Training Objectives for the Residency Program
Basic science and research goals of the residency program are met through didactic instruction, clinical research exposure, and direct faculty supervision. The orthopaedic resident is instructed on how to critically review experimental research results and how to successfully conduct orthopaedic clinical trials. The department has two clinical coordinators for the clinical research projects, one of whom is assigned directly to the residents. Graduation from the residency program is contingent upon completion of at least two research projects with one of sufficient quality and content to be publishable in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
The orthopaedic residents rotations at the University of Texas Southwestern Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program are designed to fulfill the general and specific requirements for orthopaedic residency according to the ACGME. While fulfilling their clinical rotations, the residents receive graduated exposure to more complex musculoskeletal problems.
Orthopaedic trauma is the focus of the PGY II resident rotations. All six residents spend the entire year at Parkland Hospital on different services, four of which include large numbers of orthopaedic trauma patients. The services also cover specific specialty areas including sports medicine, adult reconstruction, spine, hand and upper extremity, foot and ankle surgery and trauma. The clinic rotations are designed to allow the PGY III resident six months of pediatric orthopaedic surgery and six months of orthopaedic surgery with an emphasis on adult reconstruction, shoulder, hand, and foot and ankle surgery. During the PGY IV and V years, the Veteran's Administration Hospital, University Hospital - Zale Lipshy, Parkland Hospital and Health System and University Hospital - St. Paul provide a setting for the resident to obtain progressively more complex operative experience especially in reconstructive surgery of the spine and limbs. During the six to nine months at Parkland Hospital the residents participate in more complex periarticular fracture surgery as well as pelvic and acetabular fracture surgery.
During the four years of orthopaedic residency, each resident spends approximately twelve to eighteen months on adult orthopaedics, nine to twelve months on pediatric orthopaedics, and eighteen months in orthopaedic trauma. In regards to subspecialty exposure, an equal amount of time is spent in spine, hand, foot, sports, and oncology/amputation services.
Parkland Hospital and Health System, University Hospital - Zale Lipshy, University Hospital - St. Paul, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and Children's Medical Center serve as the home institution for the education program. Both Parkland and Children's have Level I trauma centers and provide approximately 65 to 70% of the orthopaedic trauma in the greater Dallas area. Texas Scottish Rite Hospital is staffed by seven pediatric orthopaedists, all of whom are on the UT Southwestern faculty, who provide comprehensive pediatric orthopaedic education to the residents. The Veteran's Administrative Hospital has a large out-patient population as well as an active in-patient reconstructive service. This balance between orthopaedic trauma at Parkland Hospital, pediatric orthopaedics at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital and elective orthopaedic surgery at the University Hospitals has allowed the Department to provide a broad, yet comprehensive, education to the orthopaedic residents.
The University of Texas Southwestern Orthopaedic Residency Program is the only university based program in Dallas. It is therefore in a unique position to take advantage of the many orthopaedic resources and opportunities that this growing metropolitan area has to offer. While the UT Southwestern program has always been known on a national level for its work in orthopaedic trauma and pediatric orthopaedics, recent changes over the last three to five years has now made it possible for us to develop superb services in each of the orthopaedic subspecialties.
last edited: June 10, 2008
