Programs strong in Sports?

Here's a word of advice: don't look for a program that's strong in Sports (i.e. Rush, UAB) look for a program that has a lot of arthoscopic time. You'll never get to touch a pro athlete as a resident (and you MIGHT get to as a fellow). The problem is, most programs are lacking in that area. The few programs that I know of that have good arthroscopic time: Campbell Clinic, University of Florida, UCSD, UCSF, UC-Irvine. If you're looking for names and want to get to know the famous people (in hopes of getting closer to a great sports fellowship although its debatable how much this helps): Pitt, Rush, UAB, Stanford, Union. Hope this helps...just my 2 cents.

Don't have any super well known guys where I just finished (case western reserve). What that translates to is NO FELLOWS. Also when you start out on your dedicated sports rotation as a 3, you are first assist and get the scope in your hand early and often. As a chief, if you're interested in Sports you can cherry pick (as I did) and do all the sports cases you want, w/o battling a fellow. Did 20 ACL's skin to skin my last 4 months of chief year. Also got my fair share of other cases.

Bottom line, agree that you should look for places that offer a great operative experience. Fellows don't always mean that the resident experience is lacking, but it might be a warning flag. Down side of my program. . . . . .it's an uphill battle if you want to match into a upper echelon program like Rush, Pitt, Steadman-Hawkins, Andrews, HSS, etc. Many times these might require you to 'know somebody' to get in. But in the grand scheme of things, Joe Schmoe's knee is the same as Lebron James, so the importance is getting the scope in your hand, not watching a fellow or attending do the work.

And finally, you want to get a good comprehensive training experience, because you may get into residency and discover that Sports Magic is horrible and your real love is Spine or something. If you get into a good place, the rest will take care of itself. Good luck.

i agree with what was said above. going to a place where you can actually do arthroscopy and examine non professional athletes is probably more valuable. for example, residents at Mich St- Kalamazoo do tons of arthroscopy in the first few years to really improve their skills and also have access to div.1 athletes.

I'm currently a third year resident at the University of Michigan. We have an excellent Sports Service and cover all University of Michigan teams.

I would echo the post above and state that if you're interested in sports, you want to go to a program that gives you a lot of operative/arthroscopy time. We have 8 months of dedicated time on the Sports Service. As a PGY-2 I did a huge number of cases: countless knee scopes, ~7 ACLs (skin-to-skin), and multiple open shoulder procedures.

We have 5 fellowship trained sports surgeons (one fellow) and get an incredible amount of experience.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

I rotated at Jeff and I know they have a pretty comprehensive arthroscopy experience. They spend time on the sports service as a 2, 4 (new change i heard about), and 5. They also spend a significant amount of time on the shoulder service doing arthroscopy as a 3 and 5. Additionally they have a community arthroscopy experience as a 2, 3, and 4.

The sports docs there cover the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Philadelphia Phillies -- obviously like in every other program residents arent treating the athletes, but because they do cover these teams the sports surgeons are in high demand by the general public (everyone wants to be seen by the people who treat the athletes). Also residents have quite a bit of opportunity it seems to go to the phillies games.

I heard last year two of their chiefs went into sports to really good places -- one to kerlan-jobe in LA, another to SCOI in LA.

From my interview last year Kentucky boasted to have a ton og scope time.

Point of clarification:

Some of the previous posts made it sound like we don't get any scope time at Rush. As a 2nd year on service you routinely do a diagnostic scope of every knee or shoulder in your room either before or after "the real case." I had placed portals and scoped 3 knees and a shoulder by the end of my first day as a 2. It only goes up from there.

Which blows once you realize that the ACL is not the most important structure in the body and that rotator cuff repair is hoo doo witchcraft.

But if you think you want to grow gills and live underwater in the OR, you'll get your shot in Chicago. In all fairness, I seem to remember the juniors at HSS scoping quite a bit too.

-Grizz-