Shoulder and Elbow Fellowship Program

Education, rather than service, is at the heart of our fellowship program. Fellows are here to learn, operate, and engage in research, without being bogged down by administrative or call tasks. 

As a single-fellow program, the educational experience can be focused on and tailored to that one fellow each year, providing the breadth and depth of experience of a larger program with a more personal feel.

There is a great diversity and volume of cases, excellent research opportunities with dedicated research time, and shoulder and elbow specific didactics and case conferences. With all of that, it is still very much a mentorship fellowship, with a sense of comradery between the fellow and the attendings.

Our clinical diversity and case volume are unmatched. We have excellent research support and a world-class biomechanics lab. The focus is on education and research, with little administrative responsibility. 

And as a single-fellow program, the educational experience can be tailored to the fellow’s individual goals and preferences and help position him or her for success. That’s true whether one is interested in private practice, academics, or more general orthopedics. 

We are committed to disseminating emerging techniques and technologies to our surgeons and surgeons-in-training in a thorough and timely fashion. Throughout the experience, the attendings are focused on you, helping you learn and grow at every step of your fellowship.

This fellowship offers experience in all types of shoulder and elbow pathology and treatment, including primary and revision shoulder arthroplasty, complex elbow reconstruction, open instability surgery, upper extremity trauma, and arthroscopy of both joints. We incorporate such new technologies as pre-operative planning, patient-specific instrumentation, intraoperative navigation, and a variety of biologics. This fellowship offers experience in all types of shoulder and elbow pathology and treatment, including complex elbow reconstruction, open instability surgery, and arthroscopy of both joints. We incorporate such new technologies as pre-operative planning, patient-specific instrumentation, intraoperative navigation, and a variety of biologics.

The fellowship also offers access to a wide range of digital and in-person didactic and case conferences to enhance skills, while providing many networking opportunities.

The Department of Orthopedic Surgery at MedStar Union Memorial has a Surgical Technique and Technology Lab that’s truly world-class. This facility encompasses nearly 5,000 square feet and includes a 2,500-square-foot surgical training area, conference area for 30 people, and a state-of-the-art biomechanics research facility.

Our fellowship involves working with four fellowship-trained shoulder and elbow surgeons, exposing the fellow to a huge variety of shoulder and elbow pathologies, from simple to complex, as well as treatment options for each case. 

Because of the mentorship model, the fellow has the opportunity to evaluate patients in clinic, develop a treatment plan, and discuss these findings with their attending. There’s also the opportunity to follow post-operative patients.

The fellow will typically spend two days a week in the operating room and two days in the clinic. You’ll also have a dedicated research/academic day each week to work with research faculty. Because this is a single-person fellowship, one always has the opportunity to join any attending with a particularly complex or unusual case. 

The shoulder and elbow experience is quite extensive, with more than 900 cases per year. Approximately 80% of the cases are shoulder and 20% elbow. Operative experience includes a high volume of: 

Multiple biomechanical, Multiple basic science, translational, and clinical research opportunities are available in our fellowship. Participation in on-going projects has always been encouraged and has generally resulted in excellent academic productivity.

Fellows have the opportunity to work within the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Research Network at the MedStar Health Research Institute. This  research program at MedStar Health is closely aligned with its world-class clinical programs, where there is close collaboration between orthopedic surgeons, research fellows, and engineers. 

In conjunction with our on site biomechanics laboratory space MedStar Union Memorial Hospital has invested in a facility for instruction and advancement of surgical skills. We believe that a multi-dimensional education that combines didactic interaction with practical, hands-on learning optimizes the surgeon’s academic experience. MedStar Union Memorial is committed to the design and development of a facility for instruction and advancement of surgical skills. We believe that a multi-dimensional education that combines didactic interaction with practical, hands-on learning optimizes the surgeon’s academic experience.

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