Residency Program Update

After 6 years as Program Director, Patrick Osborn (Fac mbr), is stepping down and was selected to serve as the Deputy Commander of Surgical Services at Brooke Army Medical Center. The faculty, under his leadership, completely transformed a program that had been placed on probation and navigated multiple challenges to build SAMMC Orthopaedics into a truly premier residency program. Tom Dowd (2010) has been selected to lead the residency effective 1 February 2019 and is poised to build upon previous success to maintain SAMMC Orthopaedics as the best training program in DOD. Jeanne Patzkowski (2014) will move up to Associate Program Director and Andy Sheean (2016) to APD-Research.

The culmination of the Program leadership's vision and unflagging quest for excellence since 2013 was the completion of the ACGME 10-Year Accreditation Site Visit in November 2018. Official notification will likely not be received until February, but the initial feedback from the site visitor hailed the leadership of the Program Director and the program/faculty responsiveness to resident needs. He was particularly impressed with the graduated responsibility and autonomy of the residents and the program's comprehensive approach to improving didactic and surgical teaching. Program innovation, like the Competency-Based Education and Faculty Development initiatives, were noted as impressive actions to maintain optimal education.

The Site Visit preparation over the past 5 months could not have succeeded without the efforts of all the faculty and residents. The Program would like to specifically thank:

-Chris Roach (2005) for his support of all Program initiatives as Chair

-Matt Schmitz (2009) for his energy and tenacity as APD in the initial years of this team's leadership. His undying support maintained the team's courage to execute its vision.

-Joe Alderete (Fac mbr) as early APD for his constant advocacy for residents and keeping Schmitz and Oz in check

-Travis Burns (2009) as APD-Research maintained the Program's research initiatives through the multitude of residency changes

-Tom Dowd (2010) who handled a lion's share of the site visit administrative burden, preparing him for his role as PD

-Dusty Lybeck (2013), Jeanne Patzkowski (2014) and Andy Sheean (2016) for their perspective and constructive criticism as APDs

-Julia Nuelle (Fac mbr) for reinvigorating the medical student experience

-Sean Moroze (2019), who as Executive Chief Resident ensured the resident perspective was evident to the site visitor

-Genevieve Rambau, Dan Kopolovich and Tom Wood (2019) for their leadership as Chief Residents

-All the faculty for their dedication and tireless teaching at the DOD's best orthopaedic residency

-All the residents for their ownership of their education and dedication to their patients which shone clearly to the site visitor and left no doubt they are the best residents in DOD