The University of Florida Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship Program
The University of Florida Shoulder and Elbow fellowship is located in Gainesville, Florida, which is a tertiary referral center for North Florida. It is designed to offer one fellow per year a comprehensive exposure to all aspects of shoulder and elbow surgery. The fellow will rotate with 7 full time fellowship-trained faculty including 4 members of the ASES society, all who have a high volume of shoulder and elbow cases. Dr. Wright has a large practice divided between shoulder and elbow arthroplasty surgery and arthroscopy. Dr. Farmer’s, Dr. Roach’s, and Dr. Sachdev’s practice involves sports medicine and arthroscopic surgery of the shoulder and elbow, and they are responsible for the care of the University of Florida Gators athletic teams (optional for the fellow). Dr. King and Dr. Jon Wright (no relation to Tom Wright) will work with the fellow on Fridays doing complex shoulder and elbow cases and will assist with research activities as well. If interesting cases arise, you may be pulled from other clinical duties so you can see these cases. Similarly, when complex and interesting shoulder elbow trauma comes in, you will be encouraged to work with Dr. Patrick. The fellow is actively involved in all aspects of the patient’s care from evaluation and decision making to the actual surgical procedure and follow-up. This is a surgical hands on fellowship, not an observational one. With 5 shoulder and elbow trained faculty members in the Division and one in the Trauma Division, the fellow will have some flexibility to focus on aspects of shoulder and elbow surgery that fit their particular needs. With seven faculty members specializing in shoulder and elbow surgery, the fellow will have the flexibility to tailor their training to focus on specific areas of shoulder and elbow surgery that align with their individual interests and career goals.
The University of Florida is a busy Level I Trauma and Burn Center. Our attendings frequently help out the Trauma service covering upper extremity trauma. The fellow will treat complex elbow and shoulder trauma both acutely and in a delayed setting. Drs. Tom Wright, Farmer, Jon Wright, and King perform inpatient shoulder and elbow surgery, including trauma cases. Dr. Patrick’s unique background as a dual fellowship trained surgeon in trauma and shoulder/elbow offers the fellow a unique perspective on managing both hot and cold shoulder and elbow trauma. We recognize the importance of tailoring the fellow’s education to your needs, and the opportunity exists to spend additional time in trauma if the fellow desires. The fellowship is educationally oriented and has no mandatory night call. If the fellow desires, options exist for optional ancillary income including covering an orthopaedic-only afterhours outpatient clinic, Saturday orthopaedic OR, and high school football game coverage (all paid and voluntary).
Didactic conferences are held every Tuesday morning, every other Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoons, and one Friday morning per month. Tuesday morning conferences alternate between a resident oriented lecture and fellowship oriented case discussions/journal club. Wednesday morning teaching sessions are conducted with Drs. Wright and King. These occur before proceeding to the OR and are based on the Shoulder/Elbow OKU series with a discussion of recent journal articles related to those topics. Thursday preoperative conferences are conducted at the end of clinic. The fellow will perform preoperative planning that will be used in the upcoming week using the new GPS computer navigation system to assist with shoulder arthroplasty surgery. Friday morning conference monthly is designated for resident education on upper extremity topics. In addition, one meeting each month is dedicated to planning and discussing fellow research projects.
The fellow is expected to write one research paper of publishable quality during their time at the University of Florida. Research facilities available to the fellow and housed directly in the Department of Orthopaedics include a biomechanics lab, motion analysis lab, gene therapy lab, stem cell research lab, and a surgical skills lab. We also have two full time clinical research coordinators responsible for the Division’s research and a shoulder arthroplasty database with over 2000 patients dating back to the 1990s. This database includes demographic data, range of motion and patient reported outcomes. We anticipate that the fellow will have 10% of the workweek available for research and educational purposes. This time may also be used in our wet lab, which is on the top floor of our clinic building, which is open to fellows at any time. The fellowship will sponsor travel to one national and one regional meeting per year. The Department also supports travel for research presentations from the fellow’s graduate work at UF.
Our fellowship is unique in that we have a high ratio of shoulder and elbow fellowship trained faculty for a single shoulder/elbow fellow. Our goal is to supplement your experience as a resident and prepare you to be the shoulder and elbow expert wherever you choose to practice. To accomplish this, we have built in a moderate amount of flexibility, which will allow you to focus on aspects of shoulder and elbow surgery, which suit your individual needs. Opportunities exist to increase your individual exposure to complex shoulder arthroplasty, sports medicine, and/or shoulder & elbow trauma.
Clinic Schedule (for the entire year)
Duty
(FSC)
(OSMI)
(ST)
(OSMI)
(ST)
Option
(FSC or ONH)
(FSC)
(ST)
(VA)
Option
(VA)
(OSMI)
- FSC = Florida Surgical Center (Outpatient surgical facility)
- OSMI = Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute (outpatient clinic next to FSC)
- ST = South Tower (inpatient facility 3 miles away from the outpatient facilities)
- VA = Veterans Administration Hospital (inpatient and outpatient ORs next to the South Tower)
- ONH = Ocala Neighborhood Hospital (outpatient surgical facility)
Applicants shall have completed an accredited orthopaedic residency in the United States or Canada. We accept applications through the SF Match. Please visit ASES fellowship site for more information.
For further information, interested parties may email educationoffice@ortho.ufl.edu.