Saturday, May 26, 2018

Update on the Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellowship Match

From the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine:
Outcomes in the Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellowship Match, 2010-2017
by Mary K. Mulcahey, MD*, Meghan K. Hayes, BS, Christopher M. Smith, MD, Matthew J. Kraeutler, MD, Jeffrey D. Trojan, BA, Eric C. McCarty, MD

"Together with an increase in the number of applicants for orthopaedic fellowships, the process of applying to fellowship programs has evolved over the past several years. Currently, the majority of orthopaedic fellowship programs utilize a centralized, formal matching process.2 Sports medicine fellowship programs utilized the National Resident Matching Program until 2005.2 After the discontinuation of the formal matching process, residents were often asked to commit to a position during their third year of residency, before receiving adequate exposure to all subspecialties, or they were forced to accept or reject an offer before they could compare programs.
...
"A recent study assessed the match process and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) status of fellowships in the 9 orthopaedic subspecialties (adult reconstructive orthopaedics, foot and ankle orthopaedics, hand surgery, musculoskeletal oncology, orthopaedic sports medicine, orthopaedic surgery of the spine, orthopaedic trauma, pediatric orthopaedics, and shoulder and elbow surgery).3 This study discovered that 25% of available orthopaedic fellowship positions are devoted to sports medicine.3,12 Sports medicine is also the most popular orthopaedic subspecialty among current AAOS members, with the percentage of members who completed a sports medicine fellowship rising from 27% in 2004 to 49% in 2010.16 Additionally, orthopaedic sports medicine was found to have the highest proportion of ACGME-accredited fellowship programs, with 93.1% of programs and 97.3% of positions receiving accreditation.
...
:A 2014 study by Daniels et al3 investigated orthopaedic subspecialty fellowships in terms of the match process, characteristics, and ACGME accreditation. Fellowships were assessed by searching subspecialty society webpages and individual program websites. This study found that among the 9 orthopaedic subspecialty fellowships, there were collectively more positions offered than there were graduating orthopaedic residents.3 In 2013, there were 792 allopathic and osteopathic resident graduates and 897 total fellowship positions.3 The current study demonstrates that the opposite trend exists for applicants to sports medicine fellowships. In each year, excluding 2014, there were more sports medicine fellowship applicants than positions available."
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See my previous posts on orthopaedics, most of which are about the fellowship match.

1 comment:

Kho Health said...

One thing a lot of athletes forget is the power of a good sports dietician.

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