research

While you may only do research in medical school to get into a good residency program and you may only want to operate in private practice once you finish residency, I think you should realize that research is still important.

All of the private practice surgeons rely on the research done at academic institutions to guide their decision making. Orthopaedics is only starting to realize the value of evidence-based medicine and somebody has to do the work and it sure as hell isn't going to be all the private practice guys. The big name programs get their big names by doing a lot of research and having faculty who publish a lot of papers. The faculty at those programs are interested in research, and of course they want to have residents who share the same interests, who want to go into academics, (and who can work on their projects for them).

Even if you don't go to a research oriented academic program, you'll still have to do some research during your residency. It's required by the RRC. As a resident in a community based program who has little interest in any future research (and who did no research in med school), I still recognize the value of having some research experience.

I agree with OrthoOverhaul--if you are so interested in learning how to operate and getting into private practice maybe you should be more interested in going to a community based program rather than a big name academic one. If you think that not going to a big name program will limit your fellowships options or impact your private practice opportunities, I think you are totally wrong.

Finally, BoneBrokeMeFix, I definitely agree with your point about being well rounded, but I can't recommend dropping the "you don't see Family Practice or OBGYN doing that" bomb during your interviews or once you're in ortho.

Ok, I am a little less steamed than I was yesterday. I do realize that research is important to the betterment of all medicine. I am not against doing it, and I would actually enjoy doing some if I got involved in an interesting project. The thing is, I don't know if I want to go to a community or academic based program. I do agree with the others that I want to be the best damn surgeon I can be, though. But, I may want to teach the art of it and contribute to academia one day too. That is why I am miffed about not getting the chance to at least check these programs out. Bottom line to any budding orthopod just getting started....if you know right now that it is ortho, then by GOD do some research and don't limit yourself!

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Youare right, I could have done research in something insanely boring that I care absolutely nothing about. I could have cut off my pinky toe too. I chose to do neither. That was a choice. I realize that. I am not at a research heavy school, and research is not emphasized nor is its importance at my institution. In hindsight, I would have done some even if it was on amoebic abscess of the basal ganglia (because that is really going to help me with a career in ortho). Sure, it shows that you are hard working and motivated to do research. But, I really have no regrets about not doing research about something I care nothing about, although I would have done it if I know what I know now.

Let me make something clear, though. I am not hurting for interviews. I am going to be fine. It just would have been nice to get a few of the bigger name programs. It also would have been nice to get an interview north of the Mason Dixon line. But I am not even going to get into the regionality of this whole process, because it is so much worse than the emphasis on research.

Youare right, I could have done research in something insanely boring that I care absolutely nothing about. I could have cut off my pinky toe too. I chose to do neither. That was a choice. I realize that. I am not at a research heavy school, and research is not emphasized nor is its importance at my institution. In hindsight, I would have done some even if it was on amoebic abscess of the basal ganglia (because that is really going to help me with a career in ortho). Sure, it shows that you are hard working and motivated to do research. But, I really have no regrets about not doing research about something I care nothing about, although I would have done it if I knew then what I know now.

Let me make something clear, though. I am not hurting for interviews. I am going to be fine. It just would have been nice to get a few of the bigger name programs. It also would have been nice to get an interview north of the Mason Dixon line. But I am not even going to get into the regionality of this whole process, because it is so much worse than the emphasis on research.

And, if you are just going to address a question only to me...PM me. I was just wanting to get others thoughts on the issue, not personal attacks.

This advice doesn't really apply to anyone applying this year, but for future applicants: I too decided late in the game that I wanted to do ortho (second semester M3 year). I was fortunate to be involved in a case report worthy general surgery case that I wrote up early in my M3 year. This is the only accepted publication I have on my application. However, this has come up in only 1 of 8 interviews (and 3 of these interviews have been at "top notch" programs).

When I decided in february I was going to do ortho, I started bugging all the ortho residents at my program about doing research. i got on 3 projects, but 2 fell completely apart. 1 was submitted to the AAOS meeting and listed as "submitted" on my ERAS application. This is the ONLY ortho project listed on my ERAS application. This HAS come up in 6 or 7 out of 8 interviews.

so coming into my fourth year, research was the only weakness of my application. I decided to rotate at a "name" institution for 3 reasons: to get involved in more research, to get a letter from someone huge, and most importantly, to get my foot into the door at the place. a few weeks before my rotation, I contacted 2-3 attendings there. you have to be very persistent as only one got back to me. My persistence definitely payed off, I met with this attending during my first week of the rotation and was given two projects. One turned into a case report (that he wrote about in my letter) and the other is more of a long term project that I did the initial leg work for (this was also put in my letter).

So if you have the numbers to get into a "name" institution, but lack research, rotate there and get involved in research. contact the program before you get there as the attending already had these two projects in mind for me before I met with him.

so all my ortho research was done after midway through M3 year and this has given me enough to get interviews at >10 name places (HSS, Pitt, Harvard, UCLA, Wash U, Univ Wash, UPenn, etc).

I am not trying to brag or anything (so please don't slam me). I just want to show to future applicants that if you have the numbers, it is very possible to make due late in the game if you are aggressive and seek out ANY POSSIBLE ortho research experience. You MUST be persistant though, as only 1 of 3 projects at my home school came to fruition and only 1 of 2 projects at the "name" program came to fruition. take on all you can handle. if you really want to get into a "top" program, ortho research is probably very important. also, I wrote in my personal statement that I was looking for a program with "numerous research opportunities" just to emphasize that I was very willing to get involved in research.

And if you can't get involved in ortho research, write up some non-ortho case reports to at least have something on ERAS as accepted or "submitted". Then you can say in your interviews, "well, my home program doesn't have much research opportunities so I sought out any research in other areas for experience and to learn how to write scientific manuscripts." This is my answer when people ask why I wrote up a general surgery case repot and it seems to have gone over well. further, you could even address this in your personal statement, just don't send that version to your home program.