Operative Experience

Indiana University School of Medicine’s Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship program offers a comprehensive surgical experience with a wide breadth of complex pathology. Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital serves as a tertiary referral center for complex orthopaedic trauma throughout Indiana.

The following are the average number of cases per fellow during the fellowship year based on recent fellows' case logs:

Anatomic Location	Annual Number of Operations
Open fractures (all sites)	80
Acetabulum	45
Pelvis	60
Hip fracture	80
Femur (shaft and distal)	69
Bicondylar tibia plateau	27
Tibia shaft	57
Tibia pilon	30
Calcaneus	14
Long bone nonunion/malunion	40
Humerus shaft	25
Distal humerus	15
Elbow fracture/dislocation	20
Ring fixators	2-10

Daily Activity

Fellows participate in morning X-ray report and inpatient rounding. The Orthopaedic Trauma Service team meets every morning to review the previous afternoon/evening/overnight trauma admissions and discuss diagnosis, surgical indications, surgical tactics and anticipated outcomes. The advanced practice provider staff then rounds as a team through the intensive care unit (ICU) and inpatient units. The fellows will then follow one of the attending staff to the operating room or the orthopaedic physician's office.

Orthopaedic surgery faculty sit at a large conference table.

Clinic

Fellows rotate through multiple faculty members' clinics for approximately two months. They also attend faculty office hours on a rotating basis one day a week. Fellows have a half-day weekly dedicated to research and are in the operating room for the remainder of the week.

Call Responsibility

Fellows are always on call with staff members and do not take independent call. Call is one in three weekdays and every third weekend, averaged over the year. Advanced practice providers/residents remain in-house 24/7, field all floor calls and respond initially to consults. Fellow calls function similarly to faculty call and primarily involve discussing consult disposition with the in-house team and operative planning and surgery for urgent/emergent conditions.