Orthopaedic Surgery Residency

All entering PGY-1 residents are selected through the National Resident Matching Plan via the ERAS electronic application process. All complete applications are considered and the deadline for applications each year is November 1st. Applications are considered in their totality and no specific limits are established for any of the components of the application.

In accordance with the National Resident Matching Plan requirements, a copy of the contract the applicant will be expected to sign if matched to the program and the policies on visa status and eligibility for appointment are available for review (see attached Yale-New Haven Hospital sample contract).

ERAS application through your Medical School Deans office.

• ERAS application through your Medical School Deans office.
• Personal statement
  
• An ERAS formatted CV
  
• Three (3) or four (4) letters of recommendation, preferably from at least one (1) Orthopaedic Surgeon with whom you have worked OR Three (3) or four (4) Council of Orthopaedic Residency Directors-Standardized Letter of Recommendation Forms
  
• Dean's letter
  
• Copy of board scores (if taken)
  
• Official transcript from medical school
  
• One of the important missions of the Yale Orthopaedics residency is to create a generation of surgeons who are resilient and unafraid of challenges and who value a diverse and inclusive future for Orthopaedics. In less than two hundred words, tell us how your life has prepared you for that mission. Please add this to your personal statement as Page 2.

Dates:

• Application deadline: November 1, 2023
• Interview dates: TBD

Yale New Haven Hospital Orthopaedic Residency Program is sponsored by the Yale New Haven Hospital and approved by the accredited council for graduate medical education. This web site contains all of our published information of the program. Specifically, questions may be directed to the Program Registrar Kathy Umlauf at kathryn.umlauf@yale.edu.

The Yale Orthopaedic Surgery Residency offers comprehensive training, abundant research opportunities, and a warm collegial environment.

All residents are given equivalent rotations and experience almost identical clinical exposure throughout the year. In general, residents are on call at Yale-New Haven Hospital once every four nights and at the chief resident level may take call from home approximately once every four nights. The mandated 80-hour workweek is strictly adhered to, as averaged over 4 week periods.

Residents are given three weeks of vacation each year. In addition, all resident PGY2 through PGY5 may attend one course per year, fully paid for by the department. This course may include Board review courses, Basic Trauma Courses or another course of the resident’s choosing. Residents are provided funding and time off to present at research meetings as well.

The residency program is continually evaluated by several means. The program directors meet twice each year with each resident individually to evaluate the rotations and the program as a whole and discuss furthering their learning and career objectives. The entire faculty assesses the educational aspects of the program at semi-annual meetings. The faculty evaluates individual resident performance after each rotation and twice a year a summary is generated at a faculty meeting. After each rotation, residents fill in an online evaluation of each faculty member worked with and program directors provides this information anonymously at a later time to the faculty.

Protected research time is available during the final three years of the residency as a 10 to 11 week rotation per year with scaled-down clinical duties. Residents are expected to complete one publishable work of original research to present during their chief year, however most have a wide variety of research interests and publications throughout the five years. Residents have access to several full-time research faculty and on-going projects within the department. Residents are encouraged to apply for pilot funding through the department for their research projects. Funds are allocated to support resident travel for educational courses and for presentation of research at national meetings.

• Research Resources

PGY-1

Our five-year program begins with the PGY-1 year in the Yale-New Haven Hospital System in a diversified experience of monthly rotations that includes general surgery and trauma, vascular surgery, plastic surgery, surgical intensive care unit, emergency room and six months on orthopaedics. The content of the PGY-1 year is determined by the orthopaedic program directors with the general surgery department and is compliant with ACGME requirements. PGY-1 residents have the opportunity even when off-service to attend many of the educational lectures and other activities.

*4 weeks of vacation are integrated into the year.

PGY-2

During the second year, residents rotate exclusively through orthopaedic services. These include orthopaedic trauma; pediatric orthopaedics; combined shoulder, elbow, sports and hand services designed to give exposure to popular subspecialties early in the program while also building key general orthopedic foundation. Residents also rotate at the nearby West Haven Veterans Administration Medical Center with a broad scope of surgical and clinic care is provided to veterans including joints, hand surgery, foot & ankle, and sports. Residents also continue their consult experience fielding daytime consults 1-2 days per week.

PGY-3

This year's experience includes rotations on the trauma, spine, joints, foot & ankle and oncology services. This year is the highest overnight call volume with in-house call approximately every 3-4 nights. This year also includes opportunity for laboratory research, with one block consisting of two to three days per week involved in clinical activities and the remainder free to develop research projects. At Hospital of St. Raphael’s residents participate in elective joints cases, hip fractures, and other elective cases as the schedule allows. A mix of university and private attendings are available to work with at St. Raphael’s. By the end of this year, residents are well-prepared to begin fellowship applications having given at lest one grand rounds talk and had exposure to all of the orthopedic specialties.

PGY-4

This resident serves as the chief of his or her service on the sports, hand, VA and spine rotations coordinating coverage of cases and has call responsibilities for staffing consults and cases. There is a protected research rotation with one day per week of clinical duties. The Veterans Administration Medical Center rotation is also a chief resident rotation with a wide variety of adult reconstruction surgical cases, sports cases, foot and ankle, and hand and upper extremity problems seen in both OR and clinic setting.

PGY-5

In the final year of training, PGY-5 serves as chief resident on all services and has responsibilities for development and execution of educational curriculum, invited grand rounds speakers, organizing monthly journal clubs, and coordinating the book club. The chiefs split these administrative duties and also meet regularly with Program Directors and Department Chair to continue to provide feedback and development to the structure of the program. Chiefs are expected to have the skills to be able to perform most cases independently and have responsibility of caring for a list of consults and primary patients in the hospital. They are on home call every 2-3 nights and are responsible for the management of consults and operative cases. The lab block has no clinical responsibility and allows chiefs to focus on completion of the disputation research project and board preparation.

For 2nd through 5th year residents, the rotations are composed of five blocks per year (10-11 weeks per rotation) evenly divided so that each resident in each year rotates through the same services and has an equivalent experience. There is a dedicated lab block in each of the PGY-3 through PGY-5 years with limited clinical responsibilities, which allows ample time for research. Below is a list of some of the best aspects of residency at Yale:

• You never have to leave New Haven for your rotations – Rotations including Pediatric Orthopaedics and Orthopaedic Trauma occur at Yale New Haven Hospital which has an attached Pediatric and Oncology center, as well as the Hospital of St. Raphael’s which is a mere few blocks away and which houses many outpatient and elective surgeries
• Busy trauma experience yet not overwhelming and equal access to specialty services
• Education given by Attendings – which include world renowned lecturers
• Monthly journal clubs required by ACGME usually held at local restaurants in casual environment with attending participation
• The Dr. Gary Friedlander Book Club, a bi-monthly gathering at the home of our former chairman to discuss life outside of work in a relaxing environment that also helps to broaden the literary horizons
• Spring Anatomy course
• One yearly conference sponsored by department for PGY2-5, as well as funding for conferences at which you present during the year
• There is also a separate Educational Fund provided annual to reimburse educational expenditures
• Competitive salaries that more than compensate for the cost of living in New Haven
• Sports coverage of HS football, Annual CT Open Tennis Tournament and starting this year opportunities arising for Yale Varsity sports
• The New Haven locale offers the flavor of a mixed urban/suburban population, provides nearly every style of living arrangement as well as easy access to New York and Boston with an abundance of diverse activities to satisfy all interests
• Excellent history of fellowship matches at top programs around the country
• With an Orthopaedic Residency at Yale comes the reputation and commitment to producing quality residents prepared to be leaders in the field of Orthopedics

Core Curriculum: Monday through Wednesday - 6:30 to 7:30 A.M.

• This comprehensive two-year curriculum serves as the cornerstone of our residency’s didactic education. It is composed of lectures and conferences that review all basic and clinical science topics in orthopaedic surgery. These are given primarily by attendings, with a resident assigned to prepare questions to accompany each lecture. Every Tuesday an OITE (Orthopaedic In Training Exam) oriented lecture is delivered by a chief resident in an effort to focus on the facts salient to the test. Every other Wednesday is Bone Board. This is weekly lecture is delivered by the current Trauma Chief and supplemented by the attending trauma surgeons. This conference is a very interactive and educational presentation with a focus on fracture assessment, management and follow-up care. All lectures are broadcast online so residents not on the main campus (e.g. VA and HSR) may participate in the lecture.
  

Grand Rounds - Resident Lecture: Friday - 7 to 8 A.M. - Grand Rounds: Friday 8 - 9 A.M.

• These lectures are presented by Yale faculty or more commonly, world-renowned visiting professors. In the hour preceding the formal Grand Rounds lecture, more informal lectures are given to residents usually on a topic of their choosing. It presents an opportunity for residents to interact more closely with the speaker and ask questions in a more personal setting. The formal Grand Rounds is welcome to all members of the Orthopedic community and has attracted well-known speakers from all over the country. Each resident also presents grand rounds twice during their residency. Topics can be any of their choosing, their own research or an interesting topic or clinical question.

Service-Specific Conferences

• Each rotation has its own weekly, service-specific curriculum that typically involves a pre-op and post-op assessment or scheduled journal or textbook readings and discussions. This takes place Thursday mornings, and at other various times during the week.

Anatomy Course

• From March to May, each Friday, members of the faculty direct a two-year rotating schedule of upper extremity, cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, and lower extremity anatomy with the use of cadaveric dissections and weekly self-assessment quizzes. Prosections are prepared by two selected members of the housestaff in advance of the weekly conference. A final written and practical examination is given at the conclusion of the course. The anatomy labs is otherwise available to the residents as needed throughout the year.
  

Journal Club

• This is a monthly conference usually held at a local restaurant where residents and faculty gather to review a set of selected articles. This is an ACGME requirement but done in an informative and low-key setting with excellent faculty participation.

Residents benefit from all of the educational opportunities at Yale University, most notably the world-renowned Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, which houses an incredible historical library and museum in addition to its vast array of resources and study spaces.

All residents are provided with a yearly educational fund, which they can use to purchase anything to help further their orthopaedic training. Typical purchases include textbooks, equipment (loupes, lead aprons, etc.), or courses. In addition to this fund, the department will support each resident with the funding needed to attend 1 weeks’ worth of educational conferences (i.e. AO Basic) each year. Also, if a resident is presenting at a particular conference, they are again provided with the funding needed to participate.

Residents are provided with the AAOS Comprehensive Orthopaedic Review during their intern year. They also benefit from the generosity of the community orthopaedists who provide the AO Principles of Fracture Management as well as Schatzker and Tile’s The Rationale of Operative Fracture Care during their residency training.

Finally, during the PGY-5 year, residents attend the Boston Pathology Course and the Maine Orthopaedic Surgery Board Review Course.

Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH), founded almost 200 years ago, is located in New Haven, Connecticut. YNHH, the flagship hospital of Yale New Haven Health System, is a non-profit, 1,541-bed tertiary medical center receiving national and international referrals. YNHH also supports a busy Emergency Department, which treats over 80,000 patients a year and was ranked in the Top 50 Best Hospitals for Orthopaedics in the 2020-21 edition of U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals list. YNHH is the location for much of the tertiary and specialty care surgery and includes the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH) and the Smilow Cancer Hospital.

The Yale School of Medicine is physically attached to Hospital and creates a complete academic medical center with many full–time academic faculty engaged in research and all providing both clinical and academic mentorship to residents and medical students. Community surgeons practicing at YNHH also contribute to resident education. YNHH contains intensive care units for Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Medicine, Coronary Care, Pediatrics, and Neonatology. Yale has one of the oldest federally funded Cancer Centers and has had both adult and children's clinical research centers for more than 30 years.

Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH) is the dedicated children’s hospital that is part of nationally-recognized Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH). The hospital has 222 dedicated children’s beds across three inpatient campuses– York Street campus, Bridgeport campus and St Raphael campus. Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital functions both as a community hospital for the local population and as a tertiary care center for the referral of patients from Connecticut, New England, the United States and abroad. The Pediatric Muscular Dystrophy Program at Yale-New Haven cares for numerous neuromuscular diagnoses and is one of only five pediatric MDA clinics in New England.

Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven consolidates all of the medical center's cancer services, both inpatient and outpatient, into a single world-class cancer hospital. Smilow Cancer Hospital is affiliated with Yale Cancer Center - southern New England's only comprehensive cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute, and one of only 40 in the United States.

In September 2012, Yale New Haven Hospital acquired the Hospital of Saint Raphael (HSR) forming a single, 1,541-bed dual-campus hospital in New Haven. HSR is a 2 minute drive from the main hospital, however there is a convenient shuttle that runs between them. HSR is the location for many elective orthopedic services including spine, joints, and shoulder elbow. Opportunities exist to work with both private and academic attendings at this facility.

The West Haven Campus of the Veterans Administration Connecticut Health Care System (VA Hospital) is a 179–bed tertiary care facility with an additional 30-bed nursing home care unit. Approximately 2,800 surgical procedures are performed annually. There are more than 200,000 patient visits to outpatient clinics annually, and the average inpatient census is 138. The VA Hospital is located two miles from Yale and a shuttle bus, which operates every 15 minutes, connects the two institutions.

Medical Grand Rounds are held every Friday in the Brady Memorial Auditorium on Cedar Street at 8 a.m. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Grand Rounds have been held virtually. The talks are free and open to the public, featuring speakers across a variety of orthopaedic disciplines as well as physiatrists. Topics have investigated new surgical techniques, diversity and inclusion, and new methods of classification for conditions that patients face.

Once a year in the fall, the Department convenes its annual Southwick Lecture, where the topic of discussion features a distinguished guest often outside of Orthopaedics. Past speakers have included reporters from 60 Minutes, etc etc.