Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
The residents work with too many different attendings to count, but the core attendings are all excellent. There are very few that are malignant and all of them are excellent surgeons. Dr. Baker, the program director, is well respected by all the residents and faculty. Dr. Poka, the head of the trauma department leads an excellent trauma conference once a week and is well published and respected.
Didactics / Teaching
The trauma conference once a week is the strongest part of the Doctor's didactics schedule. It is lead by Dr. Poka and the ortho trauma fellows at Grant Medical Center and was the best conference I saw at any program I visited. In addition, the residents have an extensive anatomy review for several weeks each year and resident driven didactics year round. There has been an increased emphasis on OITE review over the past couple year, which I think has strengthened their didactics overall.
Operating Experience
The operating experience is very surgeon dependent, which was the case at every program I visited. Overall, I felt all the residents were technically good and well rounded. The one drawback of the trauma experience at Grant is that the trauma fellows decrease the operating time the senior residents get.
Clinic Experience
There is a strong resident clinic with direct attending oversight. This was not a part of my rotation so I can't speak from personal experience, but the residents seem to enjoy it.
Research Opportunities
This is an area that has changed dramatically in the past couple years. Dr. Poka is pushing hard to make research a larger part of this program and presently the residents are required to do research in their final three years. Doctor's does a great job of assisting residents through the entire process.
Residents
All the residents I worked with were great guys. There are currently no female residents, but there are rumors that they are taking one in the upcoming match (2011). In addition there is a strong spouses group that meets regularly.
Lifestyle
This is a huge plus for this residency. Because the residents work all over the city of Columbus, when they are on an outpatient month, the schedule is very nice. This is a very family friendly program. The program is large enough and the hospital is busy enough that there is a designated resident on nights a month at a time. As a senior resident all call is from home unless you are at Grant for trauma.
Location / Housing
Columbus is a good city to live in, probably the best in Ohio. Great restaurants and bars and reasonable cost of living. The schools are pretty good too if you have children.
Limitations
This is a large program and so it doesn't have the close feel of smaller programs. This program is also well rounded, but that means it is not particularly strong in one area (except perhaps trauma). If you already know what area of ortho you want to go in to, perhaps there is a different program with strengths that will match your interests. The one definite weakness of this program is spine. If you are a die-hard spine person, look elsewhere (Pinnacle in Harrisburg, PA is great for spine).
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
This is my top-ranked program. I think it is an excellent program and hope to been there for the next 5 years.
