Election Topic: GME Funding

Augustine Saiz Jr, MD

This year, just like any other presidential election year, the candidates and the American public are faced with a myriad of issues. One that is unlikely to garner headlines—but that is critical to the future of health care—is Graduate Medical Education (GME) funding. GME is the training that medical school graduates receive as residents in more than 1,000 different teaching hospitals nationwide. Overall support for GME comes from a number of separate public and private sources.

Fellowship Accreditation: Finding the Way Forward

Gerald R. Williams Jr, MD

When I gave my incoming presidential address at the AAOS Annual Meeting in Orlando, I touched on the topic of fellowship accreditation—specifically, the unaccredited programs that provide orthopaedic fellowship training across the country.  Just how prevalent are these programs? According to 2015 match statistics, there are currently 480 fellowship programs and 943 fellowship positions nationwide. When osteopathic programs are included, the numbers are even larger.

The AAOS Resident Assembly: A Look Back on the Inaugural Year

Jeremy M. Burnham, MD

With the close of the 2016 AAOS Annual Meeting, the AAOS Resident Assembly (RA) has completed its inaugural year. Considering the substantial time and resources needed to take the RA from concept to reality, the first year flew by. By all accounts, the RA made significant strides in fulfilling its mission to engage, educate, and represent orthopaedic residents and fellows, while developing future AAOS members and leaders.

Seeing the Signs of Resident Burnout

Mark Schultzel, MD

Orthopaedic surgical residency programs have experienced a great deal of change in the last decade, including implementation of the 80-hour work week, greater use of simulator training, and increased documentation required of residents via caselogs and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Milestone Program. All of these adjustments have been aimed at improving resident education and enhancing patient care.