SPORTS MEDICINE Fellowship Reviews - New

As someone about to apply to sports this upcoming cycle, reading through these reviews has been helpful and already allowing me to narrow down where I may or may not be interested in applying. I was wondering if anyone that just matched or are about to start had any updates or reviews of programs that haven’t been mentioned much on here or any other general advice going into the match.

Here are my notes and biased impressions for this year's (2018) interviews. My main goal in finding a program was a good operative experience with people I could get along with. Was not wanting a place with heavy research. In hindsight, went on too many interviews. Would try to narrow it down to 10 to 12 places.


Henry Ford
Overall pretty good. Attendings all seem to be reasonable and personable. Say they give you graduated OR autotomy as you go if you can handle it. Seem to do a lot of cases and do TSAs and one guy does hip scopes but you have to want to do it to get more autotomy. Fellow involved with Pistons (home games) and mostly a lot with Lawrence tech and high schools (maybe a little too much? Cover all sports pretty much). Getting a new sports building in fall 2019. Cons: no fellow this year. Why? Past fellows IMGs from spain, Qatar, not many HF residents go into program (1 who had wife in fellowship already there). Able to cover joints/trauma if desired. Some attendings do some bread and butter trauma. No call. No moonlighting

DMC
Attendings all seem to be great group. Getting a new DMC sports med center built onto Little Caesars arena. Get to work with Tigers and Red wings and seems like RW's can really be a good experience (one fellow stopped by practices, etc). Do spring training in FL with tigers and training camp with RWs in traverse city. Downsides are there's quite a lot of driving and you work with 10-15 different attendings. Rotations split into 3 month blocks with a couple attendings each. Current fellows said they start off slow turning the reins but by the end of each block you're doing pretty much everything. However, when you start the next block you're back to not doing much. Never able to run your own room. Only have to do some light office call, no trauma call. No moonligthing available. Some attendings do B&B trauma and opportunity to do some knee and hip arthroplasty. A good handful do some TSAs. Sounds like they're very flexible in letting you do cases you want to see. Big emphasis placed on fellow having a really good experience.

Tria
All faculty seemed awesome. Good number of aged/experienced attendings who have been practicing 25+ years, but also some younger guys. Work with 10-12 faculty total. Three fellows, all seemed very happy, said there were no malignant attendings and they enjoyed working with everyone. Seems operative experience is great. Rotations split into three 4 month blocks. Fellows said after first 3 weeks you're doing pretty much everything. Many times attending scrubbed out in back and you're running the show. Sports coverage is Twins, Wild, U of Minn and HS fball. Seemed to be a good experience. Call is q3 but is very benign mostly office call. 5-20 calls total/week, fellows said you can split it up amongst the other fellows however you like. No primary ER call. Very seldom will you have a cs or case going to OR. Fellows said it was nothing. No current moonlighting set in place but fellows mentioned there were possible new options in the works. Some moderate mix of TKAs/UKAs mixed in but not a ton. Not a lot of B&B trauma but there were avenues avaialble if you wanted it (DR fxs with hand guys, hip fxs with others, etc.) Hip scope exposure is limited. They do a few, but are hiring some 1 or 2 new ppl who will be doing a lot so this may change. Some driving btwn main center and dtown but not excessive it sounds. Very nice facility with bioskills lab in basement. Large alumni base for networking with annual reunions. Overall, I was very impressed with this program, seemed like a great place.

U of Cincinnati
Program split apart from a private group back a few years ago and only a few years into the all U of C fellowship. 1 fellow/year. Have had a number of FMGs the past few years, including the current fellow. Kind of hard to get a good read of the program from him. He seems to like it. Right now, you spend the majority of your time with PD (Colosimo) and if he's not busy you work in with 2-3 other attendings. PD seems a little intense (ex NFL RB). Takes a "different approach" to teaching fellows based on how they respond. Does 8-12 cases/day and done by noon and wants to keep it that way. Can be somewhat inpatient and has a strong personality. Looking for someone with already good basic scope skills who can hit the ground running. If you're good, you can run your own room bc he has 2 room days. Sounds like in future you'll work more with 2 other attendings and split year equally into thirds. Younger attending does fair amount of hip scopes that you'll have some exposure to. Do a fair mix of TKAs/UKAs. No THAs. Not really any B&B trauma. Take very mundane office call on a month/off a month split with PA. Avg 5 calls/months. Never any ED consults/call cases, etc. Opportunity to take call at UC (level 1) on the side for $ but couldn't get further details. Sports coverage with UC fball (including away games), bball (home), your own HS fball team plus other sports (soccer, etc.). No pro coverage. PD said you're busy pretty much every night with something, could be a little excessive. Was not terribly impressed with structure/organization for interview day. No program overview given, no handouts given. Some ppl missed last interview room with fellow bc no time. Grabbed for interviews while in the middle of lunch, etc. Facilities are older. Sports facilities seem ok and building new wt room. Overall mixed feelings about this place. Seems like you get a good operative experience and good automtomy if you get along with PD and are good. Possibly excessive sports responsibilities and not much variety of work outside of PD.

U of Kentucky
3 fellows/year. All seemed happy. True mentorship program model. 3 blocks, 4 months each. Seems to be a very good operative experience with good number and variety of cases (but not overboard). Operative autotomy is good as well. Some attendings run 2 rooms regularly, chief in one fellow in other. Good/appropriate progression to where you're doing everything. One guy does hip scopes but not regularly sch'd with him and can maybe do one day/week on some rotations, so more of small exposure, not heavy on hip scopes. Occasional sports trauma worked in but not heavy. Has pretty good TSA exposure. No exposure to THA/TKAs through normal schedule. Have opportunity to scrub other b&b trauma and TKAs, etc if you want with joints faculty, more towards end of year. No moonlighthing. Very light office-type call. Sports coverage is UK football plus 2 other smaller college fball teams. Each fellow assigned to team for the year so only 1 gets UK fball. No involvement with UK bball. Have opportunity to cover other UK sports in winter/spring if desired (not mens bball). PD (Johnson) has rep of "setting the bar" and expecting a lot from fellow in the OR. Some residents didn't like working with him. Can be a little stressful working with him first few weeks until finding what he wants, but fellows say he's a good teacher. Other faculty seemed pretty laid back but only met 2 others. Latterman is leaving. Overall, seems like it would be a good operative experience. Disappointed only 1 fellow gets UK fball and no coverage of UK bball.

Iowa
1 fellow/year. He seemed really happy. All faculty were awesome. Very approachable, down to earth, all great to operate with (per fellow). They really care about fellow education and will help you with finding jobs, etc. Always there to reach back out to in practice. About 4-5 faculty, with one new guy coming on next year adding more sports F&A stuff. Him and another are quite young (just out of fellowship now). Wide variety of cases. Do a lot of multiligs, TJ's, HTOs, latarjets plus other typical sports cases. Operative autotomy seems to be great as well. Fellow really liked his operative experience. One guy (older) does a lot of TSA. One of the younger guys does 50% hip scopes and is getting busy. Only required sports coverage is U of Iowa football. Seems like fellow gets a great experience and is actually an integral part of the treatment team. On sidelines for games and travel to away games with team, so very busy fall. Opportunity to do as much or as little as desired for other sports. Current fellow doing some basketball as well. No THA/TKAs worked in but ability to work in with joint guys towards end of the year if you'll be doing them in practice. Not really any b&b trauma. Might be able to work some with trauma guys like joints? Minimum 1 reseach project required, framework to do a lot if desired but no pressure to do a lot of research. Zero call. No moonlighting available. Iowa city seems like a pretty cool college town. Very afforable and not too big but still a lot to do with good bars/restaurants. Overall, thought this place was awesome. Only knock would be the two very young faculty guys but they both went to Iowa for residency and were superstar residents.

Wisconsin
1 fellow/year. She seemed happy. Faculty all seemed pretty approachable. About 5 faculty you work with total, 2 are younger and just a few years out from fellowship and they both do quite a bit of hip scopes with the fellow exposed to a lot. All faculty seemed like reasonable people, some have their "quirks" but no one outlandish/malignant. Operative experience seems good with appropriate autotomy and progression. Sometimes running two rooms with attending and seems like the general trend is they let you fly more as the year goes, some a little handsy at times. By 6 mo in you are pretty much doing the whole case with most stuff. Overall fellow felt she would be comfortable going into practice now (6 months in). Avg about 500 cases/year. Sports coverage is busy during fall with UW football. Home and away games and your own fellow athete clinic 2x/week in the later day, maybe 2-6 pts. Also an athlete clinic sunday ams during fball going from about 10:30-1. After fball, cover wrestling and after that up to you. Can cover as much/little as desired (bball, volleyball, etc. any sports). Zero call. Sounds like opportunity for moonlighting call exists but current fellow had not done any. Opportunity to scrub other services (joints, trauma, hand, S&E) if doing that in practice. Not much TSA inherently built into practice if you're interested in it you can def scrub more cases. Also no TKAs or b&b trauma built in inherently. Not much exposure to sports elbow, F&A as set up. Good array of cases in shoulder, hip, knee, including hip scopes and PAOs. New ortho facility/hosipital is very nice but about 20 min outside of downtown. Madison is a very cool medium sized city with lots to do. Overall, seemed like a good place to train and current fellow is happy.

U of Illinois-Chicago
1 fellow/year. Work with around 6-8 faculty spread over 4 three-month blocks (2 identical blocks done twice). Most of time spent with PD. Seems like you don't spend a significant amount of time with anyone other than PD for them to get comfortable with you in the OR. Was not sold on the program by the current fellow. Lots of driving to different locations (you'll need a car in Chicago), hardly any parking provided (very $). Sports coverage always busy, required to cover bball, hockey, baseball after fball (at least current fellow was assigned, but some faculty said it would be your preference). All teams are small colleges or HS other than UIC. Heard certain attendings have difficult "personalities" to deal with although some at the interview seemed very cool. Fellow was getting called random weekends the day of the do sports physicals, etc. Not much exposure to multiligs. Hard to get a good read on how good the operative experience was. TSA guy seems pretty cool and to be a good operating experience.

Penn State
1 fellow/year. He seemed content with the program. 4 core faculty (3 established/fairly established, 1 younger guy). All attendings seem pretty personable and easy-going. No one malignant or tough to work with (including in OR). Operative experience seems fairly good. One guy likes to move quick and will let you do some stuff as long as doesn't slow the day down. Another is pretty handsy at times. Younger guy is a younger guy so experience evolving. One attending the fellow really spoke highly of and said he'd let you do 90-100% of the case and was an awesome guy. Rotations split into 2, 6 week blocks with each attending rotating throughout the year. Not much exposure to complex cases (multiligs, meniscus transplants, elbow, etc.). A lot of general ortho (current fellow said cases split 60% sports 40% general/b&b trauma/joints). Will do a fair number of THAs/TKAs (which then includes rounding, but pts usually gone by the wkend). Do some TSAs but not a substantial amount so not the place if looking for that. Young guy does hip scopes but still getting going so volumes still low. Take a few days of call per month (usually 1 full wkend), just as operative backup person and hospital is level 3 so minimal. Fair amount of b&b trauma it seems. No moonlighting. Cover Penn state fball in fall (home games only). Not the first person eval'ing player on field tho but can afterwards. Stop by practice/training room 1-2x/week. Can cover other sports as desired rest of the year but no real pressure. No HS coverage. No big emphasis placed on research but there if you want it. Overall, seemed like a pretty good place if you're going into general practice but no exposure to complex cases. Happy Valley seems nice but is fairly small with major cities around but at least a 2-3 hr drive.

Brown
1 fellow/yr. ~5 faculty. Split them amongst the week. No rotations. All faculty seemd pretty cool. PD (Faradale) is very energetic and passionite about teaching/learning and about having good operative experience/fellow doing the case. Fellow said operative experience is good. Also get to board cases through resident clinic and through VA where fellow is the attending (faculty attending may or may not be present if you wantt them too). Also will get extra ~$250/case for VA cases. See a pretty good mix of complex cases, but no real exposure to complex elbow (although elbow scopes are available). No TKAs/THAs worked in either although you can work in with joints guys (however there is a joints fellow. Same thing with b&b trauma). Can have exposure to TSA if you seek it out. However there is a S&E fellow there too. Sounds like tons of good hip scope experience with a guy who's awesome to work with. Sports coverage is Brown football (home and away) and minor league hockey. No HS fball. Hockey can be a bit long, cover 20/30 home games from Oct-April. In the process of builiding a brand new ortho center which should be amazing. You do have a fellow clinic 3x/week after regular day from about 5-630/7. No call taken. Overall, seems like it would be a great place.

Boston U
1 fellow. 2 faculty total. Both are younger-middleaged and they both seem very laid back and easy going. You alterante ~4-6 weeks back and forth with each of them throughout the year. Seems like a very good variety of complex cases from tertiary referrals. Do multiligs, meniscus tplants, lots of complex shoulder stuff, lots of TSA. Not really any hip scopes done. However, they are hiring a new person soon who will do them and could be some opportunity to work with them. Current fellow seemed very happy. Operative experience seems to be very good. They progress you well throughout the year and sounds like good autotomy. Sports coverage is mainly just BU hockey and bball. Flexibility to amend amount of games you do. Seemed like fellow really had a pretty good lifestyle. Zero call. Done a lot of days by early-midafternoon (but still will do 4-6 cases/day and see 60 pts in clinic), Fridays off for whatever you want (research, cover trauma cases, nothing, whatever). No TKAs/THAs/trauma worked in but can have flexibilty to scrub with others if desired (however they're getting a joints fellow). Mainly btwn 2 facilities centrally located in Boston so could get by without a car. Liked the place. Seems like a laid-back atmosphere, good variety of cases with autotomy, good lifestyle. Prob not the place if you want to do hip scopes.

Umass
2 fellows. 5 faculty. Split into 6 weeks blocks-some you have more blocks with than others. 5 mos total with PD. Others you do 1-2 blocks with. All faculty seemed like really good guys and easy-going. PD seems like a very good advocate and emphasizes teaching, family, having a lasting relationship with the fellow. Both fellows seemed to love the place. Operative experience seems to be good. Sounds like 2 of the faculty are great in that they let you go skin to skin on day one. PD has a little different approach with progressed involvement but apparently first half of year is more watching and 2nd half you're doing everything with him. Sounds like one of the guys is not turning much however. PD does quite a bit of hip scopes (teaches hip scope courses around the country). Seems like a great depth and varitey of cases (level 1 trauma center with tertiary referrals). Will do multiligs, PCLs, etc. No HTOs however and maybe not many meniscal tplants. Great exposure to open shoulder/TSAs, elbow path, etc. Coverage includes multiple schools for HS fball, college fball and hockey. And for every game you are paid. (350/game for any college games, 200/game for HS). Current fellows would cover a hockey tournament for a day with 3 games and make $1000 in an afternoon. Not a ton of pressure to cover a ton of games bc you can give them to the residents who are very hungry to cover for the extra $$$. One of the attendings does a few TKAs per month. Have the option to jump in on more joints/trauma stuff with other services if desired. No other fellows other than hand there. Lifestyle at this program seems to be amazing without compromising operative experience/learning. Fellows on track to do 600-700 cases for the year. Said OR days done by 3p, clinic done 4-5p. Zero call. Worcester is somewhat of a blue collar, rough around the edges town (per others, however didn't seem terrible to me). Fellows lived a little ways outside of town. One lived 35 min outside Boston in a very nice suburb on train line and had a 15 min commute to work and was able to go into Boston all the time. Program pays for you to attend about 8 confs for the year. Salary in 70Ks. Overall, I was very surprised by this program. Seems to be a great place. Current fellows seemed to love it and were raving about the place.

U of Buffalo 2 fellows. About 5-6 faculty. Both fellows seemed very happy with the program. Sounds like opearative experience is very good and fellows are happy with what they're doing. Won't run 2 rooms. Level 1 center with referrals so see pretty much everything. Good hip scope and TSA exposure. No call. Nice skills lab with cadavers at the med school you always can access. Can set up TKAs/trauma with other services if desired. 1 fellow covers sabres/d3 fball, other fellow just covers Bills fball (only home games for all). Seems like the pro experience is really good and fellows are an integral part of the tx team. Fellows seemed to have very good relationships with the attendings. All attendings seemed cool/down to earth. Buffalo as a city seemed a little rough/industrial but fellows really did enjoy living there. Overall, solid program with good sports coverage of right amount. Buffalo as a city likely better than what it appears on the surface.

U of Rochester
Currently 1 fellow, moving to 2. 7 faculty. All seemed very nice and like good guys. Spend about 50% of your time with PD (Maloney). He's very busy and will run 2 rooms with 6-10 cases each. Fellow in 1 room, chief resident in the other. Will also see 60-70 pts in clinic (fellow does 20 or so of the notes). He seemed like a good guy. Lots of flexibilty for the rest of the time to go into areas interested in. Have a lot of shoulder and hip scope experiences. Current fellow was happy there and was a previous resident at the program and had signed to become faculty for the next year. Operative expereince good and on par with appropriate supervision into guided autotomy with the 2 room method. Do a ton of cases, fellow on track to do about 1000 for the year. Nice skills lab to use whenever with cadavers. Coverage is only d3 fball (home games only), can do more if desired. Also do 3-6p saturday athlete clinic Sep-Oct. After that all weekends free. No call. Can jump into other specialities if desired. Rochester seemed like a pretty decent city. Not as industrial/rough as Buffalo and smaller. Lots of snow like Buf though. Liked the program and seemed like you get good training with a great group of faculty. You might work a little longer days than other places given the volume but wkends seem to be pretty free for the most part after fball.

Houston Methodist
3 fellows/year. 3 core faculty. Do two month rotations with each twice. Also one older faculty member who does a lot of TKAs you can work in with. Operative experience seems amazing. Wide variety and complexity of cases. Possibly just lacking multiligs. Good exposure to hip scopes. One of core faculty is younger attending and that's his main practice. Debatable of how much hands-on you get with him. Seems other two attendings really give you a lot of autotomy in the OR. Sports coverage is pretty heavy and involved. Cover Texans (home/away), Rockets (split with UH fellows), as well as Astros, MLS soccer, Rice fball (home/away) (and baseball?) among other 2 fellows. Also are assigned your own HS fball team. Current fellows said during fall you can be pretty drained but they were enthusiatic about it and said they felt it wasn't subtracting from OR experience. Said it lightens up after fball in winter but baseball still had yet to start. Was repeated multiple times at the interview by faculty that this was not the place for someone who was not really excited about a ton of sports coverage. For Texans, more just observorship. Other sports, fellow is more involved in care. Have to take office call every third wkend which also includes rounding Sat/Sun on 1-2 pts. Also on Lintner's service you are pretty much always on office call for him. Majority of time spent at Houston Med center. Some of the fellows had HS's that were a 45 min plus drive. Lintner is a great mentor advocate. No real exposure to any b&b trauma. Overall, fellows seemed quite happy. On course for ~450 cases. Sports coverage could be overbearing but the OR experience seems fantastic.

UT San Antonio
1 fellow. 4 faculty. No rotations, just work with them all throughout the week. Faculty seem nice/and down to earth. Really high case volume 800-1000 fellow cases/yr. Seems operative autotomy is really good. Attending not scrubbing on a lot of stuff later in the year. Has hip scope exposure but doesn't seem like high #'s. Fellow had done 5-10 so far this yr. TSA is also there but possibly not super high volume but maybe can be if you seek it out. There is a S&E fellow however. Can have exposure to TKAs/THAs (sports faculty do them). Also some exposure to b&b trauma. Sports coverage is HS fball, UTSA fball and soccer, Spurs. Spurs is more observorship. Little difficult to decern how much coverage is required. Current fellow said only have to do Friday HS fball and rest is up to you. Some faculty said HS is thurs, fri, sat. Also have athlete clinic every Sat am from 7/8-10 am. No call/rounding ever.

San Diego Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Fellowship (Tasto)
3-4 fellows/year. 14 faculty members. Split into 4 different rotations with everyone mixed in, although each rotation has a core person you work with more. Seems like a lot of case volume, current fellows doing up to 1000 cases this year. Mix of private and academic guys. Interview format was one room with 8 faculty in there at once, a little different. Hard to get a read on them. Although they had a pre and post interview dinner which I couldn't make. Operative experience/autotomy seems somewhat average. Some guys really good to work with, others not so much, and there's a lot of faculty mixed in. Sometimes there's pressure to get cases done by 5p and some of them will do up to 19 cases/day. Sports coverage is HS fball and small college fball. Also some soccer mixed in. Might be getting the Padres back in a year but not for sure. Split btwn fellows and prime care fellows. Sounds like there can be a lot of driving btwn HS fball and also you work at a ton of different facilities/clinics bc of all the different faculty . Tasto no longer operates but seems like a very nice guy. Sounded like you maybe spend some time in clinic with him. Have to take 2 weeks of call total split throughout the year. More involved call than other places it sounds. Having to see consults and do cases occassionally with attending. No real moonlighting opportunities built in but could set up on your own if you can find the time. Salary is only 55K and SD sounds like its just getting more expensive. $2K-3K/month for 1-2 bedroom apmnt. But SD really is a sweet city so get what you pay for I suppose.

U of New Mexico
2 fellows/year. Both seemed very happy. 6 faculty. 2 different rotations that are 3 months and you end up doing each twice. One rotation is older faculty, other is younger faculty, 3 faculty for each rotation. All of the faculty seemed very nice and personable, fellows said there was no one they didn't enjoy working with. Very good operative case variability, will see multiligs, etc. They are the only level 1 trauma center in state. Operative autotomy seems very good as well. Fellows said they'd be comfortable starting practice at this point. You do the case, one fellow said he was going to actually ask attendings to start doing more so he could pick up more tricks/pearls. Good TSA and hip scope experience as well. Both fellows planning to do hip scopes in practice. Said they had done about 30 each but they do most of the case. Have some UKAs/TKAs mixed in as well. Sports coverage is just UNM fball, but have option to have your own HS fball if desired which they said was really fun. Cover all home games for UNM fball and then 1-2 away games that you pick. Training rm 1 day/week per fellow. Will have a sunday post game clinic but split with other fellow and many times was cancelled during fball season. Cover 2 mens bball games for season but can do more. Also cover a handful of women's bball and volleyball. Overall, sports coverage didn't seem super burdensome. No call. Can moonlight at small community hospital 30 min away for good $$. Very small hospital that doesn't qualify as any trauma level. On with a chief resident. Albequerque a pretty cool town with decent cost of living. Pretty impressed with this place. Seems like a hidden gem program.

Here are my 2 cents from the interview process for all the aspiring sports weenies. I had a great time on the trail. A lot of good people and good programs out there. Take this info with a grain of salt. I would agree with above that 10 interviews is probably enough. I went on 14 which was too much. My reviews are in stream of consciousness form, apologies. Keeping it positive on here, PM me if you have further questions. Programs listed in somewhat alphabetical order:

ASMI
6 Fellows. Very into the private practice model and will teach you the business side. 3 main attendings: Dugas, Cain, Emblom. Emblom does hip scopes and has 1 fellow with him at a time. Other 5 fellows work with Dugas, Cain who have a lot of cases going. Fellows note it is high volume and high autonomy. They will show you their case logs if you ask for them. Very into being a team doc with busy football coverage in the Fall. Fellows seemed happy.

Brigham and Women's
A lot of turnover when I was there. Latterman (cartilage guy) is coming from UK to head the program. Minas/Gommol/Higgins have left. The other new attendings seemed great and down to earth. Seems like they'll be solid once they rebuild.

Brown
Agree with above post. Fadale seems like huge fellow advocate.

Cleveland Clinic
3 Fellows. Mentorship model with 2 month rotations. No shoulder arthroplasty. Big on being a team doc. A lot of history with the program and they have a map showing all the sports coverage of alumni across the country. Kurt Spindler is here cranking out some research. Seemed like a good vibe between the attendings and the fellows. Cover Indians, Cavs, college/hs football. Prep for private or academic practice.

Iowa
Well described in above post. Wolf is the man. Younger attendings seem really cool as well.

Jefferson
3 fellows. All seemed happy. Cicotti is the man. Great sports coverage here with all major professional sports covered. Work with some private guys as well to get exposure to both academic and private practice. Shoulder arthroplasty and hip scopes covered. Seemed like good relationship between attendings and fellows.

KJOC
Just combined with SMOG. 9 fellows per year. Great LA pro coverage. Fellows say can be busy but not overbearing. Fellows seemed happy and had a positive impression of their experience. Probably one of the best if not the best alumni network. 9 rotations 3 months each that you repeat. El Attrache is the main guy here, easy to talk to and very smooth. Shoulder arthroplasty with Itamura. Arthrex lab on site which was cool. Fellows said you can use whenever you want.

MGH
Scott Martin is a hip scope guy and took over the fellowship. Fellows were very positive about him and said he is making a lot of positive changes. 3 fellows per year. Three 2 month rotations that you repeat. Cover Patriots with Price which all fellows said was great experience. Shoulder with JP Warner. 1 of the fellows just went to the superbowl with the patriots. Fellows seemed happy and seems like this place is improving.

Northwestern
1 fellow per year. A ton of flexibility with what you want to do. Liked this place a lot. Terry is the man and fellows generally work with him for 6 months and then do rotations with other attendings. Blackhawks coverage with Terry. Gryzlo covers cubs. Great hip scope with Terry. Open shoulder with Saltzman and Guido Marra. Terry seems like he would be a great mentor and really involved as a fellow advocate. Fellow was really happy and cool guy.

SCOI
5 fellows I think. Best social event on the trail. Attendings seems great and like a good cohesive group. Steve Snyder is here and still going strong. Some exposure to shoulder arthroplasty. Great hip scope exposure with Guanche. Good scope simulation lab. Strong sports foot and ankle experience with Ferkle is you are looking for that.

Steadman Hawkins - Carolina
4 fellows. Cool group. JT Tokish just left earlier in the year to head to Arizona. Other attendings seemed like a great group. All shoulder scopes lateral. Get good complex knee (cartilage, meniscus transplants, etc.) with Wyland. Kissenberth is the new fellowship director and seemed like a good guy. Strengths were shoulder (including arthroplasty) and complex knee (not a ton of multi-ligs). Very family oriented. Some college/hs football coverage. Possibly will start covering Clemson in future? Incredible wet lab. Greenville is a cool town.

UCONN
3 fellows. All seemed really happy. Balanced exposure clinical vs research. Prepare for both academic or private practice. Mazzocca and Arciero are great and seemed like great fellow advocates. PEDS rotation with Carl Nissen who seemed like a great guy as well. Cover UCONN athletics. Fellows said was a good experience and not overbearing. Great open shoulder and complex knee experience here and attendings seemed invested in fellow education.

UVA
3 fellows. All seemed happy. Reported good operative autonomy. Brockmeir, Miller, Carson all seemed great and got a good vibe from them all. Picked up former resident Gwathmey as their hip scope guy. Sports coverage is UVA/James Madison football. Nice facilities in chill college town. Overall great vibe from here.

Vanderbilt
1 fellow. Positively surprised by this interview. Keuhn is a huge shoulder guy. Cox is the fellowship director and seems like a great guy. Sullivan is former HSS fellow doing hip scopes. Seemed like more of an academic vibe here. A lot of flexibility to do what you want with the fellowship.

Bottom Line: a lot of fellows seemed happy at a lot of places. You'd probably be happy at a lot of places. Decide whats important to you in terms of academic vs private, location, case complexity, hip scopes, shoulder arthroplasty etc. and go from there.

My notes from last year (2017-2018):

OrthoCarolina

Attendings:
- James Fleischli – Director – Dartmouth, Baylor for MD, CMC for residency, ASMI
- Patrick Connor – Oklahoma State BS, Oklahoma MD, CMC residency, Columbia shoulder, Mayo elbow
- Dana Piasecki – Harvard BS, Vandy MD, HSS Residency, Rush fellowship
- Shadley Schiffern - Utah BS, U of Washington MD, Utah residency, Carrel Clinic S&E
- Durham Weeks - Duke BS, Vandy MD, HSS Residency/Fellowship. Hip scope – Trained under Brian Kelly at HSS and visited Switzerland

Operative Experience: Volume 550ish, good complexity, 50-70’ish total shoulders, good elbow numbers (fx, arthroplasty, scope, soft tissue), 40’ish hips with ability to do more, can customize certain months in second half of year based on interest, good complex knee, no F&A or joints, trauma on call, 40-60 multi-ligs in department yearly, operate in ASCs and hospitals, independent cases via Myers Park clinic

Didactics: Monday grand rounds or MM, Thursday AM didactic lectures, Friday - weekly sports medicine conference, research, cases, indications, or journal club, Arthrex wet lab in town, occasional cadaver lab but not scheduled weekly

Conferences: AAOS, S&N hip course, NFL combine, fellows cartilage repair course, Miltek arthroscopy forum, San Diego shoulder course, Arthrex fellowship forum

Research: OCRI, 1-3 papers per year, great resources but not overbearing, seem to publish average amount

Size/relationships: Mentor. 5 faculty with 3 fellows. True mentorship. Great relationships

Facilities: Top notch. Mix of ASC and hospital based ORs

Rotations: 4 week rotations with each attending to start then 8 week rotations, 4 weeks with hip, ability to customize, rotating Friday 1/2 days for Myers Park clinic – last Friday of the month for time to operate on these patients

Team Coverage: Panthers: 3 home games (split), can do aways if you want, cover Davidson and UNCC, high school assigned, overall good experience and not overbearing

Call: Pass off system. All paid. $250 per pass off night, call at Mercy and Presby paid ($1300/night if covering all 3, otherwise Presby $750 and Mercy $500), able to double salary $50 to $100,000, not overbearing

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Minimal travel, great lifestyle (call and coverage not bad), Charlotte A+ city

Misc: Cool fellows, all from good residencies, Myers Park clinic and ability for independent operative experience, unique "privademic" setting

Impression: Tier I program, newer (est ~2010) very good up and coming fellowship

Pros: Surgical experience – volume, complexity, true hybrid S&E, ample hips; call and $, coverage/research not overbearing, rotation flexibility, independent cases with MP

Cons: Minimal. Less academic name and faculty, small alumni network given new fellowship

Steadman Hawkins Carolinas:

Attendings:
- Kissenberth – Director
- Folk
- Geary
- Lonergan
- Siffri
- Tolan
- Wyland
- Have hired new prior SH fellow to spearhead research deficit left from Tokish leaving
- Hawkins around for some didactics but not clinical anymore

Operative Experience: Average 550 cases per year, 80'ish total shoulders, enough hips – easily > 50 with Folk - more if you need for your practice, great complexity overall. You’ll do total shoulders mainly with Kissenberth and Tolan, Wyland does a lot of complex knee (meniscal allograft, cartilage, HTOs, etc), Lonergan does everything, Geary/Siffri more general practice (no scheduled rotations with - available if you want to brush up on arthroplasty, etc). Multi-lig knees - have to go to Level 1 Trauma Hospital - will do 6-8/yr, all shoulders done lateral, ACLs anatomic with HS/BTB typically. Fair amount of flexibility in Spring to tailor your operative experience towards certain areas of sports or to gain exposure to other areas (F&A, total hip/knee refresher, etc)

Didactics: Montly block with weekly conference (lecture, cases, journal club, etc), monthly cadaver lab scheduled – can also get in lab as much as you want, dedicated employees for lab in house daily who can set up a specimen usually with industry rep present with a few days’ notice, monthly research meeting,

Conferences: Ample funding from GHS and Hawk foundation for any conference travel in addition to industry, go to a bunch of conferences in spring

Research: Voiced requirements: systematic review, original paper, video, 1-2 publishable papers. Realistically minimal with 1-2 papers per year minimum per fellows, not burdensome, plenty of support staff to assist

Size/relationships: 4 fellows, 6 core attendings. Very big on family and mentoring, creates great fellow-attending relationships and this carries for life via the Hawk Society

Facilities: Top notch clinic set up, the best state of the art wet lab I saw - in lab staff M-F to assist in bringing in cadaver specimens/implants/reps etc for you to practice procedures as much as you want.

Rotations: 6 2 month rotations, mentorship 100%, no resident crossover, minimal travel, operate all within 15-20 minutes of downtown Greenville (no traffic)

Team Coverage: Assigned a high school – home games only all within 30 minutes, N. Greenville college (DII) football, Greenville Drive minor league baseball, possible coverage of Clemson – GHS merged with private group who covers Clemson Tigers, Rockies spring training for 1 week, optional USC football coverage experience (Columbia, SC)

Call: Minimal. Cover your attending’s phone practice call whenever they are on (< 10 per year). Optional paid call at Easley Hospital (Level 4) for $600/weekday or $1000 per weekend night. Operate solo but do not bill for cases. Ability to nearly double salary (about extra $50K/yr)

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Minimal travel around town to clinics (< 20 minutes), Greenville great small city, great food and bar scene, outdoor friendly, small local airport, halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte, very family-oriented program, no traffic

Misc: Hawk Society incredibly impressive – big family feel, annual Hawk Society gathering in Hilton Head Island, Hawk Notes – email/internet-based forum where all alumni can communicate. Regularly they submit complex cases and get multiple opinions within hours, great for networking and job connections, Hawk Foundation endless support of program funding, program overall is very family oriented. Fellows seem to go private practice more than academic, good connections either way

Impression: Tier 1 Program, well established name, 3 prior ASES presidents

Pros: Great operative breadth and complexity (could use more multi-ligs), heavy shoulder experience, enough hips, Hawk Society/Foundation a huge plus, all faculty very friendly and close, great family feel to program, bioskills lab, Greenville great small city

Cons: Dr. Hawkins done, no major team sports coverage to date unless Clemson gets up and going, GHS now affiliated with USC in Columbia, SC under Prisma Health so optional football coverage in Columbia (weekends only), need more multi-ligs

Pittsburgh:

Attendings:
- Fu – Chairman - knee
- Mushal – fellowship director. Complex knee, shoulder
- Bradley – Steelers – shoulder, elbow, knee
- Mauro - hip
- Rodosky – Shoulder (open)
- Lin – Shoulder (open)
- Lesniak – shoulder/knee
- Vyas – Mix, hip
- Wright - Mix, hip

Operative Experience: Approximately 500 cases/year. Fellows comfortable with autonomy and volume. 30’ish total shoulders. Little elbow and F&A. Ample hip scopes. Strongest in knee. Good complexity throughout – not just bread and butter

Didactics: Top notch. Very structured. Weekly Monday PM attending led cadaver lab. Wednesday AM sports conference follow by grand rounds. Monthly MRI indications conference with MSK radiology

Conferences: Unlimited funding. Fellows frequently travel to 5+ conferences.

Research: Top notch resources, 2 papers/year requirement but could easily do more

Size/relationships: 5 fellows per year. Work with 9-10 faculty. Good attending mentoring relationships. faculty very connected and frequently in conferences/journals

Facilities: State of the art. 2 ASCs with 1 affiliated with Steelers/Pitt training facility.

Rotations: See prior review from fellow with detailed breakdown of rotations

Team Coverage: Steelers, Penguins, Pitt, Duquesne, Robert Morris. Chosen at beginning of the year. Less autonomy with professional teams. Falls busier than spring. No high school coverage. “Working 6 days per week” through fall sports

Call: Home phone call only, unpaid. Minimal

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Some travel to surgical center outside city based on rotation. Traffic average. Overall good lifestyle. Fall busy with coverage, spring lighter. No call burden. Minimal scut work – PAs do all rounding, scheduling cases, orders, etc. City solid B. Slow modernization and resurgence in Pitt. Still a very old feeling city with areas of abandoned houses. Cold winters, nice summers. Huge sports town. Activities usually center around sports and outdoors. Good restaurant scene, average bar scene. Locals very nice.

Misc: State of the art concussion clinic. Developers of the IMPACT testing. Spend several ½ days in concussion clinic on Friday. Also, spend some Friday afternoons working with PT clinic.

Impression: Tier I program now following previous restructuring of program

Pros: Huge/historic academic name and reputation, top notch faculty at national level, breadth of cases, high level coverage, best structured didactics

Cons: Could have more shoulder, coverage is burdensome – not guaranteed Steelers, Pitt as a city is average, no general call, recent history of international fellows by design?

UVA:

Attendings:
- Miller – Division head, Pitt fellow, complex knee
- Brockmeier- Director, Georgetown MD/res, HSS fellow, shoulder
- Carson – Harvard/HSS, general sports
- Diduch – Harvard/UVA/ISK, Vice Chair of Residency, head MD of UVA, shoulder/knee, complex knee, PF procedures
- Gwathmey – Harvard fellowship + Nashville for hips, hip surgeon
- Werner – UVA res, HSS fellow, shoulder, general sports, research director

Operative Experience: > 500 cases per presentation, 3 resident case logs provided showed 4-500 (20-30 hips, >40 TSAs), per residents enough hips likely more than 50 and very comfortable with shoulder. Cases done at ASC attached to hospital, some cases in main hospital. Overall volume seemed slightly lower. Divide rooms with residents – fellow gets first dibs, elbow/hand with Chhabra, F&A with F&A attending built in (sports only cases)

Didactics: Standard

Conferences: Standard

Research: 1-2 projects per year, ample resources, not burdensome

Size/relationships: 3 fellows, 6 faculty, good relationships with all attendings, mentorship

Facilities: Nice. Clinics and ORs inter-mixed with university and other specialties

Team Coverage: 2 assigned UVA football and 1 JMU, JMU fellow switches to UVA for winter, high school optional, overall did not seem overbearing

Call: None – cover trauma call on OITE and resident graduation, no phone call

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Nice, clean, pretty college town, small, minimal travel, low cost of living, fellows tend to live in townhouses, lots of culture, enough shopping, vineyards, outdoor activities, fun downtown, young city, not busy with call/coverage

Misc: Hand and F&A operative experience

Impression: Tier I-II program

Pros: Well-rounded fellowship, good operative experience – complex shoulder with hand/elbow and F&A. Good lifestyle – no call, coverage not cumbersome, academic attendings

Cons: Possibly lower volume, no pro sports, small town

Utah:

Attendings:
- Burks – head, senior attending, shoulder/knee
- Greis – shoulder/knee
- Tashjian – S&E WashU trained, heavy arthroplasty and revision
- Aoki – Hip, Peds (hip/knee),
- Maak – Jazz, Hip/Knee, complex knee, peds knee,
- Chalmers – S&E WashU trained, 70% scope 30% open, throwing elbow, 100% SE

Operative Experience: Per fellows 4-500 cases, good breadth and complexity, strong S&E with Tash and Chalmers, good elbow – Chalmers trying to build throwing elbow practice, strong hip with Aoki and Maak, able to customize the last 20 weeks of year based on practice, peds hip and knee (Aoki/Maak), no F&A, good autonomy per fellows with Greis and one other being more hands on

Didactics: Monday morning sports conference usually led by fellow case presentations (2x per block), Department GR (required), JC every other month, will have new state of the art wet lab opening our year

Conferences: 1-2 national conferences, more if research accepted

Research: Minimum requirement 1 paper, some fellows have done up to 5 in a year, encourage more, University setting with good resources, biomechanics lab with motion, lots of grant funding, Chalmers big push in research

Size/relationships: 2 fellows, mentorship model with no overlap with residents, 1:1 with attending per block, good relationships,

Facilities: Ortho Center where you spend 90% of your time (clinic and OR), ASC in center with 10ish ORs and 6 “inpatient” beds, remainder of cases at Peds/Shrine, occasionally Main

Rotations: 5 week rotations with each of the 6 attendings to start for 30 weeks, remainder of the year open for customization based on interest/practice, 1:1 with attending, no overlap

Team Coverage: U of Utah required as well as 1 assigned high school, split Utah coverage, Sunday training rooms during the fall, option to coverage as much or as little of the Jazz, minor league baseball available, cover Olympic athletes, overall not burdensome, some high schools more of a drive than others

Call: No trauma call, occasional phone call, can do in house overnight call (inpatient coverage, no ER) in the Ortho Center for the few inpatients for $3-400/night if you want

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Minimal travel for clinical work, everywhere within 15 minutes, great lifestyle – program not designed to be overbearing with call, research, and coverage, great city with something for everyone, skiing within 45 minutes, great for outdoors

Misc: Peds knee unique, heavy S&E

Impression: Tier I-II program

Pros: Operative experience – S&E, hip, peds; coverage pro/college and not burdensome, operative flexibility, academic attendings, awesome city

Cons: No general call, lower end case volume possibly?

Thomas Jefferson

Attendings:
- Ciccotti – Director
- 13 others

Operative Experience: 4 days per week. Approximately 6-750 cases with good complexity, variety, volume. 20-30 shoulder replacements – mostly in NJ, great hip scopes, elbow with Ciccotti, no peds, no F&A. Autonomy seemed appropriate. Minimal admin/paperwork. Usually fellow in 1 room, PA or resident in other. Work with many attendings so pros and cons of teaching multiple ways but learning curve to know how each guy does it.

Didactics: Weakness. Tuesday AM sports conference with 2 non-op fellows. Usually led by fellows (to include being lectured by non-op fellows). Occasional attending or MSK rads. 1 month will have journal club, other month will have cadaveric dissection (6 per year)

Conferences: Funding to travel wherever. Go to usual conferences

Research: Big push of the program. 5 projects minimum – 1 new project, continue 1 old, 1 systematic review, 1 VuMedi-like, 1 book chapter. Can be cumbersome especially in fall but huge research support staff

Size/relationships: 14 attendings, 3 fellows. Good relationships with 75% of faculty per fellows. 25% faculty so-so personalities. Not mentor-like given size

Facilities: Top notch. Work in about 5-7 hospitals/ASCs to include NJ so spread out and traveling

Rotations: Three 4 month rotations with 4-5 attendings each. Operate 4 days, clinic 1. Work with many attendings so pros and cons. Travel to 6-7 sites. 75% of travel within 10-20 minutes. 1 4 month rotation in NJ (50 minute drive). NJ rotation very good with majority of complex/open shoulder experience which the fellows feel is a real strength despite drive.

Team Coverage: Eagles – split 4 games, no combine but you do training camp. Phillies – split home games 5 ways and do spring ball in Clearwater, Fliers none yet and/or optional, 76’ers none yet but working on it. High school assigned and cover 5 games. Coverage of local schools like Villanova men/women basketball, etc. Heavy coverage overall but good broad experience with potential to be involved with 4 pro teams

Call: 1-2 days per month of practice phone call

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Cover many hospitals/surgery centers as above with travel differing daily based on attending. NJ travel for 4 months. Philly a great city with a lot to do. Busy up until November then coverage dies down – coverage can be burden, no call, no admin/skut/perioperative work

Misc: Majority of fellows of late seem to have been private practice

Impression: Tier II

Pros: operative experience, academic name, Philadelphia, coverage options

Cons: Didactics, many attendings, spread out and travel, heavy coverage but broad, research heavy

ASMI Birmingham:

Attendings:
- Jeff Dugas
- Lyle Cain
- Benton Emblom
- David Adkison
- New young hip preservation attending

Operative Experience: Very high volume, 6-750 cases, attendings do >3300 between 3 guys, great autonomy early, fellows competent by 6 months in as demonstrated during interviews, minimal to no shoulder arthroplasty or open shoulder, great hip scopes with Emblom, no F&A, no peds, some elbow?, all shoulders done lateral, ACLs done transtibial using HS and BTB

Didactics: Standard

Conferences: Standard

Research: 2 publishable projects, good infrastructure and resources, enough papers published by attendings, motion lab, a lot of baseball, elbow ucl

Size/relationships: 6 fellows, 4-5 attendings, very good relationships, mentor-like

Facilities: Top notch, minimal travel, highly efficient clinic/OR system

Team Coverage: Heavy. Cover Alabama, Auburn, Troy, and several other small colleges, high school football mandatory with lengthy travel to some + away game (some up to 2-3 hours), has put more guys into team coverage than any other program

Call: Phone call, minimal, no general call

Travel/Lifestyle/City: No vacation, Birmingham average small/medium sized city minimal to no travel, life very busy with coverage

Misc: 410 alumni, well connected in team coverage realm

Impression: Tier II-III

Pros: Operative volume, attending personalities, well-connected in team coverage realm

Cons: No shoulder, seemed like overall less complexity, bread and butter, heavy coverage with significant travel, no pros, no general call

WashU:

Attendings:
- Matava – Director
- Bogunovic
- Brophy
- Halstead
- Smith
- Wright

Operative Experience: Great volume, breadth, and complexity. 1-2 fellows so averaging 750 cases. A lot of flexibility to be in OR of choice given 1-2 fellows. Good open shoulder with Smith but mainly WashU S&E guys (Keener) for 2 months, average hip scope numbers – with hip preservation guys (Clohisy) for 1 month, peds hip with Nepple, F&A with Bogunovic, great elbow with Smith (scope, UCL, no arthroplasty) great autonomy early (WashU reputation)

Didactics: Friday weekly sports conference, weekly? cadaver lab on Thursday?, monthly journal club, overall well-organized and good quality

Conferences: Standard

Research: 1 publishable project per year – easy to do more. WashU very academic and countless resources and funding, involved with MOON, MARS, MeTeOR trials

Size/relationships: Small fellowship so you develop great mentoring relationships

Facilities: Top notch, 90% of time at 1 ASC

Rotations: ??? 2 month rotations, 2 months on S&E, 1 month on hip

Team Coverage: Weakness. Cover Blues (home only?) and WashU (D3 football). Not cumbersome

Call: Can take paid Level 1 at $350 per week day and $750 per weekend night. Paid in house Shriner call at $600/night optional. Otherwise none – no phone call.

Travel/Lifestyle/City: Minimal travel amongst facilities (90% as ASC), standard busier fall but overall call/coverage very reasonable. St Louis average city, nice in Western part of city, many neighborhoods, good food, enough to do. Low cost of living.

Misc: Few alumni given size, questionable connections

Impression: Tier III Program

Pros: Great operative experience, reasonable research, paid call optional, lifestyle

Cons: Small fellowship, minimal alumni network, weak coverage, unclear fellow track record, St. Louis average location

What's the latest on HSS' program?

Just finished interviews and wanted to post because I probably won't do it after I match. Also don’t want where I matched to change how I feel about a program. Things I looked for were autonomy, team coverage, and variety of cases. Those things will make you marketable and prepare you to be a junior attending

Tier 1
Rush: Listen to every other post on here. This is one of the best programs in the country, if not the best. It has everything you want, but if you don’t like research it’s probably not for you. Big names, good autonomy, and great pro team coverage. I didn’t get an interview at Vail but everyone says those two are the best and Rush definitely lives up to the name.

Pittsburgh: Storied program with big names. They do any and all types of research, but it doesn’t seem like they force the fellows to do a lot. Fellows do work hard though, and the didactics can be a little too much. Musahl seems awesome and would be a great mentor.

Kerlan-Jobe: Combined with SMOG this year. Big names just like above. Breadth of experience is great (cartilage, open shoulder, elbow, hip scopes). Team coverage is excellent although they lost the Lakers to UCLA. Operative experience is great with some attendings and below average with others. Still the best program on the west coast.

Tier 2
Jefferson/Rothman: Great team coverage with private practice type model. Volume and operative experience are really good but didn’t get a good feeling about their open shoulder stuff. As good as it gets for pro team coverage.

MGH: Came away impressed despite the reputation on the trail being bad. Fellows seemed really happy, and they both got to go to the Super Bowl with the Patriots. Open shoulder experience with JP Warner seems as good as anywhere.

Stanford: Big name with good research. Operative experience is somewhat hands off, especially with Safran. Team coverage is decent, especially if you cover the 49ers. You’ll be very well connected for jobs.

Tier 3
Northwestern: Interviewed a ton of people for 1 spot. Only resident so you get to make it what you want. Probably one of the best hip scopes experiences in the country. Cover Blackhawks and Cubs.

NYU: Very operative heavy with lots of autonomy if you can handle it. Minimal team coverage and not the most recognizable name in sports. But you will come out very well trained.

Baylor: 6 months in Houston and 6 months in San Antonio is kind of off putting especially with a wife and kids (although it would be with Burkhart).

Tier 4
UCLA

San Diego Arthroscopy

University of Colorado