Good luck to everyone in the upcoming match! If you find that you didn't match, you do have options. If it is Black Monday for you as it was for me, look at your options and consider an Orthopaedic Research Fellowship.
The research position at the
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a one year paid research position. While our start time is flexible, we like the fellow to start by the beginning of June and an earlier start can be arranged. It is entirely clinical orthopaedic oncology research with the chairman, Richard D. Lackman, and his two partners, Edward J. Fox and Christian M. Ogilvie; there are no clinical responsibilities. The last three people who occupied this position had very little previous exposure to orthopaedic oncology. However, after this year of research, one gains a much better understanding of it. The great things about orthopaedic oncology are: you work all over the body and not just around one or two joints, everyday you see something amazing (it never gets boring), the surgery can include large complicated implants (total scapula replacement or total femur prosthesis), you are saving lives everyday, and patients really need your help.
Before I came to PENN, I thought orthopaedic oncology was predominantly a depressing specialty. On the contrary, this office (3 full-time ortho tumor surgeons plus 5-6 staff) is quite upbeat. The vast majority of patients come in scared and leave either happy they don't have cancer or leave with options that will save their life and allow them to return to activities of daily living.
Doing research at PENN for the year has given me the opportunity to meet many great people and has been an excellent experience that will hopefully help me get an orthopaedic residency. My new LORs from PENN and research experience helped me to be invited to more interviews this year than last year and all of the interviewers were impressed with the research section of my CV. The three preceding research fellows all matched in Orthopaedic Surgery.
Even if you don't go into ortho oncology, there are still advantages to doing research in the field. You will probably do well on OITE oncology questions (which are often hard for residents and many programs do not offer tumor experience). Even more important, as an orthopaedic surgeon, you are going to see quite a few musculoskeletal tumors in your career. Hopefully you will know enough about the clinical characteristics and imaging to diagnose these, decide which ones are malignant and which are harmless, and get the appropriate patients to an ortho oncology specialist with the appropriate work-up. This year has given me a great ortho oncology background as well as improving my overall ortho knowledge. I would encourage anyone who doesn't match to give it serious consideration. Good Luck on Match Day! We all need it!
Feel free to inquire about the position with the attendings:
Christian M. Ogilvie, MD
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Edward J. Fox, MD
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or me
Jay King, MD
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[email protected][/url]
If you are seriously interested in this position, please fax your CV to 215-829-5060 (Attn: Jay King) when you have made this decision. We understand that most will no longer be interested in this position if they match into orthopaedics.
We expect the people who have sent us their CVs to contact us again after the Match if they are still interested.
