Adult Reconstruction Fellowship Guidance

[Bonnie Schuster]

Guidance needed!  We are looking at adding an Adult Reconstruction Fellowship.  If any of you have and established program could you answer a couple of questions?

1-Deciding on ACGME accreditation or NOT??  Your thoughts?

2-Do you receive industry funding or other funding?  If yes, from who?

3-Do you have any issues filling your available fellowship slots?

[Annie Detrick]

Hi Bonnie!

I have an established Adult Recon fellowship.

1. Our program is ACGME-accredited. It has been since I took over; I don’t know any different. I would think it’s a draw to our program, but I know many/the majority are not.

2. I belive Smith & Nephew provide grant funding. We apply for our Sports fellowship, but I’m not sure about Joints. I would have to confirm with the fellowship coordinator.

3. When I first took over we did not match well. I think in part because of program leadership and some trouble with match violations. In recent years, we’ve been matching better and better. Joints is popular at the moment.

Hope this helps a little. Happy to answer any more questions.

Annie

 

[Vanessa Glotzbach]

1- We do not have ACGME accreditation for this program. We determined that it is not necessary for our funding/operational model or to attract candidates. Adult Recon programs may now be AAHKS recognized which is much more economical and offers programs curriculum support. This recognition option is in its 2nd year, and is the route we have chosen for our program.

2- Yes, partially. We apply to many industry sponsors. You may want to start with the companies that are most used in your institution. OMeGA Medical Grants Association no longer exists so companies are either funding grants directly to programs or through AAHKS.

3- We have not had any issues filling our Adult Recon positions. We have two per year since 2012. It may be helpful to connect with AAHKS to see if they can give you a better picture of the competitiveness of the subspecialty using match stats. For some subspecialties there are many more available positions than candidates and vice versa.

Happy to answer any other questions you may have!

 

[Chandra Crump]

Hi Bonnie,

1. Our program is both ACGME and American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) accredited. Starting in 2025, AAHKS now requires all Adult Reconstruction fellowship programs to participate in their Recognition program. I have more information on the AAHKS Fellowship Recognition Program Requirements and Guidelines that I can send to you if you’d like to provide me with your email address. ACGME accreditation is up to the program whether they want to obtain this or not. My personal opinion, I believe it is beneficial to be ACGME accredited however, there is more paperwork involved.

2. AAHKS has a Fellowship Education Improvement and Innovation Grant program: https://www.aahks.org/fellowship-grant-program/

3. There is a large pool of applicants who apply to the Adult Reconstruction SF Match each year, and I believe the number of applicants consistently exceeds the number of available positions. Despite this competitive landscape, our program has consistently matched successfully without any issues.

Hope this helps!

[Cindy Thompson]

Hello Bonnie!

I have had an Adult Reconstruction fellowship for the last 8 years.  To answer your questions:

1. Accreditation:
   Our program is not ACGME-accredited. This decision was made to allow billing for the fellow, which is not permitted under ACGME accreditation. As a result, the majority of our fellowship funding is generated through billable services. We are, however, recognized by the AAHKS Fellowship Recognition Program. You can find more information about this at: https://www.aahks.org/recognition.
2. Funding:
   We have received grant support from Smith & Nephew in the past. However, as you may know, ongoing industry funding is not guaranteed and can vary year to year.
3. Match History:
   We have successfully matched a fellow every year for the past eight years.  For reference, the most recent match statistics for 2025 are as follows:

Participating Programs: 114
Positions Offered: 236
Positions Filled: 198
Vacancies: 38
You can view the full data at: https://www.sfmatch.org/data/3ca047c8-4095-4e28-9aa1-20a7b0f404df/f3227553-031a-421f-995c-7d5bd397ef42.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions.

Cindy

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