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University of Utah
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University of Utah Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program
User reviews
3 reviews
Overall rating
9.4
Staff Surgeons
9.3(3)
Didactics/Teaching
10.0(3)
Operating Experience
8.3(3)
Clinical Experience
8.3(3)
Research
9.7(3)
Residents
10.0(3)
Lifestyle
9.7(3)
Location
9.7(3)
Overall Experience
9.7(3)
Broad exposure to subspecialties
(Updated: January 01, 2012)
Overall rating
9.0
Staff Surgeons
8.0
Didactics/Teaching
10.0
Operating Experience
7.0
Clinical Experience
7.0
Research
10.0
Residents
10.0
Lifestyle
10.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
9.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Most faculty genuinely friendly, approachable, and interested in teaching. A couple who showed no interest in medical students (I rotated here), but seemed to be more engaged with the residents. Both Stotts (program director) and Aoki (resident selection chairman) seem genuinely interested in getting to know you and your career goals to see if you'd be a good fit for the program. Several younger faculty members, several of whom came back after being residents at Utah; they seem to be a great asset in that they're enthusiastic about teaching and very engaged with current research.
Didactics / Teaching
4 mandatory hours of conference/week in the AM, plus an additional 1-2 hours/week that is subspecialty-specific depending on what service you're on. In particular, I found the Friday morning trauma lecture series very informative and well-done. Most faculty were great teachers in the OR and clinic, as well as some of the chief residents.
Operating Experience
This is actually my only hesitation about the program after rotating here. Residents are in the OR a lot, but spend a lot of that time watching and holding retractors, particularly through the R1 and R2 years, while the chief resident, fellow, or attending did the case. At times I even observed the fellows assisting the attending rather than taking the lead role--this seemed attending-dependent. On most of the services, however, enough volume so that residents were not double-scrubbed.
Clinic Experience
Again, very attending-dependent. In several clinics, residents exclusively shadowed the attending. In others, residents saw patients and wrote notes. Otherwise, it was your standard clinic. Of note, all the medical assistants were really pleasant to work with and helped clinic run smoothly.
Research Opportunities
Plentiful. Funding also does not appear to be an issue. All residents required to undertake one project of publishable quality, and have to present their research plan during a grand rounds-type presentation in June of their R2 year for feedback. Some time provided during your R4 year, but most gets done on your own time. If your project is done before your allotted R4 research time, you are able to do an international rotation elsewhere if you want.
Residents
Very friendly and welcoming. Lots have pretty impressive resumes, and most have significant research backgrounds. However, overall a pretty down-to-earth group. They do take their clinical responsibilities seriously, though, and are good about sharing the workload equitably.
Lifestyle
Seems pretty good. Several of the services have reasonable hours (7 am-4 pm), which many of the residents use to take advantage of the proximity to great skiing. Some ski 30+ days/season. Many are active outdoors. Night float system during the R2 year (10 weeks) helps take some of the pain away from trauma call for everyone else. Peds and hand services have their own call pool, so call frequency can be high but responsibilities are generally not that bad. Both of these are home call.
Location / Housing
In one of the nicest parts of the city, with good housing 10-20 minutes driving distance or less. Many residents buy houses in the Sugarhouse neighborhood, which is a well-maintained 1950s-style residential area just south of the university. No driving to disparate locations, and all rotations are done at the U. of U hospitals. Traffic is very mild.
Limitations
I did not find the large number of fellows to be detrimental to the resident experience; in fact, they typically had distinctly different roles and helped out the residents. As I mentioned previously, my only real concern about the resident experience was much "knife time" residents actually saw while in the OR. Chiefs all have an excellent theoretical knowledge of procedures, and seem to have good skills. Maybe this isn't such a big concern given the trend towards fellowship training in orthopaedics allowing an extra year to gain additional OR skills.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I believe I would leave this program extremely well-educated in all major subspecialties of orthopaedics. You rotate on each service before the end of your R4 year, so ample exposure in which to make fellowship decisions. Resident life is pretty good, can't beat the proximity to great outdoor activities. Not malignant in any way. I can think of a lot worse places to train.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
Fall 2013
KD
K D
Top 100 Reviewer
Well rounded
(Updated: December 14, 2011)
Overall rating
9.6
Staff Surgeons
10.0
Didactics/Teaching
10.0
Operating Experience
9.0
Clinical Experience
9.0
Research
9.0
Residents
10.0
Lifestyle
9.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
10.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Staff were excellent to work with. Saltzman is really dedicated to building Utah into an Ortho powerhouse(if they aren't already). Stotts (PD) and Aoki (Res selection chair) seem to be great resident advocates. There are big names in all of the subspecialties and they all seemed to be into teaching from my experience as well as co-rotators that were on other services. Some faculty turnover recently, which is unusual supposedly.
Didactics / Teaching
Didactics were the best I saw by far, almost exclusively done by faculty and they obviously put time into them. I think because of this the residents really really knew their stuff here, I really cant remember an upper level resident getting a question wrong in didactics the whole month I was there. It was pretty impressive. Lots of teaching in clinic and OR as well, although like all places this was attending dependent.
Operating Experience
From what I could tell they operate a lot here. All of the chiefs that I worked with were very proficient in the OR. From talking to rotators on all the services and what I could glean from the residents, the best operative experiences were on Peds, Hand, Joints, F&A and Spine. Sports was okay and Trauma was a little hands off. The residents said the best sports experience was at TOSH as a chief where you essentially get your own room. Of course of the trauma that I did see the seniors were quite good. There is also a VA where of course the operative experience is good.
Clinic Experience
Clinic is clinic but there was lots of teaching going on. Every clinic was different but seemed the resident would get to at least see new patients and come up with a diagnosis/plan on them.
Research Opportunities
Lots to go around, one month for research as a PGY4. Mostly clinical and biomechanics stuff. Not as much research support/help as some of the bigger programs. Also not shoved down your throat if it is not your thing (one required project).
Residents
Very fun group, everyone got along great. Very much the outdoor/skiing type. Most not from Utah and only a few that were Mormon from what I could tell.
Lifestyle
Supposedly intern year is not that bad here, they also seemed to be at a lot of the ortho conferences, which I thought was cool (you're not a total GSgy slave for the year).
Location / Housing
Great place to live if you like the outdoors in both summer and winter. Many of the residents said they had good discounts on ski passes. Affordable and safe place to live and a great place to raise a family. Some owned houses/condos, some rented. The single residents seemed to say they really liked it was well. SLC is not as overly conservative as I thought it was going to be.
Limitations
Some will say fellows are a limitation here, but on many services the fellows don't get in the way of resident education. For example on the joint service the residents always did all of the primary joints with the help of the fellows, while the fellows did the revisions. Similarly on the spine service the residents were very hands on even though there were fellows around. Not an incredibly high volume trauma center, very busy peds though.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Had an amazing rotation and would love to train here. Agree with the former reviewer that this may be one of the most well rounded programs in the country. Will likely rank it #1.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
2011
JG
John Grimes
Top 100 Reviewer
Most Well Rounded Program in the Country
(Updated: December 12, 2011)
Overall rating
9.7
Staff Surgeons
10.0
Didactics/Teaching
10.0
Operating Experience
9.0
Clinical Experience
9.0
Research
10.0
Residents
10.0
Lifestyle
10.0
Location
9.0
Overall Experience
10.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Dr. Saltzman (chair) has assembled a tremendous faculty and is extremely focused on continually improving the program. Virtually zero faculty turnover in the last 5-10 years. Big names in all subspecs, and they are all dedicated to resident education. All staff that I interacted with were approachable and none were malignant. Staff has voluntarily agreed to less pay in order to fund resident education and conferences. The program has at least 2 faculty in all subspecs and has a shoulder/elbow guy. The program has great depth and breadth for all ortho pathology. Drs. Stotts and Aoki are very involved in resident education and stick up for the residents.
Didactics / Teaching
The best I saw. Almost all are attending delivered, with occasional resident presentation. There is a subspec specific conference, trauma conference, grand rounds/didactics, and basic science/anatomy conference every week. There's a good mix of lectures and hands on learning.<br />
<br />
Residents are sent to a diff't teaching conference each year.
<br />
Residents are sent to a diff't teaching conference each year.
Operating Experience
Operative experience is graduated based on experience and ability. Plenty to go around between residents and fellows, no cases were double-scrubbed. With all the cases I saw, residents were taken through cases by attendings. I was told that junior level residents would occasionally be taken through cases by upper levels or fellows in the spring. Chiefs were solid in the OR and demonstrated significant autonomy.<br />
<br />
In addition to operative experience at the university, PGY5's have a sports rotation at a community practice, providing private practice exposure. They are in the process of creating an optional trauma rotation in Ghana.
<br />
In addition to operative experience at the university, PGY5's have a sports rotation at a community practice, providing private practice exposure. They are in the process of creating an optional trauma rotation in Ghana.
Clinic Experience
Typical clinic. A lot of teaching from faculty.
Research Opportunities
Abundant. Tons of funding including from NIH (#6 in country), DoD, and others. While funding is available, they provide support to help with grant writing, etc. Great facilities staffed with PhD's to further the research experience. Variety of opportunities from basic science/tissue engineering to biomechanics to clinical. While there are many opportunities available, nothing is forced on the residents and some choose to do only the one required project.
Residents
Great group. All are extremely knowledgeable and motivated. They get along great and get together outside the hospital. They stick up for each other and are very team oriented in patient care. Chiefs get whatever fellowship they want.<br />
<br />
Most are outdoor enthusiasts. A majority are married.
<br />
Most are outdoor enthusiasts. A majority are married.
Lifestyle
The lifestyle is very conducive to family life. Home call for many of the services.<br />
<br />
Intern year not as difficult as some other programs I saw. Nightfloat as a PGY2 makes life better for other residents.
<br />
Intern year not as difficult as some other programs I saw. Nightfloat as a PGY2 makes life better for other residents.
Location / Housing
All the locations are within a mile of each other, and most are connected. <br />
<br />
SLC is an outdoor mecca with tons to do. There's virtually no traffic, the city is extremely safe, and the COL is low for a large city. Not much nice, newer housing in the city. 30% LDS in city limits. The nightlife leaves something to be desired, but it is improving with recent relaxation of previous alcohol laws.
<br />
SLC is an outdoor mecca with tons to do. There's virtually no traffic, the city is extremely safe, and the COL is low for a large city. Not much nice, newer housing in the city. 30% LDS in city limits. The nightlife leaves something to be desired, but it is improving with recent relaxation of previous alcohol laws.
Limitations
Fellows. As with most top tier programs, Utah has a number of fellows. However, they are a resident first program. They have eliminated fellowship positions at the suggestion of the residents when it was believed that the fellows were taking away from the resident experience. The fellows and residents I saw had a great working relationship, and there was no "case stealing".
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I believe Utah is the best program in the West, and one of the top 5 programs in the country. I could not find a weakness in the program. Balanced in every aspect of residency education. I ranked this program very high.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
Fall 2009
JH
Justin Haller
Top 50 Reviewer
Program Information
Residents per class
5
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