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What Is the Current Status of Global Health Activities and Opportunities in US Orthopaedic Residency Programs?

  • Clinical Research
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

A CORR Insights® to this article was published on 08 August 2013

Abstract

Background

Interest in developing national health care has been increasing in many fields of medicine, including orthopaedics. One manifestation of this interest has been the development of global health opportunities during residency training.

Questions/purposes

We assessed global health activities and opportunities in orthopaedic residency in terms of resident involvement, program characteristics, sources of funding and support, partner site relationships and geography, and program director opinions on global health participation and the associated barriers.

Methods

An anonymous 24-question survey was circulated to all US orthopaedic surgery residency program directors (n = 153) by email. Five reminder emails were distributed over the next 7 weeks. A total of 59% (n = 90) program directors responded.

Results

Sixty-one percent of responding orthopaedic residencies facilitated clinical experiences in developing countries. Program characteristics varied, but most used clinical rotation or elective time for travel (76%), which most frequently occurred during Postgraduate Year 4 (57%) and was used to provide pediatric (66%) or trauma (60%) care. The majority of programs (59%) provided at least some funding to traveling residents and sent accompanying attendings on all ventures (56%). Travel was most commonly within North America (85%), and 51% of participating programs have established international partner sites although only 11% have hosted surgeons from those partnerships. Sixty-nine percent of residency directors believed global health experiences during residency shape future volunteer efforts, 39% believed such opportunities help attract residents to a training program, and the major perceived challenges were funding (73%), faculty time (53%), and logistical planning (43%).

Conclusions

Global health interest and activity are common among orthopaedic residency programs. There is diversity in the characteristics and geographical locations of such activity, although some consensus does exist among program directors around funding and faculty time as the largest challenges.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the orthopaedic residency program directors who took the time to respond to this survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Carter Clement MD, MBA.

Additional information

Each author certifies that he or she, or a member of his or her immediate family, has no funding or commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request.

Each author certifies that his or her institution approved or waived approval for the human protocol for this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.

This work was performed at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

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Clement, R.C., Ha, Y.P., Clagett, B. et al. What Is the Current Status of Global Health Activities and Opportunities in US Orthopaedic Residency Programs?. Clin Orthop Relat Res 471, 3689–3698 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-013-3184-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-013-3184-3

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