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Program Details
The Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship is designed to prepare an orthopaedic surgeon for a career at a Level I trauma center, either university- or community-based. The focus of the faculty is on the teaching of how to think about, plan for and execute the care of an injured patient. The emphasis is on the understanding of the basic concepts (physiologic, anatomic, biomechanical) underlying what surgeons do in the operating room. The program believes it is the understanding of these concepts that will allow the future traumatologist to adapt to new clinical scenarios and technologies as they present themselves.
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is the tertiary referral center for both adult and pediatric Level I trauma in southcentral Pennsylvania. An extensive referral network for complex pelvis and acetabular fractures as well as complex periarticular fractures and nonunions has been established over the last 15 years, extending through the entire central corridor of Pennsylvania. Trauma exists as a separate division within the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation.
Only one fellow will be accepted per year, yielding a rich experience in all areas of orthopaedic trauma, including pelvis and acetabulum/difficult periarticular and long bone fractures; upper extremity and foot/ankle fractures. The fellowship requires four to five nights of call per month with attending backup.
In addition, the fellow will be exposed to complex nonunions, bone loss and infections incorporating the use of Ilizarov and Spatial Frames techniques.
The division employs a nurse practitioner in the outpatient setting, as well as a nurse practitioner and physician assistant devoted to patient care on the inpatient floors.
Learn More about the Fellowship
Applicants for the Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship must be board-eligible in orthopaedic surgery and have completed an accredited residency in orthopaedic surgery.
Those interested in applying for the Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center must apply through the Orthopaedic Trauma Association website.
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Penn State Health
Penn State Health is an integrated academic health system serving patients and communities across 15 counties in central Pennsylvania. It employs more than 20,900 people systemwide.
The system includes Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and Penn State Cancer Institute based in Hershey, Pa.; Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pa.; Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill, Pa.; Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center in Lancaster, Pa.; Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Pa.; Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, a specialty provider of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, in Harrisburg, Pa.; and 2,417 physicians and direct care providers at 225 outpatient practices. Additionally, the system jointly operates various healthcare providers, including Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center and Hershey Endoscopy Center.
In 2017, Penn State Health partnered with Highmark Health to facilitate creation of a value-based, community care network in the region.
Penn State Health shares an integrated strategic plan and operations with Penn State College of Medicine, the University’s medical school. With campuses in State College and Hershey, Pa., the College of Medicine boasts a portfolio of more than $150 million in funded research and more than 1,700 students and trainees in medicine, nursing, other health professions and biomedical research.
Learn more about Penn State Health
Penn State Health Children’s Hospital (left), Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (center) and Penn State Cancer Institute (right)
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
500 University Dr., Hershey, Pa., 17033 (Derry Township, Dauphin County)
- The health system’s 611-bed flagship teaching and research hospital
- The only medical facility in Pennsylvania accredited as both an adult and a pediatric Level I (highest-level) trauma center
- Dedicated surgical, neuroscience, cardiovascular, trauma and medical intensive care units
- Accredited Life Lion critical-care transport providing more than 1,100 helicopter and approximately 750 ground ambulance transports per year
- More than 1,300 faculty members and more than 650 residents and fellows
- Approximately 29,000 admissions, 73,000 emergency department visits, 1.1 million outpatient visits and 33,000 surgical procedures annually
- Designated as a Magnet hospital since 2007
Learn more about Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Penn State Health Children’s Hospital
600 University Dr., Hershey, Pa. 17033 (Derry Township, Dauphin County)
- An eight-story, 263,000-square-foot-facility built in 2013 and expanded in 2020
- 160 licensed pediatric beds, 26-bed pediatric intensive care unit and a 56-bed neonatal intensive care unit
- Level IV (highest-level) neonatal intensive care unit
- Level I quaternary (highest-level) pediatric intensive care unit
- Level I (highest-level) pediatric trauma center designation
- Intermediate care unit
- Dedicated pediatric operating rooms
- More than 150,000 pediatric outpatient visits, 20,000 pediatric emergency room visits, and approximately 5,000 pediatric patient discharges annually
Welcome to Hershey
More About Hershey
Interested in learning more about living and working in Hershey, Pa.? See details here:
Wellness, including emotional, spiritual, social and physical health, is a crucial component to training and to becoming a professional, compassionate and resilient physician. Self-care is a skill which must be continually practiced and reinforced. Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health are committed to addressing wellness among residents and fellows, with multiple resources readily available.
Institutional resources
- Visit BeWell – a health program designed to support Penn State Health employees
- See Penn State College of Medicine wellness resources here
- Employee Health Care Concierge and Case Management Service
- Partners in Medicine
Moving to a new city with your family does not have to be stressful. Residency programs have assisted many significant others with finding employment. There is also a GME-Wide Partners in Medicine (PIM) group that offers networking opportunities as well as various social and community oriented activities. - The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine
- Active and easily accessed Office of Professional Mental Health
Graduate medical education resources
Institutional Resources
Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine celebrate, embrace and support the diversity of all patients, faculty, staff, students and trainees.
Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In keeping with this, Penn State Health has an active Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with various programs, networks and resource groups, including:
- Talks and lectures on diversity, equity and inclusion through the Inclusion Academy
- Regular events on topics such as eradicating racism and creating a culture of inclusiveness
- Many Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs), including:
- Disability Business Employee Resource Group
- Interfaith Business Employee Resource Group
- LGBTQ+ Business Employee Resource Group
- Military and Veterans Business Employee Resource Group
- Multicultural Business Employee Resource Group
- NextGen Business Employee Resource Group
- Black Physician Professional Staff Association – Resource Group
- Hispanic Professional Association
- Asian Physician and Professional Staff Association
- International Workforce Inclusion
- Inclusion Academy
Learn more about the Penn State Health Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Learn more about the College of Medicine’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Belonging
Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education
The vision at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health is to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need to provide culturally excellent health care and research for an increasingly diverse U.S. population. The Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education was formed to help meet that goal.
Learn more about the Office for Culturally Responsive Health Care Education
Office for a Respectful Learning Environment
In addition, the institution does not tolerate discrimination, biases, microaggression, harassment or learner mistreatment of any kind, and any concerns are immediately addressed by the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment.
Learn more about the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment
Network of Under-represented Residents and Fellows
The Network of Under-represented Residents and Fellows (NURF) is a group of diverse residents and fellows representing all specialties. NURF’s goal is to promote cultural diversity in the residency programs through community involvement, mentorship with diverse faculty, professional networking and support for the recruitment of diverse medical students into the residency programs.
NURF is sponsored by the Penn State College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education Office and the Penn State Health Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Mailing Address
Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
Attn: Joelle Hoke
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
EC089
30 Hope Dr., Building A
P.O. Box 859
Hershey, PA 17033
General Contact Information
Phone: 717-531-7654
Fax: 717-531-0498
Curriculum Details
There is a three-hour teaching conference for the entire trauma division every Monday at 3 p.m. All preoperative and post-operative cases for the week are presented and discussed in depth. The final hour is devoted to a didactic discussion on a trauma topic on a rotating schedule.
There is a one-hour conference on Tuesday morning with Dr. Henry Boateng, in which classic trauma articles on a given topic are discussed.
A trauma journal club is held monthly in the evening following the Monday conference.
There is a monthly orthopaedic morbidity and mortality conference, which incorporates trauma cases. The fellow will be responsible for presenting a grand rounds conference on a topic of their choosing as well as taking responsibility for the resident review on trauma topics for the OITE exam.
Every six weeks there is a sawbones lab, run by Dr. Carol Copeland, for the entire orthopaedic resident group, spanning all the typical topics covered in the AO basic course.
An extensive and well-funded orthopaedic basic science laboratory is housed on the same floor as the trauma division. Biomechanical studies can be designed and executed with the aid of a faculty biomechanical engineer (Gregory Lewis, PhD). The fellow is expected to either initiate, or become involved with, a clinical or basic science research project and produce a paper of publishable quality upon completion. Protected time for the fellow to pursue this research is provided.
The Division of Orthopaedic Trauma employs two full-time research coordinators to facilitate the initiation and execution of clinical studies via IRB preparation and database management. Department funding for project initiation is available through the Orthopaedic Initiation Grant. Current projects include the genomics of atypical bisphosphonate fractures, the modulation of trauma related disuse osteopenia, the biomechanics of locking screw constructs and cognitive simulation in fracture repair.
Penn State Health is a core center for METRC studies (Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium), a Department of Defense-funded multicenter research effort coordinated through the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The organization is currently enrolling patients in the FIXIT, TAOS, PovIV, VANCO and PAIN trials.
Fellow case volume (averaged last five years):
- Pelvis: 35 to 40 cases
- Acetabulum: 35 to 45
- Calcaneus: 22 to 25
- Talus: 20 to 25
- Tibial Plateau: 35 to 45
- Pilon: 25 to 30
- Complex UE: 22 to 27
- Ilizarov/TSF: 25 to 30
- Nonunions: 22 to 30 (overlaps with Ilizarov/TSF)
Resident Honors and Recognitions
Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center accept ongoing nominations for the Exceptional Moments in Teaching award.
The award, given monthly by the Office for a Respectful Learning Environment, accepts nominations from College of Medicine students who are invited to submit narratives about faculty members, residents, fellows, nurses or any other educators who challenge them and provide an exceptional learning experience. See more about the award here.
Previous nominees from the Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship are listed here. Click the + next to a nominee name to read their nominator’s comments.
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Jana Davis, MD
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