Resident Education and Research

Residency Education

Resident education is the foundation of the residency program. We strive to inspire colleagues to create new knowledge and to communicate knowledge through medical education. View the various educational experiences and research opportunities our program provides for residents.

Education sessions include morning trauma conference, morning sign-out, formal and informal subspecialty weekly lectures, cadaver labs, surgical simulation sessions, journal clubs, annual visiting professorships, and national conferences. Formal conferences follow a bi-annual rotating schedule and cover all subspecialty topics.

Formal education schedule

• Wednesday mornings include 2 hours minimum of protected time for didactic sessions (in addition to grand rounds and sign-out conference) given by an all-attending rotating schedule covering all subspecialty topics.
• Monthly journal club is held on Wednesday morning and reviews four peer reviewed articles. Journal club is directed by Dr. Bruce Reider who also serves as Editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Sports Medicine (AJSM).
• Anatomy labs occur every fall, are run by attending physicians, and take place in our own cadaver lab. Attendings of each subspecialty guide residents through the most pertinent surgical approaches while highlighting various anatomic dangers and landmarks.

Specialty conference schedule

• Sports medicine – a weekly sports medicine conference, directed by the sports medicine fellow, reviews cases, various topics, and current sports medicine literature. The conference is attended by all residents on the sports rotation and those with a personal interest in sports medicine.
• Spine – a weekly spine conference reviews various topics in the field with focused questions for the junior and senior resident on the spine service. Core curriculum literature is shared with the residents and specific articles are highlighted at each weekly conference.
• Hand and Upper Extremity – each week, the attendings and residents on service meet to discuss literature on a topic of choice.
• Musculoskeletal oncology – weekly morning conference, led by the musculoskeletal oncology fellow, reviews current and historic literature in the field, as well as upcoming cases.
• Arthroplasty – during the weekly templating conference a current article on joint arthroplasty is discussed by the entire joints team under the direction of the joints fellow.

Surgical Simulation

• During intern year, residents participate in a year-long surgical simulation lab run by Dr. Strelzow with weekly instruction.
• Various cadaver and implant-related labs are held each year through the hand, foot and ankle, and trauma services.
• During the NorthShore rotations, under the guidance of Dr. Howard Sweeney, residents participate in various surgical simulation exercises on fresh frozen cadavers, saw bones, and simulators.

Annual Visiting Professors

Throughout the academic year, numerous visiting professors are invited to give grand rounds. Two exceptional professors in the field of orthopedics are invited each year, once in the fall (Wavering Lecturer at NorthShore) and one in the spring (Laros Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago).

Research Opportunities

Our program provides great opportunities for clinical or lab-based research. There is a dedicated research rotation for PGY3 residents that provides 10 weeks of protected time for research, and our Molecular Oncology Lab welcomes resident projects that leverage its cutting-edge basic science research.

• Molecular Oncology Lab – our Molecular oncology lab, run by Dr. T.C. He, produces numerous basic sciences projects annually with significant involvement from the residents. The strong basic science capabilities, coupled with our strong animal research program and dedicated animal operating rooms, leads to a wide variety of orthopedic basic science projects.
• Operative Performance Research Institute (OPRI) – our OPRI center studies outcomes data across the surgical experience from the perspective of the patient, provider, and payer. The goal of the lab is to lead to safer and more efficient delivery of surgical care.
• NorthShore Orthopedic Institute – large and small scale clinical projects can be performed in collaboration with the physicians at NorthShore Hospitals.

Click here for a list of active research projects

Professional Conferences

Our program strongly encourages resident participation in and attendance at outside conferences. Each year (PGY1-5), our residents attend at least one program-sponsored course or conference. The current schedule of conferences attended by each year are as follows:

• PGY1 – AO Trauma Basic Principles of Fracture Management
• PGY2 – FOT Dissection Course
• PGY3 – The University of Chicago Musculoskeletal Clinicopathologic Seminar + AAOS Arthroscopy Course
• PGY4 – AO Advanced Trauma Principles vs. Subspecialty course/meeting
• PGY5 – AAOS Annual Meeting + Board Review course

In addition to these annual conferences, residents are supported and encouraged to present their research at various national meetings. Residents have participated at the following meetings: AAOS Annual Meeting, OTA Annual Meeting, AAHKS Annual Meeting, ISTA Annual Meeting, AAHS Annual Meeting, NASS Annual Meeting, OREF Midwest Annual Meeting.