News

Residency Program Update

The start of the 2018-2019 Academic year brought about a number of exciting changes to the Orthopaedic Residency Program.

With the opening of the new Level I Trauma Center, a new clinical team was developed made up of 2 chief residents, a PGY3, a PGY1 and a PGY2 night-float resident. The volume and educational opportunities have been tremendous! A daily dedicated 7:30am start OR for fractures has further helped to manage the trauma patient volume and allow residents (and faculty) on the trauma team to maximize their operative experience in the field of complex orthopaedic trauma. The feedback from the residents about this new experience has been outstanding.

With the increased volume of overnight consults and time needed to review them, the time honored tradition of morning conference, sign-out and pre-op / post-op presentations needed to be changed. We have now moved all core didactic teaching to take place on Wednesday mornings following weekly Grand Rounds and the weekly Program Director and Resident meeting. All residents rotating at both UChicago Medicine and NorthShore attend these protected educational conferences. We even have protected time for PGY1 residents who are on non-orthopeadic surgery rotations to attend and participate.

This new all-facultly led didactic teaching features a 2 year curriculum focused on providing core orthopaedic education for the residents. The core teaching is then supplememented by more detailed speciality-focused conference that take place weekly during each clinical rotation. Wedneday conference also features a faculty-sponspored bagel breakfast each week.

After this year’s Orthopaedic In-Training Exam (OITE), Dr. Dirschl hosted an ax throwing event to help everyone decompress after the 269 question exam. I have a feeling that, in addition to the end-of-the year paintball event, this may become an annual tradition!

Tessa Balach, MD

Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine