Roth | McFarlane Upper Extremity Surgery Fellowship

Goal: To provide the highest quality clinical and research fellowship, covering all aspects of upper extremity surgery to qualified applicants who have graduated from diverse surgical specialties.

Academic affiliation: Divisions of Orthopaedic and Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Canada.

Physical facilities: 1. Primary Hospital: St. Joseph’s Health Care, London, Ontario. Secondary Hospital: Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario, London, Ontario. 2. Offsite clinics: Spinal cord injury clinic, Parkwood Hospital, London, Ontario. Children's congenital upper extremity disorder clinic, Thames Valley Children’s Centre, London, Ontario. Multidisciplinary Brachial plexus and Peripheral nerve clinic, Parkwood Hospital, London, Ontario. Amputee Clinic, Parkwood Hospital, London, Ontario.

Length of Fellowship: 12 months

Starting date: August 1

Maximum number of fellows per year: 5

Organization of the Fellowship: Usually, the Fellow will rotate through 4 three-month rotations. These are roughly divided into: shoulder, shoulder/elbow, and wrist/hand rotations. There is room for adaptation to personal clinical interests and needs of the Fellow. The Fellow will have gradually increasing responsibilities and at the end of the Fellowship will work at the level of a junior attending physician. Clinical supervision is by 8 Royal College of Surgeons of Canada certified Orthopaedic surgeons and 4 Royal College of Surgeons of Canada certified Plastic surgeons.

Clinical responsibilities of the Fellow:

  1. Attend clinics at St. Joseph’s Health Care and affiliated clinics.
  2. Participate in surgery of the attending staff, both elective and emergent.
  3. Second call responsibilities. First call responsibilities are shared between residents in Orthopaedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Emergency Medicine. Fellows may be responsible for occasional first call duties.
  4. Ward rounds and duties in conjunction with residents and attending staff
  5. Completion of medical records in a timely fashion.
  6. Contribute to the education of housestaff and students.

Academic responsibilities of the Fellow:

  1. Attend and participate in upper extremity conferences.
  2. Attend and participate in Orthopaedic and Plastic Surgery Grand Rounds.
  3. Attend assigned clinics and operating rooms.
  4. Participate in at least two basic sciences and clinical research projects and or book chapters. This work should ultimately be presented by the fellow at the Canadian Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting, or another national or international meeting. This work should be of publishable quality. For an overview of our research programs, click here.

Academic resources:

  1. Use of Western University Medical Library and its facilities
  2. 24-hour access to the R.M. McFarlane medical library at SJHC
  3. Access to media services at SJHC
  4. Use of departmental computers
  5. Microsurgery skills learning centre, SJHC
  6. Arthroscopy skills learning centre, SJHC

Scope of clinical material:

  • Number of clinic visits seen approximately 43,000 per year
  • Number of major operative upper extremity surgery cases approximately 4,300 per year
  • Number of arthroplasty cases over 300 per year

Research Labs

Bio-Engineering Research Laboratory:

James Johnson PEng PhD, Louis Ferriera PEng PhD

  • in-house biomechanics testing facility
  • projects involve collaborations between surgeons and engineers
  • in-vitro simulators used to mimic joint motion
  • development and testing of surgical procedures and new implant systems

Clinical Outcomes Laboratory:

Joy MacDermid BScPT MSc PhD

  • randomized clinical trials
  • development of patient-based outcome scores
  • computerized upper extremity testing using NK and LIDO systems

Surgical Skills Laboratory:

Darren Drosdowech MD FRCSC and Stahs Pripotnev MD FRCSC

  • Development of surgical skills teaching techniques, including microsurgery and arthroscopy

Weekly teaching sessions:

Monday - 7-8 am Elbow Conference
Tuesday - 7-8 am Wrist Conference
Wednesday - 7-8 am City-wide Plastic or Orthopaedic Rounds
Thursday - 7-8 am Hand Conference
Friday - 7-8 am Shoulder Conference

Monthly teaching sessions:

  • Monthly HULC Rounds
  • Monthly combined Physiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine/HULC Rounds
  • Bi-Monthly HULC Morbidity/Mortality Rounds (Continous Quality Assurance)
  • Monthly HULC Journal Club
  • Monthly HULC Problem Case Rounds

Forms should be e-mailed to Dr. Ken Faber, Fellowship Director, and Martha Boertien, fellowship coordinator, and should be accompanied by the documents as outlined below.

Requirements for acceptance:

  1. Completion of an approved residency in Orthopaedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery or General Surgery
  2. Completion of an application form with copy of applicant’s medical school degree, curriculum vitae and transcript, one-page personal statement, and three letters of recommendation which should include one from a hand surgeon and one from the chief of your residency program
  3. Personal interview and site visit are mandatory. Selections are made April 15 of each year, approximately 14 months before commencement of the fellowship. Further information regarding postgraduate education can be found on the Postgraduate Education website.