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Orthopaedic Teaching Conferences

HAND, SPINE, SPORTS MEDICINE, & TOTAL JOINTS CONFERENCES

Are coordinated by Drs. Douglas Weikert, Dan Spengler, Kurt Spindler, and Andrew Shinar, are each held once a month.

PEDIATRIC ORTHOPAEDIC CONFERENCE

Are held weekly, generally consists of presentations of pre-operative cases on the Pediatric Service. Each case is presented by a junior resident as an unknown. The patient is examined and X rays are reviewed. Differential diagnosis and treatment options are discussed in a Socratic manner, after which the general disease process is thoroughly analyzed. Dr. Neil Green, Director of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Service and Dr. Gregory Mencio coordinate this conference.

ORTHOPAEDIC GRAND ROUNDS

Also held weekly, features the presentation and discussion of interesting cases. All residents are expected to attend with rare exceptions; members of the clinical faculty also frequently attend. The Chief Resident on each service is responsible for the attendance of junior residents and students assigned to that service.

Responsibility for organizing certain designated conferences falls to the Chief Resident of the service assigned to present. Ideal selection of cases for presentation at conference shall always include those with adequate follow-up care, so that the treatment option selected can be appropriately evaluated.

TRAUMA CONFERENCE

Held weekly, is coordinated by Dr. Philip Kregor, Chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service with the assistance of Drs. William Obremskey and Franklin Shuler. Responsibility for organization and case selection rotates among the Chief Residents, but cases may be selected and presented by residents at all levels. Emphasis is placed on review of the literature with reference to key articles.

MORBIDITY & MORTALITY CONFERENCE

Monthly, is conducted. Monthly orthopaedic complications are reported by the chief resident on each service and discussed with the faculty.

BASIC SCIENCE CONFERENCE

Two-hour weekly, is presented, except during the month of July. The two-year teaching curriculum, coordinated by Dr. Herbert S. Schwartz, is devoted to basic scientific concepts with clinical implications for orthopaedics. Many of the conference lectures are provided by Orthopaedic Department faculty members; others are given by clinicians and scientists within the larger Vanderbilt community. An attendance record is also kept for this conference. Anatomy is offered for eight weeks every year during the winter rotation, emphasizing orthopaedic operative approaches, and culminating in a final, oral examination of PGY-2 residents by the orthopaedic faculty. A twelve-week lecture series is devoted to Pathology, and six sessions each are dedicated to Biomechanics and Physiology. Additional lectures focus upon Biochemistry, Pharmacology, etc.

JOURNAL CLUB

Is an evening meeting hosted monthly by a faculty member or private physician, and organized in a round-table manner to discuss current orthopaedic journal articles of interest. Coordination of the meeting and selection of topics to be discussed are the responsibility of the PGY-3 resident on the Research service in collaboration with Dr. Schwartz. Although the primary source of articles to be discussed is the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, residents are asked to scan other orthopaedic and related journals as well for interesting articles.

THE NASHVILLE ORTHOPAEDIC SOCIETY

Meets quarterly at the Nashville City Club, which is located on the top floor of the Third National Bank Building downtown. Residents are usually invited as guests. The meeting consists of a cocktail hour, dinner, and a guest speaker.

VISITING PROFESSORS

Each year a prominent orthopaedist is invited to spend two or three days at Vanderbilt, teaching the housestaff through a series of formal lectures, case presentations and informal talks. The J. William Hillman Visiting Professorship is an endowed lectureship in honor of the Department's first chairman. Visiting professors also participate in the course on Amputation Surgery, Prosthetics, and Orthotics, directed by Dr. Horace Watson and held at Vanderbilt in October.