The vast majority of learning occurs through clinical experience and individual reading, however, we have a daily teaching conference with a two year curriculum. The curriculum includes basic science as well as clinical orthopaedic topics.

Gross anatomy is done in the cadaver lab as part of this curriculum every other year.

Conferences

Daily:

Morning report:
6:30 to 6:45 am. This conference is attended by all the residents in the program, and by from 2 to 5 of the faculty (the section chief and program director attend every day). The junior resident on call presents emergency cases with discussion from the audience. Monday’s conference (6:30AM-7:15AM) covers all cases seen over the weekend. Tue. through Fri. cases seen from 5pm to 6:30 am are presented.

Morning Topic conference:
6:45 to 7:30 am. This conference is attended by all the residents, and by from two to five faculty. Each morning topic conference covers an assigned topic from the two-year curriculum. Usually this takes the form of an interactive lesson, or a didactic presentation. The presenter is a faculty member or a resident supervised by an attending. This is our primary teaching conference.

Weekly:

Weekly hand conference:
4:30 to 5:30 Mon. afternoon: This conference is attended by the two full time hand team faculty, two to three community orthopaedists, and the residents on the hand team. Case presentations and interactive discussions are the most frequent teaching format.

Weekly pediatric pre-op conference:
8:00 to 9:00 Tue. morning: This conference is attended by the two full-time pediatric orthopaedic attendings and the residents on pediatric orthopaedics. All operative cases scheduled for the following week as well as selected clinic cases of interest are presented and discussed.

Weekly spine conference:
8:00 to 9:00 Fri. morning: Our fulltime spine faculty attend this conference. During each four-month rotation a 12-topic spine curriculum is covered in an interactive/ didactic format. Pre operative cases are also presented and discussed.

Weekly Adult Reconstruction conference:
Thursday afternoon: This conference is attended by the two full time adult reconstruction faculty, and the residents on the adult reconstruction team. Pre- operative and special operative issues are presented and discussed in an interactive format.

Weekly VAMC floor rounds and conference:
7:45 to 8:45 Monday morning: at least one and often two of the full time faculty attend this conference. Formal rounds are done on all patients with a conference afterwards to discuss the cases in an interactive format. Pre op cases are also discussed.

Academic Sessions: Every Wednesday 4:00pm to 5:30pm

MCG Orthopaedic Resident Grand Rounds:
4:00pm to 5:30pm on 1st, 3rd and 5th Wednesday afternoons. This conference is attended by all the faculty and residents. Residents, faculty and community physicians present case based lectures in an auditorium setting.

Journal Club:
4:00pm tp 5:30pm the second Tuesday of each month:

Journal Club is attended by from four to eight of the full time faculty and by all the residents. Resident attendance is mandatory. Each team selects one or two articles for discussion. The articles are read prior to the conference and then briefly presented by a resident followed by a general discussion open to all.

Morbidity and Mortality conference:
4:00pm tp 5:30pm the fourth Wednesday of each month: This conference is attended by all faculty and residents. M&M cases are presented and discussed.

Quarterly:

Quarterly Research Update:
This conference is attended by all faculty and residents. All ongoing and proposed research projects are reviewed to ensure compliance with human assurance standards, identify scientific methodology, identify participants, and plans for presentation / publication.

Yearly:

Resident Research Conference:

This conference is attended by all faculty and residents. A visiting professor of national recognition is invited to this conference. Each resident presents his or her research to the audience. The visiting professor, faculty, and residents discuss the presenting resident's research in an open forum making suggestions for improvement and steering the rsidents to obtain work of publishable quality.

Frank H. Stelling Pediatric Orthopaedic Conference:
This is a one and one half day conference held each November. A visiting professor of national recognition is invited to give several didactic lectures and discuss pediatric orthopaedic cases presented to him by the residents. This conference is attended by all of the MCG orthopaedic faculty and residents as well as the faculty and residents from Eisenhower Med. Ctr. Additionally, many community pediatricians and orthopaedic surgeons attend.

Graduation Lectureship;
This is a full day visiting professor conference held each year in conjunction with our graduation ceremony for the PGY5 residents. This conference is attended by all the residents and faculty in our program and often several regional orthopaedic surgeons. Teaching methods include didactic lectures and discussions of case presentations.

Spine Visiting Professor Lectureship:
This conference is held each February and is attended by all the MCG and Eisenhower Med. Ctr. orthopaedic residents and most of the orthopaedic faculty members. Additionally, many of the neurosurgery faculty and residents attend. It is a one-day conference in which a nationally recognized authority in spine surgery is invited to give two to three lectures and discuss cases presented by the residents.

Biomechanics Symposium:
This conference is held once a year for one day and is usually conducted by a visiting professor of Biomechanics.

Yearly Resident Courses:

AAOS yearly meeting:
Attended by the PGY-5 residents. This is funded by our alumni society.

Board Review Course:
Each PGY-5 resident attends a review course of his choice funded by the alumni society.

Pathology Course:
PGY-4 residents attended the Enneking pathology course.

Orthotic and Prosthetic Course:
Attended by the PGY-3 residents.

AO ASIF Spine Course:

Attending by the PGY-3 residents

ASIF Basic Fracture Course:
Attended by the PGY2 residents each year.

Microvascular Course during their PGY-4 year on the Hand Service

Comments or suggestions: email Dorothy Harmon

August 18, 2009

School of Medicine | Medical College of Georgia