What residencies have a strong pediatric component?

That's probably a good bet. Pediatric ortho is not the most popular field within orthopaedics, and I have not seen many programs emphasize that particular field during my interview trail. Having a well known, prestigious, busy children hospital, you'll most likely to have many peds attendings and dedicated teaching. Obviously, there are other factors that play into it, and these do not guarantee anything. Many residency training programs will not focus on their pediatric hospital (particularly if they don't have one), but since most applicants don't have much interest, not many people care.

CHOP, UPenn: UPenn has a great relationship among residents and attendings and with CHOP right next door, it's probably one of their biggest strength. All the students who rotate through CHOP simply raves about it.

Harvard, Children Hospital of Boston: Obviously an awesome program. Other residents from nearby programs rotate through this hospital as well to make your call schedule easier. Training is worldclass, with worldwide referral.

Case Western: one of the best teaching overall in terms of residency training, and has a children hospital ranked very high and also prestigious. I don't know too much about it... but I'm sure their great training atmosphere spills over to their children hospital as well.

Columbia: the only major children hospital in NYC, and probably the strongest in the city. And, it's columbia... love the program!

Brown: everybody talks about their awesome trauma, and great operative experience, but realize that the chairman of Brown (Dr. Erlich) is a peds ortho guy. I'm sure they kick some butt too in their peds training.

Others to look at: UCLA, Wash U, Johns hopkins, U of Wash.

I'm sure other programs without children hospital can provide more than adequate training, but having a dedicated full hospital to pediatric conditions might be a huge plus.

UCSD has a pretty strong peds ortho program. Two major names in peds ortho practice at the Children's Hosp out here (Dennis Wenger and Scott Mubarek). B/c of the makeup of the hosp system here, it is pretty much the only game in town so anything interesting in this part of Southern California gets routed there. The catchment zone also extends almost out into AZ and all of Mexico if they are able to make it. There is a major x-cross/ATV racing site out in AZ that produces lots and lots of high trauma adult and peds fxs and you will see those during the summer months.

Given that UCSD is a 6-yr program, doing peds research during that extra year is certainly a possibility. Not sure how the actual # of months spent at Children's but you go there twice: once as a 3 and again as a 5.

The pediatric orthopaedic experience at Columbia University is unsurpassed. The Division of Pediatric Orthopaedics has four phenomenal faculty. As a resident, you rotate on the peds service for two months in each of your four years. Beginning as a PGY-2, you work with all 4 attendings. As a PGY-3, you work alone with Drs. Hyman and Vitale. As a PGY-4, you work with Dr. Lee, and as a PGY-5 you complete your training with Dr. Roye. In the operating room, you are extremely active particularly from your third year onward. The volume and scope of cases are phenomenal, including spine deformity, hip reconstruction, limb deformity, trauma, oncology, etc. Attendings from the Center for Shoulder, Elbow and Sports Medicine, such as Dr. Ahmad, now have regular OR time in the children's hospital, so we have some exposure to pediatric sports medicine while on that service. The pediatric orthopaedics team is extremely active in basic and clinical research, as one of the most productive divisions in the department.

Take a look at their website for a better idea, or feel free to PM me for more information.

Thanks for the input. I know this is a brushed over topic as I heard you basically have your pick of fellowships, only 2 were filled or something last year? Anyone know about some of the Shriner's based programs like Oregon, Utah, in the south, and in the east?

UT-Southwestern in Dallas sends its residents to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children for 1/2 of the PGY-3 year in addition to sending them to Children's Medical Center intermittently through the entire PGY-2 year and 1/2 of the PGY-3 year. I would argue that TSRHC is one of the top two pedi ortho centers in the nation (along with Boston) - 2 congenital pedi hand staff, 6 pedi ortho deformity staff - big scolis, Ilizarov, PAOs every week, and on and on. Children's has 3 dedicated staff and the busiest Pediatric ER in the nation - a resident just set the record for most cases in a month with 104 - not counting all of the b.s reductions and casts in the ER. The experience as a resident rivals any fellowship.

Temple in Philadelphia spends 3 months or so during the third year at Shriners in Philly. Drexel also spends some time there. I also know that Montefiore (Albert Einstein in the Bronx) has an excellent peds hospital. Buffalo does something like 9 months of peds, so thats one of the highest I have heard along the trail. Also LIJ has excellent peds at Schneiders hospital.

UTSW---I also heard great things about the pediatric training residents receive at UTSouthwestern. Obviously it was emphasized while I interviewed in Dallas. However, even pediatric attendings from other institutions mentioned the experience at Texas Scottish Rite and Children's when the topic of the best pediatric training came up.

that being a particular field that is near and dear to my heart, i can tell you that there are many programs that have great to excellent pediatric experiences.

i personally recommend against people looking for programs which have specific strengths. my reasoning is that first you need to be a well rounded surgeon. so in your 1st and 2nd orthopaedic year your program should give you the basics in orthopaedics. the rotations should be balanced.

most who are going to develop a primary pediatric practice will do a fellowship. pediatric fellowships are not hard to come by.

but if you are looking for a program that is strong in peds, things to look for are dedicated peds attendings, a dedicated peds hospital, and no travel to fulfill you peds requirement. the reason why i make those points are
1) if you have peds specialists at your home institution, they will feel more invested in your education (you are one of their residents)
2) peds hospitals are much better for the peds experience. typically hospitals within hospitals fall short of treatment of the pediatric (usually from the ancillary staff). and peds hospitals do not function like adult hospitals.
3) the more rotations you have to travel for the more time away from home. the attendings tend not to be as invested in you as a person (because you are not one of their own) and the programs most people travel for usually have a multitude of fellows.

and that's all i got to say 'bout that

NYU-HJD has phenomenal pediatric orthopods, and not many programs can come close to matching there volume. The old pedi chair is Dr. Lehman who is huge name in pedi-ortho. Current faculty have tons of research and there is tons of flow through the OR. The dept has over 10 faculty members and Dr. Strongwater who also does neuromuscular (CP, etc).

Add Baylor to programs sending residents to a Shrine hospital. They spend time at the Houston Shrine with well-known staff, as well as time at TCH (Texas Children's), considered by many to be a top 5 children's hospital.

i think indiana university has a pretty good component in their residency where you do peds. you do 10 week rotatons in pgy 3,4,5 so a good bit of exposure throughout your training. they also have a dedicated children's hospital as well which i think adds to the clinical load. the peds attendings there are also very approachable and like to teach. Dr. Loder is the program director too. just consider it in your list of programs.

University of Utah has a very strong peds ortho faculty and the residents there get very good exposure to peds ortho. One of the strong programs in the country. Program also covers all other specialties very well.

tornmeniscus, do you know anymore specifics about the Univ of Utah, or how did you get your info on them?

I would think for the area Cincinnati has a much better peds program. I think their big guy is retireing soon but there are more staff. IU has also lost a large part of their peds staff in the recent years, to a private hospital up the road=lower volume.
INtj

Yea i have heard from several people as well that cincinnati also has a good pediatric ortho component.