The Brooks Center was founded in 1985 to enhance the orthopaedic education of residents and medical students, and to facilitate clinical research and continuing medical education. The Center moved to centralized quarters on the first floor of Medical Center South in July, 1990. This 1,100 square foot facility includes a learning resource center, video/photography equipment, and computers used for wordprocessing, graphic design, and information retrieval. Only members of the Department of Orthopaedics have access to Brooks Center services, which include graphic design for publication and scientific displays, use of video and digital equipment, and basic editing. In addition, a Brooks Center staff member assists with orthopaedic resident education and administers the residency applicant program. For a more detailed description click here.
To encourage busy clinicians and educators to be productive also as scholars, the Department of Orthopaedics provides graphic design services to all faculty members and residents. A full-time graphic designer with extensive experience helps with the preparation of poster presentations, manuscripts, and grant applications. In addition, the Graphic Designer is responsible for Orthopaedics' web site, newsletters, promotional materials, and web statistics reporting.
The residency program receives about 425 application requests and over 400 completed applications from prospective residents each year. Approximately 85 of these applicants are interviewed for four positions at the PGY-1 level. A member of the Brooks Center's administrative staff coordinates the application and interview process, maintains records of the residents' educational experience required for Board certification, and facilitates the evaluation of resident performance following each rotation.
Two Orthopaedic Basic Research Laboratories are dedicated to biomechanical analyses of orthopaedic disorders and their management. Primary among current projects are experiments involving joint kinematics and the mechanical properties of bone and bone implants. These laboratories are used by research engineers, orthopaedic faculty, technicians, visiting international scholars, and work-study students. In addition, resident and medical student participation is encouraged. Currently, the orthopaedic department is supporting a medical student summer research program. PGY-3 residents spend a three-month rotation in the orthopaedic biomechanics laboratories, which contain extensive histological instruments, a small machine shop, a light/fluorescence microscope with photographic accessories, an ultra-low freezer, a laminar flow hood with over 300 square feet of flow space, and a multiaxial materials testing system.
An Orthopaedic Library and Conference Room contains a large selection of orthopaedic texts and journals, supplementing the orthopaedic collection in the Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library. It also contains educational videotapes of surgical procedures and a videotape player. This area, comprising 341 square feet, doubles as a seminar room for small orthopaedic conferences and faculty meetings.
The Resident Study Area, designed for the use of orthopaedic residents and fellows, is equipped with microscopes and acts as a supplement to the Brooks Center with a coordinated histologic/radiographic teaching file and an offprint library of faculty publications. This 207 square foot office also contains two microcomputers and a printer which housestaff are encouraged to use for literature searches, case records, professional correspondence, and clinical research manuscripts.
The Arthur L. Brooks Endowment for Resident Education was established in 1984 by the Vanderbilt Orthopaedic Society, a group composed of former residents and current orthopaedic faculty members. Interest from the endowment now produces a usable annual income of over $26,000 for equipment and programs that enhance resident education.
The Brooks Fund has enabled the Department of Orthopaedics to purchase two microcomputers and a printer for the Residents' Office, provide educational videotapes and a videotape player for the Orthopaedic Library, and cover the costs of textbooks, surgical loupes, and course registration fees for residents. Other expenditures have provided support for resident education in basic science, resident research projects, the Prosthetics/Orthotics course, other course registration fees, and resident literature searches. All expenditures from the Brooks Fund are approved by an executive committee of the orthopaedic faculty and a representative of the Vanderbilt Orthopaedic Society, the department's alumni organization.
