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The University of Maryland Medical Center is offering a one-year orthopedics fellowship program in hand and upper extremity trauma, reconstruction and limb salvage. Through clinical and didactic education, our fellows will gain the experience necessary to become hand surgeons.

During and after the fellowship, a fellow must:

  • Demonstrate knowledge of established and evolving biomedical, clinical, epidemiological and social-behavioral sciences and apply this knowledge to patient care
  • Attend cadaver lab, microsurgical lab, indications conference, and morbidity and mortality conferences, each of which supplement the didactic components of the curriculum
  • Demonstrate competence in their knowledge of the didactic component areas below

Fellowship Components

The didactic component areas are organized into specific blocks that reflect the strengths and clinical focus of each faculty. All rotation locations are in the Baltimore metro area.

Microsurgical Reconstructions and Trauma

The microsurgical reconstruction and trauma block occurs at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC - Site #1) in downtown Baltimore, specifically, UMMC's Shock Trauma Center. The focus will be the evaluation, care and treatment of the acute, traumatic hand and mangled extremity efforts that are common to a busy level I trauma center. Mangling hand, upper- and lower-extremity injuries requiring microsurgical reconstruction are the mainstays of this rotation.

Congenital and Pediatric Hand Experience

This block occurs at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center (UMSJMC - Site #5). It focuses on the evaluation, care and treatment of the pediatric and congenital upper extremity. Patients referred to the University of Maryland Medical Center for congenital upper-extremity differences, brachial plexus birth palsy and trauma are the mainstays of this rotation.

Adult Degenerative Hand Treatment

This block occurs at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Baltimore VAMC – Site #3), which is adjacent to UMMC. It focuses on the evaluation, care and treatment of the adult and elderly hand. Conditions such as degenerative joint disease, compressive neuropathy, and Dupuytren’s disease are the mainstays of this rotation, which will occur on alternating Fridays.

Community and Outpatient Hand Care

The clinical experience of this block occurs at the outpatient clinics of the University of Maryland Department of Orthopaedics, located at The University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopaedics Institute (UMROI – Site #3), the Camden Yards Clinic (Site #7), Columbia Clinic (Site #8) and Texas Station Clinic (Site #9). The operative experience of this block occurs at UMROI and Waterloo Crossing (Site #6). The mainstay of this rotation is the care and treatment of routine hand conditions, such as low-energy fractures, tendinopathies and compressive neuropathies.

Research

This block encourages the fellow to identify and address an area of hand, upper extremity and microsurgery that, through the application of scientific method, will benefit future patients and those charged with their care.

During the first week of fellowship, the fellow is given a list of suggested research questions that has been discussed among the hand surgery faculty prior to the fellowship's start. After appropriate consideration, the fellow will select a question, review the existing current literature, formulate a testable, novel hypothesis and present it to the research committee within the first four weeks of the fellowship. The research committee will give feedback regarding the value and clinical applicability of the question, the testability of the hypothesis and a schedule for completion. The fellow will then work with research assistants to formulate an institutional review board approval (if applicable), collect the appropriate data, and present this data and preliminary findings as part of a graduation requirement.

Elective (Shoulder and Elbow)

This block focuses on areas of specific interest to the fellow, which can include additional operative or clinical exposure to shoulder and elbow with fellowship-trained shoulder and elbow surgeons within the department of orthopedics at the UMROI practice site or additional exposure to any of the other aforementioned practice sites.

Possible Electives

  • UMROI Shoulder and Elbow Service
  • Private practice exposure
  • Attendance at National Courses (e.g., AO Upper Extremity Fracture Fixation, Mayo micro-surgical course, American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Orthopaedic Trauma Association, American Journal of Microsurgery)

Participating Sites for Rotations

During your fellowship, you'll rotate through a number of UMMS facilities, all located in a 30-minute radius from our downtown campus.

Hospital Sites

  1. University of Maryland Medical Center & Shock Trauma Center (Primary Site)
  2. UM Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Institute in northwest Baltimore
  3. Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center
  4. UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, MD
  5. UM St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, MD
  6. UM Ambulatory Surgery Center - Waterloo Crossing in Columbia, MD

Clinical Sites

  1. UM Orthopaedics at Camden Yards in Baltimore
  2. UM Orthopaedics at Columbia
  3. UM Orthopaedics at Texas Station in Timonium, MD

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