Achieving educational excellence: a strategic initiative to enhance orthopedic resident academic performance

Orthopedic resident training involves not only the hands-on learning of surgery but also should equally involve instructing the core knowledge of musculoskeletal medicine. Our program has developed a strategy that enhances resident educational performance; the educational curriculum entails conferences daily. Conferences include gross and surgical anatomy, orthopedic basic science, multidisciplinary trauma, radiology, pathology, journal club, and orthopedic subspecialty conferences. The primary purpose of the conference schedule is to provide the residents with a comprehensive education in orthopedic surgery. It is not geared toward taking the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination (OITE). The OITE is administered annually by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and serves as an objective measure of knowledge acquisition. There has been a scientifically validated correlation between performance on the OITE and passage of the American Board for Orthopaedic Surgery Part I Examination. As a collective program, we have achieved at or above the 98th percentile nationally from 2004 to 2009. This academic success has not impacted the total surgical case volume negatively or interfered with Residency Review Committee (RRC) policies.