Harrisburg is the busiest of the main sites.

Location:
Harrisburg, PA and Pittsburg. They used to go to Atlanta for Peds, but that is being phased out due to ACGME out rotation requirements.

Attendings:
From the student perspective, the attendings were a mixed bag.

• Adult Recon: Almost every attending here prides themselves on being a generalist, and will do hip, knee and shoulder arthroplasty. Some will even do spine cases. You’ll get good experience with the Rosa robot at CG and the Mako robot Downtown. The PGY5’s are doing joint cases basically every day. Autonomy was a mixed bag, with some attendings letting the PGY5 do most of each case early in their chief year, and sometimes the PGY5 just doing parts of the case while the 3 held retractors. 4 out of 5 PGY5’s are going into joints this year.
• Spine: Probably the second strongest aspect of this program. Previous chiefs have matched Spine at Duke and there is definitely a reason why. You will work with both fellowship trained ortho spine, non-fellowship trained ortho spine, and neurosurgeons on spine cases here. Autonomy was a mixed bag from what I saw.
• Trauma: This is not a program that has much trauma. They get community trauma-- mostly elderly patients presenting with a fall from standing. High energy trauma is not a thing here. Ankle, distal radius and hip fractures are the most common cases. Every trauma case I saw with the exception of 1 hip CRPP was done by a PGY5. The PGY2’s got to share a clavicle during my time there, but they mentioned that “the stars aligned”.
• Hand/UE: I think most of the residents get their 1st experience doing entire cases with Dr. Mauer as a PGY3. I would say this is a strong aspect of the program. He is a very humble guy and a great teacher. I really enjoyed being in his OR.
• Sports: The PD is sports trained, and there are a few other sports trained docs. Resident autonomy was a mixed bag on these cases, and seemed to depend on how many cases the attending needed to get through that day.

Residents:
The PGY1’s and PGY2’s are complete all-stars and are among the smartest and most passionate residents that I met on rotations. But, I got the sense that the juniors were not the most fond of the seniors. These guys are definitely colleagues first and friends second. At other programs, I frequently saw the upper levels taking the 1’s, 2’s and 3’s through cases—that is not a thing here.

Didactics/Education:
Strong. The program likes to brag about how well their residents do on OITE’s. There is a daily 1 hour resident led lecture every morning. There is also another lecture Monday afternoon at 4pm, followed by journal club 1x/month, and then a medical student lecture given by the interns.

Operative experience:

• PGY1: Minimal.
• PGY2: Some knee scopes (just the diagnostic part), and some attendings downtown will let you start the approach on a TKA, make the femoral cuts in a TKA (but not the tibia), and ream the acetabulum in THA’s. I was unimpressed in their operative skill compared to other programs. Most of the trauma is done by the PGY 4’s and 5’s, as they did not get to do the trauma cases when they were junior residents.
• PGY3: Felt bad for the 3’s. Some attendings would give the 3 more autonomy than others. You will be in the OR, but mostly holding retractors. The exception being with Dr. Mauer, who will let you do some cases skin to skin. On one occasion, a PGY3 stayed late to do their 1st hip CRPP and ended up watching the Chief do it, as the attending was ‘having a bad day’. One of the 5’s made an offhand comment to me that PGY2-3 can be frustrating years here.
• PGY4: Hard to say, as most 4’s are at Pittsburg. I think PGY4 is a catch up year as far as operative skills go, mostly done at Pittsburg.
• PGY5: I saw the chiefs operate early in the year. They were doing most of everything, with some attendings giving them more autonomy than others. Chief year, you take whatever cases that you want, and by the end, I think the residents come out strong. You definitely earn the autonomy you get as a PGY 5 during the 1st four years of residency. Operative experience at this program is back loaded, but strong in the end. These guys crush joint cases.

Clinic Experience:
Residents go to clinic with attendings when they are on a specific service, but otherwise there is a resident clinic a half day, 2-3/days per week that you will go to as a student. Each resident would see 1-3 patients and present them to the PGY5, who serves as the clinic chief. Med students just shadow here for the most part and maybe do a joint injection. There was a PGY2 EM resident on an ortho rotation when I was there, and they made that person shadow in ortho resident in clinic. Felt bad for the guy.

Research:
This is an area of improvement for the program. PGY5’s help the 1’s with a project in a mentorship style model, and then are supposed to do their own project each year following intern year. Dr. Kelly is the research director for the program. The program is trying to integrate 60 days of stand-alone research into the rotation schedule.

Lifestyle:
As a PGY 1-2, lifestyle sucks. The hours are long, but it also seems like there is a lot of sitting around waiting for things to happen. Call is home call, and it seems like there were a lot of spine consults. There is a night float system in place. PGY3, lifestyle gets better, with many weekends off when at CG. PGY 4 and 5 seemed excellent for an ortho residency, but these are also your primary operative years. So, if you want to get your OR time in, you need to work hard these years.

Pros:
Best joints experience of any DO program (maybe Rowan can compare?), very good spine training, no fellows around that will poach your cases, excellent didactics, excellent fellowship placement

Cons:
Lack of high energy trauma, hierarchal culture, and very late operative experience. I would find the first three years of residency to be frustrating here. One of the seniors missed the birth of his kid when he was a junior level resident to see a consult. I’m all for working hard, but not that. There is also some talk of Harrisburg Hospital starting its own Ortho residency, which would be very bad for this program (not sure how true that is). Penn State is opening an affiliate hospital right near West Shore Hospital, which may decrease the case load at West Shore.

Student Specific Experience:
This is a very polarizing rotation. Some students love this place, and some do not. On my 4th year Sub-I, I spent at least 1 day a week sitting in the library doing nothing. On other days, I would just have 1 case and that was it, so I’d still be sitting in the library all day for the most part. Other students had completely different experiences, and were in cases all day, every day for the entire month. It seemed to me that they pre-screened for students that they were most interested in for cases and attending time. Probably saw 15 or so students come and go during my 4 weeks here. Most other programs I went to had 6ish students per month.

There was no pre-rounding, but students still show up in the library very early. Never had to see any patients in clinic independently, see a consult independently or write any notes. There was a lot of pimping at education, which I think can prepare you for your subsequent Ortho Sub-I’s, and also makes this a good rotation to do in the Fall of your 3rd year if your school will let you to start to build your ortho knowledge.

I personally wouldn’t rotate here without a strong 3rd year rotation at the program, or some form of relationship with the program through mentors. If you don’t have those things, and you still want to rotate, I would come during October or November, as there are less students and you will get more face time and be more memorable. They did not end up interviewing a lot of students that I thought were darn good ortho candidates, and I think overall this is a low yield rotation due to the number of students that rotate. Pretty sure this review is going to trigger someone, but that is my honest take.

 

[goneriding]

Program: York
Residents per Class: 3
Hospital:
-Wellspan York Hospital: Large Level 1 trauma center. Older facilities. Use Stryker. On site gym to lift in between cases! Call rooms provided for you as a student. Not the best cafeteria in the world, but it is cheap food. In house General Surgery, EM, FM, IM, and OBGYN residency programs.

-Wellspan Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospital Surgery Center: Brand new facility with capability to have patients stay the night. This is where the elective (non-trauma) cases are done. Slightly better food.

-Oncology: out rotation in Baltimore

-Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (6 months total): residents used to go here for a month during PGY1, but the ACGME ended that. They are trying to start this rotation as interns back up again as they get a good amount of pediatric trauma at York, and it’s good to know how to handle it as a PGY2. A lot of the resident lead research projects are started up here it seems.

-Also, you will do an Ortho boot camp rotation as an intern with the other Mid-Atlantic ortho residency programs for a month during summer of intern year.

Attendings:
-Dr. D: The DO ortho trauma legend. I set up this rotation after hearing attending’s at other programs reminisce on their days training with Tommy D. Quite frankly, D is the man. Residents are part of his family, and I have not seen a PD that has his resident’s back like him. Even as a medical student, he will go to bat for you, if needed. I think every medical student that rotates gets his phone number, and that really tells you the type of person he is. He’s a huge advocate for DO’s and I would be very proud to train underneath him.

-Rashi: Trauma. Graduate of the program who went on to do a trauma fellowship at SLU and then came back as faculty. I expect he will be the future program director when Dr. D retires. Into research, and Hurt radio on Pandora. Knows his literature inside and out.

-Kopinski: Joints. One of my favorite attendings across all rotations. Just an awesome person.

-Hall: Foot and Ankle God. Got me very stoked on F&A. The program is very lucky to have him. Did quite a few calc fractures during my time there, and even saw an ankle replacement, which I hadn’t seen anywhere else.

-Kap: Trauma. Think the residents are scared of him. Can be a bit intense but I think he is a great teacher overall.

-Laurel: If there is an award for best program coordinator—she deserves it.

Residents: I thought they were a good group and functioned as a family. These guys and gals work harder than any other program I went to and hold each other accountable. Being a team player here is extremely important. The seniors work hard to mentor the junior level residents to make sure everything is done right (in comparison to other programs where the juniors are just left to figure it out). Senior residents also found time to do didactics just for the medical students and get us in the sim lab to practice arthroscopy. I felt that they really cared about educating medical students.

Didactics/Education: Mix of resident and attending led didactics every morning. Journal club got fairly heated which I thought was epic.

Operative Experience: Spent 2 weeks on trauma, 1 week on F&A, and 1 week on joints during my rotation.

The trauma service generally had 2 rooms going, but there were a few slow days. Usually the trauma fellow would be in one room, and the PGY3 and 5 in the other. They were good about letting the PGY3 do the cases that were at their level. The PGY2 was usually doing floor stuff/ED consults. The residents would frequently bounce from room to room. I thought it was a great dynamic, where they were all stoked on the cases going on and trying to learn as much as they could from each case. There was a good amount of double scrubbing on some of these cases. That said, as a medical student, I got to do the majority of a cephalomedullary nail with the fellow and pgy5 in the room, which was a pretty darn cool as this would never happen at the majority of programs I went to.

F&A was one PGY4 resident with the attending. The attending gave the resident a good amount of autonomy I thought.

Joints was also one PGY3 resident with the attending. The resident got to do a good number of knees and hips while I was there, even with peak COVID. I think they are trying to hire a second joints attending as well to improve the joints experience.

Clinic Experience: Clinic as a medical student was just shadowing either the resident or attending as they saw their patients. The resident would see patients, present them to the attending and then go back in with the attending. Both residents and attendings took the time to teach me throughout the day. Facilities were great. EMR is EPIC.

Research: I don’t remember the specifics, but I do believe a project is required. I’m not sure how strictly that is enforced. Most resident research seemed to get it’s start during their pediatrics out rotation.

Lifestyle: As a student, this is a 100 hour per week rotation. You will take 6 or so call shifts throughout the month, you may or may not get to sleep, and then you will go straight into your next day. I usually got sent home by noon-2pm when I was post call. This was a valuable experience, and I think doing these call shifts gave me a true understanding of what it would be like to be a resident here. I think I grew more on this rotation than any other in medical school and I would highly recommend students going into Ortho to do a rotation like this. After doing a month like this, you will know if you really want to do Ortho or not.

As a resident, call as a PGY2 and PGY3 is brutal. York is a Level 1, and they get no shortage of trauma at all times of day and night. The culture here is that they operate thru the night more often than not so that the OR does not get back logged the next day. So, if a hip fracture comes in at 9pm, chances are you will be doing it at 1-2am rather than the next morning. We started cases around 3am multiple times. This was the only program I saw this at, as most attendings preferred to just do a case the next day, unless it was a true emergency. I would say, if you’re the type of person who will be strictly counting your work hours, this program may not be a good fit for you.

Pros: Level 1 trauma, F&A, oncology experience in Baltimore, Tomy D and A++ program coordinator, supportive environment, will be ready for anything after doing residency here, great fellowship matches

Cons: Trauma and hand fellow do take some cases from upper level residents, brutal lifestyle, could use another joints attending, but the attending they have is A++.

Student Specific Experience: I loved this program, and part of me wishes I would have gone here. You choose York because you want the hardest experience that you can get, and to be surrounded by co-residents and attendings who are truly passionate about Ortho. Coming out of this program, you will be well prepared to do whatever you want to do in Ortho, whether that’s general, trauma, joints, sports, spine or oncology. It will be hard without any doubt. But, this residency functions as a family, from Dr. D to Laurel (the program coordinator), and they truly do take care of their residents and even medical students. They had the best Zoom interview of the DO programs, was the only DO program that sent an interview gift box that I know of, and all around just went the extra mile. I just wish it were closer to my family.

 

[bj2016]

Program: UPMC Pinnacle

Residents per class: 5

Hospital:
Community General (CG)- small, older hospital but the OR is insanely busy. Main hospital with lots of attendings. Staff was very hit or miss, some scrub techs treat you like a real person and some think you're only there to test the scrub tech on maintain sterile field
Harrisburg Hospital (Downtown)- bigger hospital where joints and spine rule, some community trauma, busiest hospital in Harrisburg
West Shore Hospital- small hospital, get good OR experience for the size of the hospital
All of these hospitals are within 15-20 minutes of CG, which is the home base. During PGY3, residents spend time at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburg, and during PGY4 UPMC Presbyterian for trauma in addition to the 3 main hospitals. Overall, you will spend about 9 months of residency in Pittsburg

Location:
Harrisburg, PA and Pittsburg. They used to go to Atlanta for Peds, but that is being phased out due to ACGME out rotation requirements.

Attendings:
From the student perspective, the attendings were a mixed bag. Seem like more pure "generalists" than most programs where the older attendings will take on anything that comes through the door (especially Dr. Lippe)

Joints: seems like every attending in the town does joints to some capacity. The joint specialists are really good and do like 5-6 a day. Great experience with robot but seems like you wont be doing much a joint case until you're 4-5 (seen younger residents do more at other places). But the 5s do seem very competent at joints so they make up for lack of early autonomy with pure volume. This subspecialty is the strongest of the program. Dr. Hallock was a big joint guy at HH but he's getting old and cant imagine he's there 5 years from now. Dr. King is the main hip guy at CG, very busy but very particular and didnt let the 5 go skin to skin. He may later in the 5th year. Dr. Kim is a recent graduate and does a lot of cases and robots. Didn't let the 4 do very much (too be expected as a younger attending) but liked to teach and was pleasant to work with.
Spine: Another strength of the program. Only saw 2 spine cases was a student (and this was too many cuz you dont do anything and cant see anything). Seem to match a spine fellowship every year or every other.
Sports: Heard this was another strength of the program from residents but personally didnt work with any of the sports attendings. Ackerman (PD) is sports trained. Heard they have decent sports connections.
Trauma: if you want trauma this is not the best program for you. They get community trauma at CG and Harrisburg but wouldn't call it high volume. Their Level 1 trauma is in Pittsburg, which I heard is really great experience but its only ~6 months or so. You'll learn what you need to take call but if you wanted to feel comfortable with a pelvis/tab going into a trauma fellowship or practice, this isn't the best program for you
Hand/UE: Only had 3 days. Seemed like a good experience. Dr. Mauer is a great attending and let the PGY4 do most of the cases throughout the whole day. Saw a TSA with Dr Kelly (the freaking man) where the PGY5 did 90% of the case so he was obviously confident with that.

Residents:
Seem like a good group. Seniors care a lot about intern and junior progression. They took pride in teaching. PIMP HEAVY as a med student and intern. Great didactics, brag about their OITEs. They said they like to have fun on the weekends with each other, this wasnt possible to see cuz of COVID. But didnt see an outlier resident that everyone hated.

Operative experience:
Overall, very strong op experience. They go to clinic the minimum amount and the 4s and 5s live in the OR. Interns don't know how to spell OR. 2s get into the OR but I personally didnt see them do anything. 3s was very hit or miss, if a 5 was in the case then the 3 was a retractor. Heard 3s get autonomy if they're not double scrubbed and attending dependent. 5s seemed very comfortable in the OR so this delayed autonomy is obviously made up by pure volume. If you go here, you will feel comfortable doing a scope and a joint on your own after graduation, without a doubt. Will probably feel comfortable taking call at any Level 2 or 3, Level 1 call without a trauma fellowship may be a little cautious

Clinic Experience:
Didn't do any clinic as a rotator (2 weeks rotation, COVID). Heard for the most part 5s go to clinic maybe 1 full day a week. (OR heavy program). A recent graduate said he felt great in the OR upon graduation and did 1000 joints during his 5th year (he sought out every joint cuz this was his fellowship aspiration) but during his fellowship his main learning curve was clinic and how to select the right patient for surgery.

Research:
This is an area of improvement for the program. PGY5’s help the 1’s with a project in a mentorship style model, and then are supposed to do their own project each year following intern year. Dr. Kelly is the research director for the program. The program is trying to integrate 60 days of stand-alone research into the rotation schedule. (copying from another reviewer cuz I have nothing new to add)

Lifestyle:
As a PGY 1-2, lifestyle sucks. The hours are long, but it also seems like there is a lot of sitting around waiting for things to happen. Seemed like one of the rougher intern years. 3s seemed to be kusher. 4s and 5s can opt to have a significantly better lifestyle when in Harrisburg but these are the prime operative years since autonomy is very limited as a 3. Plenty of opportunity to crush cases during the later years but that obviously sacrifices free time. They do seemed to get paid very well compared to other residencies and the area is not expensive.

Pros:
JOINTS, spine, sports (so I hear, didn't have the opportunity to witness). Residents are close knit and run the program from education. Don't see anyone in the country (MD included) having a better joints experience. Routinely match spine and sports. Hand is probably next common.

Cons:
Lack of high energy trauma, extremely hierarchal culture which leads to significantly delayed operative experience. The 5s are still confident and capable but not a balanced experience throughout your years. Personally would rather operate some throughout years 2-5 than not get good autonomy as a 2 and 3 and then make up for it as a 4 and 5 through sheer volume. I would find the first three years of residency to be frustrating here.

Student Specific Experience:
COVID really changed this experience. 2 weeks virtual including being present for sign out and conferences, and had 1 or 2 video sessions in the afternoon with some residents but this was unimpressive. Will say they provided a document with links to HSS videos and Orthobullets readings that defintely helped me focus my ortho studying during these two weeks. The document took a lot of time and was very helpful. Covid sucked and they did the best they could but not much interaction here (probs cuz they are always in the OR after 7:30am).
2 weeks in person, operative only. This was great for OR experience, saw a lot of cases. Didn't have to sit in the library but maybe 2 afternoons (other students had different experiences). Didn't connect with some of the attendings as much as I would have liked cuz I only did one day with each. Students get pimped to no end during didactics and sometimes in cases (depends on personnel). Great learning experience. Would be fantastic as a third year if possible, or the first rotation of your fourth year.
They bring in a lot of students but they also have 5 spots. Felt like the numbers are comparable to Doctors. You're competing with a lot of good candidates and they didnt invite everyone back for interview but if your strong on paper and interact well on your rotation, you stand a fair chance. I wasnt told I was RTM with the f/u call that occurred but not butthurt about it as I had other programs higher on my list.

 

[bj2016]

Program: Jack Hughston

Residents per class: 3

Hospital:
Jack Hughston Memorial (Phenix City, AL): Mostly orthopedic hospital. Small hospital but carries a good volume. Most of the attendings (but not all) who operate here work with the residents. Very nice, newly built hospital. Private chef on the campus that prepares breakfast and lunch for the physicians (residents and students also get to take advantage). Technically their main hospital (which is why the program is listed as AL) but only 10 mins from Piedmont (where they do conferences, trauma/resident clinic, and where the PD's office is located).

Jack Hughston Surgical Center: Smaller surgical center attached to outpatient offices. Only 4-5 OR rooms but always running and always loaded for the day. Nice addition of cases for the residents and good learning tool for those going into private practice about surgery centers and efficiency.

Piedmont Medical Center: Level 2 trauma center in Columbus, GA. Decent size hospital but volume can fluctuate. Sometimes can be very busy. This is where they do most of the community trauma when in Columbus. They also get decent peds exposure here. Anything that comes through the door, gets handled here. They hardly ship anything out to Atlanta. Food also provided here for residents and students M-F with some snacks for the weekenders.

They also rotate A LOT in Atlanta. About half of the first three years are spent in Atlanta where they complete some of the intern rotations (gen surg, plastics) as well as get their Level 1 trauma, peds, onc, and maybe spine. They take call at Grady and work with some big names in Atlanta so this is a great supplement to the experience.

Location:
Columbus GA, Phenix City AL (main site), Atlanta GA. Phenix City and Columbus are only 10 mins apart, Atlanta is 1-1.5 hours from Columbus. They put you up in housing for those months. Tbh Columbus GA kinda sucks. Small town, army base nearby but also very ghetto. Not a lot of companies supplying lots of jobs. Not a whole lot of fun things to do. I think the prevalence of how many GSW injuries we took care of on call described the area well... Definitely don't recommend it for anyone who's been in an urban environment their whole life, you will probably struggle here for 5 years.

Attendings:

Joints: Didn't get to work with the main joints guy for the residents (Dr. Ruark) but he seems like a great guy to work with, very busy clinic and OR. From what I heard through another student, he let a PGY3 do a lot of a TKA and there was confidence on both ends. Heard they get a good joints experience with him and the other attendings in town, just didn't personally see. Not the most joints heavy program but you could confidently handle primaries upon graduation.
Spine: Didn't see any spine but I believe some of this experience has migrated to Atlanta. They use to rotate at MCG but this was cut out with the merger (so they only have to rotate at home and Atlanta). One of the C/O 21 residents is doing a spine fellowship (possibly Emory) so if you want to do spine, not a hinderance here.
Sports: This is a strength of the program (Jack Hughston was one of the founders of Ortho SM, Dr. Andrews was in business with him long ago). They have numerous sports attendings who are solid. They have research available. Pretty sure they have a sports fellowship but never interacted with the fellow who was there.
Trauma: For a DO program, this place is sneaky. The two trauma guys at Piedmont (Dr. Harris PD, and Dr. Floyd) are very gungho. If anything comes through the door (pelvis and tab especially), they will not ship it out ever. They provide a better than expected trauma experience for a Level 2 center. They also take a trauma fellow every year (not that good of a trauma experience, think the fellow kinda gets screwed compared to most places). The residents get graduated autonomy. The interns get into the OR if they don't have a ED consult going on. Saw the attending walk the fellow through a percutaneous anterior column screw, posterior column screw, and SI screw (on his first week) which was cool. They are very picky in their own way, especially Dr. Floyd who maybe lets the residents do less. Dr. Floyd also was gen surg resident for 4 years before ortho so he loves to pimp residents on anything surgical related, not necessarily ortho related. Their major trauma volume comes in Atlanta with Grady (one of the best trauma experiences in the country). They take call at Grady so if you can handle a call night there, you can handle it anywhere.
Hand/UE: Dr. Rehak is the main hand guy. Pretty busy but not the most busy I've seen, usually ~10-12 cases a day, 70-80 patients in clinic. Lets the residents do some when they prove themself but he wants to be as efficient as possible so some times he gets frustrated with a slow pace case. Dr. Fernicola is the shoulder guy. He takes on all shoulder stuff, fractures, replacements, scopes. He is really awesome and will let the residents prove themselves early. Willing to let a resident do as much as they can until they struggle (didn't scrub into a diagnostic knee scope with a PGY3). Shoulder arthroplasty expert, really impressed with his ability.
Foot and Ankle: Have two F&A guys that I saw, seem to be really great guys, younger side. Letting residents operate was a little hit or miss. Dr. Watson seems to be the better attending to work with as a resident, very inclusive. Didn't even scrub for a PGY4 doing an achilles repair; but on the same day did a total ankle almost completely by himself (think the pt was a VIP so this makes sense). You would get good exposure here.

Residents:
Great group of residents with just one exception. They seem close knit, would hangout without COVID. They like to have fun and joke with each other at journal club/ cadaver lab. Seniors try to get juniors involved as much as possible on trauma.

Operative experience:
Overall, pretty strong op experience but perhaps not the best I saw. One of the PGY5s was probably the best resident I saw anywhere and one of the PGY4s was one of the best fourth years I saw anywhere. You get very early exposure to the OR and they let you grow right from the beginning. Intern did a perc femoral neck with the PD during his second month of residency if that tells you how early. Most attendings across the board let you go till you struggle and then it becomes attending dependent if they let you struggle through or takeover.

Clinic Experience:
They get clinic experience on their rotations. They're pretty much with one surgeon for a rotation so their schedule becomes the resident schedule. Helps get you ready for private practice.

Research:
This is a decent area for the program and still probably improving. Most of the residents had projects going on but wouldn't call it a research powerhouse by any means. They clearly publish enough for the residents to match into what they want. They're PGY5s are going into spine, and trauma X2 I think. PGY4s were applying F&A, peds, and Hand/UE.

Didactics:
Thought their didactics was pretty weak. Resident given lectures and some of them didn't care about regurgitating orthobullets with no additions. The PD bragged about their first place finish in a pathology competition a year or two ago. But I would be curious how they perform on OITE and what their board pass rate is (new program so very small sample size).

Lifestyle:
Lifestyle is one of the best I saw. They have night float with home call (Level 2, some nights can be busy, some nights you go in once or twice). Interns rotate call on Saturday. Very privademic feel so when the attending's day is done (usually by 5), you're done. Felt like a normal work day rather than getting crushed M-F. However, the town isn't the greatest so dont think you'll have a ton of fun things to do in that free time.

Pros:
Felt like this was one of the more balanced programs I went to. The resident fellowship interest shows how balanced they are and able to put you into whatever you want. The name probably helps mostly for Sports but they can get you into anything. Also the people are great. Not just residents and attendings but the OR staff. Some of the scrub techs were the nicest I encountered. I didn't even have to write my name on the board at the Jack hospital by the end of the rotation cuz they took the time to learn about me. The PD definitely cares about the residents and will go to bat for them when someone in the hospital wants to give them a hard time.

Cons:
Logistically its a nightmare for a family. You spend so much time in Atlanta during the first three years. This was the reason it fell down my rank list, because my SO wouldn't be able to find a job in her field in Columbus so she'd have to work in Atl. But then we'd only live together for half the first three years and for years 4-5, I have no idea what we would have done. Also, Columbus isn't exactly the place I'd want to spend a golden weekend, but Atlanta is only 1-1.5 hours away. Also thought the didactics were pretty weak. Also thought the morning sign out was annoying with how political and judgmental it was... Every patient had to have a story and discussion and their lifestyle was often talked about more than their injury. The PD loved to openly talk about his politics (he had Trump as his phone wallpaper) which was at times obnoxious when it slowed down the morning report.

Student Specific Experience:
Covid changed some things but wasn't hugely affected. Went to sign out at 5:45-6am everyday with the 2 trauma attendings. A short lecture was thrown in there, resident driven but not always the most helpful. Each week you're with a different attending or on trauma. So you go to clinic or OR based on the attendings schedule. Pretty good experience across the fields. The students make the call schedule but make sure a student is on every night (can suck when there's only 2-3 of you). You go to journal club/cadaver lab whenever they have them. Expected to read the article but not necessarily participate. Students required to go to fracture/resident clinic on Thurs afternoon, followed by student fracture conference. Not a high stress situation as a PGY2 and intern go through some fracture cases, read the XR, whats the classification. One of the lesser pimped rotations I had in general. Overall a very balanced experience.

 

[bj2016]

Program: McLaren-Greater Lansing
Residents per class: 3-4 (they only train 18 residents so see how many they're graduating for how many they're taking)

Hospital:
McLaren: Smaller Level 2 hospital where a lot of ortho takes place. This is considered their main campus.
McLaren orthopedic hospital: Small, old ortho hospital. Pretty much functions as a surgery center with the ability to admit patients for short stays (joint patients). Very efficient OR. Resident lounge/conference room is here.
New hospital being built to replace McLaren so eventually they'll only cover two hospitals total.
Sparrow Hospital: Level 1 academic hospital. Big hospital, many residency programs. Many ortho surgeries go on here and this allows residents to take Level 1 trauma call.

Also rotate in Cincinnati for peds and somewhere (cleveland maybe?) for onc. During PGY4 year I believe.

Location:
Lansing is the capital of Michigan. East Lansing is the home to Michigan State. Thought it was a little underwhelming given these two things but there are things to do and quality of life is decent. East Lansing is more expensive (especially on their resident salary, yikes) but very nice and theres a nice strip on the edge of the campus with shops and restaurants. There are some things to do around Lansing within 1-2 hours. Pretty sure Detroit is also less than 2 hours.

Attendings:
Joints: They have a couple of very high volume joint guys. Not sure how much residents get to do. One of the PGY5s seemed to struggle a bit with a THA but he's going into hand so probably didn't care. Dr. Cochran is a great attending, probably lets the residents do more. He's super nice and very high volume (pretty sure we did 7 hips and done before 4). Dr. Taunt is also very high volume but I didn't vibe as much personality wise (seemed kinda arrogant to me and that joints was the only subspecialty worth doing in ortho. Scrub tech even called him out for this convo while I was there). Dr. Mesko is a younger joints guy. Will let residents to bread and butter cases but not much in his revisions. He's super cool to hangout with though, great guy.
Spine: Didn't see any spine so can't comment much. I think they get enough for boards but doesn't seem like a sub specialty of interest.
Sports: This is a strength of the program. They take care of the MSU athletes. They have great volume from what I hear (COVID in Michigan crushed the sports guys so I didnt see anything). But from what I heard from the residents, this may be one of if not the highest volume rotation. Dr. Dietzel (PD) is SM trained. Very quiet guy, didn't talk to me much (which makes you feel like crap as a rotator) but I heard that's just his personality, not super outgoing. Dr. Noud is sports trained but only does shoulders. He's a great guy, defintely vibed well with him. Very busy practice because scopes and shoulder arthroplasty. Dr. Heisey is a shoulder surgeon, don't believe she's sports trained. She is decent volume shoulder stuff and loves shoulder recon. She let a PGY2 do the deltopectoral approach but not sure if he got to ream or place components. From what I hear, she's really cool, slightly badass.
Trauma: Upper quartile for DO program when it comes to trauma and they dont have to go elsewhere. Sparrow is their Level 1 but they take call at Sparrow and McLaren to help their numbers. Didnt see any pelvis or tabs but I know they get them and get to do them. Dr. Tucker is their trauma guy and he is dope. Really cool, younger attending. Loves to teach and has a great vibe in the OR. He let a PGY5 teach a PGY2 how to do a femoral neck system skin to skin for the 2, didn't even scrub (barely paid attention). Dr. Swords is F&A trained but is a semi-trauma guy. He's an AO course instructor so he gives the residents great experience with trauma. He was kind of intimidating but the resident seemed to love him. He let a PGY5 do a tibial plateau skin to skin but took a lot of the F&A bread and butter (probably for efficiency sake cuz we had 7-8 cases to do). Overall good experience, especially for DO program.
Hand/UE: Dr. Truluck and Dr. Hornebach are the hand guys I'm pretty sure. Don't remember much from these cases. Pretty sure Hornebach liked the see one, do one model with his PGY3. Dr. Dubiel is shoulder-elbow guy. Trained at the Mayo, super down to earth guy. Worked solo with him so don't know what he lets the residents do but he seems to love to teach. Would be a great mentor for Shoulder-Elbow interest.
Foot and Ankle: Dr. Swords is F&A but is half F&A and half trauma. Not sure if there is another F&A surgeon. Didn't see much from this standpoint.

Residents:
Great group of residents. All nice and mostly outgoing. Seem to be pretty close knit. They work very hard at this program so not sure how much they hangout. Saw another review that said "seniors like to perfect the juniors" and thought that was a pretty good statement for the interactions. Its in an educational manner but can imagine sometimes the PGY2s just feel like they're getting picked on. I think their PGY3s and 2s are great across the board. Limited interaction with the interns but 3 of the four I had pretty good interactions with.

Operative experience:
Overall, pretty strong op experience but perhaps not the best I saw. I imagine their confident with scopes, shoulders, joints, and most trauma. Always lots of cases to go around so rarely ever would an OR day be done before 1pm.

Clinic Experience:
Due to covid, wasnt allowed to go to clinic with a resident. I'm sure they get good clinic exposure, I felt like I got good clinic exposure lol. But OR cases typically come first so the 5s will pull a junior resident out of clinic to make sure one of their main attendings have coverage in the OR.

Research:
This is a decent area for the program and still probably improving. Don't know any specifics on their projects but most of the attendings seemed like they wanted to be involved to some level with research, despite very private practice style. Don't think they struggle for fellowships so must be good enough.

Didactics:
Seemed decent. Cuz of COVID, students had to be remote for morning sign out and education (so obvi I was less interested) but seem average. Fracture conference for the PGY2 was a every Monday morning and seemed pretty hellish based on the current setup. The PGY2 responsible for the week had to have every fracture that came in over the last 7 days, present the fracture, initial treatment options, definitive treatment options, and show how it was fixed (even the ones they weren't on call for and didnt take to the OR). During the fracture conference, they faced an absolute fire squad combined of PGY5 and attendings. The fact that they had to cover every fracture I thought was absurd (the record was set while I was there at 47 and yes he presented all 47 over two days). It seemed like they spent more time prepping the presentation with all the fractures than actually learning about the fracture management. Word on the street is this may be changing in the future where they pick 15 fractures and get higher detail questions. I'm sure the PGY2s feel very prepared for fracture management when its all over though because everything from reduction technique, surgical approach, types of plates, etc. is fair game to be asked during the conference.

Lifestyle:
Lifestyle seemed kinda rough until you're a senior. They all seemed super busy, especially the juniors. Fracture conference must take a huge toll on the PGY2s. Call schedule blows if you're in the scenario where your class only has 3 residents and the other class (PGY2 or 3) only has three residents like the current scenario. They cover McLaren call almost always and Sparrow call like 75% of the time. Call is home call and can be very hit or miss. 3 nights I got called in once-twice which was easy but one night I didnt get any sleep and then had to go watch 6 scopes in a row (without being scrubbed in cuz an intern and PA were there 🤣 ). Didn't seem too bad for the interns though as they take buddy call. Might get worse for them later in intern year. Senior residents had it pretty nice, pretty sure they rotate weekend call q5 weeks. Heard the time spent in Cinci is pretty cool.

Pros:
Felt like this was one of the more balanced programs I went to. Above average if not top 5 trauma experiences for DO programs. Sports is a huge strength with MSU. Only have to do out rotations for 6-9 months as a PGY4 I think. Very busy, high volume services. Will feel very comfortable coming out for fellowship or practice. They are getting a new hospital to replace the McLaren hospitals and this should be AWESOME. Probably 2 years out from opening.

Cons:
Lifestyle seemed on the poor side compared to other programs. Fracture conference definitely should be improved for the best educational benefit, kinda seems more like torture at this point. Home call in theory sounds great until your Level 1 trauma center acts like a level 1 trauma center and you get 1-2 consults at the other hospital you're covering. Having to work a full 10 hour day in clinic or OR after being up all night on call should be a GME violation. Benefits aren't the greatest either. I was salty about the food mostly but their pay definitely doesn't reflect how hard they work or the cost of living. These are more bitch and moan complaints about the program but thats what the con section is for.

Student Specific Experience:
Covid changed a lot with the Michigan governor clamping down on everything (maybe it saved lives but rotation was VERY different). I feel like it changed so much its not worth me commenting. I will say I got along with all the residents, they tried to teach when they weren't getting crushed. You were included in the saw bones labs they do (got to practice a retrograde nail with a PGY2). Lots of OR, some clinic. Student fracture conference Thursday afternoon that didn't feel super pimp heavy but good practice with XR and good teaching.

 

[L3SideBentLeft]

Program: Broward Health

Residents per Class: 3

Hospital: Broward Health Medical Center (Trauma Service/Home Institution – Ft. Lauderdale, FL),
As a 4th year student, you will spend all of your time on the trauma service at Broward Health Medical Center which is a 700 Bed Level 1 Trauma Center. The volume and acuity of the trauma that comes in is very high. I auditioned at 5 places in total, and I had the best experience at BHMC when it came to trauma and overall operative experience. I was reducing and splinting open fractures, did incisions, washouts, and closing by my 3rd day during my first week! IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT BECOMING AN ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON, I HIGHLY ADVISE ROTATING AT BHMC FOR THE EXPERIENCE. My greatest regret on the auditioning trail was not auditioning at this place sooner. The amount of HANDS-ON experience I had in the ED, Trauma, Bay, and the OR was equivalent of 2-3 months of auditioning at other institutions. I highly suggest rotating here and rotate here early. The remainder of your auditions will be much easier after BHMC.


Location: South Florida. You’re literally living in paradise. Housing is expensive though. There is some travel involved when on other services as a resident (but you don't go there as a student). Don’t tell the PD though you’re coming to BHMC because of its location.
Other sites (YOU DO NOT GO HERE AS A STUDENT): Cleveland Clinic Florida (Joints-Weston, FL), Mercy Hospital (Oncology-Miami, FL), Nicklaus Children’s Hospital (Peds - Miami, FL), Boca Raton Regional (Sports – Boca Raton, FL)


Attendings: Dr. Joel Rush is The PD. I had limited contact with him as he was out for medical reason. I spoke with him during didactics and the interview. I never worked with him and was never in the OR with him but from the interactions I did have had he seems to love his program and the residents. He truly cares for the program and takes pride in everyone he selects. He was pleasant and easy to talk to and the senior residents all seem to have a great relationship with him. He has also contributed significantly to the Osteopathic profession during his time as a PD and is always looking for ways to improve his program. He also faculty at NSU.

Dr. Brian J. Cross is the Assistant PD, and is double Fellowship Trained in Pediatrics and Trauma. You will operate with him a lot. Really easy to work with. He lets the PGY3s and up fly in the OR and is very hands off. He doesn’t mind teaching the students either if they ask the right questions at the right time.

Dr. Edward Perez/Dr. Bradley Roth/Dr. Emily Keener are three other Trauma attendings that you will be operating with quite a bit. They were incredibly fun in the OR and would even let some of the PGY2s fly with cases and would only step in if needed. Even as a student you will get to participate in their cases.

There are many other fellowships trained faculties/attending you will be scrubbing with as well. There is plenty of joints and hand done at BHMC and there was rarely an objection whenever I wanted to scrub into any particular cases for the day.


Residents: This is where the program stands out! The residents in my eyes were superstars in the OR. Mind you this is my 5th audition, so I had some awareness of the comfort level of residents in the OR. The PGY-1s did not have much time in the OR as they were always in the Ed/Trauma bay. But PGY-2s and up at this program get tremendous operating time and the PGY-3 I worked with was a total stud in the OR. The confidence and comfort level of the residents at this program is high and they are not afraid to scrub into any case and start flying! As a student, you will be observed by the residents to see how quickly you learn and how autonomous you can be as the rotation progresses. They will not babysit you or spoon feed you knowledge, they are way too busy. You have to take your learning experience in your own hands and be proactive in the OR/ED/Trauma Bay with getting supplies and patient ready and reading up in whenever you can. They expect you to work hard and you are expected to be there every single day. You can split up the call among other students. (PRO Tip: Sleep in the West Wing so they don’t hesitate to call you in should your help is needed, or if a crazy trauma comes in).


Didactics/Education: Tuesday afternoons was protected didactics and OITE review. Friday Morning was fracture conference, run by a PGY2. The PD and other attendings were always presents and involved. Journal Clubs twice a month at amazing restaurants in South Florida. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Similar to what I saw at other programs.



Operative Experience: As a student, you will be busy in the OR! Be the first one in the room and get as many supplies ready as you can. You will be helping in the cases so be ready and read up on Bullets whenever you can. The residents and attending will pimp you, but it was never demeaning. They will just ask you to read it up and tell them after the case or in the next case. PGY-2s and up have progressive autonomy in the OR and the PGY-3 I worked with the most was a pure stud. All the seniors I worked with were extremely competent and capable of handling polytraumatized cases with grace. I was easily scrubbing 2-3 cases a day, every single day.



Clinic Experience: You only do Trauma Clinic which is within the hospital and is run by the junior residents/interns every Wednesday afternoon. You go see patients on your own and present to the resident and attending. It was very relaxed and a good break from the intensity of the OR.



Research: Research is not a strong suit of many osteopathic orthopedic programs. However, one of the seniors at BHMC had a textbook for a CV and matched into Yale Spine. One of the other 4th years has also carried out a lot of projects and has a high caliber CV that landed him an interview at Johns Hopkins for Shock Trauma. The research platform is not well organized (just like most D.O. programs) but BHMC being a Level 1 center, the resources are available for you to get involved early and a lot of juniors and one of the interns is heavily involved.


Lifestyle: As a student you are expected to be on the Trauma service every single day at 5:45 am. Interns would show up at 5:00am to update their list and juniors and chief would come in at 6 am to run the list. You’re not expected to pre-round. Call can be split call among other students and you can sleep in the West Wing on the GME floor for call nights (If you want). The residents take care of your meals, so you won’t have to worry about that. You can expect to be home around 6-7pm pm on most nights.


Pros: The operative experience as a student was unmatched! You will learn a lot at this audition. The residents were also superstars in the OR and were comfortable with all of their daily case load. They were also very easy to work under and fun to be around during my audition. These guys really work hard and play hard!

Level 1 Trauma center with endless opportunities to see wild traumas and operate.

15+ Fellowship trained faculties involved with the program.

Excellent Fellowship matches (Yale Spine, Harvard Sports, UMiss Trauma)


Cons: You will not get to see other off-site services such as Recon, Peds, Spine, Foot etc. However, the off-site services are all at stellar institutions with high caliber attendings (i.e. Dr. Patel at Cleveland Clinic for Recon/Dr. Temple for oncology at Mercy/Dr. Ross for Sports).


Student Specific Experience: You will work a lot of hours; however, the residents are really fun to be around and great to learn from. You are expected to pick things up quickly and be able to help without getting in the way. The sooner you prove yourself, the more you will be involved in the trauma bay and in the OR, thus the learning potential and hands-on experience at BHMC was unlike any other. I never worried about food as the residents will take care of that for you which you will appreciate a lot.

As I stated earlier, if you are serious about ortho I highly suggest auditioning at this program early. These guys will prepare you for the rest of your audition season. Be enthusiastic and be ready to work hard!

 

[chyun123]

Program: Garden City Hospital, Garden City, MI

Residents per Class: 2

Hospital: Garden City Hospital
As a 4th year student, you will spend all your rotation at the main hospital which is a community based hospital. You see the bread and butter community based trauma and lots of total joints and sports procedures. You spend some time in clinic with the attendings but most of your time is in the operating room and helping the residents on the floor. You really get to know the PGY-2’s as they handle all the floor work and clinic, which is great because they have a good amount of say as they will be working with you closely when they are 5’s. You get a lot of hands on experience with fracture reductions and ER procedures. The ER there does not do many reductions and the ortho residents come in and do all the reductions which are great for experience. The residents go down to New Orleans for 6 months for Pediatrics and as a PGY-2 you spend 3 months at Detroit Receiving Trauma Hospital for Trauma and as a PGY-4 you spend 6 months down at DRH for Trauma. When the PGY-4s come back from DRH they are very skilled in operating and trauma. The DRH experience is like a mini-trauma fellowship for the residents here.

Location: Garden City, Michigan. The area is not that great. Most of the residents live in Westland, Canton, Dearborn, Royal Oak, Midtown, Downtown Detroit. Everywhere you go in Michigan takes about 30 mins to get anywhere so a lot of them just commute. The residents try to live more on the east side of Garden City so that their commute to Detroit Medical Center isn’t as bad. OTHER LOCATIONS: the residents operate at other Hospitals such as DMC (DRH, Harper Hospital), Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, Beaumont Royal Oak, Beaumont Dearborn, Beaumont Farmington Hills, Surgeons Choice Surgery Center.


Attendings:
Dr. Paul Drouillard is the PD. Adult Reconstruction and Trauma trained.
Dr. Jeffrey Lawley- General Orthopedics
Dr. Timothy Doig- Sports Trained
Dr. Joseph Walkiewicz- Adult Reconstructive and Sports Fellowship Trained
Dr. Edward Haass- Hand and Plastic Surgery Trained
Dr. Stan Lee- University of Michigan Orthopedic Spine Surgery
Dr. Nilesh Patel- Orthopedic Spine Surgery
Dr. Vaidya- Trauma Fellowship Trained (DMC)
Dr. Nasr- Trauma Fellowship Trained (DMC)
Dr. Mansoor- Trauma (DMC)
Dr. Olyphant- Trauma (DMC)

Residents: This is absolutely where the program stands out. Watching the residents interact with each other, they are all very close and like best friends. The program is very laid back and has a great work and personal life. The Chiefs are very competent in the OR and have no trouble operating their 5th year. The PGY-4s come back from downtown Detroit very skilled in the operating room. The PGY-4s are out of the hospital all year on either electives or Trauma. The PGY-3’s are either down in New Orleans or Spine or Foot and Ankle. The PGY-2s are in charge of running the service and clinic. They alternate weekly with their clinic schedule and the other PGY2 is either in the OR or taking care of floor work. They also go downtown for 3 months for Trauma surgery. The PGY-1s go back and forth from Downtown and Garden City. They spend most of their time in the OR and helping on the floor and seeing consults. The Residents spend a lot of time with each other and hang out a lot on weekends. They love grilling out and having bonfires and going out with the residents and their families. They are also a bunch of golfers so they try and get a round in on the weekends. Half of the program is married and the other half girlfriends/single but the married residents still go out and join in on the fun. The program is very focused on a respected but friendly relationship between the juniors and seniors and you are never afraid of calling the seniors for help. There is also a great rapport between the attendings and the residents. At one of the cadaver labs, even the reps have noticed how close the residents are.


Didactics/Education: Monday mornings is fracture conference, reviewing every fracture for the past week as well as cases operated. The fracture conference is run by the PGY-2 and fractures are read by the rotating student or intern and questions are escalated through the residents. Wednesdays afternoons are set aside for OITE questions. Friday mornings are formal didactics where lectures are given by the juniors and run by the chiefs. They also do questions on Fridays after lectures. Once a month the program also does a cadaver lab with different reps and give the juniors an opportunity to lean approaches. They also have monthly journal clubs.


Operative Experience: As a student, you will be in the OR! Try to help get the room ready and set up for the case and be in there when the patient rolls back. Read up on each case as the attendings and residents will ask questions. The program is not a malignant program where they will demean your personal character but you are expected to know what is going on in the case. The seniors do most of the case and if there is a nail or a junior level case, the PGY-3 or PGY-2 will do the case. They chiefs will usually scrub out to dictate and will let you and the juniors close the case.


Clinic Experience: The Residents will try and get you one on one time in the clinic with the attendings during your rotation and let them get an idea of your character. This is a key part of your rotation and if you connect with a attending here it goes a long way in terms of your chances of matching.


Research: Every resident comes up with a yearly project and works on this throughout the year. Research is not a strong suit however for a smaller community hospital they try and have published several papers and present at the MOS. You also get research opportunities downtown with the trauma service.


Lifestyle: As a student you are expected to preround on patients and help the PGY-2 round. Have all the dressing supplies in your coat in the mornings. They will love you for that. The juniors and chief run the list at 6:30 and 6:45 round with the attending. Once rounds are completed, everyone disperses to clinic or OR. If in the OR, you tend to stick to a room and scrub cases for the day. The residents split call according to year with the PGY-2s taking the most call. Call can be split among the students and you can take buddy call with the residents if you would like. The residents take home call and call starts at 5pm which is great for the other residents not on call. From 6am-5pm, the Ortho day pager (usually held by the PGY-1 or 2) is who gets all the consult and floor pages. And then at 5pm all the pages go to the on-call person. Your meals during your rotation are covered by the residents.

Pros: The family atmosphere of the residents. The operative experience on rotation. The residents are very comfortable with operating and really good at manual reductions. They are also very well versed in hand as they handle all the hand trauma in the ER as well. These guys work hard and play harder.

The residents also graduate into some great fellowship programs. Some of the fellowships that the residents have matched into are DMC Sports, University of Kentucky Sports, Anderson Joints Fellowship, UC Irvine Spine Fellowship, Foot and Ankle fellowships and various other places.


Cons: You do not get to rotates through their off-site services like Trauma, Peds, Spine, and Hand. Their off-site rotations are amazing and residents have said their off rotations are where they really learn to operate.

They have really vamped up the program and recently got their ACGME accreditation. Their residents are very knowledgeable in not only orthopedics but very knowledgeable in medical management. Sometimes it is hard to get a rotation at the program because their GME hospital is not that efficient. You can email the medical student coordinator [email protected]. If she does not allow you to rotate you can try and message the Ortho residents directly and see if they can get you a rotation set up.

 

[LateNightChef]

Program: Rowan SOM/Jefferson Health
Residents per Class: 5
Hospital:

- Jefferson Health Cherry Hill: Newly redone hospital that is extremely nice. Main ORs are in the older side of the building that is not terrible but still older. New outpatient surgical center on the other side of the hospital. Cafeteria is pretty mediocre and limited, so residents often order lunch. They have their Monday and Friday didactics here in nice conference rooms. Cherry Hill is about a 20-minute drive once you cross over the bridge from Philly.

-Jefferson Health Washington Township: Like Cherry Hill, much of the hospital is either redone or brand new. Didn’t spend too much time here, but this is where they get the majority of their general ortho volume when not on away rotations. Food is better than Cherry Hill

-Stratford & Virtua: smaller hospitals with less volume. Resident at Stratford would sometimes come over to Cherry Hill to hang out during the day for a few hours. Residents state rotations here are good opportunities to catch up on research.

- Cooper: They do trauma and onc here. High volume place that sees insane trauma pathology from what I’ve heard.


Location: Philly is a great city. It gets a bad reputation sometimes, but I enjoyed my time here. I think of it as a more manageable NYC. Although hospital is located in South Jersey, many residents live in Philly and enjoy the city’s many amenities.
Attendings: Mix of Rothman and local private practice attendings, many of which are graduates from Rowan or PCOM. Spent most time with Rothman docs who in general are great. Teach you a lot and don’t seem annoyed that you’re there. PD is Daniel, who is F&A at RI. Residents will prepare you for your week with him, but in short, he is intense. Fairly stoic, military guy so don’t get worried if he doesn’t speak to you much. He seems to have been great for the residency though, expects the best out of you and does whatever he can to help you get the best fellowship you can
Residents: Very nice overall, no one seemed malignant toward each other. Senior residents always seemed happy to teach junior residents. Residents often get drinks with one another Friday afternoons.
Didactics/Education: Monday afternoon 5 pm-8:30 pm; Friday 6 am-8am. PGY2-led lectures on topics followed by OrthoBullet questions starting off with the interns then bumping up to the 2’s. Wasn’t a big fan of the Monday didactics. After a full-day off work, I feel like it’s tough to get effective didactics done particularly for 3.5 hours. Large workload for the PGY2s who have to present on about 3 topics per session. Not sure if lectures are recycled though. Residents seemed well-read and more knowledgeable than some of the MD programs I rotated at.
Operative Experience: I think the operative experience was fairly good. When residents are not on their General Ortho service, they are working with the Rothman surgeons. One of the hand surgeons ran 2 rooms when I was there, and it was me and the PGY2 just scrubbed in until they hit a wall. Pretty cool to have that opportunity as 2. One of the downsides of their mentorship model with Rothman is that the RI docs often have a surgical day in Philly, which is somewhere the residents cannot go. Volume of their home hospitals is also lower, which is the main flaw of the program if I had to pick one.
Clinic Experience: Clinic is clinic. They do see a higher volume of patients than some since they go to the Rothman clinics. It’s essentially a mentorship model when on subspecialty rotations. On joints, I went and saw patients but on the other rotations I did not. Good amount of education when in clinic.

Research: Highlight of the program and better than some MD places I rotated/interviewed at. With access to Rothman, the residents all seemed fairly involved in projects. Although this was encouraged, it did not seem like research was forced upon the residents. They also have a Rothman research fellow dedicated to all their projects to help coordinate studies.

Lifestyle:

-Morning sign-out at 6:30 am, afternoon signout at 5-5:30 pm. Interns get their earlier to print out and update the list. Residents seemed pretty happy overall, no one seemed burnt out. Traditional in-house call as a PGY2 where you cover 2 of their 4 hospitals.

-South Jersey area is not bad. They spend the majority of their time in Cherry Hill or Washington Township locations. Many of the residents live in Philly across the river, which has an unlimited amount of activities and food options. Downside is the toll coming back to Philly.
Pros: Best research experience and opportunities of any DO programs I know of. Affiliation with Rothman, helps get those important connections and LOR’s for fellowship. Proximity to Philly but option to live in a nice suburb in South Jersey.

Cons:

-There were some days in the Cherry Hill location where they only had 1-2 surgeries. Some of their hospitals had lower surgical volume when on the General service than I would prefer, but looking at their PGY4s operate, they seemed like they did not lack for surgical skills.

-Not a fan of the Monday evening didactics

-Weirdly obsessed with abbreviations and acronyms on their list. Upper-levels would always correct the intern on this, and just felt it was unnecessary and odd

Student Specific Experience: Did this rotation first and was glad I did. Lots and lots of pimping but never in a malignant way. They really test your knowledge, but you will be better for it, especially during your other aways. Got asked more questions on this rotation than the rest of my aways combined. Anywhere from 8-10 other rotators while I was there, which sometimes diluted your hands-on experience. Fairly variable with what you get to do in the OR. On joints, I got to make patella cut on TKAs and broach on hips (surgeon uses battery-powered impactor). You do a 10-12 minute presentation at the end on a case you saw. Overall, happy I did this rotation first and will likely rank this program in my top 5, above one or two MD programs.