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Rotations

Throughout your five years, you will be exposed to the entire spectrum of general and orthopaedic sub-specialty rotations. Rotations are structured as both service and mentorship based, exposing you to both high volume surgical services as well as focused and progressive instruction from a single preceptor. PGY-1 Orthopaedic Surgery rotations are 6 weeks and General Surgery rotations are 4 weeks in length for a total of 10 rotations. PGY-2 through PGY-5 rotations are 6-7 weeks in length for a total of 8 rotations a year.

Year 1 Rotations

Orthopaedic Service (6-7 weeks each):

  • Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH) - General Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
    • During this rotation you will be the primary consult resident at Pennsylvania hospital with early exposure to common orthopaedic consults in the emergency and inpatient setting. This is also a mentorship model Sports Medicine rotation with Dr. Miltiadis Zgonis, the team physician to the Philadelphia 76ers, and see patients in the clinic and operating room with sports related injuries and learn basic knee and shoulder arthroscopy technique.
  • Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) Elective Rotation
    • During this rotation you will be the primary inpatient caretaker to the elective post-operative patients at PPMC along with our team of inpatient APPs. You will see post operative adult reconstruction, spine, shoulder patients and guide them through their hospital stay. You will join the residents for these services in the operating room when able.
  • Trauma Intern
    • During this rotation you will the primary inpatient caretaker of the very busy Trauma service. You will get early consult experience with the PGY-2 in the emergency department and trauma bay seeing high acuity traumatic injuries and learn basics of reduction, splinting, and bedside procedures.
  • Nights
    • During this rotation you will cover the elective and trauma service patients overnight and gain consult experience with the PGY-2 and PGY-3 on overnight seeing

General Surgery Service (4 weeks each)

  • Trauma
    • During this rotation you will be a junior resident on the General Surgery Trauma Service. You will be performing the initial advanced trauma life support survey for all patients who come through Trauma Bay at PPMC and gain experience assessing and managing of patients with traumatic injuries.
  • Plastic Surgery
    • During this rotation you will be a junior resident on the plastic surgery service at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. You will gain experience in the operating room with the plastic surgery residents and attendings learning techniques of wound closure.
  • Surgical Intensive Care (SICU)
    • During this rotation you will be assigned to the Surgical ICU at the Pavilion at HUP taking care of critically ill surgical patients. You were how to assess and manage complex postoperative patient and the basics of surgical critical care.
  • Surgical Hospitalist Co-Management
    • During this rotation you will be assigned to the hospital surgical comanagement service at PPMC. You will learn how to manage active and chronic medical pathologies in the postoperative orthopaedic patient. Most residence study for and take the USMLE step 3 on this rotation.
  • Emergency Medicine
    • During this rotation you will be assigned shifts in the emergency department at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. He will learn the assessment and management of emergency patients and are able to assist the orthopedic consult resident when they are seeing patients in the emergency department.
  • Surgical Skills
    • During this highly popular rotation you will be able to join senior residents in the operating room for early operative exposure. You will have didactic and surgical skill training at the human tissue lab. You will learn in the basics of operative techniques including anatomy, exposure, dissection, soft tissue management, hardware utilization, and wound closure.

Year 2 Rotations

  • Trauma (2 rotations)
    • During this rotation you will be the primary consult resident at PPMC seeing a wide variety of traumatic orthopaedic injuries and dictating their management in the emergency department and Trauma Bay. You will become proficient in reductions, splinting, and bedside procedures.
  • VA Medical Center (2 rotations)
    • During this service rotation you will get exposure to many subspecialties in the clinic and operating room including adult reconstruction with Dr. Costales and Dr. Hume, hand surgery with Dr. Steinberg and Dr. Lee, shoulder surgery with Dr. Kuntz, spine surgery with Dr. Smith and Dr. Sherif, and general orthopaedics with Dr. Bernstein.
  • CHOP/Pediatrics (2 rotations)
    • During this service rotation you will work with the attendings at CHOP and see the entire spectrum of pediatric orthopedic pathology in the clinic and the operating room including deformity, spine, neuro-orthopaedics, hand, and oncology. There is a dedicated trauma operating room for add-on cases with and you will gain experience treating supracondylar humerus fractures and other common pediatric traumas. You will get experience in the emergency room with reduction and casting of pediatric fractures. You will have a dedicated didactic schedule at CHOP.
  • Foot & Ankle
    • During this service rotation you will work at Pennsylvania Hospital primarily with Dr. Chao and Dr. Farber seen patients with foot and ankle pathology in the clinic and being the primary service resident in the operating room.
  • Tumor
    • During this service rotation you will work with Dr. Cipriano and Dr. Potter at HUP seeing patients with orthopaedic oncologic pathology in the clinic and the operating room. He will be the primary consult resident for the orthopedic service at HUP.

Year 3 Rotations

  • Arthroplasty
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Nelson, you will see patients in the clinic and operating room with hip and knee pathology and learn the fundamental diagnosis, treatment, and operative skills for adult arthroplasty.
  • Trauma
    • During this service rotation with Dr. Mehta, Dr. Donegan, and Dr. D'Alleyrand, you will be an operative resident in a room with the PGY 5 trauma chief learning principles of operative trauma including intramedullary nailing, open reduction internal fixation, percutaneous pinning, malunions and nonunion correction, external fixation, and irrigation and debridement. There is no trauma fellow, and this service is very resident focused.
  • Hand
    • During this rotation you will primarily work with Dr. Sobel, Dr. Liu, and Dr. Lee in the clinic and operating room seeing the entire spectrum of hand and upper extremity pathologies. You will be one of the the hand chief resident on call staffing and operating on any traumatic consults at all hospitals for the hand service.
  • Shoulder & Elbow
    • During this mentalship model rotation with Dr. Glaser, you will see patients in the clinic in operating room with shoulder and elbow pathology and learn principles of rotator cuff repair and shoulder arthroplasty
  • Foot & Ankle
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Humbyrd and Dr. Ndu, you will see patients in the clinic and operating room with foot and ankle pathology from sports injuries, complex reconstruction, and fracture care.
  • Sports Medicine
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Sennett, the team physician for the NCAA Division I teams of the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Flyers, you will see patients in the clinic and operating room with sports medicine injuries and learn techniques of arthroscopy.
  • Spine
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Smith and Dr. Khalsa you will see patients in the clinic and the operating room with pathology of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. You will be the primary senior resident on call for spine, staffing consults at PPMC, and will cover operative traumatic cases along with a fellow.
  • Chair/Float
    • During this rotation you will work with Dr. Potter and our past chairman Dr. Levin on their oncologic and amputation/reconstructive and orthoplastic limb salvage services, respectively.

Year 4 Rotations

  • CHOP/Pediatrics (2 rotations)
    • You will return to CHOP during this rotation as the chief resident on service with your pick of operative cases and further your experience with management of orthopaedic pediatric patients in the clinic, emergency department, and operating room.
  • Hand
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Bozentka and Dr. Steinberg you will continue learning about the subspecialty of hand and upper extremity.
  • Trauma
    • During this service rotation with Dr. Mehta, Dr. Doneagn, and Dr. D’Alleyrand you will be running your own OR room and primarily operating with the attending on orthopaedic traumatic cases.
  • Joints
    • During this mentorship model rotation, you will work with Dr. Israelite and focus on adult reconstruction of the hip and knee.
  • PAH
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Sheth, you will be the chief resident at Pennsylvania Hospital and gain further experience with adult reconstruction of the hip and knee.
  • Spine
    • During this mentorship model with Dr. Casper and Dr. Khalsa you will gain further experience with the management of spinal pathology.
  • Tumor
    • During this service rotation you will be the chief resident at HUP and work with Dr. Cipriano and Dr. Potter in the field of orthopaedic oncology.

Year 5 Rotations

  • VA Medical Center (2 rotations)
    • You will return to the VA as a chief resident with your primary pick of operative cases including adult reconstruction, shoulder, spine, and hand and upper extremity.
  • Sports Medicine
    • During this mentorship model rotation with Dr. Carey and Dr. Kelly you will continue gaining skill in arthroscopy and management of sports medicine injuries.
  • Hand/Shoulder
    • During this rotation you will cover the clinic and operating room with Dr. Bozentka, Dr. Steinberg, and Dr. Horneff seeing the full spectrum of disease from clavicle to fingertip of hand and upper extremity.
  • Joints
    • During this rotation you will work with Dr. Travers and Dr. Anthony in adult reconstruction. Dr. Anthony also specializes in hip preservation.
  • Trauma
    • During this rotation you will be the trauma chief on service at PPMC. You will be responsible for running the trauma service and staffing consults and operative planning with Dr. Mehta, Dr. Doneagn, and Dr. D’Alleyrand. You will run a trauma operating room with the Trauma PGY-3.
  • Float/Elective
    • During this rotation you will cover unfilled operating room and have the flexibility to receive extra exposure in your desired subspecialty of interest!

Didactics

Didactics include combined morning conference before clinical duties across all clinical sites, using a combination of in-person and virtual meetings. The year is divided into subspecialty blocks with a focus on boards style questions, clinical pearls, operative management and more. Throughout the year there is a trauma board for review of emergency and operative management of consults. In addition, there are subspecialty conferences for residents on service including indications, board review, classic journal articles, and more.

Furthermore, weekly grand rounds supplement this didactic system. Grand rounds regularly feature an outstanding group of visiting national and international professors who typically supplement a lecture series with an expert led hands on prosection in the human tissue lab. Grand rounds represent protected didactic time for residents who are excused from clinical duties during this time.

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