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Education

Hand and Upper Extremity

Hand Surgery

The fellowship at the University of Chicago was begun by Daniel P. Mass, MD, who created the fellowship as an educational opportunity and a way to share the incredible clinical resources available for teaching at the University of Chicago. In 2009, the University of Chicago began a clinical and educational collaboration with NorthShore University Hospital, and the fellows began working with fellowship-trained hand surgeons at NSUH. In 2016, Jennifer Moriatis Wolf, MD, took over the role of fellowship program director. The fellowship principles remain focused on education, critical thinking, experiential learning, and robust clinical experience. The Combined Hand and Upper Extremity Fellowship at the University of Chicago is an ACGME accredited fellowship that accepts two (2) fellows per academic year.

Faculty

Rotations

Fellows spend six months each at the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) and six months at NorthShore University HealthSystem (NSUH); split into three-month blocks.

At the University of Chicago, fellows rotate on each of two teams for six weeks, then switch. Teams are made up of 2-3 attendings, 2 residents, and a fellow; assignments are made in the effort to avoid impacting learners’ educational experiences and to maximize exposure to clinical issues such as complex trauma, microsurgery, congenital hand problems, and brachial plexus reconstruction. UCM sample schedule

At NorthShore, fellows work with all of the attendings each week, according to the schedule which incorporates time in the OR and clinic. This provides a broad exposure to a community-based practice with high volumes and clinical variety. NS sample schedule

Didactics

There is a weekly hand conference with a published list of topics, held on Friday mornings, which is attended by all attendings, fellows (NS via teleconference), and residents. Topics include lectures on pain management, anesthesia, EMG, prosthetics, and occupational therapy. Friday AM Didactics sample schedule

On Monday mornings, there is a fellow-specific conference covering classic articles drawn from Peter Stern’s curriculum.

Fellows are expected to attend Grand Rounds when an upper extremity topic is presented. Grand Rounds are held weekly on Wednesday mornings.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, there are indications and specialty-specific didactic topics; again, when these involve hand-related issues, fellows are expected to attend. Fellows also present talks during this time.

Fellowship Experience

Call

The hand surgery fellows cover call at their assigned site during each three-month block. The fellow assigned to the University of Chicago Medicine also covers two days of call per week. Currently, fellows are each assigned one weekend a month. The orthopaedic or plastic surgery residents on call for hand serve as the primary call contact, and fellow call is taken from home. Fellows are expected to be involved in the care of hand consults in the Emergency Department as needed, and to lead the surgical treatment of those patients requiring urgent operative care. Additionally, fellows are a part of the care for inpatient hand surgery cases and are responsible, with the hand surgery resident team, for their care.

Travel

Microsurgery course – Mayo clinic – August of each year
ASSH Annual Meeting – Fall of each year
International service trip – generally planned for the spring of each year

Research

The hand division is active in clinical and basic science research and multiple projects are ongoing. It is expected that each fellow perform a research project, to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal by the end of the fellowship.

Sites

The University of Chicago Hospital is a Level I Trauma Center serving both adult and pediatric populations in Chicago, and is currently the busiest trauma center in the city. The philosophy of the program is to provide excellent exposure to elective reconstructive cases, while allowing the fellows ample time to study and participate in research. NSUH is a multi-specialty research and healthcare organization with 908 beds distributed across four hospitals. NorthShore University HealthSystem is a level I adult trauma center. The affiliation with NorthShore offers our fellows exposure to a broader array of clinical pathology, a diverse patient population, and new operational technologies in a suburban, community-based, teaching hospital system.

How To Apply

Our Orthopaedic Hand and Upper Extremity Fellowship program participates in the NRMP. Applications for the 2023-2024 match cycle (2025-2026 academic year) should be submitted through the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) Fellowship System by November 15th:

https://assh.force.com/applications/s/fellowshiphome

Invitations for interviews will be sent in December with the interviews to take place in late January. Interviews will be held virtually.

All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis as of the program start date. If sponsorship is needed, J-1 visas are preferred.