Orthopaedic Surgery
The Orthopaedic Surgery program at Western was created with the appointment of Dr. J. C. Kennedy as Professor of Orthopaedics in 1948. Since that date, the program in orthopaedics has grown significantly.
A dedicated commitment to teaching, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, has resulted in the successful graduation of over 100 qualified orthopaedic surgeons. Our program has developed a degree of excellence envied by all other programs in Canada. The success of our candidates at the Fellowship examinations is exceptional. We are convinced that our excellence is a result of careful selection of trainees, hard work by the trainees and the encouragement of maintenance of an intimate relationship between trainees, students and the faculty.
The Western University orthopaedic training program is a vertical program of 5 years after medical school. It comprises 10 months of core rotations in affiliated specialties, a 2 month elective period (musculoskeletal radiology and rheumatology suggested), a 3 month research block, and a further 45 months of orthopaedic surgery.
The program is structured on a clinical teaching unit basis and includes rotations in adult reconstruction, paediatric orthopaedics, hand and upper limb surgery, trauma/foot and ankle surgery, spine surgery, and sport medicine. In addition, all residents participate in a one month rotation in musculoskeletal oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto with Dr. R Bell, Dr. J Wunder and Dr. P Ferguson. Residents and students are assigned to a specific orthopaedic team based on well-designed educational objectives. Ultimate authority for the activities of each team rests with the responsible consultant. It is expected that the Senior Resident in each hospital or on each team will assume considerable responsibility acting, in fact, as a Junior Staffman. Junior residents will be delegated responsibilities commensurate with their level of training. In order for the team approach to be successful, however, no member should assume any responsibility for any activity with which he/she is not familiar. We feel that the strength of our program owes much to this philosophy.
