Penn's residency program provides broad exposure to orthopaedic surgery and an intense training environment, providing the knowledge and skill needed to succeed.
Program Leadership
L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, FAOA
Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Daniel C. Farber, MD
Program Director
Stephen Y. Liu, MD
Associate Program Director
Program Administration
Angela Nieves
Medical Education Coordinator
Angela.Nieves@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Overview of the Residency Program Structure
The residency program at the University of Pennsylvania provides both a broad exposure to the entire field of Orthopaedic Surgery and an intense training environment that leaves graduates with the knowledge and skill to pursue either further fellowship training or immediately beginning clinical practice. The training program assists you in accomplishing this by a carefully designed progression of responsibility, autonomy, and expectation. Throughout your five clinical years, you are exposed to the pre, peri, and post-operative care of the Orthopaedic patient in a structured and hands on manner that facilitates your growth as a practitioner.
As a resident you will rotate through services that provide exposure to the sub-specialties of: trauma, adult reconstruction, pediatrics, spine, hand and upper extremity, oncology, sports medicine, shoulder and elbow, foot and ankle, neuro-orthopaedics, and general orthopaedics. You will be exposed to world class care at several facilities, including the first hospital in the United States (Pennsylvania Hospital), a state of the art level 1 trauma center (Advanced Care Pavilion at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center), a top ranked children's hospital in the US (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia), a new Musculoskeletal Institute, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Veteran's Affairs (VA) Hospital. These diverse training environments will allow you to experience the true breadth and depth of the field of orthopaedics.
Six – Year Residency Track
As a result of its commitment to research and academics, the residency training program offers two residents a position in the six – year residency track. This includes a full year of non-ACGME research after completion of clinical PGY – 2 year. The selection for this six – year track is done through a separate match number in NRMP. The purpose of the six-year research track program is to train the next generation of academic leaders in Orthopaedics.
Upon graduation from the six-year track program, graduates have published as many as 30+ manuscripts in high-impact journals throughout their residency training. Residents in the six-year program match at premiere fellowship programs. Most recent graduates have matched in hand surgery at University of Washington, sports medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, hand surgery at Washington University, spine surgery at Emory University, sports medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery, and adult reconstruction at the University of California San Francisco. After fellowship, the majority of six-year track graduates in the past ten+ years have obtained Orthopaedic Surgery faculty positions at top academic institutions across the nation, though by no means is this a requirement for the program.
Residents in the six-year year track are set up for success with protected research time, world-class mentors, and access to a myriad of resources. Residents during their research year do not have clinical or on-call responsibilities, but do participate in resident conferences, grand rounds, and journal clubs, in order to focus on academic endeavors. By the end of the research year, residents will have experience in grant writing, project design and implementation, and presenting and publishing their original research. Residents are able to choose among experienced mentors to guide them with their research. Many of these faculty mentors have been nationally recognized for their excellence in research and teaching. Residents have ample support from the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory to provide resources for their projects. The department of orthopaedic surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is also ranked in the top five among Orthopaedic Departments nationally in terms of NIH funding for the past ten consecutive years.
In addition to laboratory and clinical research, residents in the six-year track have the opportunity to pursue other scholarly activities in the department, such as serving as chief editor of the University of Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Journal.
Additional questions about the research year can be directed to Lou Soslowsky, PhD, Vice Chair for Research, or to the current research residents.