I've been meaning to post my opinions on the sports fellowships where I interviewed this year. I went to 4 places. Had about 12 interviews scheduled, but since there's no match, I took one of my early places. I'll only comment on the places I visited, because any thing else would just be heresay.
Duke -
On paper you would think that this would be a great fellowship. I think it will be a great fellowship in a few years. Right now however is a different story. The two fellows were not very happy and they let us know about it. They didn't get as much operative time as they would like and they basically were covering teams most of the fall. One of the chief residents actually stopped me on the street and told me not to come there. Because "the fellows don't operate. The chief gets first pick of cases." Dr. Higgins is leaving for Harvard. Dr. Basmania is not sure that he'll let the fellow operate with him anymore. So that's a big blow to the upper extremity experience. Dr. Moorman is a great guy and a big name in the sports world. They're actively looking for a replacement for higgins, but wouldn't give us names. There's roomers that Dr. Garrett may be leaving also.
Kentucky
You want to operate? You will definitely operate here. Dr. Johnson is a great guy who is doing tons of sports cases. He trained under Freddie Fu, so he's doing the "double bundle ACL." Dr. Maier is a Steadman/Hawkins trained guy and this is where you'll get most of your shoulder stuff. I can't imagine there's many sports fellowships out there where you'll operate more. The only drawback for me was that it's a 2 man fellowship. I wanted just a little more variety. With that said, they just added another sports guy and are recruiting more. Heavy on team coverage.
Pitt
Freddie Fu, Chris Harner - need I say more? New sports complex is phenomenal. Chris Harner does 120 - 150 ACL's a year!!! This is probably one of the best fellowships around. Comprehensive experience. Extremely heavy on team coverage. Lots of literature coming out of this place. Fellows seemed pretty happy. Drawback - it's freakin' Pittsburgh.
Cleveland Clinic
This is where I ended up. I've known this program for many years. I did research there as a med student. Comprehensive experience. Big names Drs. Bergfeld (god father of sports), Miniachi (big time shoulder recon), Parker, Andrish. Operative experience is also very heavy. Lots of attendings, so you will see how many different people do things. Heavy on the team coverage, but that's what I want to do. I was extremely happy (and fortunate) to land this spot.
Hope this helps some out there. Good news is there probably will be some sort of match next year.
