SPORTS MEDICINE Fellowship Reviews - New

Thanks to all who reviewed

Anybody go anywhere else want to chime in? Trying to decide which interviews to go on and which to cancel.

I'll share my thoughts from this 2015/2016 interview season.

I'll start off with some general advice. Try to determine what type of program you are looking for before you apply to narrow down your list, or at least narrow down where you will accept interviews. Also, if you know you are not going to accept an interview, let them know well in advance. It's unfair to the program and to your co-applicants to hold off on declining an interview you know you cannot go to or don't want to go to.

1) Think about location: Major city vs. college town vs. small town/rural area.
2) Geographically
3) Along those same lines, think about your family situation, or if you're single could you really see yourself moving to a small town, etc.
4) Program reputation should be an obvious choice. Use your attendings and previous residents that have gone through this process are probably your best resource
5) Think about your goals for your own career. Do you truly want to practice in an academic setting, or are you just saying that to get interviews? A large majority will go into private practice, and there are a lot of great programs out there with no research requirements, and great operative experience
6) Limit your interviews to 10. Do yourself a favor and your co-applicants a favor. More than 10 is too many.

This year there were 42 unmatched positions, and I realize this fluctuates year to year, but everyone I met along the way and talked to after the fact matched at their #1 choice this year. I wish I had only gone on 8/9 interviews. It's easy to be a tuesday morning quarterback, but my best advice would be to apply broadly, and really try to gather as much information as you can about the places you are accepted to interview, and plan for 10 interviews at the most.

Important things I was looking for in a fellowship:

1) Academic Center/University setting
2) Reputation/Attendings
3) Research opportunities
4) Exposure to cartilage restoration
5) Exposure to complex open shoulder
6) Location
7) Sports team coverage

My top tier (had tough time deciding among these as my 1, 2, and 3. Would have been extremely happy at any one of them). No particular order:

University of Michigan: Rotations are set up as 6 week blocks I believe for the 1st half of the year with each of the attendings (Bedi, Miller, Wojtys, Carpenter) . The 2nd half of the year the fellows get to make their own schedule, which they were definitely looking forward to when we interviewed. Asheesh Bedi is currently the #1 researcher in orthopedics in terms of impact factor over the past few years. He was an incredible guy, I felt smarter after spending 15 minutes with him. He was incredibly down to earth and would be an amazing mentor. Bruce Miller reminded me of my favorite uncle. Just super nice guy, definitely took the time to read my entire application and was genuinely interested in getting to know me during the interview. I had heard great things about him and the program and he certainly exceeded my expectations. The resources and research opportunities at UM are unparalleled. They could come up with money for any project you wanted to do. They have engineering labs, motion sensor labs, basically anything you could want they already have or could design for research. Ann Arbor is a great college town. There is a very nice, quaint downtown area with great restaurants and bars that are away from the undergraduate campus and attract an older, business professional crowd. Sports coverage was awesome. The fellows split the football season with Michigan and Eastern Michigan. You travel to all away games with whichever team you are covering. Both fellows traveled to the Michigan bowl game in Orlando for the week. They were on the sidelines and in the training rooms, evaluating players on their own at practice and at games. They were truly an integral part to the treatment team. They also covered the Men’s Ice hockey team home games and each covered one other sports team. I think one did soccer and one did gymnastics. The coverage was a great experience, and not too much and fellow-appropriate level. They also had opportunities to travel with Dr. Miller to Brazil to cover US Rugby and I think New Hampshire to cover US Ski team. Great operative and clinical experience. Tons of ancillary staff, PA’s, research assistants, etc. They have a great primary care sports med program, so by the time patients get to their clinic, about 80-90% of them are actually getting surgery. I realize that isn’t necessarily realistic for when we will be starting in practice, but I think a positive in fellowship to see real pathology at a high volume. Great scope experience in the shoulder, knee, and hip. I have heard from my attendings who frequently teaches AANA hip courses that Bedi is one of the best hip arthroscopists around, and he does everything hip, shoulder, and knee. Great exposure to anything in the shoulder. The sports guys are the shoulder service at Michigan, so that was great. Limited cartilage experience. I would place this up among the top 10 programs in the country.

Brigham and Women’s: I think this program is different than your traditional sports program, and you get exposure to a ton of cartilage, complex shoulder, hip/knee arthroplasty, and trauma. The rotations are set up as 2 month blocks with 3 different rotations: Cartilage with Gomoll and Minas, Shoulder with Higgins, and Sports/Hip with Martin/Matzkin. This has one of the best, if not the best cartilage experience in the country. You have Gomoll, who trained with Brian Cole and has become one of the biggest names in cartilage restoration, and Tom Minas who has been one of the biggest names in cartilage for a while now. We spent some time with Gomoll at the interview who was a super nice guy and brilliant. He gave one of the best talks at the Academy in Orlando on current advances in cartilage restoration. Both have several text books, and frequently have people from all over the world coming to watch them operate. With that said, the current fellow said he gets a great operative experience with both of them. Higgins is one of most well known shoulder surgeons in the country. His typical day was 6-8 arthroplasty cases, that were a mix of straight forward primaries with complex revisions or complex bone loss cases. Other operative day is scope cases, Massive cuff tears, complex instability cases, open laterjet. This is the type of fellowship where you will see everything and be comfortable handling any problem in the shoulder when you are done. With Martin you get a great hip scope experience. He seemed like a huge advocate for his fellows, and he was already giving us advice at our interview for our future job searches. As of now, I don’t think there was an official rotation with Matzkin, though the other attendings frequently travel and I got the impression that the current fellow had done a decent number of cases with her when the others were out of town. She is more traditional sports, and big in women’s health and women’s sports injuries. We spent some time with her at the dinner and she seemed like an awesome mentor, and was fun to be around. You take some trauma call, though get paid very well, sounded like the fellow would do some bread and butter trauma cases (femur/tibia nails, hip fractures, ankles) when he covered a few weekends, but during the week rarely had to go in. Obviously the affiliation with Harvard is huge. Each attending has a mini research team and there are tons of opportunities to complete a number of projects. They all have huge outcomes databases established. Boston is an awesome city if you can handle the cold and snow. Sports coverage was decent. Pro Soccer with Martin. Assigned to a High school football team. I would consider this among the top 10 programs in the country.

Steadman Hawkins Carolina: While they are not affiliated with a large university (loosely share space with Clemson), the Hawkins’ foundation has seemingly endless resources and there are endless possibilities for research here. Tokish was a great person to be around. He was knowledgable, down to earth, fun guy to be around, and you could tell he is the perfect person to take over for Hawkins at this fellowship. Hawk was still doing some clinic with the fellows, and he will be a presence in the fellowship for as long as he possibly can. The Hawkin’s foundation is a great group to become a part of, they truly are like a huge family and Hawkins, Tokish, and any of the attendings would do anything for their fellows. This had one of the best pure sports operative experiences. Doug Wyland does a decent amount of cartilage procedures and was a great guy (check out the video of him in the NCAA wrestling championship on youtube). A very complete shoulder, knee, and hip experience. The sports coverage is a little lacking, they cover high school football, and I think a small D3 college. I was impressed with Greenville, it is a very quaint, small town. They definitely cater to the family life at this program. I would consider this among the top 10 programs in the country.

Other programs people seemed to like on the trail, and would consider among the “top 10”:
- Vail & Rush have been considered the premier sports programs for as long as I can remember, and I don’t think that will change any time soon
- Stanford & UConn I think have been on the rise for the past few years I would consider them in a similar category with my top 3
- HSS based on reputation alone, though I don’t know much about the fellowship
- SCOI & Kerlan Jobe have traditionally been great fellowships in LA
- Carolinas – Heard great things about it, and they have built an awesome private-academic business model in Carolina, so would be awesome environment to work in.

Other programs I really liked, and would have been happy to match at:

Northwestern: This program was the one that I did not know what to expect, though definitely impressed me the most at my interview. It’s a newer program, and I think will be among the top 10 programs in the near future. Being the only fellow is huge at this program. When Terry is in town, you spend a lot of time with him, and he was awesome guy to be around. According to the fellow, a great surgeon to learn from, very busy hip arthroscopy and sports practice. Also some shoulder and knee sports work. He travels a lot with the Blackhawks. Outside of working with Terry, the fellowship can basically be whatever you want it to be. You can spend time with Guido Marra and Saltzman who are big name shoulder guys, and you would get one of the best open shoulder experiences in the country working with them. We unfortunately did not get to meet Dr. Gryzlo at the interview, though the fellow said he’s a great guy and great shoulder/elbow/knee experience with him. The current fellow spent a decent amount of time with the Foot and ankle guys cause she will be doing that in practice. So it truly is tailored to what you want to make it. The sports team coverage was in my opinion the best in the country. Northwestern football training camp coverage so you get to know the players. Cover all the home games and had opportunity to cover some away games if you want to. Blackhawks coverage with Terry is as much as you want it to be. The current fellow had been to some of training camp and every home game. She was in the locker room, behind the bench, getting hands-on experience with the blackhawks players… awesome. If you’re interested in covering an NHL team in your career, this would be the fellowship to gain exposure to that and make connections to actually make that happen. Cubs coverage with Gryzlo is as much as you want. Current fellow was spending a week at training camp and planning to cover some games in the spring. US Soccer coverage with Terry, fellow was going to Canary islands for 10 days to cover a few games with the team. Gordon Nuber covers the Bears and is part of Northwestern, but he mainly works with the residents. It seemed like you could get to some of the Bears games if you wanted to, though the current fellow did not. The facilities at Northwestern were incredible. Brand new clinic space and surgicenter in the middle of downtown Chicago. Great area of Chicago to live in. Chicago is the best city in the country in the summers in my opinion. If you can get through the winter it is totally worth it. Affiliation with Northwestern university brings access to a number of research opportunities, and seemed like they had endless research money to work with. Also, the premier rehab facility in the country to coordinate projects with. I was fortunate to interview at a handful of programs I really liked, and this place could have easily been in my top 3. The difference for me was a little lacking with cartilage experience, and maybe a little heavy with hip arthroscopy.

University of Kentucky: I had heard great things about this program from previous residents interviewing, and they certainly met those expectations. Darren Johnson was an awesome guy and seemed like a huge advocate for his fellows and great mentor. He had an energy that would certainly be a great person to emulate in your career. It’s not surprising that he does more ACL’s than anyone in the country. Christian Latterman I also really enjoyed talking with. He was a fellow at Rush with Gomoll and also seemed brilliant and has become a huge name in cartilage restoration and especially patellofemoral work. He has a huge research database established and seemed like a great resource for getting your name out there. Same with Johnson with his ACL database. Scott Mair is mostly shoulder and was a super nice guy, and again had a great shoulder research database to put together some decent projects. Mary Ireland is well known throughout the sports world. I feel like her name pops up in my email every few weeks as a faculty member for some online webinar or vumedi event. She was down to earth, and seemed like a great mentor as well. They also brought on a younger hip scope guy who was not there for our interview, though it seems like they will be integrating him more into the fellowship in the near future. There was also a newer open shoulder guy that the fellows just started working with and I think will become a nice addition to the fellowship. The sports coverage was decent. The fellows get assigned for football to either U Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, or some other smaller college. The fellow assigned to U Kentucky seemed to be getting a great experience. He would swing by practice a couple days a week, and was an integral part of the treatment team. The only limitations to me were a little heavy with knee, though they are making changes/additions to add to the shoulder experience and hip scope experience. Lexington I’ve heard is a great town, though did not get to spend any time there outside of the interview.

Jefferson/Rothman: Ciccotti was a great guy, super nice, definitely a huge advocate for his fellows, very well liked and respected among the sports community. I think this is the most pure sports of the programs that I considered among my top half. You work with 10+ different attendings around the city, and the fellows seemed to really enjoy the different experiences. Great professional sports coverage. Fellows split up the Eagles home games, Phillies spring training and game coverage, 76ers and Flyers coverage I’m not sure how much the fellows get involved. Great research opportunities with Rothman institute. Lots of ancillary research support and databases that have been in place forever. Very limited shoulder arthroplasty experience, as the shoulder/elbow service covers all of those. Fellows seemed spread out around the city a little bit more than I expected, which could be perceived as good or bad. Get to see different surgicenters, work with different guys using different techniques, etc. Overall, great traditional sports program with great research opportunities and faculty in a nice major city.

I think I did a decent job of selecting programs to interview at and I liked them all for the most part. These are the other programs that I interviewed at, and I would’ve been happy to match at, though for either personal reasons or small reasons were at the bottom half of my list. In no particular order:

Steadman Hawkins – Denver: This program was a great traditional sports experience. Lots of bread and butter shoulder and knee arthroscopy. Great hip arthroscopy experience with Genuario. All of the attendings seemed like a great group to be around, similar to the group in Greenville, I felt like they were a big family. Definitely family-friendly program. Denver is an awesome city, and they certainly catered to the Denver lifestyle (finish early on Friday so you can get up into the mountians to ski for the weekends). The research opportunities were there, though did not seem like a big part of the fellowship. Limited cartilage experience. Decent shoulder arthroplasty and open shoulder experience. Great sports coverage and the fellows definitely got hands-on experience with the Broncos and Rockies. Sideline coverage for the Broncos, and got to go to combine, which I thought was a pretty cool unique experience. Rockies training camp and game coverage. Overall, great group of attendings, family-friendly, traditional sports case load.

UT Houston/Baylor: UT Houston and Baylor are a combined fellowship. Dr. Lowe was a great guy, great energy to be around, tons of ACL’s and revision ACL’s with him. Harner was just transitioning in when we interviewed so should be a nice addition when he gets going. They also brought in a stem cell research lab that is collaborating with Vail research institute could lead to some huge advancements in the near future. All of the attendings we met seemed great. Fullick is a pretty busy open shoulder arthroplasty/revision arthroplasty guy that is becoming a bigger part of the fellowship. We didn’t get to meet Adickes, though heard he is an awesome guy. Decent research opportunities, though historically not a big part of the fellowship, I think that will change with Harner coming in and the fellows will have more opportunities for research. Probably the most sports coverage of any program, though it’s also split with Methodist program. Great professional coverage: Texans, Rockets, Astros. Also cover University of Houston Football and Basketball. Also, each fellow assigned to a high school football team. They were just coming off football season when we interviewed so it seemed like they were doing a lot, but lots of fellows to split up the coverage with. They are definitely building a premier sports fellowship in Houston and are up and coming. I didn’t see myself moving to Houston, that’s why this fell down my list, though the program itself had nearly everything I was looking for, except lacking cartilage compared to some of the others.

San Diego Sports Medicine: This was one program that I had a tough time getting a good read on during my interview. The fellows seemed a little spread out with different private practice groups around San Diego. Decent bread and butter sports experience and decent open shoulder arthroplasty experience. You have the opportunity to work with Bugbee for cartilage restoration cases, but the current fellows didn’t seem to have any interest in doing that so couldn’t tell us much about it. I know pay shouldn’t be a consideration, but they pay $45K to live in San Diego, which seemed a little unreasonable. Sports coverage was assigned a high school football team. They also had some loose affiliation with the Chargers, though obviously that may change in the near future. Overall, get to live in San Diego, decent shoulder arthoplasty experience and traditional sports.

Andrew’s Gulf Breeze: Being affiliated with Andrew’s is huge and for as long as he is around this will be considered a premier fellowship and he knows people all over the country and can help you get a job pretty much any where. As it stands now, he is still fairly busy, a majority of his practice is just professional athletes at this point, though the current fellows seemed to get a very good hands-on operative experience with him. The other attendings all seemed like great guys as well. Sports coverage depended on who’s rotation you were on. Auburn football with Andrew’s seemed like a great experience to travel on the private plane and be on the side lines. The other fellows covered high school football, and some were fairly long drives. So the coverage can be good or bad. Gulf Breeze would be a nice beach town to spend a year in for sure. Tons of research opportunities through the Andrew’s foundation. Overall, great traditional sports experience and decent open shoulder arthroplasty experience with a couple of the attendings.

Ohio State: Very well rounded program. Kaeding is great guy, very well known and well liked in the sports community. Flanigan does a decent amount of cartilage work and is working to make that a bigger part of his practice. Julie Bishop does pretty much anything in the shoulder and seemed like a great mentor. They are opening a brand new sports med facility next fall which will hold the clinics and out-patient surgicenter, which should be awesome. Great research opportunities and ancillary support through university. Access to engineering labs, sports performance labs, etc. Sports coverage is obviously heavily involved with OSU football. Also cover men’s hockey and basketball. Seemed like a decent amount of fellow-appropriate sports coverage and they were very much a part of the treatment team. Overall, I think this is a well rounded, up and coming program and will continue to improve, especially with the new facility opening this year.

Hello everyone,

Any insights or thoughts regarding the programs in NYC except HSS (NYU/Lenox/Columbia)? Reading all posts from previous years, It seems there is not enough info out there....

Sharing your thoughts will be appreciated...

Having been through the match I wanted to add my thoughts as well.

Firstly there is no perfect fellowship and each one will have strengths and weaknesses. Find the one that will suit your goals and learning style the most.

Somethings to consider:

1) What is your final career goal academic vs. private practice?

If you are considering a private practice in my opinion you should focus on high volume centres which will give you independence. Research and publications may not be as high a priority.

2) Interest in research

Some fellowships require a certain number of publications per year and have the infrastructure to support it. Others are more open and self directed. Look at the attendings at the sites and see who is prolific in academics - they will help you achieve your goals.

3) Big name "factory" fellowship vs. smaller "mentoring" fellowships

May fellowships take 6 or more fellows per year. In that type of setting it is difficult to get mentored and you are just one of many. Consider if the name (HSS/PITT) is worth the trade off. For some it may be and for others it may not.

4) Location

5) Operative volume and independence

Many fellowships run two rooms simultaneously and the fellow is given significant independence as their training allows. Taking the step towards independent practice and operating is an important aspect of fellowship.

6) Team coverage - collegiate vs. professional

Firstly is team coverage something you are interested in. If so find out how you will be involved specifically. Many fellowships that offer professional sports coverage have the fellows do very little other than observe. However mentioning that you were involved with professional teams looks good on your CV. Coverage of collegiate sports often allows for much more hands on learning from the fellow but the tradeoff is a lack of pro team recognition.

7) Number of co-fellows

The more co fellows you have the less individual attention and mentoring you may receive. look into this as you make your decisions.

8 ) Structured teaching

Some fellowships offer structured weekly teaching with planned topics and lecture series. Others are more self directed. Find out what your learning style is and find a fellowship that fits!

9) Exposure to all aspects of arthroscopy (hip, knee , shoulder, etc) or just a few joints. Open operative experience?

Is hip arthroscopy something that you will want to do in your practice? many fellowships do not offer it. similarly look at open operative experience (TSA, reverse etc) if you want that in your practice.

10) Reputation of attending - particularly important if considering academics - you will want someone to help boost your career

Finding someone who will mentor you, help your career and be available to collaborate on is critical particularly if you are trying to work your way up the academic ladder. Find someone interested and vested in you - often those who have peaked have little interest in furthering your career. Also a mentor should be someone you can bounce cases off once you are done if you need to get their thoughts.

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My thoughts on some of the Top schools

Michigan - Easily one of the top fellowships in the country. Asheesh Bedi is a superstar in the sports research world and will boost anyone considering an academic career immensely. Get excellent shoulder, hip, knee elbow with him. Excellent hands on experience with shoulder and knee with Bruce Miller. All the staff are very friendly and give significant independence. Tons of funding for any projects and research. Team coverage for the Michigan wolverines is high profile and involved and fellows travel with the team. As mentioned rotation is split up for first half of the year between attendings and second half of the year is flexible based on what you are interested in. Fellows run independent training rooms for all UM and EMU athletes. Excellent mentoring with limited number of fellows. Well organized case conferences and journal clubs. Must check out this place! 2 fellows per year.

Pitt - Pitt is in transition with some of the big name staff having left and Musahl working to revitalize. Previous fellows have said team coverage can be at times overly burdensome and operating with Fu can be challenging. However big name sports coverage. Good operative volume with significant complex knee. Excellent organized teaching schedule.

Stanford - Incredible location and name! Limited research potential if thats important to you. Staff are very friendly but seems like Safran is more hands on. Case load is lower than others and primarily bread and butter cases with minimal complex / open experience. Great cadaver arthroscopy lab!

HSS - Another big name school in transition and have not been filling fellowship spots recently. Great pro coverage. Factory style fellowship however with limited/no mentoring. Location amazing. Excellent organized teaching schedule and weekly MRI rounds. Great operative experience with big name sports leaders - Kelly, Altchek, etc. One of the top ranked schools overall despite the recent troubles.

SCOI - High volume, limited/no academics, great location. Snyder limits operative experience. SCOI classroom although highly discussed and promoted by the staff is crap.

Mayo - Relatively new program. hands off fellowship and take only one fellow. General feeling is that it still needs time to mature.

Harvard - Heard very poor things about this fellowship and now Provencher is gone. Seems like a poor training environment for now.

My priorities:
1. training at a program with great hands on "fellow doing the case" type experience
2. complex case load including as much open shoulder experience as possible
3. impression that faculty would be great mentors/people
4. getting multiple papers published or sports coverage would not be prioritized over my surgical skill and clinical knowledge development.

Other factors such as location, doing pediatric cases etc also had an influence.

I interviewed with a lot more programs than necessary (one home program, one offsite at Academy meeting), but don't regret the experiences and expenses except for maybe one or two programs.

My Top Tier in no particular order:
Steadman Clinic Vail - Unmatched combination of opportunities - world class faculty, amazing research database without burdensome research requirements, probably best supported biomechanics/cadaver lab, arthrex lab 5 minute walk away, big name, location/ski pass, international travel for US ski team coverage with limited other sports coverage requirements. Current and previous fellows very positive about program. Questions: high ratio of fellows to faculty, fellows may not operate as independently as at other places.

Steadman Hawkins Carolina - Hawk is the man, and definitely felt like this fellowship would bring you into the Hawk professional family. Tokish is the Vince Vaughn of Sports Medicine. Seemed to have great faculty overall, operative experience, research facility/support.

UVA - I really liked the faculty here during my interview interactions, has a great reputation of producing alumni in academic programs, UVA/JMU sports coverage, one of the top operative exeriences, in great college town of Charlottesville. Overall matched my priorities well.

UConn - What stood out about UConn were the great people. Hard to beat having Arciero, Mazzocca, Fulkerson, DeBerardino etc as mentors (although DeBer has now left). I think has one of the best operative experiences as far as hands on, complexity, and variety including probably the best peds experience outside of a designated peds sports fellowship. College sports coverage. Solid research facilities and support. Current fellows were great to hang out with and very positive about experience.

Other programs I interviewed at in no particular order:
Northwestern - newer 1 fellow program that surprised me - great personality of faculty, overall seems like great training and opportunities with probably the most flexibility to be tailored to what the fellow wants to do.
UCLA - historically a top program but I wasn't convinced that I would get the hands on experience I was looking for
San Diego Arthroscopy - Seems like solid program, more private experience. I was concerned about high number of faculty that the fellows work with limiting their comfort with fellows' independence/hands on experience. Location fantastic, low salary and high cost of living not so much.
USC - Somewhat surprised by this program as well - really like some of the faculty, get good mix of private and county/complex/independent experience. USC coverage a cool perk, but wasn't excited about batteling traffic for training room coverage.
Santa Monica - For whatever reason my high expectations for this program (I though may well be in my top tier) were not quite met by my impressions on the interview day. Still a solid private type program in great location that had a lot of what I was looking for.
UHZ - Solid private type program with a lot of professional and high school sports coverage. Great location. I generally liked the faculty, but had questions about hands on operative experience.
Oschner - Had a fantastic interview day/night experience (a good deal due to New Orleans and our interview group), solid program overall.
Tria - Interviewed here due to strong recommendations, but the interview day did not sell me; interview rooms were "topic oriented," and this was not a preferred location for me.
Tahoe - Higher mix of general ortho cases (~50%) than any other place I interviewed at - not what I was looking for in fellowship year even though this will likely match what my initial practice looks like. Too bad, would have been fun to be in Tahoe for a year.
NE Baptist - Solid program with some big names, but quality of faculty across the board and facilities were lacking compared to other programs.
Active Lifestyles - Dr. Plancher seemed like great guy to work with, but I had reservations about scope of training, travel, and history of not matching fellows.
Emory - Solid program on the rise with great personalities. Main limitation in past was case breadth/complexity, but have added faculty that have greatly improved this. Great sports coverage of D1 and NFL (including traveling with teams) without excessive commitments.
New Mexico - Somewhat surprised with this collection of great faculty so invested in fellow and resident education in the middle of nowhere. 2 hour van tour of Albuquerque did not help sell the program, but I think you could get a very good training here.

Now that match is over, I wanted to include my notes to help future applicants. Do to family/ personal reasons I only applied to the East Coast with a heavy preference on the North East. As many people said before me, I think that going on 10-12 interviews in plenty. I was invited to 16 programs and went on 12 and even that was tiring by the end.

Everyone's match list will look a little different based on personal preferences/ professional goals. But I recommend taking notes as you go along because the interview process is long and it is easy to forget the little things that you liked about places when you are finally sitting down to make a rank list and haven't thought about a place for 2 months.

Good luck and if you have any additional questions, feel free to PM me. Programs are listed in random order.



UPenn

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
2 fellows per year, salary ~70K, not sure about vacation, two rotations, three months each and repeat.

Attendings:
Four adult attendings and two pedi ortho guys, all amazingly nice people, also work with a Shoulder/ elbow surgeon during a portion of a block. Each block includes two adult guys and one Pedi guy. One do about 3.5 days in OR and 1-1.5 days in office with a 0.5 day of research a week as well. Dr. Sennett is incredibly polished and a really nice guy. Interview invites are sent by him and personalized to each applicant. He has perfected the rotations so that he can maximize the fellow experience without an overlapping between fellows and residents. Dr. Kelly is incredibly approachable and a true comedian. Amazing. Dr. Carey is one of the world's foremost cartilage experts. Dr. Zgonis is a new addition and is building an amazing stem lab. On the peds side you work with Dr. Ganley and Dr. Wells, who are both world class pedi ortho surgeons.

Operative Experience:
Amazing variety of cases including open shoulder, peds, cartilage, HTOs, multi-ligs. This is probably the most complete operative experience of any of the places that I interviewed. Mentorship model with progressive autonomy, wet lab with semi-monthly didactics, amazing facilities. The fellows are extremely happy with their variety of cases and level of autonomy. They both thought that the pedi ortho cases help to fully round out their operative experience.

Lab/Research:
Cartilage lab, pressure plate sensors, huge research team, ability to do about anything. 3 projects required including a basic science project.

Team Coverage:
Cover Penn football (both fellows together) for home games and closeby away games, also cover some high school football. Additionally pick two other sports of your choosing and cover those. No Pro coverage.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Philly is nice and the resources that Penn has is amazing. The fellows were some of the happiest that I met and no wonder why. I honestly cannot believe that more people have not been talking about this program. Apparently there was a split between Penn and Aria in the past, but this program is building toward being the best in country in my opinion.

Other Perks:
Can do overnight moonlighting for $1000/ shift. Go to three conferences (pre-fellow course, academy, and sports conference). Incredible didactics. The program is perfectly well rounded. Only thing that it doesn't have is pro-coverage if that is your thing.



Lenox Hill

Overall (number of fellows, etc)
4 fellows per year. Four 6 week rotations (Nicholas; Lenox Hill; NJ; Long Island) and repeat. Salary 78K per year. Need a car due to rotations. 4 weeks of vacation. No call. Ability to moon-light if interested

Attendings:
Great variety. Stephen Nicholas is now director and has decreased the number of attgs that get fellow coverage and is pushing the mentorship model.

Operative Experience:
Great variety of cases depending on the rotation. Exposure to open shoulder, shoulder arthroplasty, elbow, hip scopes, etc. They are doing multi-lig and meniscus transplants but more rare. Fellows have ability to leave other rotations to see interesting cases.

Lab/Research:
1 publishable paper as requirement. Present work at 2 local conferences. They have a bio-mech lab and a brand new motion sensor lab. Plenty of research support and residents etc available. Definitely have an interest in research but not a major focus. No designed research block/ day but plenty of available time during rotations to get projects completed.

Team Coverage:
Coverage of Jets (Montgomery and Willis) and Islanders (Neri). Ability to cover portion of season due to rotations. With Jets cover training camp/ preseason, on-field with team, travel to away games, Monday locker room. All fellows go to NFL combine. Also cover local high school football teams. Cover local college hockey. Free tickets to Jets, Rangers.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Upper East side Manhattan, multiple locations in city plus Long Island and Morristown, NJ. Need car. Lifestyle is amazing. Fellows were super close group and seemed to be loving life. Salary is higher than most to offset NYC living.

Other Perks:
Attend at least 4 courses/ meetings per year plus access to more if desired. Cadaver lab at NYC Surgery center and at Morristown. Monthly cadaver lab with residents/ attgs. Weekly journal club. Weekly indications conference. Lots of access to free food. Mileage for travel to “away” sites is reimbursed including tolls.



NYU

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
2 fellows per year. ~75K per year. Two rotations, 3 months each and repeat. 4 weeks of vacation. No call except occasional phone call coverage. Can make extra money by covering extra football games, Saturday OR

Attendings:
Great variety. Two rotations, each made up of multiple surgeons. Youm for hip scopes. Strauss and Jazrowi for cartilage. Not a ton of open shoulder but can switch with the Shoulder/Elbow fellow and get those cases. Can cover interesting cases with other attgs when available.

Operative Experience:
Seems like they give you the autonomy that you can handle. If you are good, you can run your room while they scrub in the other room with the resident. Great variety of cases from bread-and butter to complicated. A lot of exposure to HTOs/ multi-lig/ cartilage cases. Great number of attgs to cover. Not too many, not too few. Seems that chief resident dictates the case coverage so this could be a big negative.

Lab/Research:
They have a research machine in place that helps pump out paper. Requirement is 1 publishable paper, 1 review article, 1 education video. Fellows do a ton more. Have a great driving sim lab

Team Coverage:
NYU sports, Long Island college sports, female hockey team

Location/ Lifestyle:
East side NYC, two hospital locations that are close together.

Other Perks:
Attend AAOS, AANA, other conferences. Cover NFL combine with Jaguars due to connection with previous NYU alum. Large network for job placement, etc.



Jefferson/ Rothman

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
3 fellows per year, 4 weeks of vacation, salary ~66K per year, three rotations for 4 months each, travel to NJ/ Atlantic City for one rotation. Minimal phone call coverage. Didn’t discuss moonlighting but likely available

Attendings:
Cover ~14 attendings, rotations are split up into coverage of 4-5 attgs for each block. Ciccotti is an amazing guy, very friendly, very polished. Frederick is a cool guy. All of the attendings get along well with one another and stayed at the social hanging out with one another after we left.

Operative Experience:
3 main rotations including a rotation in NJ. Do about 1 day of office per week. The rest of the time is spent operating or at training room. Great variety of cases from HTOs, cartilage, open shoulder, hip scopes, elbow, etc. Maybe lacking slightly in multi-lig but otherwise extremely well rounded. Fellows are happy with the exposure and operative experience.

Lab/Research:
5 research projects required including one original project. Large research team including multiple PhDs. Work with Drexel Biomechanics lab if desired. Don’t have designated research day but time is easy to find per fellows.

Team Coverage:
Rothman covers all of Philly pro sports (Eagles, Phillies, 76ers, Flyers). Fellows split coverage of Eagles games and do Phillies game about 1 every 1.5 weeks. Cover Eagles training camp. Also cover Villanova women basketball. Solo coverage of St Joseph sports/ training room. If professional coverage is your thing, this program cannot be topped by any other program out there.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Philly is great place. Also one rotation in NJ for four months. Fellows were happy other than extended training camp coverage during football season which can stretch on at times.

Other Perks:
Awesome didactics at Rothman and through connections with UPenn. Attend multiple courses. Attendings are well connected and Jefferson is only increasing in notoriety.



Union Memorial

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
4 fellows per year, 4 three month rotations with primary surgeon four days per week. Also cover some foot cases with Guyton, hip scopes and other surgeons. Salary ~65K, not sure about vacation. Spend one rotation in DC.

Attendings:
Cover four main attgs. Seem to get great variety. Can cover shoulder and elbow cases with other attgs. Douoguih is awesome and doing ACL repairs. True mentorship model.

Operative Experience:
Good variety of bread and butter plus intermittent exposure to everything else. Cover office about two times per week.

Lab/Research:
Awesome biomechanics Lab with great potential. Only need one project. Full faculty support. Probably less research assistant/ student support.

Team Coverage:
MedStar now covers Ravens, Wizards, Orioles, and Capitals. Also cover Lacrosse and local colleges. Fellows cover colleges and split Ravens games. Also can cover Wizards if on rotation in DC. All fellows go to the NFL combine.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Baltimore is what you make of it. Personally I love Baltimore, but many have other opinions. Have to spend three months in DC but worth it - they provide you with housing in DC.

Other Perks:
Cadaver/ scope lab is great. Great didactics.



Brown

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
1 fellow per year, 2 weeks of vacation, 70K per year, other opportunities for supplemental income, one rotation for entire year

Attendings:
Work mainly with four attgs and split time during the week with them. Mainly in OR four days and office one. Also do Brown clinic 3 times per week after OR. Attgs each have a different focus and have great variety. Do a lot of multi-ligs, cartilage, HTOs. No real exposure to elbow/ shoulder arthroplasty/ UKAs/TKAs.

Operative Experience:
Incredible autonomy based out of a true mentorship model. Can run own room once comfortable. Do cases at VA and clinic cases with resident without attg.

Lab/Research:
Amazing lab research materials and biomechanical lab. World class researchers with plenty of projects. Only have to do one project. Have to give a weekly talk on Tuesdays but can get powerpoints from previous fellow.

Team Coverage:
Cover Brown sports and Providence Bruins. Travel with Brown football. Cover Providence Bruins home games. Also do Brown sports clinic 3x per wk after OR.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Providence is nice. 1 Hr from from Boston. Cheap cost of living. Seems like nights can be busy because of coverage/ clinic.

Other Perks:
Get paid for VA clinics. Also can do Saturday clinic for $$$. New Surgery Center opening in late 2017 which will be great.



UMass

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
Two fellows per year. 70K per year plus paid for covering games. Three weeks of vacation. Split into five week rotations with one attending. Mentorship model with graduated autonomy.

Attendings:
Five attending's. Cover a variety of different focuses. Hip scopes, elbow scopes, ankle scopes, total shoulders, total elbows. All seem like nice people. Fellow covers that one attg for five weeks both in the OR and office. Not many HTOs or cartilage. Minimal multi-ligs as well.

Operative Experience:
Mentorship model. Fellows said that the attendings let you operate more as you get more comfortable with their methods/ techniques. They let you operate by yourself by the end. Lacking complex knee cases.

Lab/Research:
1 project. No research team. Some clinic research possibilities but no real basic science. No dedicated research day.

Team Coverage:
Red Sox training camp, cover local baseball and college/ high school sports.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Cheap cost of living. ~45 mins from Boston. Out by 3pm most days.

Other Perks:
Get paid for covering games. Also get to go to a bunch of courses. Also get book money. the fellows were very happy. This program seems very underrated.



Andrews - Gulf Breeze

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
6 fellows per year (4 accredited, 2 unaccredited. Salary 50K. No vacation. 6 two month rotations, with Dr. Andrews for 4 months but seem to be two fellows with him at a time.

Attendings:
Dr. Andrews is obviously the major draw of this program. He is extremely nice and personable and stresses professionalism and focuses on the patient first. He says that he has no plans on stepping down/ retiring as long as he health is good. The other attendings are all extremely nice as well. Dr. Jordan was just brought in from Florida State and he seems like a great addition.

Operative Experience:
Good variety of cases and patient populations. Elite level athletes with Dr Andrews to everything else with other attgs. Lack of hip scopes but that is improving as you get to operate more with Dr. Anz. Fellows were all very happy with the autonomy that they were given even with Dr. Andrews.

Lab/Research:
Require one major research project. They have a new stem cell lab. Also have a biomechanics lab and motion analysis center. Good research faculty to assist with projects.

Team Coverage:
Everyone covers a high school football team and can have to travel >1.5hrs away on Fridays. College football cover is split up with two fellows covering a team (Auburn, Tuskegee, Western Florida). Also can cover Redskins games on Sunday if desired. No other required coverage after football season.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Gulf breeze is incredibly beautiful and surprisingly cheap. Have most Fridays off for research (at least the afternoon). No vacation but plenty of free time around holidays/ if your attg takes a vacation while on service.

Other Perks:
Connection to Dr. Andrews is invaluable. Interaction with many pro athletes. Training faculty on site for college players preparing for combine. Everything located in one central place so no traveling for rotations.



Ohio State

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
2 fellows per year, salary 60K, 3 weeks of vacation. Six week rotations with 4 core faculty.

Attendings:
Great variety of faculty members. Shoulder/ Elbow trained attendings are part of the rotation as there isn’t a shoulder/ elbow fellowship. Mentorship model with each attending. Split of clinic and OR. Everyone was very nice. Awesome variety of focuses. Very well rounded.

Operative Experience:
Excellent variety of everything including elbow, open shoulder, hip scopes, ankle, cartilage restoration, etc. Mentorship model with graduated autonomy. This program has it all.

Lab/Research:
Biomechanics and motion sensor labs. No big push for research but plenty of resources to do some good work.

Team Coverage:
Ohio State football plus hockey, basketball if desired. Also cover some DIII sports especially football. Do not travel with football. Cover practice 2x per week when on Kaeding rotation.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Columbus is a small town with low cost of living. Fellows were happy.

Other Perks:
Brand new Sports medicine building with surgery center/ clinics. Facilities overall were incredibly nice. Honestly this was one of the most well-rounded programs that I visited. The attgs are great and the case variety is perfect. Ohio State sports are elite and you get great autonomy in the OR. The biggest downside for me was moving to Ohio, so it dropped a bit on my list but otherwise is a top tier program.



Aria 3B

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
2 fellows per year, 2 weeks of vacation, salary ~66K, two 3-month rotations and repeat, phone call coverage weekly

Attendings:
Bartolozzi, Miller, and Morgan. All seem like great guys. Morgan consults for a number of different baseball teams and seems to really know his way around the shoulder/elbow. Miller seems awesome. Does shoulder arthroplasty weekly. Also does cartilage work. Works out of Cooper. Bartolozzi is nice guy and does basic Ortho sports.

Operative Experience:
Seem to get a good breadth of basic orthopedics. Lacks volume in multi-lig and HTOs. Uncertain of amount of autonomy but could be fellow dependent. Opportunities for hip scopes with other attgs but fellows haven't been able to do that yet.

Lab/Research:
Requirement of one paper. Have to be proactive. Attgs have ideas but no support staff to push it forward. One full day a week off for research.

Team Coverage:
Cover US soccer when in town. Also cover college football at Rowan and West Chester. No pro teams.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Main practice is located in great area in Philly. Also have to travel to Delaware and Cooper. Fellow have a lot of free for research, etc.

Other Perks:
Monthly cadaver lab in Baltimore at Union Memorial, multiple courses



Penn State

Overall (number of fellows, etc):
1 fellow, salary ~68K per year, 3-4 wks of vacation, six week rotations with each of 4 attgs and repeat

Attendings:
Currently 3 attgs but adding a fourth guy this year. Variety of cases covered including trauma and joints in addition to sports cases. All were very nice and down to earth.

Operative Experience:
Spend 6 weeks following each surgeon in OR and office. Can cover other attgs if interesting cases are happening. Lack of HTOs, multi-ligs, cartilage work. Do get exposure to hip scopes, ankle scopes, open shoulder, elbow.

Lab/Research:
There are resources for research but wasnt a focus. Only one project during the year.

Team Coverage:
Cover Penn State sports. Home football games and any other sports that you want to cover.

Location/ Lifestyle:
Small town, cheap living, not overly crazy work requirements. Q5 backup call (come in to operate). Also help to round since there aren’t residents. No built in moon lighting experience

Other Perks:
Notoriety of Penn State name.